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Poetry Summaries
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Please note that these summaries are the intellectual property of @opsommings.com.
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,General aspects
Poetic terms
• Imagery: use of images / pictures that appeal to our senses, heart or mind
• Style: manner in which poet expresses himself
- colloquial, conversational, emotive, factual, humorous, idiomatic, sensational, succinct
(concise), terse, technical, clich d, formal, informal …
• Intention: reason or motive poet had for writing the poem
- express admiration; defend; enrage; mock; protest; criticize; praise; evoke sympathy; express
love; express hatred; scorn; incite; warn; atter
• Diction: poet’s use of vocabulary and word-choice
• Mood: refers to the atmosphere a poet creates (e.g. playful, gloomy, suspenseful, hopeful)
• Tone: poet’s attitude towards subject and readers
- sincere, humorous, forceful, critical, sarcastic, ironical, loving, sentimental, joyful, melancholy,
bitter, mocking
• Rhythm: “beat” in a poem. The meter describes a regular rhythm.
- emphasizes word in a poem
- helps create a particular mood or convey a them
- set a particular pace
• Rhyme: repetition of similar sounds (Half and End Rhyme)
• Theme: central idea of a poem
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é fl
,Poetic devices and gures of speech
• Antithesis: opposites are contrasted or balanced in two clauses or phrases. (No seemingly
contradiction; merely opposites / contrasts.)
• Paradox: a statement which is self-contradictory but which contains some truth. “One has to
be cruel to be kind.”
• Metonymy: substitution of the name of something for that of the thing meant.
• Synecdoche: a part is named but the whole is meant/ understood, OR the whole is named
but only part is meant/understood, e.g. “... his back to the ve thin healthy head grazing.”
• Litotes: Ironical understatement, expressing an af rmative by the negative of its contrary.
• Rhetorical question: a question that is asked not for information but to produce effect.
• Apostrophe: the poet addresses an inanimate object, or an absent person.
• Inversion: reversal of normal, grammatical order of words, e.g. “How with this rage shall
beauty hold a plea Whose action is no stronger than a ower, …
• Satire: Ridiculing prevalent vices or follies
• Dramatic irony: The audience/reader is aware of a fact which the speaker is unaware of.
• Understatement: Represents something as less than it really is: After the oods, when things
were carried away by the water, we say “We’ve had some rain.”
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fi fi fl fi fl
, The sonnet
- 14 lines
- iambic pentameter
- a single theme or idea is expressed
Functions of enjambment:
Copyright © 2021 Opsommings.com 4
Poetry Summaries
Name: __________________________
www.opsomingss.com
083 628 8301
School: _________________________
Please note that these summaries are the intellectual property of @opsommings.com.
No summaries may be shared or copied without permission.
Copyright © 2021 Opsommings.com 1
,General aspects
Poetic terms
• Imagery: use of images / pictures that appeal to our senses, heart or mind
• Style: manner in which poet expresses himself
- colloquial, conversational, emotive, factual, humorous, idiomatic, sensational, succinct
(concise), terse, technical, clich d, formal, informal …
• Intention: reason or motive poet had for writing the poem
- express admiration; defend; enrage; mock; protest; criticize; praise; evoke sympathy; express
love; express hatred; scorn; incite; warn; atter
• Diction: poet’s use of vocabulary and word-choice
• Mood: refers to the atmosphere a poet creates (e.g. playful, gloomy, suspenseful, hopeful)
• Tone: poet’s attitude towards subject and readers
- sincere, humorous, forceful, critical, sarcastic, ironical, loving, sentimental, joyful, melancholy,
bitter, mocking
• Rhythm: “beat” in a poem. The meter describes a regular rhythm.
- emphasizes word in a poem
- helps create a particular mood or convey a them
- set a particular pace
• Rhyme: repetition of similar sounds (Half and End Rhyme)
• Theme: central idea of a poem
Copyright © 2021 Opsommings.com 2
é fl
,Poetic devices and gures of speech
• Antithesis: opposites are contrasted or balanced in two clauses or phrases. (No seemingly
contradiction; merely opposites / contrasts.)
• Paradox: a statement which is self-contradictory but which contains some truth. “One has to
be cruel to be kind.”
• Metonymy: substitution of the name of something for that of the thing meant.
• Synecdoche: a part is named but the whole is meant/ understood, OR the whole is named
but only part is meant/understood, e.g. “... his back to the ve thin healthy head grazing.”
• Litotes: Ironical understatement, expressing an af rmative by the negative of its contrary.
• Rhetorical question: a question that is asked not for information but to produce effect.
• Apostrophe: the poet addresses an inanimate object, or an absent person.
• Inversion: reversal of normal, grammatical order of words, e.g. “How with this rage shall
beauty hold a plea Whose action is no stronger than a ower, …
• Satire: Ridiculing prevalent vices or follies
• Dramatic irony: The audience/reader is aware of a fact which the speaker is unaware of.
• Understatement: Represents something as less than it really is: After the oods, when things
were carried away by the water, we say “We’ve had some rain.”
Copyright © 2021 Opsommings.com 3
fi fi fl fi fl
, The sonnet
- 14 lines
- iambic pentameter
- a single theme or idea is expressed
Functions of enjambment:
Copyright © 2021 Opsommings.com 4
