CLASS: SENIOR THREE
COURSE CONTENTS
UNIT I: REVIEW OF KEY ASPECTS OF PROSE
UNIT II: PLOT DEVELOPMENT
UNIT III: TONE, ATMOSPHERE AND PURPOSE
UNIT IV: TYPES OF POETRY AND POEMS
UNIT V: POETIC DEVICES
UNIT VI: CONTEXT AND PLOT DEVELOPMENT
UNIT VII: CHARACTER, SUBJECT MATTER AND THEMES
UNIT VIII: STYLE, MOOD AND ATMOSPHERE.
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UNIT V: POETIC DEVICES
V.1. REVIEW OF POETIC DEVICES
Poetic devices are stylistic techniques that a poet employs in order to influence the way a poem sounds when read aloud and the overall mood created by sound patterns. They are also tools that a poet uses to create rhythm, enhance a poem’s meaning, or intensify a mood or a feeling.
Poets choose their language carefully for them to pass the message in the fewest words possible. To achieve this, they deliberately apply certain forms of style or poetic devices. Some of those devices include alliteration, assonance, repetition, personification, simile, rhythm and rhyme.
a. Alliteration
It is the repetition of initial consonant sounds at the beginning of words. It is the repetition of the same consonant sounds at the beginning of words. Alliteration is used to create rhythm.
Ex: Betty Botter
Betty Botter bought some butter,
But, she said, the butter’s bitter;
If I put it in my batter
It will make my butter bitter
But a bit of better butter
Will make my batter better.
Ex: On his watch
Bleeds black blood
Brothers broken backs
Creature craving for crunches
They snarl.
Farewell for fools
He says
Ex: Plain plan pronounced
Sincere since seventh sabbath
Sweet smell of success
Bigger and better
b. Assonance
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within words in a line or lines of a poem. It is the repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words.
Ex: Fleet feet them
Looting hoofers of Bloomington
Blood and blooming
Footing and glooming.
Ex2: -Men sell the wedding bells
-We light fire on the mountain
-How they ring out their delight!
-From the molten-golden notes
-I see mean people seeking.
He took a good look
At the nuisance tooth
N.B: You must be very sure of the pronunciation of words. They may seem similar yet they are pronounced differently.
c. Repetition
It refers to the deliberate use of a word or a group of words over and over again or recurrently in a poem. It is a poetic device that is commonly used.
It is the repeating of a word, a phrase, line, stanza or idea in a poem. Repetition not only creates rhythm in a poem but also establishes unity in the poem as well as helping the poet to emphasize certain ideas.
When repetition is used in the poem,
When repetition is used in the poem, it
–creates rhythm.
–lays emphasis on the theme and main idea in a poem.
–emphasizes the poet’s message and keeps it constantly stuck in the mind of the reader or audience.
Ex1: Smile by Mark Chetambe
They say she smiled at me
I will notslaughter my only cock
I will not throw a party
I will not bring down my flute
I will not compose a song
I will not change my walking style
I will not go to the barber for a box haircut…
Ex2:The Stem of the Branch by L.M. Asiedu
None on earth is like her,
She that made me breathe.
None on earth is like her,
She that filled my stomach.
None on earth is like her,
She that knew why i cried.
None on earth is like her,
She that protected me.
None on earth is like her,
She that gave me my first lessons.
None on earth is like her,
She whose death orphans me.
Ex3: Freedom song by Marjorie Macgoye
Atieno washes dishes,
Atieno plucks the chicken,
Atieno gets up early,
Beds her sacks down in kitchen,
Atieno eight years old,
Atieno yo.
Ex4:
Late, Late, So Late
Late, late, so late! and dark the night and chill!
Late, late, so late! but we can enter still.
Too late, too late! ye cannot enter now.
Ex5: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom,….
Remember that there are many types of repetition like anaphora, epistrophe, among others
d. Personification
It is a figure of speech in which a thing, an idea or an animal is given human attributes. The non-human objects are portrayed in such a way that we feel they have the ability to act like human beings. Personification helps to make abstracts things become more alive and easy to understand.
Ex1: Pomegranate by Rabiarivelo
The rays of the new-born sun
search under the branches
the breast of ripe pomegranate
and bite it till it bleeds.
Discreet and shuddering kiss
hard and scalding embrace,
Soon the pure thrust
will draw purple blood.
Its taste will be sweeter,
because it was pregnant with desire
And with fearful love
and scented blossoms-
Pregnant by lover sun.
Ex2: Perfume Bottles by Kelly Roper
Pretty little bottles of perfume
Stood at attention on the dresser.
“Which one of us will she choose today?”
And they each took turns being the guesser.
“She’ll choose me,” the first one said,
“Because I smell like roses.”
“Not likely today,” the second bottle said.
“You’ll stink up everyone’s noses.”
“She’ll choose me,” the third bottle said.
“She loves how I smell like sandalwood.”
The second bottle replied again,
“She won’t choose you. I know I never would.”
The woman came in, looked at her perfumes,
Sniffed bottle two and choosed her.
Bottle two cried, “Yes! She chose me, the best;
I guess you other two are the losers!
e. Simile
It is a poetic device which uses the words ‘like’, ‘as’ or ‘than’ to show the resemblance between two things or it is a comparison which shows similarities between two different things by words ‘like’, ‘as’ or ‘than’. Simile is used to create an image in our mind and hence enables us understand the subject under comparison.
