MODULE IMAGERY, DICTION, AND

1 FIGURE OF SPEECH
(HUMSS_CW/MP11/12-Ia-b-4)

Imagery as a general term covers the use of language to represent objects,

actions, feelings, thoughts, ideas, states of mind and any sensory experience. It is a
figurative language used to appeal to the senses through vivid descriptive language.
Imagery creates mental pictures in the reader as they read the text.

Example:
An excerpt from Peter Redgrove’s Lazarus and the Sea contains imagery:

The tide of my death came whispering like this

Soiling my body with its tireless voice.

I scented the antique moistures when they sharpened

The air of my room, made the rough wood of my bed, (most dear),

Standing out like roots in my tall grave.

Diction refers to the selection of words in a literary work. A work’s diction

forms one of its centrally important literary elements as writers use words to convey
action, reveal character, imply attitudes, identify themes, and suggest values. It
includes the formality of the language, the emotional content, the imagery, the
specificity, and the sounds of the words.

Example:
“I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,

Or all the riches that East doth hold.”

- Anne Bradstreet, “To My Dear and Loving Husband”

 • The use of antiquated words such as “thy” instead of “your” and “doth”
instead of “do” gives the poem a formal diction.

• These antiquated words are considered grand, elevated, and sophisticated

language.

FIGURES OF SPEECH
Figures of speech are words or phrases used in a non-literal sense for
rhetorical or vivid effect.

The most common figures of speech are simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia,

personification, apostrophe, hyperbole, synecdoche, metonymy, oxymoron, and
paradox.

1. Simile – a stated comparison (formed with “like” or “as” between two

fundamentally dissimilar things that have certain qualities in common.
Example: “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” – Langston Hughes,
“Harlem”
2. Metaphor – an implied comparison between two unlike things that have
something in common.
Example: “Hope is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –”

- Emily Dickinson, “Hope is the Thing with Feathers”

3. Onomatopoeia – uses words that imitate sounds associated with objects or

actions.

Example: “The crooked skirt swinging, whack by whack by whack.”

- James Joyce, “Ulysses”

4. Personification – endows human qualities or abilities to inanimate objects or

abstraction.

Example: “Ah, William, we’re wary of the weather,” said the sunflowers shining
with dew.

– William Blake, “Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room”

5. Apostrophe – is addressing an absent person or thing that is an abstract,

inanimate, or inexistent character.
Example: “Death be not proud, though some have called thee.”

- John Donne, “Death Be Not Proud”

6. Hyperbole – a figure of speech which contains an exaggeration for emphasis.

Example: “To make enough noise to wake the dead.”

– R. Davies, “What’s Bred in the Bone”

7. Synecdoche – a figure of speech in which the part stands for the whole, and
thus something else is understood within the thing mentioned.

Example: “Give us this day out daily bread”

*Bread stands for the meals taken each day.

8. Metonymy – a figure of speech in which the name of an attribute or a thing is

substituted for the thing itself.

Example: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”

– William Shakespeare, “Julius Caesar”

*Lend me your ears = to pay attention; to listen

9. Oxymoron – a figure of speech which combines incongruous and apparently

contradictory words and meanings for a special effect.

Example: “Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.

Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!

O anything! of nothing first create!

O heavy lightness! serious vanity!

Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!”

- William Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet”

10. Paradox – a statement which seems on its face to be logically contradictory

or absurd yet turns out to be interpretable in a way that makes sense.

Example: “One short sleep past, we wake eternally

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.”

- John Donne, “Death Be Not Proud”

REMEMBER

• Imagery is used to signify all the objects and qualities of sense perception
referred to in works of literature.

• Diction refers to the kinds of words, phrases, and sentence structures, and
sometimes also figurative language, that constitute any work of literature.

• Figure of speech is an expression that departs from the accepted literal sense
or from the normal order of words, or in which an emphasis is produced by
patterns of sound.
MODULE ELEMENTS OF POETRY:
2 STRUCTURE OF POETRY
(HUMSS_CW/MP11/12c-f-6)

Poetry has remained a vital part of art and culture. Like other forms of
literature, poetry is made to express thoughts and emotions in a creative and
imaginative way. It conveys thoughts and feelings, describes a scene or tells a story in
a concentrated, lyrical arrangement of words.

In this module, we will explore on the elements of poetry based on the

following partitions: structure, sound and meaning. This particular lesson will
highlight the poetry according to structure namely stanza and form.

STRUCTURE OF POETRY
One significant way to analyse poems is by looking into the stanza structure
and the form of the poem. Generally speaking, structure refers to the overall
organization of lines and/or the conventional patterns of sound. However, various
modern poems may not have particular structure.

A. Stanza
Stanzas refer to series of lines grouped together and separated by a space from
other stanzas. They correspond to a paragraph in an essay. Identifying the stanza is
done by counting the number of lines. The following are some of the terms used to
refer to the number of stanzas: monostich (1 line) couplet (2 lines), tercet (3 lines),
quatrain (4 lines), cinquain (5 lines), sestet (6 lines) (sometimes it's called a sexain),
septet (7 lines), octave (8 lines).

