My earliest memory of a poetry device is learning about hyperbole. I loved hyperbole because it was basically a fancy name for things we already know and do in our everyday lives. These days, I enjoy poems with hyperbole in conjunction with satire. Satire is definitely my favorite currently, because the subtlety of the humor appeals to me. Satire makes poems and stories interesting and enjoyable to read, but still keeps the humor high-brow and literary.

I remember that in 5th or 6th grade, at Neil Armstrong, I had a teacher that had posters in her room about poetry devices, and the one that has stayed in my head was a poster of a huge cat on a scale, and it said- you guessed it- “My Cat Weighs a Ton!” Obviously, the person’s cat didn’t actually weigh 2,000 pounds, but it was an expression that nevertheless has stuck in my brain even until today.

Since I have a great interest in satirical and dystopian novels, my favorite types of books always contain loads of sarcasm and hyperbole. I found it very interesting to find the elements of writing outside of a prose or narrative literature that I would usually read. As I had mentioned before, the thing that interests me the most about poetry is its ambiguity and the way it can tell a story in a limited number of words. Taking these two elements and meshing them together really caught my interest. At first, it seemed incredibly difficult and confusing for me to discern what the poet was really trying to say. Sarcasm, hyperbole and ambiguity can often yield confusion, but once the message was clear, I was so impressed by the way the poet was able to manipulate each word to convey an incredible story. Emily Dickinson seems to utilize these elements in a lot of her poems, as I have found a growing interest in her writing from a handful of her poems from Sound and Sense.

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I have never really been that keen on poetry; I have always been interested in prose and narrative style of writing. It has come to my attention, however, in the recent years that although poetry can often be rather ambiguous, it can tell more in 5 stanzas than a novel can in 300 pages. That is the one aspect of poetry I find most intriguing. Poetry can sometimes be incredibly lyrical, expressive and symbolic; the reason it carries so much meaning in so few words. I think the best example I can relate to in my life is music. This type of poetry can convey a message or tell a story in less than 3 minutes. I am definitely trying to open up to new styles of writing, and poetry is becoming one of my favorites. In the past, I think the whole notion of ambiguity and symbolism is what drew me away from poetry, but now I believe it is the thing that is reeling me back in.

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In Margaret Atwood’s poem Siren Song, she uses the allusion of the well-known sirens from Greek mythology to present a feminist concept. She takes a completely unique approach to the age-old story of the sirens who lure sailors to their death with their beautiful song. The poem presents the sirens as damsels in distress, who wish to be freed from the “bird suit” and claim that their song is a cry for help. This creates dramatic irony for the reader: we already know that the sirens are not the victims in this scenario because of our familiarity with Greek mythology, but Atwood’s writing is convincing enough to have anyone questioning the sirens’ true motive. The twist at the end of the poem is where the feminist ideology comes in. The ending plays on the “damsel in distress” trope that women are often depicted as because they are seen as weak and cannot fend for themselves. The fact that the siren uses this stereotype to lure in another victim defies this trope and makes a statement against the harmful idea that women are inherently weak. The poignancy of this feminist concept could not be reached without the allusion to the Greek sirens. The knowledge that nearly everyone already has about these creatures and the way that Atwood takes a completely new approach to the familiar figures highlights the point that she is trying to make in the poem that just wouldn’t be as powerful if she had tried to use a n original image or story that people were not already familiar with.

By definition, hyperboles are exaggerations of the truth in order to add emphasis. The use of hyperboles is very prevalent in today’s language and can be seen in a wide variety of forms, their implications observed everywhere from small talk to the world’s most famous novels.

A commonly used hyperbole that one may often hear at the end of a long day is, “My shoes are killing me.” Obviously, the shoes aren’t standing over the person with a knife; the shoes aren’t going to kill the person wearing them, so hyperboles are most definitely not to be taken literally. In this case, whoever spoke of his or her shoes is using a hyperbole in order to emphasize the pain that the shoes are causing to his or her feet by overstating the negative effects of wearing them.

In addition, another commonly heard hyperbole which has become a bit overused is the word, “literally.” As contradicting as it may seem, since it conflicts with the primary meaning, the non-literal use of literal is a figurative means of adding emphasis through the inclusion of this single word. While technically not grammatically incorrect, many people use it far too often when trying to make a point. One may even consider it to be a “cheap” hyperbole, as it can be tacked on to just about any sentence or phrase in order to intensify a statement, even when it wasn’t necessary to add “literally” in the first place. Its overuse has taken value away from this hyperbole, and it has come to a point where its effect has nearly become diminished. Nevertheless, an example of how you may hear this phrase as seen in Sound and Sense is, “There were literally millions of people at the beach!” In this example, this overstatement is being stacked on top of another hyperbole in order to convey the idea that the beach was very crowded that day.

