Senior High School

Creative Writing
Module 2
Elements, Techniques, and Literary
Devices in Poetry

AIRs - LM

LU_CreativeWriting_Module2
CREATIVE WRITING
Module 2: Elements, Techniques, and Literary Devices in Poetry
Second Edition, 2021

Copyright © 2021
La Union Schools Division
Region I

All rights reserved. No part of this module may be reproduced in any form without written
permission from the copyright owners.

Development Team of the Module

\
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Language
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the Philippines S. Acosta
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 Senior High School

Creative Writing
Module 2
Elements, Techniques, and
Literary Devices in Poetry

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Introductory Message
This Self-Learning Module (SLM) is prepared so that you, our dear
learners, can continue your studies and learn while at home. Activities,
questions, directions, exercises, and discussions are carefully stated for you
to understand each lesson.

Each SLM is composed of different parts. Each part shall guide you
step-by-step as you discover and understand the lesson prepared for you.

Pre-tests are provided to measure your prior knowledge on lessons in

each SLM. This will tell you if you need to proceed on completing this module
or if you need to ask your facilitator or your teacher’s assistance for better
understanding of the lesson. At the end of each module, you need to answer
the post-test to self-check your learning. Answer keys are provided for each
activity and test. We trust that you will be honest in using these.

In addition to the material in the main text, Notes to the Teacher are
also provided to our facilitators and parents for strategies and reminders on
how they can best help you on your home-based learning.

Please use this module with care. Do not put unnecessary marks on
any part of this SLM. Use a separate sheet of paper in answering the exercises
and tests. And read the instructions carefully before performing each task.

If you have any questions in using this SLM or any difficulty in

answering the tasks in this module, do not hesitate to consult your teacher
or facilitator.

Thank you.

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 Target

It is a great way to think that after studying and working on all activities in
this lesson, you will be able to:

Identify the various elements, techniques, and literary devices in poetry

(HUMSS_CW/MP11/12c-f-6)

This learning material entitled Reading and Writing Poetry is intended to be used
by senior high school students to help them appreciate and understand the poem 's
thought and imagination, as well as through their interest in writing the poem's
rhythm and style, and in training the students' emotions, feelings and imagination.
The learning material aims to help the learners determine the various elements,
techniques and literary tools in poetry.

Note to the Teacher

This SLM is strategically designed for independent learning.
However, as the teacher or facilitator of learning, you are highly
encouraged to engage with your learners as they go along. Some
learners may find the activities difficult and would require you to
explain instructions and lesson contents for them to be able to
understand and successfully finish the module.
Your support in the success of teaching-learning is very
important.

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 Lesson Elements, Techniques,
and Literary Devices in
2 Poetry

Jumpstart

Activity 1: Pre-Test
Below are questions you have to answer. Each question represents a concept
or an idea which is about to be discussed in this lesson. Answer the pre-test in a
separate sheet of paper.
1. This is a type of literature that uses sounds, rhythm and meaning of words to
describe the world in striking and imaginative ways.
A. lines B. rhymes C. poetry D. imagery
2. The writer of the poem is called____________.
A. poet B. illustrator C. author D. smart person
3. Poems can be arranged in lines. Lines can be_______
A. a single word B. a sentence C. part of sentence D. all of the
above
4. Define a “rhyme”.
A. the repetition of a letter B. the omission of a sound
C. the repetition of an ending sound D. comparing two things with “like”
or “as”
5. Groups of lines are called ____________.
A. line groupings B. phrase C. sentences D. stanza
6. Free verse poetry does not have_____________.
A. stanzas B. plot or conflict C. rhyme D. serious topic
7. All are found in poetry except _____.
A. rhyme scheme B. rhythm C. stanza D. paragraphs
8. What is present when rhymes follow a particular pattern?
A. variations B. imagery C. rhyme scheme D. stanza break
9. Comparison of two unlike things which says one thing is another?
A. alliteration B. hyperbole C. metaphor D. simile
10. What figurative language is used in this sentence? The assignment was a
breeze.
A. alliteration B. metaphor C. personification D. simile

Activity 2. Choose your answer from the given choices. Answer this activity in a
separate sheet of paper.
1. This is one of the three main groups of poetry that tells a series of events
through poetic devices.
A. spoken words B. dramatic poetry
C. lyric poetry D. narrative poetry
2. This is a long unified narrative poem that shows heroic life of the protagonist.
A. Epic B. Fairy Tale C. Metrical Tale D. Metrical Romance