For example, the excerpt,

“I do not like green eggs and ham.

I do not like them Sam I am.

 consists of two lines. Hence, the stanza is called couplet.

B. Form
In many cases, a poem may not have specific lines or stanza, and metrical pattern,
however, it can still be labelled according to its form or style. Here, we will discuss the
three most common types of poetry according to form are: lyric, descriptive and
narrative. We will also include other popular types of poetry.

1. Lyric Poetry. It is any poem with one speaker (not necessarily the poet) who
expresses strong thoughts and feelings. Most poems, especially modern ones,
are lyric poems. Below are some types of lyric poetry.

a. Ode. An ode is a lyric poem that praises an individual, an idea or an event.

The length is usually moderate, the subject is serious, the style is elevated and
the stanza pattern is elaborate. In Ancient Greece, odes were
originallyaccompanied by music. In fact, the word “ode” comes from the
Greek word aeidein, which means to sing or to dance.

Example: “Ode to the West Wind” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Scatter, as from an unextinguish’d hearth

Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!

Be through my lips to unawaken’d earth

The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

b. Elegy. An elegy is written with a purpose to “mourn the dead”. It usually

begins by reminiscing about the dead person, then weeps for the reason of
death, and then resolves the grief by concluding that death leads to\
immortality. It has no set stanza or metrical pattern. It often uses "apostrophe"
as a literary technique.

Example: Excerpt from Walt Whitman’s “O Captain, My Captain,”

(written following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln)

O Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
 For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here captain! dear father!

This arm beneath your head;

It is some dream that on the deck,

You’ve fallen cold and dead.

c. Sonnet. It is a lyric poem consisting of 14 lines and, in the English version, is

usually written in iambic pentameter. The three basic kinds of sonnets are:

• Italian/Petrarchan sonnet is named after Petrarch, an Italian Renaissance

poet. The Petrarchan sonnet consists of an octave (eight lines) and a sestet
(six lines). It tends to divide the thought into two parts (argument and
conclusion). The rhyming pattern is ABBA ABBA CDECDE, or some accepted
sestet such as CDCCDC, CDDCDE or CDCDCD

When I consider how my light is spent, A

Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, B
And that one talent which is death to hide B
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent A
To serve therewith my Maker, and present A
My true account, lest He returning chide; B
“Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?” B
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent A
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need C
Either man’s work or His own gifts. Who best D
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state E
Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed, C
And post o’er land and ocean without rest; D
They also serve who only stand and wait.” E
- When I Consider How My Light is Spent” by John Milton
• Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains (four lines each) and a
concluding couplet (two lines). The final couplet is the summary.The rhyming
pattern is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

- Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

• Spenserian Sonnet is divided into three quatrains, or segments of four

lines, followed by a rhyming couplet. The rhyming pattern is usually ABAB
BCBC CDCD EE.

- Amoretti #75 by Edmund Spenser

2. Narrative Poetry. It is a poem that tells a story; its structure resembles the
plot line of a story [i.e. the introduction of conflict and characters, rising
action, climax and the denouement. The most common types of narrative
poetry are ballad and epic.

a. Ballad. It is a narrative poem that has a musical rhythm and can be sung. A
ballad is usually organized into quatrains or cinquains, has a simple rhythm
structure, and tells the tales of ordinary people.

Example: Excerpt from “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

By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

Than to love and be loved by me.

b. Epic. It is a long narrative poem in elevated style recounting the deeds of a

legendary or historical hero.

Examples of epic include Iliad by Homer, Beowulf, The Divine Comedy by

Dante Alighieri, Metamorphoses by Ovid and many more.

3. Descriptive Poetry. It is a poem that describes the world that surrounds the
speaker. It uses elaborate imagery and adjectives. While emotional, it is more
"outward-focused" than lyric poetry, which is more personal and introspective.
Example: Excerpt from William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a
Cloud”

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

OTHER FORMS OF POETRY
1. Haiku. It has an unrhymed verse form having three lines (a tercet) and usually
5,7,5 syllables, respectively. It is usually considered a lyric poem.

Example: “By the Old Temple” by Matsuo Bashō

By the old temple,

peach blossoms;

a man treading rice.

2. Limerick. It has a very structured poem, usually humorous & composed of five
lines (a cinquain), in an AABBA rhyming pattern; beat must be anapestic
(weak, weak, strong) with 3 feet in lines 1, 2, & 5 and 2 feet in lines 3 & 4. It is
usually a narrative poem based upon a short and often ribald anecdote.

Example: A poem by Dixon Lanier Merritt

A wonderful bird is the pelican,

His bill can hold more than his beli-can.

He can take in his beak

Food enough for a week

But I’m damned if I see how the heli-can.

REMEMBER