THE LANGUAGE OF CREATIVE WRITING or ‘as’ 3.

Then she burst into view, a girl lovely as

morning and just as fair…
Using Imagery (Waywaya, F. Sionil Jose)
Imagery is a literary device that appeals to the readers’ senses. This pertains to words or phrases that Metaphor Direct comparison 1. Your heart is a garden of paradox, a
describe the content of the text vividly between two juxtaposition of gentleness and kindness, a
objects beautiful oxymoron. (Ayu)
Imagery Description Example 2. One who does not treasure his own language is
Sight Also known as 1. Taal volcano: deadly beauty in the middle of the lake. worse than a beast and putrid fish. (Jose P.
visual, appeals 2. Living life at full felt she is a rose so pure yet her own prickles Rizal)
to the sight, can she just overlooks. (Simply Haiku) 3. The Name of the Lord is a strong tower.
be seen 3. Lonely grass by the silent river come, my dear. (Simply Haiku)
Personification Attribution of 1. The hills are alive. (from the Sound of Music)
human qualities to 2. Genius has no country. It blossoms
Smell Also known as 1. It smells. Sulfur is among the easiest detectable substances, and a thing everywhere. (Jose P. Rizal)
olfactory, for good reason. It is a sign of decay, as in rotten eggs, and it is 3. Tired and sick, Mother Nature is able to
stimulates sense actively damaging to our bodies. recuperate because of Covid 19.
of smell Hyperbole Exaggeration 1. If this wind wouldn’t stop, the world might
Hear Also known as 1. There were loud rumbling sounds all over. blow away.
auditory, can be 2. I couldn’t sleep, there were the synchronized tickling of the 2. “The chances of me quitting are like the
heard clock, the whirring of the electric fan and snoring of my chances of a snowball in hell.”
roommates. (Merriam Defensor Santiago)
3. ‘Ang Probinsiyano’ never ends, I bet, it will last
Touch Also known as 1. The manghihilot rubbed warm oil, scented with lavender, for million years.
tactile, those across her stress-riddled shoulders. Alliteration Repetition of first 1. The beautiful bouquet blossomed in the bright
that can be felt 2. The baby cactus appeared to have soft little spines that consonant sound of sun.
or touched wouldn't hurt a fly. Turns out, one touch of those "soft little neighboring words 2. He acts silly at times, but he was blessed with a
spines" will leave you with a bloodied finger! brilliant brain.
Taste Also known as 1. The familiar comforting warmth of the chicken noodle soup 3. “Now, by God’s grace and the power of people,
gustatory, instantly made her feel much better. we are free again.”
stimulates the 2. The rich, creamy sweetness of the homemade ice cream was an (Corazon C. Aquino)
sense of taste amazing Allusion Is a reference in a 1. The front liners are considered as Entengs and
work of literature Nardas of today’s pandemic.
Using Appropriate Diction to another work of 2. The fight for change does not stop at EDSA.
Diction refers to language and word choice of the writer. It shows the level of formality of a text which literature, or to a 3. Who is Pia Wurtzbach, when I have you as my
helps in shaping the perception and view of the readers. There are three levels of diction: formal, well-known person Miss Universe?
informal, and colloquial or place outside
Levels Characteristics Examples literature
Formal Academic/Scholarly 1. Father
Onomatopoeia Use of words that1. The tinkle of the rain could be heard in the
Language 2. Mother
mimic sounds distance and we knew it was coming our way.
Informal Conversational Language 1. Daddy, Papa, Tatay
2. I could hear the buzzing, so I knewthere was a
2. Mommy, Mama, Nanay
bee’s nest around here somewhere.
Colloquial Slang Language 1. Pudra, Pudrakels, Erpat
3. Think before you click.
2. Mudra, Mudrakels, Ermats
ELEMENTS, TECHNIQUES, AND LITERARY DEVICES IN POETRY
Using Figurative Language
Figurative language refers to the language that contains the technique. In illustration: if figurative
language is a dance routine, figures of speech are the various moves that make up the routine. READING AND WRITING POETRY
Figures of Definition Sample Text Poetry is a literary work to express feelings and ideas with the use of distinctive style and rhythm. In poetry,
Speech/ sound and meaning of words are combined to express feelings, thoughts and ideas. The poet chooses words
Figurative carefully. Poetry is usually written in lines.
Language
Simile Indirect 1. Filipinos are as sturdy as the molave and as TYPES OF POETRY
comparison of two resilient as the bamboo. 1. Narrative – a poem that tells a story, and has the elements of a story.
things using ‘like’ 2. “Genius is like the light.” (J.P. Rizal Types of Narrative Poetry
• Epic - an epic is a long unified narrative poem, recounting in dignified language the adventures of a syllables tend to be longer, and unstressed shorter.
warrior, a king or a god, the whole embodying the religious and philosophical beliefs, the moral code, 13. Symbolism– is the use of a specific object or an image to represent an abstract idea. A symbol is a word
customs, traditions, manners, attitudes, sciences, folklore and culture of the people or country from or phrase that represents something other than its literal meaning. Examples of symbolism include a rose to
which it came. represent love, a dove to represent peace, the owl symbolizes wisdom and the cross to represent Christianity.