Ex1: The Face of Hunger by Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali
I counted the ribs on his concertina chest
bones protruding as if chiselled
by a sculptor’s hand of famine.
He looked with glazed pupils
seeing only a bun on some sky-high shelf.
The skin was pale and taut
Like a glove on a doctor’s hand.
His tongue darted in and out
Like a chameleon,
snatching a confetti of flies.
Oh! child,
your stomach is a den of lions
roaring day and night.
Ex2: My husband’s tongue
Is bitter like the roots of the lynno lily
It is hot like the penis of the bee,
Like the sting of the kalang!
Ocol’s tongue is fierce like the
arrow of the scorpion,
Deadly like the spear of the
buffalo-hornet.
It is ferocious
Like the poison of a barren woman
And corrosive like the juice of the gourd.
From Song of Lawino by Okot p’ Bitek.
Ex3: During Christmas
We gather as a mass
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The drums go as we hum.
Like a wild hyena
We laugh in the dance arena
The children graceful as Mary
And together we make merry:
Ex4: The day was as hot as the sun
He could swim like a fish
Her sneeze was as loud as a train whistle
I felt like a fish out of water
Ex5: Friends are like chocolate cake
You can never have too many.
Chocolate cake is like heaven-
Ex6: Love is like a painting
Filled with all colours and shades
Love is like a bleeding heart
Cut with many sharp blades.
Ex7: A Simile by N. Scott Momaday
What did we say to each other
that now we are as the deer
who walk in single file
with heads high
with ears forward
with eyes watchful
with hooves always placed on firm ground
in whose limbs there is latent flight
f. Rhythm
Rhythm refers to a strong regular repeated pattern of sound in poetry. It is also a series of stressed or accented syllables in a group of words, arranged so that the reader expects a similar series to follow. Rhythm is what we dance to in a song. It is the regular beat that defines the song. Rhythm that can be measured is called meter.
In writing poetry, rhythm acts as a beat in music. Rhythm is used to captivate the readers by giving musical effect to a literary piece.
Rhythm is created by:
-repetition
-sound patterns (repetition of certain sounds in a poem).
-length of lines- if of the same length.
g. Rhyme
Rhyme is a repetition of the same sound at the end of lines in a stanza. Rhyme occurs when two or more words sound similarly at their ends. A rhyme is a tool that uses repeating patterns to create rhythm or musicality in poems. A rhyme is used for a specific purpose of giving a pleasing effect to a poem, which makes its recital an enjoyable experience.
Usually, rhyme occurs at the end of lines in a poem, but it can also occur in the middle. If it occurs in the middle, it is called internal rhyme.
Ex1: Mama; don’t worry
Your son’s in no hurry
We will not rush to marry
And there make you sorry.
Ex2: The gaze of the beauty
When I look at Rwanda
I can’t help it wonder
How like a phoenix, from ashes this nation is rising
When I look at Rwanda, I can’t help it but start praising.
Ex3: The choice to believe in power of togetherness
The choice to walk hand in hand even through the darkness
The choice to trust the good in others
And the choice to work heart to heart with others
Because we are a summation, one nation
And never shall we betray the foundation.
h. Consonance
It is a repetition of consonant sounds within lines or sentences or in a poem.
Ex: –Mike likes his new bike
– I will crawl away the ball
-The zoo was amazing,
especially the lizards and the chimpanzees.
-There is no right time to imitate the teacher.
V.2. POINT OF VIEW
It refers to the angle an author uses to tell the reader about the happenings in a poem. It is the method the author uses to narrate the story. Simply, it is who is telling the story.
There are three points of view:
a. The first-person point of view
This involves the use the persona ‘I’ or ‘we’.
Ex1: Listen to me Papa
I tried hard as I could
I wanted to be top in class
I tried to be top in class
Others were better than me
They calculated faster than I could
They spelt better than I could
Listen Papa, I tried.
From ‘Listen, Papa’ by Gachanja Kiai
Ex2: Dressed up to look my best,
When I actually looked my worst.
I thought all this alcohol
would refresh my troublesome thirst.
Ex3: Beauty beckoned us
And like honey
We made haste
Oh! But beauty?
From ‘Boy Soldier’ by J A O. Teiye
b. The second person point of view
The second person of view employs the pronoun ‘you’.
Example: Sick
Don’t breathe next to me!
You might get me sick.
Your nose is so red
That it looks like a brick.
Your eyes are all puffy;
You’re sneezing a lot.
I’m leaving the room
I don’t want what you’ve got.
c. The third person point of view
It uses the pronouns ‘he, she, it or they’.
Ex: They met by accident
He proposed the idea
She gave her consent
All the way to the altar.
From ‘Outcast’ by G Gathemia
The speaker in a poem is not necessarily the poet. In most poems, the poet will speak from different points of view. The person who speaks in a poem is referred to as a persona.
Note that identifying the speaker in the poem is important in discovering the overall intention of the poem; and it helps bring out the feelings and the attitude being shared.
V.3. CONTEXT
Context refers to the circumstances forming the background of an event, idea or statement, in a such a way as to enable the audience (readers, listeners, spectator) understand the narrative or a literary piece.
Generally, context refers to the whole situation, background or environment relevant to a poem.
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