In the poem “The Sun Rising,” found in Sound and Sense contains many hyperboles, as observed in its first few lines:

Busy old fool, unruly sun,

Why doest thou thus

Through windows and through curtains call on us?

By referring to the sun as a busy old fool, the author exaggerates the nature of the movement of the sun in order to portray its perpetual movement. As well, the author calls the sun unruly. Clearly, the sun cannot literally be unruly, but I interpret that this hyperbole is used in order to describe how the sun is never in a constant state in regards to its appearance. During certain hours of the day, such as during the sunrise or sunset, the sun can be observed as a warmly glowing orange orb, while midday, it appears to be a whitish-gold sphere of light. As well, on some days, the sun may be obscured behind patchy clouds, only giving off faint rays of light, while on other days, the sky is clear and the sun is fully visible. This variation in the sun’s appearance is emphasized through the use of the hyperbole describing the sun’s unruliness. Lastly, this example exaggerates the call of the sun upon the people. The sun does not literally call on the people, but this hyperbole is used to stress the attention that is brought to the sun as its bright rays shine through windows and curtains.

All in all, hyperboles serve as an entertaining, indirect, yet effective poetry term used to deliver one’s point. 

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I have often found that older authors, as in Shakespeare, Chaucer, etc. will make allusions that I do not understand.  And, I believe that this stems from the fact that they are reading different things than I am, certainly because of the time period, but also because of what they read.  As a Catholic, I would say I am fairly familiar with certain aspects of the Bible, but I don’t have nearly the same amount of knowledge as someone who has read the entire thing.  For example, in Sound and Sense, I immediately got the reference to the Good Samaritan parable, but the story about Joshua was completely lost on me.  Additionally, I often see references to novels or celebrities from years ago that I have never heard of.  Yet, when I bring it to the attention of my grandfather, an avid reader himself, he immediately understands the allusions.  This leads me to believe that many allusions are meant for the well read, and depending on the time period it was written, the allusions may only be understood by a certain age group.  Therefore, I would say, that the more you read, and especially, the more you diversify your reading (different time periods, authors, genres, etc.), the more you will understand the allusions of all authors.

One element that may be often overlooked in poetry and many other styles of writing is the art of allusion.  While one may be able to glaze over the surface of the poem, without the understanding of the allusion, it may become convoluted, or the meaning may be interpreted as something totally different than intended by the author.  For example, in e e cummings’ poem [in Just-], Cummings packs in an allusion at the end when he writes

it’s
spring
and

the

goat-footed

balloonMan            whistles
far
and
wee

In this text, Cummings is referring to the Greek God of Pan, the mythical satyr born with goat legs, who always played his flute during the springtime, hence the whistling. torbakhopper via Compfight

Allusion will always be my favorite poetry term simply because of how flexible it is.  It pulls elements from both symbolism and connotation and wraps them up in a neat, little package delivered straight to the reader.  As I previously stated about [in Just-] by e e cummings,  while the highly educated and keen reader will most likely pick up the fact that the balloon man is supposed to be Pan, that is a detail that will merely be skimmed over by those unable to see Cummings’s small details.

While it may seem cliche to use, one of my favorite poems is The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. It may be the story of a person choosing which path to take on a walk, but it represents the choices we make every day. Possibly the most prominent literary device in the poem is symbolism. Frost describes each path, one being very worn and used and one full of undergrowth. He emphasizes the difficult decision that he faces, and he wishes he could come back and take the other path later on. However, he recognizes that he will likely never come back to that exact spot. In the end, he chooses the path “less traveled by,” and he does not regret his decision.

All of these vivid images contribute to the bigger meaning of the poem. The choice of a path symbolizes how each choice in life leads us to a different outcome. The paths themselves represent the type of choice we can make. We can either choose the common path, the decision that most people would make, or we can choose the unused path. That path represents our personal choices in life that lead each of us down a different path of life. These symbols really resonate with me because I always wonder if the choices I make are the right ones for me. Ultimately, every choice you decide shapes who you become and how your life turns out. Sometimes we make decisions that seem wrong for others, but it is right for you in the end. Frost is certain that choosing the unknown path makes a difference in how our lives turn out. And those differences create personalities that cannot be replicated, making each of us unique.

