Literature

Some other types of voice are mask, apostrophe, and conversation.
A mask puts on the identity of someone or something else, and speaks for it.
Mask poetry was created through the perspective of non-living things. Thus, getting the name mask
poetry, for giving objects a perspective likewise a person wearing a mask. In mask poetry descriptions
are usually in the view point of an object observing an event. Mask poems allow a poet to give an
unusual outlook of a scenario. An opinion can be stated and never held against the poet through mask
poetry. It is like the poet themself has a mask of their own. Many poets have written mask poems.
Poem Example:
KABOOM!by Denise Rodgers
Kaboom!
Ka-blast
Way in the past
the miners mined for ore.
They searched for copper, iron and salt,
for that and much, much more.
Kaboom!
The bite
of dynamite
cut deep inside the earth.
The charge explodes revealing lodes
of minerals of worth.
Kaboom!
The dust,
the air so mussed
went swirling through the sky.
It was a sight, the dynamite
that made the mountains fly.
Kaboom!
The earth
was filled with mirth
so tickled by the boom.
The miner's pleasure,
each newfound treasure
that followed each
Kaboom!
Poem Analysis:
Kaboom! by Denise Rodgers
The poem, Kaboom! by Denise Rodgers, is a mask poem told through the eyes of planet Earth. It
appears the Earth is gravitated by the men mining its face. The descriptive words used helps one
envision the scenes described. The syntax of the poem is very primitive, like a child's poem. The form of
the poem is set up wisely, for it gives light to the dynamite that used to destroy Earth just for miners
pleasure. This is seen in lines like, "The bite of dynamite cut deep inside the earth. The charge explodes
revealing lodes
of minerals of worth." The poem seems to have little to no deeper meaning just a fun, silly sounding
poem told through the perspective of our planet. Although, many mask poems hide the author's own
opinion. Perhaps, the author is against mining for it creates a monstrous sound that makes an ironic
scene but, demolishes our planet for humanities' craves. Kaboom!
Literary Devices:
Onomatopoeia: the usage of sounds in poems
 In this poem, onomatopoeia is used in the beginning of the poem. "Kaboom! Ka-blast!" The
author probably did this to catch the reader's attention.
Couplet: the rhyming scheme between every two lines or every other line
 In this poem, couplets can be observed in multiple lines such as in lines,

"The bite
of dynamite
cut deep inside the earth.
The charge explodes revealing lodes
of minerals of worth." Every other two lines rhyme. The author most likely did this to make a
smooth sound twist, especially because the poem includes onomatopoeia.
Personification: giving traits of humans to objects nonliving

 Personification is viewed in lines like, "The earth was filled with mirth so tickled by the boom."
The Earth is said to be tickled, but the Earth is not literally tickled. The author probably did this
to incorporate mask poetry.
OTHER EXAMPLES:
GRIZZLY BEAR
I’m grizzly bear. I’m fierce and fat…

And dangerous. Remember that!
My teeth are sharp as sabers.
My curvy claws can cut like saws,
And when I prowl the woods I growl
And frighten all my neighbors.
I rule the land. This forest’s mine!

I ain’t NOBODY’S valentine!
Don’t think that you can be my friend…
My dinner?
Yum!
GULP!
The End
LOOK AT US NOW!
The day we hatched from jellied eggs…

We looked like fish. We had no legs.
We breathed through gills. We had no lungs.
We didn’t have long sticky tongues.
We didn’t look like frogs…for sure.
But then we started to mature.
And day by day we changed and grew.
To tails and gills we bid adieu.
Now we have lungs and four fine limbs…
And we can croak
and jump
AND swim!
Apostrophe talks to something that can't answer (a bee, the moon, a tree) and is good for wondering,
asking, or offering advice. In poetry, an apostrophe is a figure of speech in which the poet addresses an
absent person, an abstract idea, or a thing.
Examples of Apostrophe in Literature
English literature is replete with instances of apostrophe. Let us have a look at a few examples.
Example #1: Macbeth (By William Shakespeare)
William Shakespeare makes use of apostrophe in his play Macbeth:
“Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand?
Come, let me clutch thee!
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.”
In his mental conflict before murdering King Duncan, Macbeth has a strange vision of a dagger and talks
to it as if it were a person.
Example #2: The Star (By Jane Taylor)
Jane Taylor uses apostrophe in the well-known poem, The Star:
“Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.”
This poem became one of the most popular nursery rhymes told to little children – often in the form of
song. In this nursery rhyme, a child speaks to a star (an inanimate object). Hence, this is a classic
example of apostrophe.
Example #3: Frankenstein (By Mary Shelly)
Look at how Mary Shelly uses apostrophe in her novel Frankenstein:
“Oh! Stars and clouds and winds, ye are all about to mock me; if ye really pity me, crush sensation and
memory; let me become as naught; but if not, depart, depart, and leave me in darkness.”
Talking to stars, clouds, and winds is apostrophe.
Example #4: Death Be Not Proud (By John Donne)
“Death be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.”
Here, Donne speaks to death, an abstract idea, as if it were a person capable of comprehending his
feelings.
Example #5: The Sun Rising (By John Donne)
John Donne once more uses apostrophe in his poem The Sun Rising:
“Busy old fool, unruly Sun,

Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains, call on
us?
Must to thy motions lovers’ seasons run?
Saucy pedantic wretch …”
The poet addresses the sun in an informal and colloquial way, as if it were a real human being. He asks
the Sun in a rude way why the Sun appeared and spoiled the good time he was having with his beloved.
Example #5: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (By James Joyce)
James Joyce uses apostrophe in his novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:
“Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the
smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.”
Being able to talk to something abstract – like life itself – is possible only in literature.
Example #6: To a Stranger Born in Some Distant Country Hundreds of Years from Now (By Billy Collins)
In this excerpt, the poet uses conventional apostrophe starting with “O”:
“O stranger of the future!

O inconceivable being!
Whatever the shape of your house,
However you scoot from place to place,
No matter how strange and colorless the clothes you may wear,
I bet nobody likes a wet dog either.
I bet everyone in your pub,
Even the children, pushes her away.”
The speaker is talking to an imaginary character, the “stranger.”
Example #7: Sire (By W. S. Merwin)
Another apostrophe example comes from the poem Sire, written by W. S. Merwin:
“Forerunner, I would like to say, silent pilot,
Little dry death, future,
Your indirections are as strange to me
As my own. I know so little that anything
You might tell me would be a revelation.”
Conversation is a dialogue between two voices and often asks us to guess who the voices are.
Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds in two or more words. In poetry these words are usually at the
end of a line and help create a certain rhythm.
Fire and Ice
Robert Frost
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Focused On You
Have I mentioned,
you have my attention,
with your vibrant style,
that makes me smile.
I am so interested,
and invested,
in this thing,
that's more than a fling.
I can't wait to see,
where it leads.
This wonderful ride,
that's you and me.
Short Rhyming Love Poems by KYB
Repetition in poetry can refer to the repetition of syllables, sounds, words, or phrases. Repetition in
sounds, such as rhyming and in syllables, such as rhythm, help to create a flow throughout the poem.
Repetition of words and phrases helps the poet to emphasize an important aspect of the poem. Often
times, when phrases are repeated, it creates a more emotional experience for the reader. The example
on the next page uses many types of repetition.
Repetition of a sound, syllable, word, phrase, line, stanza, or metrical pattern is a basic unifying device in
all poetry. It may reinforce, supplement, or even substitute for meter, the other chief controlling factor in
the arrangement of words into poetry.
Example:
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.
Repetition of sounds:
The rhyme scheme of the
first 3 stanzas is a, a, b, a.
The third line of each stanza
rhymes with lines one, two,
and four of the following
stanza.
Each line in the last stanza
rhymes.
Repetition of syllables:
Each line has 8 syllables.
Repetition of words:
The author repeats the last
two lines, “And miles to go
before I sleep.
Examples of Repetition in Literature

Example #1: One Art (By Elizabeth Bishop)
“The art of losing isn’t hard to master;

so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster…
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.”
In this example, the poet has repeatedly used the refraining line “The art of
losing isn’t hard to master” throughout the poem. This refraining line
creates rhythm, and emphasizes the idea. Notice that this line, however,
varies slightly in the final stanza, yet is still considered to be a refrain.
Example #2: Annabel Lee (By Edgar Allan Poe)
“It was many and many a year ago,

In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know …
I was a child and she was a child,

In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love —
I and my Annabel Lee …”
The poet is using the refraining line “In a kingdom by the sea.” This appears in
the second line of each stanza, and recurs in the final line of the third stanza,
drawing readers’ attention, and contributing to its meter and rhythm.
Example #3: Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night (By Dylan Thomas)
“Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light…
And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
This is very a famous poem using repetitions of the refrain, “Do not go gentle
into that good night,” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” These
refrains make the poem catchy and easy to remember.
Example #4: Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening (By Emily Dickinson)
“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
Frost has used a repeated refrain in only the last stanza, as he utters, “And
miles to go before I sleep.” It gives rhythm to the poem, and lays emphasis on
this idea of doing many things before dying.
Example #5: Excelsior (By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
“The shades of night were falling fast…

A banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!
There in the twilight cold and gray,

Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay…
A voice fell like a falling star,
Excelsior!“
The poet makes use of refrain “Excelsior!” throughout the entire poem,
creating rhythm and drawing the attention of readers.
Example #6: The Properly Scholarly Attitude (By Adelaide Crapsey)
“The poet pursues his beautiful theme;

The preacher his golden beatitude …
Of the properly scholarly attitude—
The highly desirable, the very advisable,
The hardly acquirable, properly scholarly attitude.”
In this poem, Crapsey uses the refrain, “properly scholarly attitude” to highlight
the theme of being a poet having proper scholarly attitude.
Example #7: O Captain! My Captain! (By Walt Whitman)
“O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle trills…”
The poet uses refrain throughout this poem to emphasize the mournful theme.
See the repetition of the words “captain,” “rise up,” and “for you” in just these
two lines. This theme continues throughout.
Example #8: 1940 Speech to House of Commons (By Winston Churchill)
“We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in
France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing
confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island,
whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on
the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we
shallfight in the hills. We shall never surrender.”
This is a beautiful example of repetition in prose, where the speaker has

repeated “we shall,” and “we shall fight” several times.
Example #9: I Have a Dream speech (By Martin Luther King, Jr.)
“I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with
its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and
nullification – one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls
will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and
brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted and every hill and
mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the
crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be
revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”
In this famous speech by American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.,
he repeats the phrase “I have a dream” a number of times. This makes the
speech very powerful and memorable.
Refrain is a verse, a line, a set, or a group of lines that appears at the end
of stanza, or appears where a poem divides into different sections. It
originated in France, where it is popular as, refraindre, which means “to
repeat.” Refrain is a poetic device that repeats, at regular intervals, in different
stanzas. However, sometimes, this repetition may involve only minor changes
in its wording. It also contributes to the rhyme of a poem and emphasizes an
idea through repetition.
Examples of Refrain in Literature

Example #1: One Art (By Elizabeth Bishop)
“The art of losing isn’t hard to master;

to be lost that their loss is no disaster…
The art of losing isn’t hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.”
In this example, the poet has repeatedly used the refraining line “The art of
losing isn’t hard to master” throughout the poem. This refraining line is
creating rhythm as well as emphasizing the idea. Notice that this line, though,
varies slightly in the final stanza, yet is still considered to be a refrain.
Example #2: Annabel Lee (By Edgar Allan Poe)
“It was many and many a year ago,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know …

But we loved with a love that was more than love —
I and my Annabel Lee …”
The poet is using refraining line “In a kingdom by the sea.” This appears in the
second line of each stanza, and recurs in the final line of the third stanza,
drawing readers’ attention, and contributing to its meter and rhythm.
Example #3: Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night (By Dylan Thomas)
“Do not go gentle into that good night,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light…
“And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
This is very a famous poem using two refrains; one comes in the first line, as
“Do not go gentle into that good night”; while second comes in the third line of
each stanza. These refrains make the poem catchy and easy to remember.
Example #4: Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening (By Emily Dickinson)
“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.”
Frost has used refrain in only the last stanza that he repeats twice as “And
miles to go before I sleep.” It gives rhythm to the poem and lay emphasis on
this idea of doing many things before dying.
Example #5: Excelsior (By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
“The shades of night were falling fast…

A banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!
There in the twilight cold and gray,

Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay…
A voice fell like a falling star,
Excelsior!”
The poet makes use of refrain with “Excelsior” throughout the entire poem,
creating rhythm and drawing the attention of readers.
Example #6: The Properly Scholarly Attitude (By Adelaide Crapsey)
“The poet pursues his beautiful theme;

The preacher his golden beatitude; …
Of the properly scholarly attitude—
The highly desirable, the very advisable,
The hardly acquirable, properly scholarly attitude.”
In the above given poem, Crapsey uses refrain “properly scholarly attitude” to
highlight the theme of being a poet having proper scholarly attitude.
Example #7: O Captain! My Captain! (By Walt Whitman)
“O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle trills…”
The poet uses refrain throughout this poem to emphasize elegiac theme. See
the repetition of the words “captain,” “rise up,” and “for you” in just these two
lines. This theme continues throughout.
Alliteration is the repetition of beginning sounds of words. “Tongue twisters” often use alliteration.
Example: Sally sells seashells by the seashore.
Arthur already answered questions about the account.
Bob boasted about his beautiful bride.
There is a repetition of the beginning sounds of words in these
sentences.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers?
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
I need not your needles, They’re needless to me,

For kneading of needles, Were needless, you see;
But did my neat trousers, But need to be kneed,
I then should have need of your needles indeed.
- Baker’s Reply to the Needle Salesman, unknown
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
If a woodchuck would chuck wood?
A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck

If a woodchuck would chuck wood.
Onomatopoeia is the use or format of words whose sounds imitate their meanings (ex: buzz,
honk, boom). Shout it Out Loud. Onomatopoeia is an awesome poetry device because it adds
depth to writing, but the sounds can only be heard when you speak them. Hear the difference
for yourself: read the word “woof.”
Cynthia in the Snow

Gwendolyn Brooks
It SHUSHES
It hushes
The loudness in the road.
It flitter-twitters,
And laughs away from me.
It laughs a lovely whiteness,
And whitely whirls away,
To be
Some otherwhere,
Still white as milk or shirts,
So beautiful it hurts.
Gathering Leaves
Robert Frost
Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.
I make a great noise

Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.
But the mountains I raise

Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.
I may load and unload

Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?
Next to nothing for weight,

And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.
Next to nothing for use.

But a crop is a crop,
And who's to say where
The harvest shall stop?
Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds within words, but not at the start of a word. Often
times, consonance refers to the end sound (like “nk” in sank and think)
Pairs of Consonance Examples

 Blank and think
 Spelled and scald
 Sent and went
 Dawn goes down
 Laughed and deft
 Cheer and beer
 Strong and swing
 Far and jar
 Hard and ward
 Borrow and sorrow
 Litter and batter
 Slither and slather
 Pitter-patter
Examples of Consonance in Sentences

 Mike likes his new bike.
 I will crawl away the ball.
 He stood on the road and cried.
 Toss the glass, boss.
 It will creep and beep while you sleep.
 He struck a streak of bad luck.
 When Billie looked at the trailer, she smiled and laughed.
 I dropped the locket in the thick mud.
 The black sack is in the back.
 The zoo was amazing, especially the lizards and chimpanzees.
 The lawn thrived when it began to rain.
 I wish you would mash potatoes in this dish.
 Mammals named Sam are clammy.
 There is no right time to imitate the teacher.
 He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.
 Norm, the worm, took the garden by a storm this morn.
Examples of Consonance in Poems

I'll swing by my ankles.
She'll cling to your knees.
As you hang by your nose,
From a high-up trapeze.
But just one thing, please,
As we float through the breeze,
Don't sneeze. - The Acrobats by Shel Silverstein
[Notice the letter ‘m’]

‘T was later when the summer went
Than when the cricket came,
And yet we knew that gentle clock
Meant nought but going home.
‘T was sooner when the cricket went
Than when the winter came,
Yet that pathetic pendulum
Keeps esoteric time. - ‘T was later when the summer went by Emily Dickinson
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake. - Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
If you are a dreamer, come in,

If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer...
If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in! - Invitation by Shel
Silverstein
Let the boy try along this bayonet blade

How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood;
Blue with all malice, like a madman's flash;
And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh. - Arms and the Boy by Wilfred Owen
[Notice the letters ‘r’, ‘d’ and ‘I’]

Great, or good, or kind, or fair, I will ne'er the more despair;
If she love me, this believe,
I will die ere she shall grieve;
If she slight me when I woo,
I can scorn and let her go;
For if she be not for me,
What care I for whom she be?" - Shall I Wasting in Despair by George Wither
Assonance is the repetition of vowel-sounds within non-rhyming words.

