Here's an exercise that might be fun. Discover or re-discover the different kinds of literary devices. For ideas, check out Quasimodo's thread "Figures of Syntax and Rhetoric." Pick a couple of literary devices that appeal to you and then go through some of the personal poetry of our LitNet participants and match 'em up. You could use examples of your own poems as well.
Note: We probably should steer clear of picking out
similes and metaphors, because we'd be here all day!
Auntie
Auntie, can we have an example? I'm not quite sure I know what you mean. How are we supposed to "match" things?
Here's an example from Quasimodo's thread:
Onomatopoeia
I guess most everybody knows of this one. It is the use of words where the sound suggests the meaning as in "the mighty rumbling of the mountain" or "wind whistling through the trees" etc.
(Note: words such as "whoosh"or "murmuring" or to use Thurber's famous one in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty: "tapocketa, tapocketa." Onamatopoeia is echoiac, imitative of the actual sound the thing one is describing makes.)
Now when you read the "Personal Poetry" on the Network,
see if you can find some of our poets' use of onamatopoeia.
Or some other device Quasi defines in that thread: such as metonomy or synecdoche (that's a town in NY state, isn't it? I kid. I kid.)
No, I mean, if one of the tools in writing poetry is figurative language (in its many forms), how much do our poets use this tool? Show how our poets enhance the form of their pieces with such literary devices.
Give the device and then the example you found from the "personal poetry" posts.
Come on ,folks, get your Sherlock Holmes caps on and look around:
Here are some examples I found today:
Here's an example of personification, from a poem posted by Symphony:
The parchment shivers
As the quill jots down its
Imperfect efforts.
Here's an example of oxymoron from "Dejected" posted by mazHur
Like a lamp burning without light!
Here's an example of LITOTES from today's posting by
blazeofglory:
Why, but why we do so?
A great example of oxymoron from Adolescent09 who quoted the author Ninia("Favorite poems by
fellow Networkers")
Powerful emptyness
Last edited by AuntShecky; 10-17-2007 at 01:23 PM.
Here's an example of synecdoche which isn't a town in upstate NY ( and former home of the late Kurt Vonnegut) but substitution of parts for the whole, posted by MIR ("favorite poems by
fellow networkers")
The banner said,
“Great deal! All limbs,
A mind, a head!
We’ll even throw in –
Wholly free! –
A sparkling personality!
I wonder where you see a litotes here?Originally Posted by AuntShecky
I thought that's a device that puts emphasis on an expression by negating it, eg "not bad", "not one of the most courageous fighters". I do not see "but" as a negation in this context.
Perhaps I initially failed to make myself clear with this, though,forgive me, I still think it's a valuable learning exercise":
Find examples of the use of literary devices ("figures of syntax and rhetoric") throughout the "personal poetry"
posted by LitNetWorkers. Let's see how our fellow poets
take advantage of the tools available for our craft.
How do we use figurative language in order to shape our poetic vision into forms?
Another thing we can do is to write our pieces while making a conscious effort to take advantage of the devices available. Let me draw an analogy, if a new computer device or a new kind of software were available and free of cost, wouldn't you use it in order to make your online experience better or richer? That's the idea behind tryi to make our writing better and richer by using "tools"?
So I would love it if some of the LitNet Poets would write a short poem using one or more of the literary devices and
identify the types of figurative language which they are using.
I will - if you answer my question first.(see post above)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote