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📝 Poetry Techniques

Te Reo Whakairoiro — The Decorated Language

✨ Words With Power

Poetry uses language in special ways — condensing meaning, creating images, and stirring emotions. Learning poetry techniques helps you both understand poems and write your own. Poetry exists in every culture, including rich traditions in Te Ao Māori.

🔊 Sound Techniques

Rhyme

Words with matching end sounds.

"The cat sat on the mat"

Alliteration

Repeated consonant sounds at the start of words.

"Peter Piper picked a peck"

Assonance

Repeated vowel sounds within words.

"The rain in Spain falls mainly"

Onomatopoeia

Words that sound like what they mean.

"Splash, crash, buzz, whisper"

🎨 Imagery Techniques

Simile

Comparison using "like" or "as".

"Eyes like stars" / "Brave as a lion"

Metaphor

Saying something IS something else.

"The world is a stage"

Personification

Giving human qualities to non-human things.

"The wind whispered secrets"

Symbolism

Objects representing bigger ideas.

"A dove = peace"

📜 Poetry Forms

Haiku

3 lines: 5-7-5 syllables. Often about nature.

Sonnet

14 lines, strict rhyme scheme. Often about love.

Free Verse

No fixed rules — rhythm comes from meaning.

Acrostic

First letters of each line spell a word.

Limerick

5 lines, AABBA rhyme, often funny.

Waiata

Māori song-poems. Story, chant, emotion.

📖 Example Analysis

Haiku

An old silent pond...
A frog jumps into the pond—
Splash! Silence again.

— Matsuo Bashō

Techniques Used:

  • Onomatopoeia — "Splash!"
  • Contrast — silence/splash/silence
  • Imagery — we can picture the scene
  • Form — 5-7-5 syllables

✏️ Activities

Activity: Write a Haiku

Write your own haiku about nature:

  • Line 1: 5 syllables
  • Line 2: 7 syllables
  • Line 3: 5 syllables

My haiku:

Activity: Find the Technique

Identify the technique used:

  1. "The moon smiled down on us" → __________
  2. "She sells seashells by the seashore" → __________
  3. "Life is a journey" → __________

👩‍🏫 Teacher Notes

Curriculum Links

  • English: Language features, creative writing
  • Te Ao Māori: Waiata, oral tradition
  • Arts: Performance, expression