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[pic] POETIC STRUCTURES

A poetic form is the arrangement of a poem’s elements. Formal poetry has rules for elements such as the number of stanzas and lines, the meter (pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables), and the rhyme scheme. A free verse poem does not follow a set pattern—it may contain rhyme or meter, but these elements vary throughout the poem.

Most poems include sound devices, or patterns of words that produce special effects. Sound devices emphasize ideas, create musical qualities, and help establish a mood.

|Sound Device |Definition |Example |

|alliteration |repeated consonant sounds in stressed syllables at the beginnings |barking beagle |

| |of words or syllables | |

|assonance |repeated vowel sounds in stressed syllables that end with varying |wedding bells |

| |consonant sounds | |

|consonance |repeated final consonant sounds in stressed syllables that follow |wind and sand |

| |different vowel sounds | |

The most common type of rhyme is end rhyme, where rhyming words appear at the ends of lines of poetry. You can identify a poem’s rhyme scheme, or its regular pattern of rhyming sounds, by giving one letter to the sound at the end of each line. For example, note the abab rhyme scheme in the following excerpt from William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18”:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (a)

Thou art more lovely and more temperate: (b)

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, (a)

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; (b)

DIRECTIONS: Read the first stanza of “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” by William Butler Yeats. Then, answer the questions.

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

1. Name the rhyming words that end each line. _________________________________

2. Use letters to identify the stanza’s rhyme scheme. _____________________________

3. Which words in line 2 are an example of assonance? ___________________________

4. Identify an example of consonance in line 3. _________________________________

5. In line 4, what consonant sound produces alliteration? _________________________

|Name:       |Date:       |

[pic] POETIC STRUCTURES

A. DIRECTIONS: Read the second stanza of “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” by William Butler Yeats. Then, answer the questions.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

1. Use letters to identify the rhyme scheme of the stanza. _________________________

2. _____ Which pair of words in line 3 is an example of assonance?

a. midnight / glimmer b. all / and c. purple / glow

3. _____ Which sound device is used with the g sound in line 3?

a. alliteration b. assonance c. consonance d. rhyme

B. DIRECTIONS: Read the third stanza of “The Lake Isle of Innisfree.” Then, answer the questions.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

1. Use letters to identify the rhyme scheme of the stanza. _________________________

2. Which words in line 2 create alliteration? ___________________________________

3. _____ What is the effect of the alliteration in line 2?

a. It makes the water seem too dangerous to enjoy.

b. It mimics the sound of the water on the shore.

4. Which two words within line 3 rhyme? _____________________________________

5. _____ Consider the poem as a whole. Which of the following shows how the sounds described in the poem affect the speaker?

a. They remind the speaker that he can’t live in a dream world and must return to reality.

b. They have a calming, peaceful effect on the speaker, even when he is in the city.

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