Terms In Poetry

Terms In Poetry
by ken hartanto, gabriel brian

There are some terms that we need to know inside poetry.  Those terms are listed below.

1. Figurative language: language that contains or uses figures of speech. Writing that has a meaning beyond the words written, it should be interpreted imaginatively, not literally.
2. Stanza: Stanza is an Italian word that means ‘room’, in poetry it  is a grouped set of lines within a poem.
3. Rhyme: Words that sounds alike, especially words that end in the same sound.
4. Imagery: refers to the image in our senses produced in the mind by descriptive language
5. Diction:  used for a writer’s choice of vocabulary
6. Syntax :  arrangement of words into a sentence so that each word can be related and appreciated

            

Life is just a game

Life’s a video game you can win or lose

You can play fair or you can break the rules

If it gets too hard you can end the game

Or you can make it work through all the pain

If you work hard you will be a success

If you don’t, you’ll be full of regrets.

You can learn strategies as you play

And improve your skills day by day

You can make excuses of how you’ve been cheated

Or you can keep on trying until you beat it.

So get inside the game that’s what it’s all about

Because once you get in, there’s no way getting out

Once you see from all your frame,

You’ll realize that life’s a video game.

When you wanna quit from all your pain,

Too bad there’s no button that says “new game”

Analysis (by Gabriel Brian) :

This poem is about someone describing life as a video game. Life can be made with rules or no rules. Life can be hard and sometimes you just want to end it, but if you keep trying and doing your best, you will succeed. In life, you learn from your mistakes and improve your skills from it. Sometimes in life, people may lie to you but you just need to face it. You need to find a place where you belong in life. When you see from another perspective, life is just a game. When you already did something in life, there’s no way going back. You can regret a lot of things in life but you also need to move on. There are many terms in poetry that are used in this poem. There are stanzas, rhymes, and also figurative languages. The whole poem has 4 stanzas.

There are many rhymes throughout the poem. This poem has end rhyme throughout the whole poem. This poem has couplets, because there is always an end rhyme at the end of each second line, for example, the word lose on the first line of the poem rhymes with the word rules on the second rhyme of the poem. Another example is that the word frame on the thirteenth line, the word frame rhymes with the word game on the fourteenth line. Another term of poetry that is used in this poem is figurative languages. The poem uses some metaphors and some repetition. On the last line of the poem, it says “Too bad there’s no button that says new game”, it means that when you already did something in life, you can’t go back and rewind everything. In the poem it uses repetition on the phrase “you can”. It is repeated eight times in the poem.  

Video Games

Eyes are open. Forward facing. Lights are on, but he’s not listening. Headset. Don’t fret. I love you he says. Glowing screens. Angry screams. Come to bed. Shh not yet. Back turned to us. Don’t interrupt. Why are we not enough? Days off. Curtains drawn. Where has seven hours gone? Eyes wet, blank stares. Do you know that I’m still here? Guns out. Baby sleeping.

Meanwhile my hearts still beating.

      

Analysis (by Ken Hartanto) :

This poem is about a girl that is in a relationship with a boy that is a gamer, means he like to play games alot. It shows that the girl just wanted to be prioritized and get attention from the boy. However, the boy just focuses on playing games and ignoring the girl. He said that he loves the girl, but the girl doubt that. He didn’t want to go to bed, he wants to play more and he doesn’t want to be interrupted. He plays until the day has changed and he open his curtains. He realized that he have played for 7 hours. His eyes looks tired and dead. However, the girl still waiting for the boy to finish and finally asks him to go to sleep. The girl still love him even though the boy care more about his games, meanwhile she’s still alive.

      In this poem, there are imagery, diction, and also syntax. There are a lot imagery throughout the poem. It shows or make us picture that he is playing video games in his room. For example, the first 3 sentences it says that he open his eyes and facing forward with lights on, which means that he is looking at his computer in his room playing video games, not listening people talking to him and in the fourth sentence it said that he is using headset which make sense of why he is not listening other people talking to him. In this poem the poet is using formal diction. Where each and every word can be used in formal situations such as presentations or etc. Some sentences are using simple syntax because the sentences follow a subject-verb format. However, “Do you know that I’m still here?” is a sentence that uses compound syntax because it has more than 1 subject or verb.