Example: Here is an example from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, Annabel Lee:
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride.
The repetition of the i sound in both lines is assonance because
it is a repetition of a vowel sound.
In this example by Carl Sandburg, in Early Moon, the long “o” sounds old or mysterious.
“Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far. It is among the oldest of living things. So old it is that no
man knows how and why the first poems came.”
Assonance examples are sometimes hard to find, because they work subconsciously
sometimes, and are subtle. The long vowel sounds will slow down the energy and make the
mood more somber, while high sounds can increase the energy level of the piece.
Notice how the mood is set by using the long “A” in this excerpt from Cormac McCarthy's
book, Outer Dark:
“And stepping softly with her air of blooded ruin about the glade in a frail agony of grace she
trailed her rags through dust and ashes, circling the dead fire, the charred billets and chalk
bones, the little calcined ribcage.”
The words "glade," "frail," "grace," and "trailed" help set the chilling mood of the work, and it
is repeated and emphasized at the end with “ribcage.”
Dylan Thomas' famous poem "Do Not Go Gentle into the Good Night" touches upon the
subject of death and also sets the mood by using assonance as a literary tool:
"Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rave at close of day;Rage, rage,
against the dying of the light. . . .Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sightBlind eyes
could blaze like meteors and be gay,Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Here are a few short assonance examples:

 "Hear the mellow wedding bells" by Edgar Allen Poe
 "Try to light the fire"
 "I lie down by the side fo my bride"/"Fleet feet sweep by sleeping geese"/"Hear the lark
and harden to the barking of the dark fox gone to ground" by Pink Floyd
 "It's hot and it's monotonous." by Sondheim
 "The crumbling thunder of seas" by Robert Louis Stevenson
 "If I bleat when I speak it's because I just got . . . fleeced." - "Deadwood" by Al
Swearengen
 "It beats . . . as it sweeps . . . as it cleans!" - slogan for Hoover vacuum cleaners
 "Those images that yet/Fresh images beget,/That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented
sea." - “Byzantium” by W.B. Yeats
 "Soft language issued from their spitless lips as they swished in low circles round and
round the field, winding hither and thither through the weeds" - "Portrait of the Artist as
a Young Man" by James Joyce
 "The spider skins lie on their sides, translucent and ragged, their legs drying in knots." -
"Holy the Firm" by Annie Dillard
 "The setting sun was licking the hard bright machine like some great invisible beast on
its knees." - "Death, Sleep, and the Traveler" by John Hawkes
 "I must confess that in my quest I felt depressed and restless." - "With Love" by Thin
Lizzy
 "In the over-mastering loneliness of that moment, his whole life seemed to him nothing
but vanity." - "Night Rider" by Robert Penn Warren
 "A lanky, six-foot, pale boy with an active Adam's apple, ogling Lo and her orange-
brown bare midriff, which I kissed five minutes later, Jack." - "Lotita" by Vladimir
Nabokov
 "Strips of tinfoil winking like people" - "The Bee Meeting" by Sylvia Plath
A simile is a figure of speech that makes a comparison,

showing similarities between two different things.
Unlike a metaphor, a simile draws resemblance with the
help of the words “like” or “as.” Therefore, it is a direct
comparison. We can find simile examples in our daily
speech.
Common Examples of Simile

 Our soldiers are as brave as lions.
 Her cheeks are red like a rose.
 He is as funny as a monkey.
 The water well was as dry as a bone.
 He is as cunning as a fox.
Simile introduces vividness into what we say. Authors and poets utilize simile
to convey their sentiments and thoughts through vivid word pictures.
Short Examples of Simile in Sentences

1. The glow of the tube-light was as bright as sunshine.
2. In winter, when it rained he climbed into bed, and felt as snug as a bug
in a rug.
3. At exam time, the high school student was as busy as a bee.
4. The beggar on the road looked as blind as a bat.
5. When the examination finished, the candidate felt as light as a feather.
6. When the teacher entered the class, the 6th-grade students were
fighting like cats and dogs.
7. The diplomat said the friendship of the two countries was as deep as an
ocean.
8. The desert traveler’s hopes were dashed, as when at last he reached a
well, it was as dry as a bone.
9. His opponent was trying to infuriate him, but he remained as cool as
cucumber.
10. The laborer remained busy at work all day long, and slept like a
log that night.
11. The audience listened to his spellbinding speech as quietly as
mice.
12. The young athlete looked as strong as an ox.
13. The student moved as fast as lightning after getting permission
from the teacher for an early release.
14. The history paper was as tricky as a labyrinth.
15. The boys in the playing field were feeling as happy as dogs with
two tails.
Examples of Simile in Literature

Example #1: Lord Jim (By Joseph Conrad)
“I would have given anything for the power to soothe her frail soul, tormenting
itself in its invincible ignorance like a small bird beating about the cruel wires
of a cage.”
In these lines from Lord Jim, the helplessness of the soul is being compared
with a bird in a cage, beating itself against the merciless wires to be free.
Example #2: To the Lighthouse (By Virginia Woolf)
“… impressions poured in upon her of those two men, and to follow her
thought was like following a voice which speaks too quickly to be taken down
by one’s pencil… “
Here, Ms. Woolf makes the point that her thoughts are difficult to follow, and
cannot be written quickly enough.
Example #3: Lolita (By Vladimir Nabokov)
“Elderly American ladies leaning on their canes listed toward me like towers of
Pisa.”
This simile produces a humorous effect by comparing old women leaning on

walking sticks with the ancient leaning tower of Pisa.
Example #4: A Red, Red Rose (By Robert Burns)
“O my Luve’s like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly played in tune.”
Here, Robert Burns uses a simile to describe the beauty of his beloved. He
says that his love is a fresh red rose that blossoms in the spring.
Example #5: the Daffodils (By William Wordsworth)
“I wandered lonely as a cloud

that floats on high o’er vales and hills.”
The poet envisions himself as a free cloud that floats alone in a blue sky
above valleys and the mountains. By choosing this simile, Wordsworth
describes his loneliness.
Example #6: Sonnet 18 (By William Shakespeare)
A significant thing to consider here is that, at times simile is drawn without

using the words “as” or “like.” Consider the following example:
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines”
In the very first line, Shakespeare poses a question if he should compare his
beloved to a summer’s day. But then he himself rejects this idea and says that
his beloved is better than that. This This is an example of an extended simile.
is an example of an extended simile.
Example #7: Will There Really Be a Morning? (By Emily Dickinson)
“Will there really be a morning?

Is there such a thing as day?
Could I see it from the mountains
If I were as tall as they?
Has it feet like water-lilies?
Has it feathers like a bird?
Is it brought from famous countries.”
In this poem, the speaker is feeling dejected, wondering if there could be hope
and morning again. The poet has used trochees, giving a strong rhythm to the
poem. Notice in this first stanza, the accented syllables are emphasized. See
that word “I” is unaccented or unstressed with a different feet.
Example #8: To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt (By Charles Dickens)
“… when I laid down the paper, I was aware of a flash — rush — flow — I do
not know what to call it — no word I can find is satisfactorily descriptive — in
which I seemed to see that bedroom passing through my room, like a picture
impossibly painted on a running river.
Charles Dickens, in this excerpt, uses a simile in the last line, indicated in
bold.
Example #9: Othello (By William Shakespeare)
“It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,—

Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!
It is the cause. Yet I’ll not shed her blood;
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow,
And smooth as monumental alabaster.”
The last line here exhibits a beautiful use of simile by Shakespeare, where
Othello compares Desdemona’s smooth skin to alabaster.
Othello: She was false as water.

Emilia: Thou are rash as fire,
To say that she was false: O she was heavenly true.
Othello compares Desdemona’s infidelity to water, but Emilia calls him as rash
as fire, and testifies to her fidelity. In both cases, these are very good similes
to reflect the character of a person.
A metaphor is a comparison between two things that states one thing is another, in order help explain
an idea or show hidden similarities. Unlike a simile that uses “like” or “as” (you shine like the sun!),
a metaphor does not use these two words. For example, in a famous line from Romeo and Juliet
Romeo proclaims, “Juliet is the sun.”
Metaphors are commonly used throughout all types of literature, but rarely to the extent that
they are used in poetry. Let’s take a look at a few examples of metaphors in poems, which
will allow us to see why they lend themselves particularly well to this form of writing.
Famous Metaphors in Poems

Because poems are meant to impart complex images and feelings to a reader, metaphors
often state comparisons more poignantly. Here are a few of the most famous metaphors
ever used in poetry:
The Sun Rising

Metaphysical poet John Donne was well known for his use of metaphors. In this famous
work “The Sun Rising,” the speaker tells the sun that nothing else is as important in the
world as him and his lover.
“She is all states, and all princes, I.
Nothing else is.
Princes do but play us; compared to this,
All honour's mimic, all wealth alchemy.”
In one of the most evocative metaphors in literature Donne is claiming that his lover is like
every country in the world, and he every ruler — nothing else exists outside of them. Their
love is so strong that they are the world and all else is fake.
Sonnet 18/Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day

If there exists a poet who truly mastered the metaphor, that would be William Shakespeare.
His poetical works and dramas all make extensive use of metaphors.
“Sonnet 18,” also known as “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day,” is an extended
analogy between the speaker’s lover and the fairness of the summer.
“Thy eternal summer shall not fade.”
Shakespeare is communicating that the speaker’s lover will remain beautiful and vital,
though perhaps only in memory, captured in this rhyming couplet:
“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
Love, like summer, is a life-giving force, but both come to an end. However, the poet’s love
and lover will live on as long as people read this poem.
When I Have Fears

The romantic poet John Keats suffered great loss in his life. His father died in an accident
and he lost his mother and brother to tuberculosis. When he began displaying signs of
tuberculosis himself at 22, he wrote “When I Have Fears,” a poem rich with metaphors
concerning life and death.
“Before high piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripened grain.”
In the example above, Keats employs a double metaphor. Writing poetry is implicitly
compared with reaping and sowing, and that reaping and sowing represents the emptiness
of a life unfulfilled creatively.
Keats’ metaphor extends throughout the poem, the image of books of poetry unwritten
stacked on the shelves of the imagination leading to an inexorable conclusion:
“On the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.”
The end of his life is represented here as a shore where he stands and meditates until he
forgets the sorrows of his too-short existence.
Metaphors
Sylvia Plath's poem “Metaphors” takes a close and ambiguous look at her pregnancy
through, unsurprisingly, several incongruous metaphors.
“An elephant, a ponderous house
A melon strolling on two tendrils.”
This is a playful way to describe the shape of her body as a pregnant woman.
“I've eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there's no getting off.”
Some believe these lines are a metaphor for her fear of childbirth, or perhaps the realization
that being pregnant is only the start and she must now become a mother.
Hope Is the Thing with Feathers