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3. It is a dignified and elaborately structured lyric poem praising and glorifying an
individual, commemorating an event, or describing nature intellectually rather
than emotionally.
A. elegy B. ode C. soliloquy D. sonnet
4. This is a literary device that is used when a character reveals his or her innermost
thoughts and feelings, those that are hidden throughout the course of the story
line, through a poem or a speech.
A. dramatic monologue B. narrative poetry
C. soliloquy D. speech choir
5. This is a lyric poem, written in melancholic couplets, that expresses sorrow or
lamentation, usually for one who has died.
A. elegy B. ode C. song D. sonnet

Discover

READING AND WRITING POETRY

Poetry is a literary work to express feelings and ideas with the use of
distinctive style and rhythm. In poetry, sound and meaning of words are combined
to express feelings, thoughts and ideas. The poet chooses words carefully. Poetry is
usually written in lines.

TYPES OF POETRY
1. Narrative – a poem that tells a story,and has the elements of a story.
Types of Narrative Poetry
• Epic - an epic is a long unified narrative poem, recounting in dignified
language the adventures of a warrior, a king or a god, the whole
embodying the religious and philosophical beliefs, the moral code,
customs, traditions, manners, attitudes, sciences, folklore and culture
of the people or country from which it came.
• Metrical Romance – it recounts the quest undertaken by a single knight
in order to gain a lady’s favor.
• Metrical Tale - is a simple, straightforward story in verse.
• Ballad - is a narrative poem which is meant to be sung, usually
composed in the ballad stanza.
2. Dramatic – a poem where the speaker is someone other than the poet themselves.
A Dramatic poem often includes characters and dialogue. A Dramatic Monologue
is often from a fictional character’s point of view.
Types of Dramatic Poetry
• Dramatic Monologue - is a literary device that is used when a character
reveals his or her innermost thoughts and feelings, those that are hidden
throughout the course of the story line, through a poem or a speech.
• Soliloquy - is the act of speaking while alone, especially when used as a
theatrical device that allows a character’s thoughts and ideas to be
conveyed to the audience.
3. Lyrical – a poem that expresses emotions, appeals to your senses, and often could
be set to music.
Types of Lyric Poetry
• Ode - is a dignified and elaborately structured lyric poem praising and

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 glorifying an individual, commemorating an event, or describing nature
intellectually rather than emotionally.
• Elegy - is a lyric poem, written in elegiac couplets, that expresses sorrow
or lamentation, usually for one who has died.
• Sonnet - is a short poem with fourteen lines, usually written in iambic
pentameter. For example, the word "remark" consists of two syllables. ... A
foot is an iamb if it consists of one unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed syllable, so the word remark is an iamb. Penta means five, so a
line of iambic pentameter consists of five iambs - five sets of unstressed
and stressed syllables.
• Song - is a lyric poem which is set to music. All songs have a strong beat
created largely through the 3R’s: rhythm, rhyme, and repetition.
• Simple Lyric - is a short poem expressing the poet’s thought, feeling, or
emotion.

Elements of Poetry

1. Speaker – is the narrative voice of the poem. The persona/ voice of a poem can
be the first person “I”, second person “you”, the third person “he or she”, or
the public person (large audience, like society).
2. Subject – is the topic of the poem such as nature, love, death, and other life
events.
3. Theme - It is defined as a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary
work that may be stated directly or indirectly.
4. Tone - the attitude you feel in it - the writer's attitude toward the subject or
audience. The tone can be formal or informal, serious or humorous, sad or
happy.
5. Form - refers to a type of poem that follows a particular set of rules, whether
it be the number of lines, the length or number of stanzas, rhyme scheme,
subject matter, or really whatever rule you can think of.
6. Sound - rhyme, rhythm, alliteration
7. Rhythm - a literary device which demonstrates the long and short patterns
through stressed and unstressed syllables particularly in verse form.
8. Rhyme - a repetition of similar sounding words occurring at the end of lines in
poems or songs.
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 symmetry of a poem.
✓ couplet (2 lines)
✓ tercet (3 lines)
✓ quatrain (4 lines)
✓ cinquain (5 lines)
✓ sestet (6 lines) (sometimes it's called a sixain)
✓ septet (7 lines)
✓ octave (8 lines)
10. Imagery – uses its 5 senses to point a picture on image in the reader’s mind.
11. Diction – can be defined as style of speaking or writing determined by the
choice of words by a speaker or a writer.
12. Meter- a stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse, or within the
lines of a poem. Stressed syllables tend to be longer, and unstressed shorter.
13. Symbolism– is the use of a specific object or an image to represent an
abstract idea. A symbol is a word or phrase that represents something other

