The Poet's Toolbox
This is a group of lines in a poem, often functioning like a paragraph in a story.
What is a stanza?
This is the central message or "life lesson" the poet or author wants the reader to take away.
What is the theme?
Unlike prose, poetry often uses these to force the reader to pause or to create a visual shape.
What are line breaks?
This is the literal, dictionary definition of a word, without any emotional "baggage."
What is denotation?
This is the main difference between a poem and a story: stories have paragraphs, while poems have these.
What are stanzas?
In the line "The wind whistled a lonely tune," the poet is using this specific type of figurative language.
What is personification?
When a reader uses "clues from the text" plus "what they already know" to find a hidden meaning.
What is an inference?
This type of poem tells a story and includes a plot, characters, and a setting.
What is a narrative poem?
This is the emotional feeling or "vibe" (positive, negative, or neutral) attached to a word.
What is connotation?
When comparing a poem and a video of that same poem, the video uses this element (which text cannot) to set the mood.
What is audio/sound/visuals?
This is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words, such as "Deep, dark, and dismal."
What is alliteration?
This is the author’s attitude toward the subject matter, often conveyed through word choice.
What is tone?
Poets use this technique—repeating words or phrases—to emphasize a specific idea.
What is repetition?
Between the words "childish" and "youthful," this word has a negative connotation.
What is childish?
This term describes "free verse" poetry, which is a poem that does not use this common structural tool.
What is a rhyme scheme?
A poet uses this to create a "picture" in the reader's mind by appealing to the five senses.
What is imagery?
To find the meaning of a word using the words and sentences surrounding it.
What are context clues?
This is a direct comparison between two unlike things without using the words "like" or "as."
What is a metaphor?
A poet chooses the word "shriek" instead of "cry" to emphasize this specific quality of the sound.
What is intensity (or volume/piercing nature)?
To "paraphrase" a stanza means to do this to the poet’s words while keeping the meaning the same.
What is putting them in your own words?
This term refers to the rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem.
What is meter?
This is the specific "feeling" or atmosphere a poet or author creates for the reader (e.g., eerie, joyful).
What is mood?
This is the name for the "voice" that talks to the reader in a poem (similar to a narrator in a story).
What is the speaker?
When a poet uses a word that suggests something else entirely, like using "winter" to represent "old age."
What is symbolism?
This is the process of looking at a poem and a historical fiction story about the same event to see how they portray the topic differently.
What is comparing and contrasting?