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I absolutely love hyperboles, and I use them 1000 times a day. A hyperbole is an extreme exaggeration and, although I don’t literally use them 1000 times a day, I do use them quite often. I think it’s really fun to over exaggerate things and it usually gets a laugh as well.

“Tis whiter than an Indian Pipe” by Emily Dickinson is a famous poem holding multiple hyperboles. By using this technique, Dickinson truly emphasizes the details of what she is describing. Instead of saying “Tis white,” she adds this hyperbolic comparison to paint an image in the readers head of something extremely white. Although they are extreme, hyperbolic phrases add character to both literature and everyday conversations. That’s why when I hear When I Grow Up by the Pussycat Dolls on the radio, I say “I haven’t heard that song in years!” even though I probably listened to it last summer. The use of hyperboles is amusing and if I didn’t use them, I’d literally die.

While I went through the posts for this blog topic, I noticed a plethora of posts for irony. There were other popular ones, but not many about chiasmus. As this may be my favorite literary term, I’m glad to write my post on this crafty device.
Chiasmus is a Greek term which translates to mean “diagonal arrangement.” Nowadays, it is used to describe two successive clauses or sentences in which the key words (or phrases) are repeated in reverse order. Chiasmus is also known as a “criss-cross” figure of speech, but nonetheless, is very effective when used properly.

Most people probably caught on to the reference in the title to John F. Kennedy’s line from his inaugural address:

” Ask not what your country can do for you

— ask what you can do for your country”.

This may be one of the more famous chiasmus segments, however there are quite others. The phrase “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” is perhaps one of the most recognizable lines in day to day life, but there are more literary examples, with three potent ones sticking out above the rest.

To begin, we go back to William Shakespeare’s era: the late 1500s. In his Richard II, Shakespeare writes:

“I wasted time,
and now time doth waste me.”

With this example, we can see how a simple term from the Ancient Greeks retained merit throughout time, so much so that one of humanity’s best writer’s (Shakespeare) incorporates it into his accredited works. But to truly follow the progression of this great device, we’ll now jump to the mid 1800s and analyze Alexandre Dumas’ famous The Three Musketeers. In his work, Dumas sings:

  “All for one,
and one for all.”

This concise mantra uses chiasmus to serve as a chant. Interestingly enough, according to some sources, this powerful line now serves as the unofficial motto of Switzerland! Of course, this distinction is not achieved easily. What makes this segment so exemplary is that the chiasmus lies in simplicity. Excluding the conjunction, the two lines are mirror images of each other, with no other frivolous words to take away from its simple essence.

And now we jump forward about 100 years. Of course, there is the aforementioned example of JFK’s speech, but in a work that almost all of us have read at some point in our lives, we can find modern chiasmus in Horton Hatches the Egg by the beloved Dr. Seuss. What the previous examples have in literary merit is made up for in this work’s awesomeness and nostalgia, but I digress. In his book, Dr. Seuss preaches:

“I meant what I said,
and I said what I meant.”

Hopefully at this point, I have explained chiasmus well enough so that it is obvious in this example. Nevertheless, the power of chiasmus has been made quite evident. After writing, I find myself noticing and incorporating chiasmus in many works around me, and I hope you do the same.

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I am completely aware of what an understatement is. I feel as if I’ve known the definition of it my entire life, but, that does not mean I really knew how effective an understatement could be in poetry.

I realized how effective this style could be used when reading Countee Cullen’s Incident.

Here is a passage from my homework a few weeks back that explains my understanding well.

“Understatement is used in Countee Cullen’s Incident. In lines 7-12, Cullen writes about an incident in which he is called a racial slur. Although the reader expects him to teach us all a lesson about how this is bad, instead he continues on about his experience in Baltimore and that that was all he could remember. He does not go on about the incident, but instead decides to state the impact of it on the rest of his stay. He doesn’t tell details of his life in Baltimore. Instead Cullens keeps the poem very short, simple and blunt in the last stanza. This makes the last stanza seem much more powerful to the reader, leaving a larger impact on them when finished reading.”

Although I explain it well in this response, I do not go into as much detail as I wish I had. Because all though I can easily explain the way he uses the understatement, it takes one to read the poem to actually feel it’s effects. The writers decision to use understatement in this poem shows something he never truly addresses; the nonchalantness of racism during his time. He is verbally abused by a stranger, but he does not show his emotional and internal struggle at the moment. This shows how common that was. It lets the reader see that the man could have made a scene, he could have followed the incident with an inspirational and eyeopening epilogue, but instead, he brushes it off. He knows that if he were to, it would make no impact. Cullens realizes that putting the reader in this scenario of knowing about the incident but passing it off as nothing opens the reader’s eyes and helps them realize the overall problem with the situation as a whole.