• Metrical Romance – it recounts the quest undertaken by a single knight in order to gain a lady’s favor. Poetic Devices
• Metrical Tale - is a simple, straightforward story in verse. 1. Alliteration- is derived from Latin’s “Latira”, which means “letters of alphabet”. It is a stylistic device in
• Ballad - is a narrative poem which is meant to be sung, usually composed in the ballad stanza. which a number of words, having the same first consonant sound, occur close together in a series.
2. Imaginative - (provokes thought, causes an emotional response: laughter, happy, sad)
2. Dramatic – a poem where the speaker is someone other than the poet themselves. A Dramatic poem 3. Creative (words and phrases that have a pattern made with rhythm and rhyme)
often includes characters and dialogue. A Dramatic Monologue is often from a fictional character’s point 4. Descriptive and vivid (imagery where the reader/listener creates vivid mental images
of view. 5. Free verse - poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm and does not rhyme with fixed
Types of Dramatic Poetry forms.
• Dramatic Monologue - is a literary device that is used when a character reveals his or her innermost 6. Uses figurative language (personification, similes, metaphors)
thoughts and feelings, those that are hidden throughout the course of the story line, through a poem or a 6.1 Personification where a non-human thing or idea is ascribed human qualities or abilities
speech. 6.2 Simile work by saying something is similar to something else. Those that make a comparison using ‘as’ or
• Soliloquy - is the act of speaking while alone, especially when used as a theatrical device that allows a ‘like’.
character’s thoughts and ideas to be conveyed to the audience. 6.3 Metaphor make comparisons between things by stating that one thing literally is something else. It is
used to bring clarity to ideas by forming connections.
3. Lyrical – a poem that expresses emotions, appeals to your senses, and often could be set to music. · Lightning danced across the sky.
Types of Lyric Poetry · The wing howled in the night.
• Ode - is a dignified and elaborately structured lyric poem praising and · My alarm clock yells at me every morning.
glorifying an individual, commemorating an event, or describing nature intellectually rather than ·Her cheeks are red like a rose.
emotionally. · He is as funny as a monkey.
• Elegy - is a lyric poem, written in elegiac couplets, that expresses sorrow or lamentation, usually for · He is as busy as a bee.
one who has died. · The classroom was a zoo.
• Sonnet - is a short poem with fourteen lines, usually written in iambic pentameter. For example, the · The road ahead was a ribbon stretching across the desert.
word "remark" consists of two syllables. ... A foot is an iamb if it consists of one unstressed syllable · Laughter is the music of the soul.
followed by a stressed syllable, so the word remark is an iamb. Penta means five, so a line of iambic · Life is a roller coaster.
pentameter consists of five iambs - five sets of unstressed and stressed syllables. Techniques on Writing Poetry
• Song - is a lyric poem which is set to music. All songs have a strong beat created largely through the 1. Causality. A plot is not a random string of events. It has a logic based on cause and effect relationships
3R’s: rhythm, rhyme, and repetition. between things that happen in the story.
• Simple Lyric - is a short poem expressing the poet’s thought, feeling, or emotion. 2. Foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is a plot-related literary technique whereby an author shows or says
Elements of Poetry something in an early part of a story that hints at a later event. Psychologically, foreshadowing prepares us
1. Speaker – is the narrative voice of the poem. The persona/ voice of a poem can be the first person “I”, for what is to come in the story, particularly the ending.
second person “you”, the third person “he or she”, or the public person (large audience, like society). 3. Flashback. A flashback is an interruption in the chronological sequence of events in the plot. It narrates a
2. Subject – is the topic of the poem such as nature, love, death, and other life events. scene that occurred earlier.
3. Theme - It is defined as a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work that may be stated 4. Euphemism. Often in literature, whether for humor or just for taste, a writer wishes to describe some
directly or indirectly. graphic or offensive event using milder imagery or phrasing. When an author does this, it's called a
4. Tone - the attitude you feel in it - the writer's attitude toward the subject or audience. The tone can be euphemism.
formal or informal, serious or humorous, sad or happy. 5. Allusion. An allusion is when an author refers to the events or characters from another story in her own
5. Form - refers to a type of poem that follows a particular set of rules, whether it be the number of lines, story with the hopes that those events will add context or depth to the story she is trying to tell.
the length or number of stanzas, rhyme scheme, subject matter, or really whatever rule you can think of.