In this poem, Emily Dickinson uses a metaphor to compare hope to a bird. She personifies
hope as having feathers and perching in the soul, singing without end. Most people can
relate to the feeling of hope; it lifts us up, stirring feelings of freedom and levity.
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.”
Dickinson focuses on the notion of hope because, even in times of tribulation, it may be the
very thing that gets us through.
Personification in poetry can show inanimate objects taking on human characteristics, making them
seem more relatable, and often funny. Personification occurs in many forms of literature, especially
where figurative language is used.
Humorous Personification in Children's Poetry

Many funny examples of personification can be found in children’s poetry, which helps to capture
children's imagination. Personification is often used in nursery rhymes such as Hey Diddle Diddle:
Hey diddle, diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
Another of the humorous examples of personification in poetry is a poem called A Cat Named
Joe by Leighton B Watts, where a cat thinks in a different way than cats usually think. Here is an excerpt:
There's a cat named Joe and you wouldn't want to know
But he thinks he'd like to be a Hippopotamus
And it sounds very strange, and he really wants to change
And in that way he's just like a lot of us
Oh, it wouldn't be so bad if he was certified as mad
But he's not... he holds a normal conversation
It's just that within he's in a different kind of skin
And it causes him a lot of botheration
This funny anonymous poem is written from a child’s perspective and personifies food. It is
called My Dinner Loves Dancing and an except follows:
My food loves to prance, to jump, to dance;
I wait for the time, I wait for the chance!
As mommy goes in and out of the room; tables and chairs become their ballroom!
I flick my fingers; swing my wrist.
Beans and turkey are doing the twist!
Peas, plumbs, apples or mangos;
on to the walls, they're doing the tango!
Humorous Personification in Adult Poetry

Personification is also used to humorous effect in some adult poems.
In Take a Poem To Lunch by Denise Rodgers the poet imagines what a poem would be like to have lunch with:
I'd love to take a poem to lunch

or treat it to a wholesome brunch
of fresh cut fruit and apple crunch.
I'd spread it neatly on the cloth
beside a bowl of chicken broth
and watch a mug of root beer froth.
I'd feel the words collect the mood,

the taste and feel of tempting food
popped in the mouth and slowly chewed,
and get the smell of fresh baked bread
that sniffs inside and fills our head
with thoughts that no word ever said.
And as the words rest on the page

beside the cumin, salt and sage,
and every slowly starts to age,
like soup that simmers as it's stirred,
ingredients get mixed and blurred
and blends in taste with every word
until the poet gets it right,
the taste and smell
and sound and sight,
the words that make it fit.
Just write.
Since we've provided a funny poem about cats, it only seems fair to give dogs their due as well. So,
here's Denise Rodgers humorous personification poem If Dogs Could Talk.
If dogs could talk, what they would say
would simply take your breath away.
Like: I don't want to see your knees.
Or: Pass a bit of roast beef, please.
When dawning sun shines in the east
they'd say: It's time for morning's feast.
When silent, still and somewhat broodish,
their minds are simply on your food dish.
Some might speak with British accent,

sniffing one another's back scent.
Some might lisp and some might stammer,
some would have atrocious grammar.
Some would chitchat, some would twaddle.
Some would rush and some would dawdle.
Curling on your soft bed nightly,
most would say: Good night,
politely.
Your dinner rarely speaks to you in real life, but Sharon Hendricks gave it some personality in
her Dinnertime Chorus.
The teapot sang as the water boiled
The ice cubes cackled in their glass
the teacups chattered to one another.
While the chairs were passing gas
The gravy gurgled merrily
As the oil danced in a pan.
Oh my dinnertime chorus
What a lovely, lovely clan!
Sharon Hendricks also considered what would happen if inanimate objects around town could speak
in My Town.
The leaves on the ground danced in the wind
The brook sang merrily as it went on its way.
The fence posts gossiped and watched cars go by
which winked at each other just to say hi.
The traffic lights yelled, ”Stop, slow, go!”
The tires gripped the road as if clinging to life.
Stars in the sky blinked and winked out
While the hail was as sharp as a knife.
Carter and Joe tackled a big subject in their personification poem Planet Space.
The black hole awoke,
He stretched his mouth with a mighty roar,
As he beckoned all the stars,
The black hole started to erode,
Is this the end...?
The sun says, 'Leave the stars alone and,

Pick on someone your own size,
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, leave my solar system and never come back!'
Earl Graham's personification poem Kiss is both sweet and funny.
I am sending you a kiss
That will land on your knee,
Climb up your leg,
Scramble over you back,
And hide in your hair.
Then, when you are about to fall asleep,
It will bite you gently on your neck
And whisper in your ear, ‘I love you’.

Hyperbole is the use of over-exaggeration to create emphasis or humor. It’s not intended to be taken
literally. Rather, it’s supposed to drive a point home and make the reader understand just how much
the writer felt in that moment.
Throughout the ages, hyperbole has appeared in poetry time and time again. If you can’t be dramatic
in poetry, where can you? Hyperbole helps express ever-lasting love, a broken heart, or feelings of
despair in an amplified tone.
So, without further ado, lets’ take a look at 10 effervescent examples of hyperbole in poems and
watch these famous masters turn up the heat on any given emotion.
Hyperbole in Poetry
From the Grecian master, Homer, to the modern day Shel Silverstein, here’s how some of the greats
expressed their hyperbolic imagination:
 Homer loved using hyperbole in his epics. In The Iliad, he said the god Mars cried out "as loudly
as nine or ten thousand men." Surely, one man could never generate that much noise, but it
must’ve been a cry that Mars felt from the very depths of his heart.
 Andrew Marvell was a 17th century metaphysical English poet that often used hyperbole in his
writing. One famous example comes from To His Coy Mistress: A hundred years should go to
praise / Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze; / Two hundred to adore each breast; / But thirty
thousand to the rest."
Surely, he loved this woman and could look at her for ages. Thirty thousand years might be
pushing it, but we can certainly feel how much he treasured her.
 Have you ever heard the expression, “The shot heard ‘round the world?" It’s a hyperbole that
refers to the beginning of the American Revolution. It comes from a poem written by Ralph
Waldo Emerson called The Concord Hymn.
"Here once the embattled farmers stood / And fired the shot heard round the world."
Although the shot wasn’t heard on the other side of the globe, those who were in its near
presence understood its gravity.
 In A Red, Red, Rose by Robert Burns, the narrator says he’ll love his bonnie lass until “the seas
go dry, the sun melts rocks, and the sands of life come to an end.”
It seems like Burns felt a love similar to our friend Marvell. Just like Marvell won’t quite be able
to love for 30,000 years, Burns was unlikely to see the seas go dry in his lifetime. But, he sure
did love his woman.
 W.H. Auden was an American poet who often used hyperbole. In his poem, As I Walked Out
One Evening, he wrote, "I'll love you, dear, I'll love you / Till China and Africa meet, / And the
river jumps over the mountain / And the salmon sing in the street."
These men knew how to love. Here, Auden’s expressing his everlasting love for a woman and,
although China and Africa are as likely to touch borders as America and Australia, the
exaggeration says it all. At no point will he stop loving her.
 William Wordsworth wrote in I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud, “Continuous as the stars that
shine and twinkle on the milky way, they stretched in a never-ending line along the margin of a
bay. Ten thousand I saw at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance.”
Wordsworth is reflecting upon a long row of daffodils he saw. Although they were plentiful and
beautiful, it’s unlikely they were quite as expansive as the milky way.
 Shel Silverstein is adored by readers around the globe because of the manner in which he could
draw people into the pages. In Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out, the
main character was said to have allowed the garbage to pile up to the ceiling, and after that, “The
garbage rolled on down the halls, It raised the roof, it broke the walls.” And, eventually, “The
garbage reached across the state, From New York to the Golden Gate.” Unlikely, right? But she
sure was delinquent in her chores!
 James Tate was another man madly in love. In Poem to Some of My Recent Poems, he claimed
his beloved could “scorch you with her radiance.” Have you ever met a woman so beautiful, she
left little burn marks on your skin?
 In The Portrait by Stanley Kunitz, the narrator recalls a time his mother hit him as a child. It
reads, “In the sixty-fourth year, I can feel my cheek still burning.” Thankfully, no slap, no matter
how hard or how unwarranted, would carry a sting, decades later.
 In Billy Collins’ Forgetfulness, whatever the narrator is trying to recall had “floated away down
a dark mythological river.” Have you ever seen a river carrying thoughts and ideas? What an
interesting notion. Indeed, Collins was feeling some frustration over not being able to recall
something.
Definition of Irony
Irony is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their
intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. It may
also be a situation that ends up in quite a different way than what is generally
anticipated. In simple words, it is a difference between appearance and
reality.
Types of Irony
On the grounds of the above definition, we distinguish two basic types of
irony: (1) verbal irony, and (2) situational irony. Verbal irony involves what one
does not mean. For example, when in response to a foolish idea, we say,
“What a great idea!” This is verbal irony. Situational irony occurs when, for
instance, a man is chuckling at the misfortune of another, even when the
same misfortune is, unbeknownst to him, befalling him.
Difference Between Dramatic Irony and Situational Irony

Dramatic irony is frequently employed by writers in their works. In situational
irony, both the characters and the audience are fully unaware of the
implications of the real situation. In dramatic irony, the characters are
oblivious of the situation, but the audience is not. For example, in
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, we know well before the characters that
they are going to die. In real life circumstances, irony may be comical, bitter,
or sometimes unbearably offensive.
Common Examples of Irony

Let us analyze some interesting examples of irony from our daily life:
 I posted a video on YouTube about how boring and useless YouTube is.
 The name of Britain’s biggest dog was “Tiny.”
 You laugh at a person who slipped stepping on a banana peel, and the
next thing you know, you’ve slipped too.
 The butter is as soft as a slab of marble.
 “Oh great! Now you have broken my new camera.”
Short Examples of Verbal Irony

1. The doctor is as kind hearted as a wolf.
2. He took a much-needed vacation, backpacking in the mountains.
Unfortunately, he came back dead tired.
3. His friend’s hand was as soft as a rock.
4. The desert was as cool as a bed of burning coals.
5. The student was given ‘excellent’ on getting zero in the exam.
6. The roasted chicken was as tender as a leather boot.
7. He was in such a harried state that he drove the entire way at 20 miles
per hour.
8. He enjoyed his job about as much as a root canal.
9. My friend’s kids get along like cats and dogs.
10. Their new boss was as civilized as a shark.
11. The new manager is as friendly as a rattlesnake.
12. The weather was as balmy as a winter day in Siberia.
13. A vehicle was parked right in front of the no-parking sign.
14. The CEO of a big tobacco company said he did not smoke.
15. The fear of long words is called “Hippopotomonstrosesquippedalio
phobia.”
Irony Examples in Literature

Example #1: Romeo and Juliet (By William Shakespeare)
We come across the following lines in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Act I,
Scene V:
“Go ask his name: if he be married.
My grave is like to be my wedding bed.”
Juliet commands her nurse to find out who Romeo was, and says if he were
married, then her wedding bed would be her grave. It is a verbal irony
because the audience knows that she is going to die on her wedding bed.
Example #2: Julius Caesar (By William Shakespeare)
Shakespeare employs this verbal irony in Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene II:
CASSIUS: ” ‘Tis true this god did shake.”
Cassius, despite knowing the mortal flaws of Caesar, calls him “this god”.
Example #3: Oedipus Rex (By Sophocles)
In the Greek drama Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles:
“Upon the murderer I invoke this curse – whether he is one man and all
unknown,
Or one of many – may he wear out his life in misery to miserable doom!”
The above lines are an illustration of verbal and dramatic irony. It was
predicted that a man guilty of killing his father and marrying his own mother
brought A curse on the city and its people. In the above-mentioned lines,
Oedipus curses the man who is the cause of the curse. He is ignorant of the
fact that he himself is that man, and thus he is cursing himself. The audience,
on the other hand, knows the situation.
Example #4: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (By Samuel Coleridge)
Irony examples are not only found in stage plays, but in poems too. In
his poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge wrote:
“Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.”
In the above-stated lines, the ship – blown by the south wind – is stranded in
the uncharted sea. Ironically, there is water everywhere, but they do not have
a single drop of drinkable water.
Example #5: The Gift of the Magi (By W.H. Auden)
This is an example of situational irony, in which the wife sells her most prized
possession – her hair – to get her husband a Christmas present; and the
husband sells his most dear possession – the gold watch – to get his wife a
Christmas present. By the end, it is revealed that neither has the utility of the
present bought by the other, as both sell their best things to give the other one
a gift. Combs, the gift for the wife, is useless because she has sold her hair.
The gold watch chain, the gift for the husband, is useless because he has sold
the watch to get the combs. The situation becomes ironic for such an incident.
There are many examples of verbal irony, in which the speaker means the
opposite of what he says, in Othello by Shakespeare, as given below:
OTHELLO: “O, thou art wise! ‘Tis certain” (IV.I.87), “Honest Iago . . . ”
(V.II.88), (II.III.179) & (I.III.319), “I know, Iago, Thy honesty and love doth
mince this matter” (II.III.251-52).
These few lines tell us how Othello uses irony to talk about Iago.
IAGO: “My lord, you know I love you.” (III.III.136)
This shows that Iago only uses this phrase superficially, with quite the
opposite meaning.
Example #7: The Tell-Tale Heart (By Edgar Allan Poe)
In the short story The Tell-Tale Heart, by Edgar Allan Poe, there are many
instances of irony as given below:
1. The murderer poses that he is a wise and intelligent person, who takes
each step very carefully to kill the victim. However, the way the old’s
man eye prompts him to murder the victim is very ironic. He behaves
absolutely insanely throughout the story.
2. Another instance of irony in the same story is that the killer himself
confesses his crime without being asked by the police. The police are
there just to investigate the shriek some neighbor has reported.
However, their delayed stay makes the killer very nervous, and he
confesses his crime of murder in their presence. He even tells where he
has buried the dead body.
A ballad is a type of poem that is sometimes set to music. Ballads have a long history and are
found in many cultures. The ballad actually began as a folk song and continues today in
popular music. Many love songs today can be considered ballads.
A typical ballad consists of stanzas that contain a quatrain, or four poetic lines. The meter or rhythm
of each line is usually iambic, which means it has one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable. In ballads, there are usually eight or six syllables in a line. Like any poem, some ballads
follow this form and some don't, but almost all ballads are narrative, which means they tell a story.
Because the ballad was originally set to music, some ballads have a refrain, or a repeated chorus,
just like a song does. Similarly, the rhyme scheme is often ABAB because of the musical quality of
this rhyme pattern.
While ballads have always been popular, it was during the Romantic movement of poetry in the
late 18th century that the ballad had a resurgence and became a popular form. Many famous
romantic poets, like William Wordsworth, wrote in the ballad form.
Annabel Lee
BY EDGAR A LLA N P OE
It was many and many a year ago,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,

Went envying her and me—
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love

Of those who were older than we—
Of many far wiser than we—
And neither the angels in Heaven above
Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea—
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
During Wind and Rain
Launch Audio in a New Window
BY THOMA S HARDY
They sing their dearest songs—

He, she, all of them—yea,
Treble and tenor and bass,
And one to play;
With the candles mooning each face. . . .
Ah, no; the years O!
How the sick leaves reel down in throngs!
They clear the creeping moss—
Elders and juniors—aye,
Making the pathways neat
And the garden gay;
And they build a shady seat. . . .
Ah, no; the years, the years,
See, the white storm-birds wing across.
They are blithely breakfasting all—

Men and maidens—yea,
Under the summer tree,
With a glimpse of the bay,
While pet fowl come to the knee. . . .
Ah, no; the years O!
And the rotten rose is ript from the wall.
They change to a high new house,

He, she, all of them—aye,
Clocks and carpets and chairs
On the lawn all day,
And brightest things that are theirs. . . .
Ah, no; the years, the years
Down their carved names the rain-drop ploughs.
"Haiku" is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. Haiku poems consist of

3 lines. The first and last lines of a Haiku have 5 syllables and the
middle line has 7 syllables. The lines rarely rhyme.
Here are two examples of "What am I?" Haikus:
Green and speckled legs, In a pouch I grow,

Hop on logs and lily pads On a southern continent --
Splash in cool water. Strange creatures I know.
Easter Chocolate
by Kaitlyn Guenther
Easter bunny hides

Easter eggs are out of sight
Kids look everywhere
Beaches
by Kaitlyn Guenther
Sand scatters the beach

Waves crash on the sandy shore
Blue water shimmers
Snowflakes
by Kaitlyn Guenther
Snowflakes are our friends

They descend when winter comes
Making white blankets
A cinquain poem is a verse of five lines that do not rhyme. The cinquain poem was created by
Adelaide Crapsey.
What is the structure of a cinquain?