Have you ever read a poem and found a reference from history or previous literature? Of course you have! That, my friend, is an allusion! Allusions can be all types. Whether it is a famous person or a mythological creature, as long as it is previously know, it is an allusions. However, Allusions are not just a reference. Allusions are similar to symbols in how the suggest far more than what is plainly written.

I recently recited the poem “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold. I noticed he used an allusion in his poem. As he is describing the scenery and the rough ocean, he references Sophocles and the Aegean. The reason he makes an allusion to Sophocles is to illustrate the speaker’s depressing view of the ocean. Since Sophocles was known for writing tragedies, the speaker is saying the depressing sound of the ocean influenced Sophocles to write such sad tragedies. This example demonstrates how allusions add a deeper meaning to a work.

The poetry unit that we are covering this year in English has been a lot different from past poetry units I have studied. Usually, we cover the same literary terms and concepts that we have since 5th grade, but this year Mr. Youngs has introduced us to several new literary terms making things more interesting than past years. One of the new terms that I have found interesting is metonymy, which is when a thing or concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept. A very popular example of this comes from Shakespeare’s “Julies Caesar”. In the play, Mark Anthony says “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.” What he means is that he wants those people to listen to him, not literally give him their ears. A reason I find this term so interesting is because we often don’t notice it while reading literature. We so often use this in our day to day lives that we are used to hearing such odd sayings. If you really think about what you are saying, it is funny in a way! We often refer to employs of a certain as just the name of the restaurant, or the White House as the entire government. Metonymy is often used to simplify something large into something smaller and easier to refer to. Because of this, I have been more aware of what I am saying and have realized how often I use metonymys, even though I only became aware of what they are this year.

When I was little, I loved poetry without even knowing it. I spent a majority of my time either reading Dr. Seuss books, or “Where The Sidewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstein. At the time, I didn’t realize it was poetry though. I was just attracted to the short and sweet nature of the story telling and how it always sounded like a song. However, as I got older, I feel like poetry was ruined for me. I began to find it extremely boring and pointless. I could never understand the allusions or the symbolism because I never knew what to look for. I hated whenever I heard our teacher say that it was time for the poetry unit. Once I entered high school, however, my views began to change again. I was able to learn more about literary devices and all of a sudden, poetry made sense again! I was once again drawn back into the rhymes and short stories that I had to think about to figure out. Now, I very much enjoy poetry mainly because most of the time it is a puzzle. Poetry is almost never straight forward, there is always some sort of background story or hidden message inside that requires thought to figure out. Currently, I am reading a book of poetry called “Black Butterfly” by Robert M. Drake. I’m very glad that my love for poetry has come back full circle!

According to Sound and Sense, metonymy is the use of something closely related for the thing actually meant.  It substitutes some significant detail or quality of an experience for the experience itself (78).  Often the substitution is based on a material, casual, or, conceptual relation between things.  John Keats uses metonymy when he exclaims, “O, for a draught of vintage!” in his poem “Ode to a Nightingale”.  In this phrase, “vintage” is substitution for “wine”.  Another example of metonymy is in Robert Frost’s poem “Out, Out-” when he describes a boy holding up his hand “Half in appeal, but half as if to keep /The life from spilling”.  What Frost actually meant was that the boy was holding up his hand to keep his blood from spilling.  Sound and Sense explains that by using metonymy, a poem “gains in compactness, vividness, or meaning” (page 78).  Metonymy is very effective when it comes to adding interest or style to a written work.  It is also serves to be a useful literary device for an author who wants to avoid using the same word or phrase repetitively.

What I found interesting about metonymy is how often it is used in daily conversation.  For example, when we ask someone to “lend a hand”, what we actually mean is that we need help.   When we say “redhead”, we mean a person with red hair. Without realizing it, metonymy is all around us and, because we use metonymy so often, it seems odd to consider these examples figurative.

When reading poetry sometimes there authors use some devices to spruce up their writing. One of the terms I find very interesting in both how it’s used and the fact that it isn’t one you automatically think about with poetry devices is hyperbole. I think that the exaggeration used in poems is not usually thought of as one of the major devices, but it should because I honestly think that when it is used correctly and when used for the ironic purposes it adds another layer to the poem and ties the poem all together. You can get a sense of the author’s tone form the type of devices that he/she uses such as if the author uses a humorous hyperbole   their tone could be a more humorous tone and when the author uses a ironic hyperbole it could be a more sarcastic tone or dramatic tone. Such as if the author writes that “something as big as a planet” this is a funny hyperbole, but is strong in a way because it makes you think that the subject is huge, gigantic, or humongous and it sort of paints a picture for the reader. Because if the author is writing about a subject that is not very well known and people want to understand what the author is speaking about the author could use a hyperbole to help illustrate to the reader what the author is talking about. I feel like the hyperbole is an underrated poetry device and honestly should be used more often when talking about a subject that people don’t really know about.

