Poetic Devices

1. Poetic Devices Holland 2013-2014

2. simile • A comparison that uses “like” or “as” • “He’s as busy as a bee.”

3. metaphor • A direct comparison • “Love is a battlefield.” – Pat Benatar

4. alliteration • Repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words placed near each other • “Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade, He bravely breach'd his boiling bloody breast…” - Shakespeare

5. assonance • Repeated vowel sounds in words placed near each other • "Strips of tinfoil winking like people“ – Sylvia Plath

6. consonance • Repeated consonant sounds at the ending of words placed near each other • He struck a streak of bad luck. 

7. onomatopoeia • Words that sound like their meanings • boom, buzz, crackle, gurgle, hiss, pop

8. rhyme • Words that have different beginning sounds but whose endings sound alike • “I speak of love that comes to mind, The moon is faithful, although blind. She moves in thought, she cannot speak; Perfect care has made her bleak.” -Allen Ginsberg

9. meter • The pattern of accented syllables in a line • “Not marble nor the gilded monuments Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme” -Shakespeare

10. allusion • A brief reference to some person, historical event, work of art, or Biblical or mythological situation or character. • “After all is said or done, who would you rather be: the Beatles or the Rolling Stones?” - “Gimme Sympathy”, Metric

11. hyperbole • An outrageous exaggeration used for effect • I ate a million pounds of cookies over Christmas break

12. oxymoron • A combination of two words that appear to contradict each other. • Passive-aggressive; noticeably absent

13. personification • Attributing human characteristics to an inanimate object, animal, or abstract idea. • The trees cried away their leaves

14. paradox • A statement in which a seeming contradiction may reveal an unexpected truth. • To feel alone in a crowd

15. symbol • An ordinary object, event, animal, or person to which we have attached extraordinary meaning and significance • Skull and crossbones = poison; • bald eagle = America

16. stanza • A division of a poem created by arranging the lines into a unit • … wait for it…

17. rhyme scheme • The pattern established by the arrangement of rhymes in a stanza or poem, generally described by using letters of the alphabet to denote the recurrence of rhyming lines • Shakespearean sonnets have a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

18. enjambment • The continuation of the logical sense — and therefore the grammatical construction —beyond the end of a line of poetry • “Or gazing on the new soft-fallen masqueOf snow upon the mountains and the moors—” -John Keats

19. imagery • The use of vivid language to generate ideas and/or evoke mental images, not only of the visual sense, but of sensation and emotion as well. • Sight: Smoke mysteriously puffed out from the clown’s ears. • Sound: Tom placed his ear tightly against the wall; he could hear a faint but distinct thump, thump, thump. • Touch: The burlap wall covering scraped against the little boy’s cheek. • Taste: A salty tear ran across onto her lips. • Smell: Cinnamon! That’s what wafted into his nostrils.

20. tone • The author’s approach to their subject matter • Can be excited, satirical, etc.

21. mood • The feeling of a text created by the author • Poe generally created a dark, somber, mysterious mood in his work