In May of 2003, a teaching colleague of my daughter invited me to address his 7th Grade Creative Expressions Classes.  I wrote this poem to help the students (and yours truly)
    remember poetic devices and figures of speech.

  
The Constellation Canis Major                      M67 Star Cluster In The Constellation Cancer


Cattaraugus Creek Cascades:  "Can't You Just Hear the Waterfall?"

  Figures of Speech Have Gone From Bad To Verse
                        

                         Canis, Cancer, Constellation,
                         Quiet Skies, Alliteration;
                         Yet I's and O's or Ah's perchance,
                         Repeat Vowel Sounds, an Assonance;
                         Exaggerate and we should see,
                         Superlatives; Hyperbole!!!

                         Comparisons with 'like or as',
                         Are Similes like 'Blues to Jazz';
                         No 'as or like'…compare some more,
                         Combines Ellipsis, Metaphor;
                         The Spoonerism tells us why,
                         A Butterfly will flutter by.

                         While Imagery we might suppose,
                         Excites Eye, Ear, Taste, Touch or Nose;
                         An Onomatopoeia's Word,
                         Still clangs and bangs until it's heard;
                         If writing, think the Opposite,
                         With Irony's sarcastic Wit.

                         A Play on Words, amuses, Fun,
                         So when in Doubt just muse a Pun;
                         To say the Dog looks like a Man,
                         Personifies his Hound, Afghan;
                         Meanings, hidden, tell a Story,
                         Epics, Fables, Allegory.

                         Oh Meter's Rhythm beats out Time,
                         Then plays in Concert with the Rhyme;
                         Litotes are understated,
                         Not well-known nor overrated;
                         Although somebody's died today,
                         The Euphemism’s ‘passed away’!

                         That White House Zeugma, we'd confess,
                         Would stain both Honor and a Dress;
                         Entendres Double, Equivoque,
                         Should be risqué, perhaps a Joke;
                         And pesky Malaprops, of course,
                         Could bite the Hand that feeds a Horse!

                         An Oxymoron soothes and shocks,
                         A Tautologic Paradox;
                         Rare Witzelsucht may be the Cause,
                         Of Jibes, Tales pointless, without Pause;
                         While Anagrams are somewhat hard,
                         “What? Shame!”roared back the clever Bard.

                         Tropes artistic, Tools, Devices,
                         Poets choose like Chefs add Spices;
                         If your View's this Ode's demonic,
                         Its Intentions were Mnemonic;
                         And though this won't be read by Fools,
                         Thank God, Poetic License rules;
                         So use Chiasmus everyday,
                         Say what you mean; mean what you say!
 

 

    Click On Image To Return To Contents Page

 

    © Howard B. Eskin 2003
   

Glossary:

  1. Allegory- the representation of spiritual, moral or other abstract meanings through the actions of fictional characters that serve as symbols.
  2. Alliteration- repetition of the same sound beginning several words placed close together, usually adjacent.
  3. Anagram- a rearrangement of a group of letters, especially a word that can be formed by rearranging the letters in another word.
  4. Assonance- repetition of the same vowel sound in multiple words placed close to each other, often adjacent.
  5. Chiasmus- a grammatical figure by which the order of words in one of two of parallel clauses is inverted in the other, e.g. "...it's not that the man eats to live but rather that the man lives to eat!"
  6. Double Entendre or Equivoque- an equivocal word, phrase, or expression; also, a pun or double meaning, often risqué.
  7. Ellipsis- the omission of words in a sentence needed to complete an idea explicitly often uses the punctuation mark …
  8. Epic-of or pertaining to a long poetic composition usually centered  upon a hero, in which a series of great achievements or events are elevated.
  9. Euphemism- substitution of a harsh, offensive, or unpleasant word with one that is less so.
10. Fable- a short tale used to teach a moral, often with animals as characters.
11. Hyperbole- exaggeration for emphasis or rhetorical or dramatic effect.
12. Imagery- mental images collectively, especially those produced by the action of imagination; also pictorially.
13. Irony- expression that comes across contrary to the intended meaning, often because the audience knows what the speaker does not.
14. Litotes- understatement by negating the opposite, e.g. as Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto!" or the infamous disclaimer on cigarette packages, "Cigarette       Smoking May Be Hazardous To Your Health!"
15.Malapropism- ludicrous misuse of a word or phrase by confusion with one that sounds similar.
16.Metaphor- implied comparison between two things by calling or implying that one is the other.
17. Meter- arrangement of words in rhythmic lines, poetic measure.
18. Mnemonic- words or phrases intended to help remember a thought or an idea.
19. Onomatopoeia- a word that refers to a specific sound and whose pronunciation mimics the sound, as in the babbling brook.
20. Oxymoron- the juxtaposition of incongruous or contradictory terms, e.g. military intelligence or jumbo shrimp.
21. Paradox- apparent contradiction or discrepancy with common sense.
 22. Paraprosdokian Sentence-one in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently
      used for humorous or dramatic effect, e.g. "I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather...not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car."
23. Personification- attribution of personal characteristics to an impersonal entity.
24. Poetic License- the license or liberty, especially, as taken by a poet or other writer, in deviating from conventional form, logic, fact, etc. to produce a desired effect.
25. Pun - a humorous use of of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings, a play on words.
26. Simile- an explicit comparison between two things using the word like or as.
27. Rhyme- verse or poetry having words with corresponding sound,  sometimes internally but usually at the end of a line.
28. Spoonerism- the interchange of the initial letters of two words, usually as a slip of the tongue.
29. Tautology- repetition of an idea in different words, often considered a truth.
30. Trope- the figurative use of a word or expression.
31. Witzelsucht- a mental disorder characterized by the making of poor jokes and puns and the telling of  pointless stories and usually caused by lesions on the frontal lobe.
32. Zeugma- two or more words linked to another which applies to each of them but in a different context or meaning, e.g. Mike Tyson lost his temper and his title and Evander Holyfield a piece of his ear.