6. Sound - rhyme, rhythm, alliteration APPLYING VARIOUS ELEMENTS, TECHNIQUES AND LITERARY DEVICES IN POETRY
7. Rhythm - a literary device which demonstrates the long and short patterns through stressed and
unstressed syllables particularly in verse form. WRITING POETRY
8. Rhyme - a repetition of similar sounding words occurring at the end of lines in poems or songs. Tips on How To Write Poetry
9. Stanzas - a division of four or more lines having a fixed length, meter or rhyming scheme. Stanza
divides a poem in such a way that does not harm its balance but rather it adds to the beauty to the 1.Know your goal
symmetry of a poem. 2. Avoid clichés
10. Imagery – uses its 5 senses to point a picture on image in the reader’s mind. 3. Avoid Sentimentality
11. Diction – can be defined as style of speaking or writing determined by the choice of words by a 4. Use images. Poetry should stimulate six senses: Sight, Hearing, Smell, Touch, Taste, and Motion
speaker or a writer. 5. Use Metaphor and Simile
12. Meter- a stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse, or within the lines of a poem. Stressed 6. Use concrete words instead of abstract words
7. Communicate Theme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
8. Subvert the ordinary c) Spenserian sonnet: A variant that the poet Edmund Spenser developed from the Shakespearean
9. Rhyme with extreme caution sonnet. The Spenserian sonnet has the rhyme scheme ABAB BCBCCDCD EE.
10. Revise, revise, revise Meter: This is a kind of rhymed poem written in iambic pentameter. An iamb is a rhythmic unit that
11. Tricks with language includes an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. It has the rhythm bah-BAH, as in the words
12. Use personification "about," or "predict," or "parade." Iambic pentameter is a line of poetry consisting of five iambs.
13. Use the idea of “contrast”
14. Use symbolism
15. Ambiguity Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare
CONVENTIONAL, FREE VERSE AND EXPERIMENTAL POETRY (a) My Mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
1. CONVENTIONAL POETRY (b) Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
Conventional poetry is often called the “traditional poetry”. This follows certain format like the usage of (a) If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
meter, which is a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that forms a beat like in music. It (b) If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
often uses rhyme as well. (c) I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
Forms of Conventional Poetry (d) But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
1. Tanaga is an indigenous type of Filipino poem, which is used traditionally in the Tagalog language. (c) And in some perfumes is there more delight
This uses four (4) lines, each line having seven (7) syllables only. (d) There in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
Example: (e) I love to hear her speak; yet well I know
“Palay” (f) That music hath a far more pleasing sound
by Ildefonso Santos (e) I grant I never saw a goddess go;
Palay siyang matino, (f) My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground
Nang humangi’y yumuko; (g) Any yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
Ngunit muling tumayo (g) As any she belied with false compare.
Nagkabunga ng ginto.
Rhythmic Units Description
2.Diona is another indigenous type of Filipino poem. It is popular during the pre-Hispanic period. It has Iamb Consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable
been labeled by some Filipino literary enthusiast as the Pinoy Haiku. This poem is consisting of three (3) Trochee Consists of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable
lines with seven (7) syllables in each line that all rhyme with one another. It often expresses ways of life Dactyl Consists of a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables
and native culture. Like Tanaga, this poem follows a syllabic rhythmic pattern.
Anapest Consists of Two (2) unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable
Example:
Ang payong ko’y si inay Spondee Consists of two (2) successive syllables with strong stresses
Kapote ko si itay
Sa maulan kong buhay. 2. FREE VERSE POETRY
- Raymond Pambit Free verse is a literary device that can be defined as poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or
rhythm, and does not rhyme with fixed forms.
3.Haiku is a traditional Japanese fixed poetic form. One of the most famous practitioners of the haiku is 1.Narrative poem. The poet tells a story. Often, there is rising action, climax, and resolution, like a short
Matsou Basho. It is composed of three (3) non-rhyming lines. The first and third lines have five (5) story.
syllables each and the second line has seven (7) syllables. It often expresses feelings and thoughts about Example:
nature; however, you could write a poem about any subject that you would like to in this form. This is a "The Raven"
kind of unrhymed poem that doesn’t follow any specific rhythmic pattern. Edgar Allan Poe
Example: An excerpt from The Raven
The Old Pond Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
by Matsuo Basho Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
An old silent pond A frog jumps into the pond, Splash! Silence again. While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
4.Sonnet is a single-stanza lyric poem containing fourteen lines. In some formulations, the first eight (8) “’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
lines (octave) pose a question or dilemma that is resolved in the final six (6) lines (sestet). It often Only this and nothing more.”
expresses romantic love. There are three (3) predominant sonnet forms.
a) Italian or Petrarchan sonnet: Developed by the Italian poet Petrarch, this sonnet is divided 2.Anecdote. The poet describes some incident or experience or event that is humorous or interesting, and
into an octave with the rhyme scheme ABBAABBA or ABBACDDC and a sestet with the rhyme scheme ends the poem with some insight. Poets also use anecdotes to illustrate a truth.
