Poetry Notes on the language and style used in Poems

The term "style" refers to the medium through which a message is passed to the reader. In poetry, poets employ different stylistic devices to make the poem more interesting, memorable, musical, and enjoyable to the audience or readers.

 Language devices in poetry include:

•  Imagery, 
• irony, 
• symbolism
• Rhetorical Questions
• Personification
• Paradox
• Parallelism
• Contrast
• Hyperbole
• Repetition
• allusion
• Juxtaposition

Sound patterns in poetry include:

• Assonance
• Consonance 
• Alliteration
• Ideophones
• Rhyme Onomatopoeia

The use of imagery in poetry

The term "imagery" is derived from the word "image." Imagery refers to any device used in a work of art that enables the audience or the readers to form mental pictures of what is being described.

In poetry, there are two types of images:

1. Metaphor

A metaphor is a direct comparison of two similar objects. For example, 

• Marie is a peacock (meaning that Marie is proud).
• My father is a lion (meaning my father is brave).
• The attacker was a Goliath (meaning that the attacker was monstrously
• 2. Similes

A simile compares one thing to another using like or as. For example,

• Marie walks like a peacock. (Meaning that she walks proudly)
• My mother works as a man. (Meaning that my mother works like a man).

Aspects of Language Use in Poetry.

Other stylistic devices used in poetry include:

1. Irony: 

Irony is the use of language where a statement implies the opposite of what it literally means. In other words, irony implies the opposite of what is said. For example,

•  Congratulations on having done so well in your exams. (Said after failing the exam terribly.) 

2. Sarcasm

 Sarcasm is a bitter or wounding remark that is often ironically worded with the aim of expressing disappointment or disgust. For example,

•  Go ahead and correct me, you saint. (said by someone who doesn’t want correction)

3. Satire:

 To mock or ridicule the bad behaviour of people or institutions in society is to satirise 

 For instance, portraying some officers as having abyssal bellies to ridicule their corrupt ways.

 

NOTE: Satire and irony are literary devices, whereas sarcasm refers to the tone in which a comment is made.

4. Symbolism:  

A symbol is something that stands for another thing or points to a reality beyond itself. Therefore, symbolism refers to using the name of one thing to represent another. For example,

• The cross is a symbol of Christianity.
• White is a symbol of peace.

5. Rhetorical questions

Rhetorical questions are questions that do not require answers but which provoke the reader to reflect upon the issues. 
For example,

• Didn’t God create us? (We already know that God created us.)
• Is Mary not a woman like others? (We already know that Mary is a woman.) 

6. Personification

Personification is the giving of non-human things human-like qualities. 

 For example,

• The trees bent to let the wind pass.
• The trees whistled as the gentle breeze rushed past their leaves.

7. A paradox

A paradox is a contradictory statement that is not literally true. 

For example,

• My mother is the man of our house (a mother is a woman while the father is a man).
• Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.
• Wax your ears and hear the eloquence of silence.

8. Hyperbole: 

Hyperbole refers to deliberate exaggeration with the aim of achieving a certain effect. Hyperbole impresses the reader and influences his/her judgement. For example,

•  I was so hungry that I ate a mountain of ugali.
• The boat had a puncture and half the ocean jumped in 

9. Contrast/juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is the act of putting ideas or objects side by side to show their differences

 For example,

•  As she writhed in pain, her tormentors on the other side ate, danced, and made merry.

10. Repetition

To repeat something means to do it more than once. In poetry, words, lines, phrases, and stanzas may be repeated. Repetition reveals something important about the poem as a whole.

• Repetition is used to create rhythm, stress important features, create interest, musicality, and memorability.

11. Allusion

 An allusion is a brief reference to a person, place, or event, either in history or in previous literature, which the reader is assumed to know.

•  Common sources of allusion include the Bible, history, and popular culture.

SOUND PATTERNS IN POETRY

 Poems make use of sounds to communicate meaning. Common terms associated with the sounds in poetry include:

1. Rhyme

 Rhyme is the sameness of the final sound of the lines in a poem. Rhyming words (words that end in the same or similar sound) are used to create rhythm in a poem.

Observe that a word does not rhyme with itself; rather, it repeats.

The tools he agreed to bring
 Were insteqd used to sing.

2. Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of consonantal sounds or a kind of repetition where two or more words in close succession begin with the same sound. 
For example, 

• she sang a sad song. 

 Alliteration helps to enhance a poem’s musicality and memorability and makes the poem interesting. 

A word does not alliterate with itself.

3. Consonance 

Consonance describes the repetition of middle or final consonant sounds in words that are in close proximity in a line of a poem.
For example,

• The song sang was sad.

Consonance enhances the musicality and memorability of a poem and also makes the poem interesting.

 

4. Assonance

 Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds, especially in stressed syllables of words in close proximity. 

 For example,

•  she sang a sad song.

 Assonance, consonance, alliteration, and rhyme have the same function in a poem.

5. Onomatopoeia: 

Onomatopoeia is the similarity of a word, to the sound that it represents. In other words, a word is said to be onomatopoeic if it sounds similar to the sound that it represents.

For example,

• "buzz" is the name for the sound a bee makes, and the sound of the word itself imitates that sound.
•  The whistling wind
•  A splash of water
•  The rattling of the roof

Onomatopoeia is important because it helps to establish the atmosphere of the poem.

Other features that are common in poetry are

 Other common features of poetry include:

1. Attitude

The term "attitude," when used in poetry, refers to the feelings of a poet towards his subject matter or subject, or the feelings of somebody else whom that poet is writing about.

 

Some of the words that might be used to describe an attitude in poetry include:

• Scornful,
• Disapproving, 
• hostile, 
• contemptuous 
• Condescending, 
• of dislike, 
• critical, 
• despising 
• sympathetic, 
• patronising 

2. Mood

When used in poetry, the term "mood" refers to the atmosphere surrounding a poem. The mood of a poem is determined by its tone.

The mood of the poem could be said to be:

• happy, 
• angry, 
• bitter, 
• nostalgic, 
• melancholic, 
• quiet, 
• resigned, 
• humourous, 
• lighthearted, 
• desperate, 
• relaxed
• solemn

3. Tone

When used in poetry, "tone" is a technical word meaning the poise, mood, voice, manner, attitude, and outlook of a poet.

 The words used to describe the tone in poetry include;

• cold, 
• bitter, 
• troubled, 
• uncertain, 
• eager, 
• bragging, 
• cheerful, 
• resigned, 
• protesting, 
• sarcastic, 
• ironical,
• satirical, 
• derisive, 
• assertive, 
• contemptuous, 
• condemnatory, 
• accusatory, 
• scornful, 
• assertive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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