A cinquain consists of five unrhymed lines.
Each line has a set number of syllables see below:
Line 1: 2 syllables
Line 2: 4 syllables
Line 3: 6 syllables
Line 4: 8 syllables
Line 5: 2 syllables
An example of a Cinquain Poem

My mum (2 syllables)
Is so caring (4 syllables)
She is always helpful (6 syllables)
She is so beautiful and kind (8 syllables)
Love you. (2 syllables)
The form is illustrated by Crapsey's "November Night":[9]

Listen...
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees
And fall.
Snow
Silent, white
Dancing, falling, drifting
Covering everything it touches
Blanke
A cinquain is a five-line poem that was invented by Adelaide Crapsey. She was an American poet
who took her inspiration from Japanese haiku and tanka. A collection of poems, titled Verse, was
published in 1915 and included 28 cinquains.
Cinquains are particularly vivid in their imagery and are meant to convey a certain mood or emotion.
A Classic Cinquain Example

Because Adelaide Crapsey created the cinquain as a poetic form, the best example of a cinquain is a
poem that she wrote titled “Snow” (source: http://www.cinquain.org)
Look up…
From bleakening hills
Blows down the light, first breath
Of wintry wind…look up, and scent
The snow!
American Cinquain Form

Originally, Crapsey created the form for the American cinquain with five lines.
Stresses Per Line

 The first line has one stress, which was usually iambic meter with the first syllable unstressed
and the second stressed.
 Line two has two stresses.
 Line three has three stresses.
 Line four has four stresses.
 Line five has one stress.
Syllables Per Line
Following the invention of this form, Crapsey made changes to the form and included a certain
number of syllables per line.
 Line one had two syllables.
 Line two had four syllables.
 Line three had six syllables.
 Line four had eight syllables.
 Line five had two syllables.
Even though iambic feet were typically used in these cinquains, it was not a requirement of the
structure.
Popular Cinquain Forms

There have been many variations of the cinquain since its invention. To fully understand Cinquains,
here are descriptions of two of the more popular forms along with examples.
Cinquain Form #1 - Didactic Cinquain

This is a very popular form of the cinquain because of its simplicity. Instead of incorporating stress
and syllables, it uses words.
 The first line is one word which is the title of the poem.
 The second line contains two words which are adjectives that describe the title.
 The third line has three words that tell the reader more about the subject of the poem or shows
action. Many times these words are gerunds that end with “ing.”
 The fourth line has four words that show emotions about the subject of the poem and may be
individual words or a phrase.
 The fifth line is one word that is a synonym of the title or is very similar to it.
Here are some examples of this form of cinquain:
Watermelon
Watermelon
Juicy, sweet
Dripping, slurping, smacking
So messy to eat
Yummy
Snow
Snow
Lovely, white
Falling, dancing, drifting
Covering everything it touches
Blanket
Castle
Castle
Strong, beautiful
Imposing, protecting, watching
Symbolizes wealth and power
Fortress
Cinquain Form #2
This form is just slightly different from the first form in that the fourth line is a complete sentence
and may have more than four words.
 The first line is one word.
 The second line contains two adjectives.
 The third line has three words ending in “ing.”
 The fourth line has four or more words that make a complete sentence.
 The fifth line is one word.
Here are a few examples of this form of cinquain:
Acrobats
Acrobats
Flexible, amusing
Flipping, twirling, jumping
They make me laugh
Performers
Star
Star
Hot, radiant
Shining, burning, exploding
It gives life to everything
Sun
Penguins
Penguins
White, black
Waddling, swimming, eating
They are playing in the water
Emperors
Definition of Villanelle
A villanelle is a poetic form with nineteen lines and a strict pattern
of repetition and a rhyme scheme. Each villanelle is comprised of five tercets
(i.e., a three-line stanza) followed by one quatrain (a stanza with four lines).
The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated in an alternating
pattern as the final line of each next tercet; those two repeated lines then
form the final two lines of the entire poem. The rhyme scheme calls for those
repeating lines to rhyme, and for the second line of every tercet to rhyme.
Thus, the rhyme scheme looks like this: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a
b A2 / a b A1 A2. Though the structure may sound complicated, in practice it
is easy to see how the rules work.
The word villanelle comes originally from the Italian word villano, meaning
“peasant.” The villanellas and villancicos of the Renaissance period were
Italian and Spanish songs made for dancing, which featured the
pastoral theme appropriate for peasant dances. The contemporary definition of
villanelle thus has changed quite a bit since its conception as a verse without
strict rhyme scheme or repetition.
Common Examples of Villanelle
The villanelle is a highly structured poetic form, and thus there are no
examples of villanelle from outside of poetry. However, some villanelles have
become famous enough that some of their lines have entered public
consciousness. For example, Dylan Thomas’s poem “Do not go gentle into
that good night” is a villanelle example, and the lines that he repeats in the
poem are quite famous:
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
♦
Significance of Villanelle in Literature

The villanelle is known as a fixed verse form. Other examples of fixed verse
forms include the haiku, sonnet, and sestina. It is believed that the French poet
Théodore de Banville defined the form in the late nineteenth century, though
villanelles became much more popular in England than it ever did in France.
Though the form is quite strict in its rules, it is not all that difficult to write a
villanelle; indeed, eight of the nineteen lines are repetitions. The difficulty is in
making this repetition seem new or important each time. Many poets have
played just a bit with the repetition of lines so that there is a slight change,
either in the insertion or deletion of a word, or in changing the tense or
punctuation of the repeated lines. The function of the repetition often can
seem a bit obsessive, and, indeed, many villanelles center around a central
issue a poet is trying to work out in a manner that sounds circular and
obsessive.
Examples of Villanelle in Literature
In order to understand the way a villanelle works, we have reprinted the
following three villanelle examples in their entirety. Notice the rhyme scheme
and function of the repeated lines.
Example #1
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
And you, my father, there on the sad height,

(“Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas)
No article on villanelles would be complete without printing the most famous
example of a villanelle of all time: Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that
good night.” Unlike some other authors, Thomas chose not to alter his
repeating lines whatsoever, and we see them reproduced exactly the same in
each repetition. The lines in and of themselves are very powerful, and their
repetition serves only to make Thomas’s forceful message that much
stronger.
Example #2
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or

next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
(“One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop)
Elizabeth Bishop’s famous example of villanelle, “One Art,” is slightly looser
with the rules, though she does stick to them fairly closely. For example, the
lines that end with the word “disaster” have only that final word in common,
and are quite different leading up to the word. Bishop is also a bit freer with
the rhyming words, choosing half rhyme rather than perfect rhyme in some
cases. For example, she choose near rhymes for “disaster” such as “fluster,”
“last, or,” and “gesture.” Similarly “intent” and “continent” have the same final
vowel and consonant combination, yet the stress pattern of “continent” makes
it not a perfect rhyme for “intent.” Still, Bishop has chosen the villanelle form
for a reason. She builds up to the final quatrain with insisting that “the art of
losing isn’t hard to master,” yet it’s clear that there is some verbal irony here
and that it is indeed difficult to lose a loved one.
Example #3
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?

I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?

The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
Great Nature has another thing to do

To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.

What falls away is always. And is near.
(“The Waking” by Theodore Roethke)
Theodore Roethke’s poem “The Waking” is another famous and lovely
example of a villanelle. He is somewhere between Thomas and Bishop in
terms of how closely he sticks to the villanelle rules. Generally his lines rhyme
with either “slow” or “fear,” though he also chooses near rhymes of “you,”
“how,” “do” and “there,” “stair,” and “air.” He also slightly varies the second
repeating line of “I learn by going where I have to go.”
Definition of Limerick
Limerick is a comic verse, containing five anapestic
(unstressed/unstressed/stressed) lines, in which the first, second, and fifth
lines are longer, rhyme together, and follow three metrical feet. The third and
fourth lines rhyme together, are shorter, and follow two metrical feet.
However, sometimes it may vary, and amphibrachic
(unstressed/stressed/unstressed) form can replace anapestic. In fact, it is a
bawdy, humorous, or nonsensical verse written in the form of five anapests,
with an aabba rhyme scheme. Since it has a special structure and format, it is
called fixed or closed form of poetry.
Limerick and Villanelle

Though both of these are types of poem having fixed structures, both are
different in their forms. Villanelle consists of 19 lines with refraining rhyming
sounds appearing in the first and the third lines, while the final quatrain has a
closing couplet. A limerick has five lines, having anapestic form with the first,
second, and fifth lines rhyming together, but the third and fourth lines are
different and rhyme together.
Examples of limerick in Literature

We can find the use of limericks in eighteenth century verse. They are
associated with Edward Lear, who first published this verse form in his book A
Book of Nonsense in the year 1846. Later, this form became popular, and
many poets, including Alfred Lord Tennyson, Shakespeare, Rudyard Kipling,
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ogden Nash, H. G. Wells, W. H. Auden, T. S. Eliot,
James Joyce, and Lewis Carroll, tried their hands in this form of poetry. Here
we have a few examples of limerick from literature:
Example #1: To Miss Vera Beringer (By Lewis Carroll)
“There was a young lady of station

‘I love man’ was her sole exclamation;
But when men cried: ‘You flatter,’
She replied, ‘Oh! no matter
Isle of Man is the true explanation.'”
This limerick contains five lines with a rhyme scheme of aabba. Here we can
notice the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme together, with three feet; whereas
the third and fourth lines contain two feet and rhyme together.
Example #2: There was an Old Man with a Beard (By Edward Lear)
“There was an Old Man with a beard,

Who said, ‘It is just as I feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!”
Edward Lear was considered to be the father of limericks. This is one of the
very good examples of limerick poems, following its typical format with the
first, second, and fifth lines rhyming together, and longer in length; while the
remaining two are shorter, and give a faster read. Lear has referred to this
form as nonsense.
Example #3: There was a small boy of Quebec (By Rudyard Kipling)
“There was a small boy of Quebec

Who was buried in snow to his neck
When they said, ‘Are you friz?’
He replied, ‘Yes, I is —
But we don’t call this cold in Quebec.'”
Notice Kipling has penned a good limerick with irrelevant zaniness and
weirdness. The first four lines look funny, while the final line creates a curious
and special mood in this poem.
“And let me the canakin clink, clink;

And let me the canakin clink
A soldier’s a man;
A life’s but a span;
Why, then, let a soldier drink.”
It is quite interesting that the earliest written limericks were linked with
drinking. We can guess that people would have drinks and sang bawdy, funny
songs or poems. Similarly, William Shakespeare has employed this form in a
drinking song of Stephano to create nonsensical and humorous effects.
Example #5: A Man Hired by John Smith & Co (By Mark Twain)
“A man hired by John Smith and Co.

Loudly declared that he’d tho.
Men that he saw
Dumping dirt near his door
The drivers, therefore, didn’t do.”
As we know, Mark Twain is also popular for writing limericks. Here, he has
used a funny and whimsical limerick poem, with a concluding punch line.
Sonnet
Definition of Sonnet
The word sonnet is derived from the Italian word “sonetto,” which means a
“little song” or small lyric. In poetry, a sonnet has 14 lines, and is written
in iambic pentameter. Each line has 10 syllables. It has a specific rhyme
scheme, and a volta, or a specific turn.
Generally, sonnets are divided into different groups based on

the rhyme scheme they follow. The rhymes of a sonnet are arranged
according to a certain rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme in English is usually
abab–cdcd–efef–gg, and in Italian abba–abba–cde–cde.
Types of Sonnet
Sonnets can be categorized into six major types:
1. Italian Sonnet
2. Shakespearean Sonnet
3. Spenserian Sonnet
4. Miltonic Sonnet
5. Terza Rima Sonnet
6. Curtal Sonnet
Examples of Sonnet in Literature

Let us take a look at the examples of sonnets in literature, based on the
various categories:
Example #1: Visions (By Francesco Petrarch)
Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet
Italian or Petrarchan sonnet was introduced by 14th century Italian poet

Francesco Petrarch.
“Being one day at my window all alone,

So manie strange things happened me to see,
As much as it grieveth me to thinke thereon.
At my right hand a hynde appear’d to mee,
So faire as mote the greatest god delite;
Two eager dogs did her pursue in chace.
Of which the one was blacke, the other white:
With deadly force so in their cruell race
They pincht the haunches of that gentle beast,
That at the last, and in short time, I spide,
Under a rocke, where she alas, opprest,
Fell to the ground, and there untimely dide.
Cruell death vanquishing so noble beautie
Oft makes me wayle so hard a desire.”
The rhyme scheme of a Petrarchan sonnet features the first eight lines, called
an octet, which rhymes as abba–abba–cdc–dcd. The remaining six lines are
called a sestet, and might have a range of rhyme schemes.
Example #2: Sonnet 1 (By William Shakespeare)
Shakespearean Sonnet
A Shakespearean sonnet is generally written in iambic pentameter, in which

there are 10 syllables in each line. The rhythm of the lines must be as below:
“From fairest creatures we desire increase,

That thereby beauty’s rose might never die.
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content
And, tender churl, mak’st waste in niggarding.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee…”
The rhyme scheme of the Shakespearian sonnet is abab–cdcd–efef–gg,

which is difficult to follow. Hence, only Shakespeare is known to have done it.
Example #3: Amoretti (By Edmund Spenser)
Spenserian Sonnet
Sir Edmund Spenser was the first poet who modified the Petrarch’s form, and
introduced a new rhyme scheme as follows:
“What guile is this, that those her golden tresses

She doth attire under a net of gold;
And with sly skill so cunningly them dresses,
That which is gold or hair, may scarce be told?
Is it that men’s frail eyes, which gaze too bold,
She may entangle in that golden snare;
And being caught may craftily enfold
Their weaker hearts, which are not yet well aware?
Take heed therefore, mine eyes, how ye do stare
Henceforth too rashly on that guileful net,
In which if ever ye entrapped are,
Out of her bands ye by no means shall get.
Folly it were for any being free,
To covet fetters, though they golden be.”
The rhyme scheme in this sonnet is abab–bcbc–cdcd–ee, which is specific to

Spenser, and such types of sonnets are called Spenserian sonnets.
Free Verse
Definition of Free Verse
Free verse is a literary device that can be defined as poetry that is free from
limitations of regular meteror rhythm, and does not rhyme with fixed forms.
Such poems are without rhythm and rhyme schemes, do not follow
regular rhyme scheme rules, yet still provide artistic expression. In this way,
the poet can give his own shape to a poem however he or she desires.
However, it still allows poets to use alliteration, rhyme, cadences, and rhythms
to get the effects that they consider are suitable for the piece.
Features of Free Verse

 Free verse poems have no regular meter or rhythm.
 They do not follow a proper rhyme scheme; these poems do not have
any set rules.
 This type of poem is based on normal pauses and natural rhythmical
phrases, as compared to the artificial constraints of normal poetry.
 It is also called vers libre, which is a French word meaning “free verse.”
Examples of Free Verse in Literature

Example #1: A Noiseless Patient Spider (By Walt Whitman)
“A noiseless patient spider,

I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,

Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space…
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.”
If you are looking for free verse examples, then Walt Whitman is your guy. He
is known as the father of free verse English poetry. In this poem, only a
simple metaphor is used to mesmerize readers without employing regular
rhyme scheme or rhythm. We can see normal pauses in the poem unlike the
typical limitations of metrical feet.
Example #2: Soonest Mended (By John Ashbury)
“Barely tolerated, living on the margin

In our technological society, we were always having to be rescued
On the brink of destruction, like heroines in Orlando Furioso
Before it was time to start all over again.
There would be thunder in the bushes, a rustling of coils…
The whole thing might not, in the end, be the only solution…
Came plowing down the course, just to make sure everything was O.K. …
About how to receive this latest piece of information.”
This is one of the best examples of free verse poetry. In this poem, there is no
regular rhyme scheme or rhythm. It is without poetic constraints, but has a
flow that gives it a natural touch.
Example #3: Come Slowly, Eden (By Emily Dickinson)
“Come slowly, Eden

Lips unused to thee.
Bashful, sip thy jasmines,
As the fainting bee,
Reaching late his flower,
Round her chamber hums,
Counts his nectars—alights,
And is lost in balms!”
Emily Dickinson is famous as the mother of American English free verse. This
poem does not have consistent metrical patterns, musical patterns, or rhyme.
Rather, following the rhythm of natural speech, it gives an artistic expression
to the ideas it contains.
Example #4: The Garden (By Ezra Pound)
“Like a skein of loose silk blown against a wall

She walks by the railing of a path in Kensington Gardens,
And she is dying piece-meal
of a sort of emotional anemia.
And round about there is a rabble

Of the filthy, sturdy, unkillable infants of the very poor.
They shall inherit the earth.
In her is the end of breeding.

Her boredom is exquisite and excessive…
will commit that indiscretion.”
Ezra Pound is also renowned for writing free verse poetry. He has created this
modern free verse poem with musical quality. There are stressed and
unstressed patterns, but they are created in a very clever way. It is not
following a regular rhyme scheme, but we can see alliteration in words such
as “like,” “loose,” “round rabble,” “exquisite,” and “excessive.”
Concrete poetry is a type of poetry that uses some sort of visual presentation to enhance the effect of
the poem on the reader. The visual layout of the poem need not necessarily form a picture, although
many concrete poems do.
Concrete Poem
A concrete poem is a poem that is written so that the shape of the words on
the page matches the subject of the poem. Sometimes, concrete poetry is
called "shape" poetry.
While the term concrete poem did not originate until the 1950s, poets as far
back as ancient Greece were arranging words and letters on the page to
enhance the meaning of the writing.
Examples of Concrete Poem:
Stairs
I
climb.
Every day.
A different priority.
Slowly making progress
toward success, success, success.
No time to stop, to rest, to appreciate
the small things around me-the air, the flowers,
even the people I meet are standing in the way of the climb.
From George Herbert's "Easter Wings"

Lord, who createdest man in wealth and store,
Though foolishly he lost the same,
Decaying more and more,
Till he became
Most poore:
With thee
O let me rise
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day thy victories,
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.
Lewis Carroll's "The Mouse's Tale" appears in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:

From Dylan Thomas' "Vision and Prayer"
Who
Are you
Who is born
In the next room
So loud to my own
That I can hear the womb
Opening and the dark run
Over the ghost and the dropped son
Behind the wall thin as a wren's bone?
In the birth bloody room unknown
To the burn and turn of time
And the heart print of man
Bows no baptism
But dark alone
Blessing on
The wild
Child.
Couplet
Definition of Couplet
A couplet is a literary device that can be defined as having two successive
rhyming lines in a verse, and has the same meter to form a complete thought.
It is marked by a usual rhythm, rhyme scheme, and incorporation of specific
utterances.
It could be an independent poem, and might be a part of other poems, such

as sonnets in Shakespearean poetry. If a couplet has the ability to stand apart
from the rest of the poem, it is independent, and hence it is called a “closed
couplet.” A couplet that cannot render a proper meaning alone is called an
“open couplet.”
One of the commonly used couplet examples are these two lines from William
Shakespeare’s Hamlet:
“The time is out of joint, O cursed spite

That ever I was born to set it right!”
Types of Couplets
 Short Couplet
 Split Couplet
 Heroic Couplet (Closed and Open Couplets)
 Shakespearean Couplet
 Alexandrine Couplet
 Qasida
 Chinese Couplet
Examples of Couplet in Literature