CDECDE or CDCCDC. Example:
b) Shakespearean sonnet: Also called the English son net or Elizabethan sonnet, this poetic form, “Jack”
which Shakespeare made famous, contains three quatrains and a final couplet. The rhyme scheme is Maxine Kumin
 An excerpt from Jack You should have come to the cuckoo’s calling,
That spring, in the bustle of grooming and riding and shoeing, I remember I let him go to a neighbor I Or when grapes are green in the cluster,
thought was a friend, and the following Or, at least, when lithe swallows muster
fall she sold him down the river. I meant to but never did go looking for him, to buy him back… For their far off flying
From summer dying."
3.Meditative poem. The poet begins by describing a scene. This scene triggers a meditation in the mind
of the poet. The poet then returns to the initial scene with better understanding or resolution. The poet 3. EXPERIMENTAL TEXT POETRY
composes the poem using line break, simile, metaphor, and so forth. Experimentation is one aspect of all Modernist and Postmodernist poetry,
Example: but experimental poetry makes a special point of innovation. This type often breaks traditional writing rules.
Ecclesiastes Most of the forms of this poetry is commonly understood by the term, and has therefore to be judged on
King Solomon different grounds, most commonly those of the graphic arts, which it increasingly resembles. (Holcombe,
Ecclesiastes 4:4 “And I have seen how much effort and skillful work spring from rivalry between people; 2015)
this too is futility, a chasing after the wind.
Forms Of Experimental Text Poetry
4.Lyrical poem. A traditional form adopted by many modern/contemporary poets. The poet writes a
poem expressing personal thoughts and feelings about an idea, person, experience. The poet uses 1.Typography (Concrete Poetry). Typography has been used for thousands of years to elucidate and
imagery and description to create a mood. The poet also uses sound effects to make the poem sound expand upon the narrative of a literary text. Concrete poetry is one in which the typographical arrangement
lyrical, like music. These sound effects include alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, internal or end of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme and so on.
rhyme. It is sometimes referred to as VISUAL POETRY, a term that has now developed a distinct meaning of its own.
Example:
"Praise Song for the Day" 2.Prose Poetry. This is classified as genre-crossing or hybrid genre— a genre in fiction that blends themes
Elizabeth Alexander’s and elements from two or more different genres. Prose poetry is not written in verse and contains poetic
An excerpt from Praise Song for the Day attributes, such as rhythm and metaphors. It looks like prose which is written in paragraphs. It contains
"Say it plain: that many have died for this day. language play, such as repetition. In a prose poem, the writing is continuous and without line breaks.
Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, Example:
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, 'I discovered a journal' (Gary Young)
picked the cotton and the lettuce, built 'I discovered a journal in the children's ward, and read, I'm a mother, my little boy has cancer. Further on, a
brick by brick the glittering edifices…” girl has written, this is my nineteenth operation. She says, sometimes it's easier to write than to talk, and I'm
so afraid. She's offered me a page in the book. My son is sleeping in the room next door. This afternoon, I held
5.Confessional poem. A poem that is autobiographical. The poet writes about personal thoughts, my whole weight to his body while a doctor drove needles deep into his leg. My son screamed, Daddy, they're
feelings, and experiences. Instead of looking outward, observing the world, and then writing about it, the hurting me, don't let them hurt me, make them stop. I want to write, how brave you are, but I need a little
poet peers inward to the psyche, writes about the world in relation to themselves. The poet composes courage of my own, so I write, forgive me, I know I let them hurt you, please don't worry. If I have to, I can do
the poem using line break, simile, metaphor, and so forth. it again.'
Example:
“One Art” 3.Performance Poetry. Spoken word is a performance art that is word based. It is an oral art that focuses on
Elizabeth Bishop the aesthetics of word play and intonation and voice inflection. It covers poetry slams, poetry readings, and
An excerpt from One Art prose monologues.
—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture Example:
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident Mga Basang Unan
the art of losing’s not too hard to master Juan Miguel Severo
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster. Excerpt from Mga Basang Unan
“Noong iwan mo ako ng walang pasabi, o pangako ng pagbabalik, umiyak ako buong gabi. Umiyak ako nang
6. Elegy. A traditional form adopted by some modern/contemporary poets. A poem that laments the sobrang tindi; kinailangan kong ibilad sa araw ang unan ko kinabukasan. “
death of a loved one, such as a friend. The poet composes the poem using line break, simile, metaphor,
and so forth.

Example:
"A Dirge"
Christina Rossetti’s
An excerpt from A Dirge
"Why were you born when the snow was falling?