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 than its literal meaning. Examples of symbolism include a rose to represent
love, a dove to represent peace, the owl symbolizes wisdom and the cross to
represent Christianity.

Poetic Devices
1. Alliteration- is derived from Latin’s “Latira”, which means “letters of alphabet”.
It is a stylistic device in 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)
3. Creative (words and phrases that have a pattern made with rhythm and
rhyme)
4. Descriptive and vivid (imagery where the reader/listener creates vivid mental
images
5. Free verse - poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm and
does not rhyme with fixed forms.
6. Uses figurative language (personification, similes, metaphors)
6.1 Personification where a non-human thing or idea is ascribed human
qualities or abilities
· Lightning danced across the sky.
· The wing howled in the night.
· My alarm clock yells at me every morning.
6.2 Simile work by saying something is similar to something else. Those that
make a comparison using ‘as’ or ‘like’.
·Her cheeks are red like a rose.
· He is as funny as a monkey.
· He is as busy as a bee.
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.
· The classroom was a zoo.
· The road ahead was a ribbon stretching across the desert.
· Laughter is the music of the soul.
· Life is a roller coaster.

Techniques on Writing Poetry

1. Causality. A plot is not a random string of events. It has a logic based on cause
and effect relationships between things that happen in the story.
2. Foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is a plot-related literary technique whereby an
author shows or says something in an early part of a story that hints at a later
event. Psychologically, foreshadowing prepares us for what is to come in the
story, particularly the ending.
3. Flashback. A flashback is an interruption in the chronological sequence of
events in the plot. It narrates a scene that occurred earlier.
4. Euphemism. Often in literature, whether for humor or just for taste, a writer
wishes to describe some graphic or offensive event using milder imagery or
phrasing. When an author does this, it's called a euphemism.
5. Allusion. An allusion is when an author refers to the events or characters from
another story in her own story with the hopes that those events will add
context or depth to the story she is trying to tell.

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 Explore

Activity 1. Provide at least 3 words that rhyme with the given word.
1. tail - __________ __________ __________
2. key - __________ __________ __________
3. string- __________ __________ __________
4. balloon- __________ __________ __________
5. chair - __________ __________ __________

Activity 2. Read the poem, One Rotation by Stephanie Mulrooney. After reading, look for
examples of figurative language in the poem and underline them. Write down 10
underlined examples in the table below.

Dawn
It dances across the sky
Illuminating the landscape with light, like a warming camp fire
A beacon of hope, filled with fresh possibilities
Welcoming the day.

Day
It stretches across the sky
Filling the landscape with life, like a blossoming flower
A jigsaw puzzle of nature, perfect in every way
Preceding the dusk.

Dusk
It creeps across the sky
Decorating the landscape with colour, like paint on a canvas
A brilliant kaleidoscope of purples, pinks and reds
Welcoming the night.

Night
It falls across the sky
Encasing the landscape in darkness, like a winter blanket
A blackened curtain, speckled with tiny jewels
Preceding the dawn.

Source: https://www.ereading worksheets.com/figurative-language-worksheets/poetic-devices-worksheet-01.pdf

Simile Metaphor Personification

like a warming camp fire a beacon of hope dances across the sky

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 Deepen

Activity 1. Write a Haiku about yourself and identify the literary devices you utilized.
The rubric below will serve as a scoring guide.

Rubric for Scoring the Haiku

Category 5 4 3 2

Content The poem has The poem has The purpose The poem
a clear a clear and theme of lacks a
purpose and purpose and the poem is purpose and
theme that is theme, but somewhat theme.
carried out may have one muddy or
throughout or two vague.
the work elements that
do not seem to
be related to it.
Mechanics: There are no There are 1-3 There are 4- There are more
Spelling, errors in errors in 5 errors in than 5 errors
Grammar and spelling, spelling, spelling, in spelling,
Punctuation grammar, or grammar, or grammar, or grammar, or
punctuation punctuation in punctuation punctuation in
in the final the final draft in the final the final draft
draft of the of the draft of the of the
product. product. product. product.
Imagery Sensory and The author The author Five or more
descriptive uses one or uses three or “filler” words
words are two “filler” four “filler” are used.
used words that words.
throughout in could have
order to been reworked
create images to create
in the reader’s images.
mind.
Requirements Poem follows Poem does not Poem does Poem does not
the syllabic follow the not follow follow the
requirements syllabic the syllabic syllabic
on all lines. requirements requirements requirements
on one of the on two of the on more than 2
lines. lines. of the lines.
Source: http://www.readwritethink.org

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 Gauge

Directions: Read each item carefully. Choose the CAPITAL LETTER of your
answer. Place your answers in a separate sheet of paper.

1. The recurrence of sounds, words, phrases or line in poetry is_____.

A. beat B. meter C. repetition D. rhythm
2. The structure of poetry is written in _____.
A. lines and stanzas B. lines and paragraphs
C. sentences and stanzas D. sentences and paragraphs
3. A poetry that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the writer or speaker,
songlike
quality or set to a beat.
A. ballad B. free verse C. lyric poem D. narrative
4. A poetry that has no regular rhythm, meter, rhyme or structure is _____.
A. free verse B. haiku C. ode D. prose
5. These are descriptions that appeal to the five senses.
A. imagery B. meter C. refrain D. variations
6. A group of words in which poetry is divided into is _____.
A. feet B. lines C. stanza break D. stanzas
7. A haiku poem has how many lines?
A. five B. one C. six D. three
8. Just like fiction has a narrator, poetry has a _____ –the voice of the poem.
A. author B. editor C. speaker D. subject
9. What figure of speech gives human qualities to a subject.
A. hyperbole B. metaphor C. personification D. simile
10. He is a walking dictionary. What figurative language is used in the sentence?
A. hyperbole B. metaphor C. personification D. simile
11. Which is the best definition of “rhyme”?
A. direct comparison of things B. the repetition of a letter
C. the repetition of an ending sound D. comparing two things using “like” or “as”
12. Poems that tell a story is called _____.
A. free verse B. humorous C. lyrical D. narrative
13. What element of poetry follows a particular set of rules?
A. form B. sound C. speaker D. tone
14. This covers topics of poems like nature, love, death and other life events.
A. form B. subject C. theme D. tone
15. Which of the following best symbolizes peace?
A. apple B. dove C. owl D. rose

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9
Jumpstart
Activity 1
1. C 6. B
2. A 7. D
3. D 8. C
4. C 9. C
5. D 10. B
Activity 2
1. D
2. A
3. B
4. A
5. C
6.
Explore
Activity 1
1. whale, snail, nail
2. bee, tree, pea
3. ring, king, swing
4. baboon, spoon, moon
5. pear, bear, square
Activity 2
Gauge
1. C 6. A 11. C
2. A 7. D 12. D
3. C 8. C 13. A
4. A 9. C 14. B
5. A 10. A 15. B
Answer Key
References

Elements of Poetry Workbook. (2018). Retrieved from http://45launchpad.

weebly.com/uploads/7/6/6/1/76611255/teachstarter-elements-of-poetry-
workbook.pdf

Examples of Theme in Literature. (2017). Retrieved from https://examples.

yourdictionary.com/ reference/examples/examples-of-theme-in-
literature.html

Literary Devices. (2020). Retrieved from http://literarydevices.net/rhythm/

Poetic Devices Worksheet 1. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.ereading

worksheets.com/figurative-language-worksheets/poetic-devices-worksheet-
01.pdf

Rubric for Judging the Haiku. Retrieved from http://www.readwritethink.org

Theme and Tone in Poetry. (2015). Retrieved from https://prezi.com/

mj3b3opl6iga/theme-and-tone-in-poetry/

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 For inquiries or feedback, please write or call:

Department of Education – SDO La Union

Curriculum Implementation Division
Learning Resource Management Section
Flores St. Catbangen, San Fernando City La Union 2500
Telephone: (072) 607 - 8127
Telefax: (072) 205 - 0046
Email Address:
[email protected]
[email protected]

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