Example #1: Sonnet III (By William Shakespeare)
“Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest

Now is the time that face should form another;
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother,
For where is she so fair whose unear’d womb…
But if thou live, remember’d not to be,
Die single, and thine image dies with thee.”
This is one of the Shakespearean sonnets that contains 14 lines; a couplet at

the end of the poem usually rhymes, and concludes the poem. These lines
generally give commentary on the theme.
Example #2: One Happy Moment (By John Dryden)
“O, no, poor suff’ring Heart, no Change endeavour,

Choose to sustain the smart, rather than leave her;
My ravish’d eyes behold such charms about her,
I can die with her, but not live without her:
One tender Sigh of hers to see me languish,
Will more than pay the price of my past anguish…”
This excerpt is an example of closed heroic couplets. The lines are following
an iamb pentameterpattern. All the couplets are forming complete separate
thoughts and ideas, and the rhyme scheme is perfect.
Example #3: Hero and Leander (By Christopher Marlowe)
“At Sestos Hero dwelt; Hero the fair,

Whom young Apollo courted for her hair,
And offered as a dower his burning throne,
Where she should sit for men to gaze upon.
The outside of her garments were of lawn,
The lining purple silk, with gilt stars drawn…”
This is another very good example of open heroic couplets, where the end of
each couplet is enjambed – its phrasal and syntactic sense is carried to the
next lines. Or in poetic terms, it can be said that there is no caesura.
Example #4: An Essay on Criticism (By Alexander Pope)
“A little learning is a dangerous thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fired at first sight with what the Muse imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts…”
This excerpt is a good example of closed heroic couplets. Here, all the
couplets make complete sense – meaning they do not carry their sense into
the following lines. Moreover, these couplets also rhyme.
Example #5: The Canterbury Tales (By Geoffrey Chaucer)
“Whan that aprill with his shoures soote

The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne…”
This excerpt is an example of open heroic couplets that have iambic

pentameter pattern. All the lines rhyme, they do not give independent
meanings in a single line, and the sense is carried to subsequent lines.
Tercet
Definition of Tercet
A tercet is a three-lined verse, or a group, or unit of three lines. These three
lines are often rhymed together, or they rhyme with another triplet. It has a
flow of words as rolling waves. Creating rhythmic flow in in just three lines,
however, is quite a challenging job.
Examples of Tercet in Literature
Example #1: The Old Pond (By Matsuo Bashu, translated by William J. Higginso)
“An old silent pond…

A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.”
This haiku poem contains three lines with no rhyming pattern. The focus of the
poem is on a natural scene. There are five-syllables in the first line, seven in
the second, and five in the third line.
Example #2: A Toccata of Galuppi’s (By Robert Browning)
“Oh, Galuppi, Baldassaro, this is very sad to find!

I can hardly misconceive you; it would prove me deaf and blind;
But although I give you credit, ’tis with such a heavy mind!”
This is the first triplet that is using AAA rhyme scheme. In this triplet,
the speaker listens to a nostalgic musical piece. The rhyming of
words bind, blind, and mind creates music similar to the theme of the poem.
Example #3: Upon Julia’s Clothes (By Robert Herrick)
“Whenas in silks my Julia goes,

Then, then, methinks, how sweetly flows
The liquefaction of her clothes…”
See the rhyming words “goes”, “flows”, “clothes.” These rhyming words
strengthen smooth flow of ideas. This rhyme scheme is perfect for triplet
because it follows AAA scheme.
Example #4: The Waking (By Theodore Roethke)
“I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?

I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go…”
This is an example of villanelle with a rhyme scheme of tercet ABA. Each line
is following strong iambic pentameter. They are shown through underlined
lines with stressed/unstressed syllabic patterns.
Example #5: Ode to the West Wind (By Percy Bysshe Shelley)
“O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,

Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow…”
This is a perfect example of terza rima tercet with the interlocking pattern of
rhyme scheme ABA BCB CDC. This pattern continues throughout the poem.
Quatrain
Definition of Quatrain
A quatrain is a verse with four lines, or even a full poem containing four lines,
having an independent and separate theme. Often one line consists of
alternating rhyme, existing in a variety of forms. We can trace back quatrains
in poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations, such as China, Ancient
Rome, and Ancient Greece; and they continue to appear in the twenty-first
century.
Types of Quatrain
In formal poetry, rhyme scheme and meter define different types of quatrain.
There are many types of quatrain, but the most common types include:
 Ballad Stanza – Its rhyme scheme is abab with iambic tetrameter.

 Envelope Stanza – Its rhyme scheme is abba with iambic tetrameter.
 Goethe Stanza – Its rhyme scheme is abab but no meter.
 Italian Quatrain – Its rhyme scheme is abba with iambic pentameter.
 Hymnal Quatrain – This multi stanza contains three alternating rhymes
with iambic trimester and iambic tetrameter. Rhyme scheme is a4 b3 c4
b3.
 Elegiac Stanza – This uses abab rhyme scheme with
iambic pentameter.
 Memoriam Stanza – This uses abba rhyme scheme with iambic
tetrameter.
Examples of Quatrain in Literature

Example #1: Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening (By Robert Frost)
“He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there’s some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.”
This poem contains four quatrains with different rhyme schemes. This stanza
rhymes as aaba, in which the first and second lines rhyme with the last line.
Frost has used iambic tetrameter, eight syllables in each line with
regular rhythm, presenting a perfect example of Rubaiyat stanza, which also
consists of aaba rhyme scheme with four lines.
Example #2: Hope is the Thing with Feathers (By Emily Dickinson)
“Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all…”
This entire poem is written in iambic trimeter pattern, and has three quatrains.
However, it often adds a fourth stress at the end of the lines, such as in the
fourth line of this stanza. This stanza loosely rhymes with rhythmical flow in
abab pattern.
Example #3: A Red, Red Rose (By Robert Burns)
“O, my luve’s like a red, red rose,

That’s newly sprung in June:
O, my luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly played in tune.”
These lines embody an example of Hymnal Stanza, in which we see the poet
having written in alternating quatrain with iambics. The first and third lines
follow iambic tetrameter, while the second and fourth lines follow iambic
trimeter, using the rhyme scheme of abcb. This alternating meter makes the
poem more voiced and pronounced.
Example #4: Look Before You Leap (By W. H. Auden)
“The worried efforts of the busy heap,

The dirt, the imprecision, and the beer
Produce a few smart wisecracks every year;
Laugh if you can, but you will have to leap.”
This is an example of the envelope stanza, in which the quatrain follows the
rhyme scheme of abba, with iambic tetrameter. In this type of quatrain, the
first and fourth lines enclose the second and third lines.
Example #5: Elegy Written in Country Courtyard (By Thomas Gray)
“The tolls curfew the knell of parting day,

The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.”
This quatrain is presenting an example of elegiac stanza, written in iambic

pentameter with rhyme scheme abab. It is also referred as “heroic stanza,” as
its rhyme is similar to a heroic couplet.
Example #6: In Memoriam A. H. H (By Alfred Lord Tennyson)
“So word by word, and line by line,

The dead man touch’d me from the past,
And all at once it seem’d at last
The living soul was flash’d on mine.”
This example of memoriam stanza with rhyme scheme of abba follows the
iambic tetrameter pattern (each line contains four iambs).

Literature

Încărcat de

Informații document

Titlu original

Drepturi de autor

Formate disponibile

Partajați acest document

Partajați sau inserați document

Opțiuni de partajare

Vi se pare util acest document?

Este necorespunzător acest conținut?

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

Literature

Încărcat de

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

Some other types of voice are mask, apostrophe, and conversation.

Onomatopoeia: the usage of sounds in poems

 In this poem, couplets can be observed in multiple lines such as in lines,

Personification: giving traits of humans to objects nonliving

I’m grizzly bear. I’m fierce and fat…

I rule the land. This forest’s mine!

The day we hatched from jellied eggs…

Examples of Apostrophe in Literature

Example #1: Macbeth (By William Shakespeare)

William Shakespeare makes use of apostrophe in his play Macbeth:

“Is this a dagger which I see before me,

Example #2: The Star (By Jane Taylor)

Jane Taylor uses apostrophe in the well-known poem, The Star:

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

Example #3: Frankenstein (By Mary Shelly)

Look at how Mary Shelly uses apostrophe in her novel Frankenstein:

Talking to stars, clouds, and winds is apostrophe.

Example #4: Death Be Not Proud (By John Donne)

“Death be not proud, though some have called thee

Example #5: The Sun Rising (By John Donne)

“Busy old fool, unruly Sun,

“O stranger of the future!

The speaker is talking to an imaginary character, the “stranger.”

Example #7: Sire (By W. S. Merwin)

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favour fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

And would suffice.

Short Rhyming Love Poems by KYB

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

And miles to go before I sleep.

The rhyme scheme of the

The third line of each stanza

rhymes with lines one, two,

and four of the following

Each line in the last stanza

Each line has 8 syllables.

The author repeats the last

two lines, “And miles to go

Examples of Repetition in Literature

“The art of losing isn’t hard to master;

Example #2: Annabel Lee (By Edgar Allan Poe)

“It was many and many a year ago,

I was a child and she was a child,