Irony is a part of everyday life whether we realize it or not.  No matter who you are in life, you pretty much use irony when speaking at least once throughout your day.  However, there are three different types of irony. There is, verbal irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony. In literature and poetry, situational irony is the most common form of irony found in the text.  Situational irony is described as an incongruity appears between expectations of something to happen, and what actually happens.  An example of this would be in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” with the main character.  His name is “Fortunato” so we would expect him to be very lucky and fortunate, however as we know he is very unlucky and gets thrown in jail.  Next, we have verbal irony, which is defined as words that describe something contrary to truth or when someone says the opposite of what they feel or mean. An everyday example of this would be any type of sarcasm, where you mean the opposite of what you say. Finally, there is dramatic irony, which is defined as any thing that the audience knows that the characters in the play or story do not know.  This would be like in Oedipus where we know that Oedipus’ father was Laios, but the characters in the story do not understand or know this fact.  All in all, there are many forms of irony and they can be very easy to confuse with each other.

There are many types of figurative language that deal with repetition. Very few, however, deal with the word itself, especially at the beginning of a line. This curious repetition is called anaphora, which is the repetition of an opening phrase or a single word at the beginning of a series of lines.

This technique is employed in Maya Angelou’s poem, “Woman Work”. In the poem, Angelou uses repetition of the word “the” to emphasize the amount of work done by women. In the first stanza, she writes:

I’ve got the children to tend

The clothes to mend

The floor to mop

The food to shop

Then the chicken to fry

This repetition continues for several more lines, adding to the amount of work that needs to be done. By repeating the word “the” at the beginning of every line, however, Angelou is able to emphasize the chores needed to be done and create a poem that is almost in the form of a to do list.

Therefore, allows the poet to create a unique sort of emphasis by repeating an unecessary word. This allows for a more subtle form of emphasis that can add a deeper effect to the poetry.  Carissa Rogers via Compfight

The literary technique irony is commonly used in all types of literature. Irony is hard to define because there are different types of it. To go in depth, there are three different kinds of irony. Verbal, dramatic, and situational. Verbal irony is when words are used to mean something different than what was actually said. When verbal irony occurs, the speaker intentionally used it. This type of irony often gets confused with sarcasm. They are different because sarcasm is used to harm or insult and verbal irony is used to emphasize a point. Dramatic irony is when the audience is aware of something that the characters don’t know about. This type of irony is popular in movies, books, and plays. In the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex written by Sophocles, a great deal of dramatic irony takes place. The main plot of the play is the new king of Thebes, Oedipus, is trying to find out who killed the old ruler. The whole time, the audience knows that Oedipus is the one who murdered the old king, and to twist it even more, the old king was Oedipus’ dad and Oedipus mistakenly married his biological mother and had kids with her. In the end, Oedipus discovers the truth about his parents and he stabs his eyes out. The dramatic irony used in the play keeps the readers/watchers on the edge of their seats, wanting to know what happens next. Situational irony is when the exact opposite of what is expected to happen happens. An example would be if someone were to buy a gun for protection but ended up being injured by it. The types of irony described above are different, but they are all effective in adding a spice to the literature they are used in. Irony can be used to get a point across, add a humorous feel, or make a shocking and unsuspected event happen.

In literature, two types of meanings can be distinguished in any given work. Total meaning expresses the experience the poem communicates- that can be communicated in no other way- and prose meaning, which can be separated from the poem. The latter meaning is not to be mistaken for the essence of the poem, however, evident in A. E. Housman’s “Loveliest of Trees.” At first glance, this poem can be simply dubbed a descriptive work about nature, but if read carefully an entirely new meaning becomes present. The author presents a philosophy through the adoration of trees, preaching that one should appreciate and treasure beautiful in all aspects of life. However, the metaphor between the snow and cherry blossoms implies that because each season is beautiful for a unique reason, so is each person on earth. If one is to admire the beauty in life and nature, they must also admire the beauty in their peers and recognize the good qualities above the not-so-favorable qualities. By comparing the total meaning of the poem with the prose meaning, one can fully understand the author’s theme in writing the poem.  PokemonaDeChroma via Compfight