Poetic Devices/Terms

Language Arts

alliteration

• The repetition of the initial consonant sounds.• Example:• "Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-

dazzling!” by Walt Whitman• "Give me the splendid silent sun"

allusion

• Reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work or work of art

• Example:• “Don’t act like a Romeo in front of her.”• – “Romeo” is a reference to Shakespeare’s Romeo, a

passionate lover of Juliet, in “Romeo and Juliet”.

assonance

• Internal rhyming of the vowel sounds, listed close together in a poem

• Example:• on a proud round cloud in white high night

• — E. E. Cummings, if a cheerfulest Elephantangelchild should sit

blank verse

• Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter• Example:• Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

• (Mending Walls by Robert Frost)• This poem has no proper rhyme scheme. • However, there is consistent meter in 10 syllables of each line. It

is following iambic pentameter pattern with five feet in each line. • All the stressed syllables are marked in bold.

consonance

• The repetition of consonant sounds listed close together in a poem.

• Example:• The ship has sailed to the far off shores.• She ate seven sandwiches on a sunny Sunday last year.• Sally sells sea shells by the seashore.

couplet

• A pair of rhyming lines, usually of the same length or meter• Example: Shakespeare' Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

epic hero

• Larger than life central character in an epic.• Examples:• Bible - Abraham• Lord of the Rings – Frodo•  The Hunger Games - Katniss Everdeen 

epic poetry

• A long narrative poem about the deeds of gods or heroes.• Example:• The Odyssey by Homer• Ancient Greek (mythology)

extended metaphor

• An elaborate comparison created without using "like" or "as," continuing through multiple lines

• Example: The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost (life is a journey)I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.

figurative language

• Writing or speech not meant to be interpreted literally• Example:• Her head was spinning from all the new information.• I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.• I’ve told you a million times to clean your room!

free verse

• Poetry not written in a regular pattern of meter or rhyme

haiku

• a three-line verse poem• Example:• Old Pond

old pond a frog leaps inwater’s sound

Iambic pentameter

• a foot with one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in the word "again."

imagery

• the descriptive or figurative language used to create word pictures for the reader (taste, smell, sight, sound and touch)He fumed and charged like an angry bull.He fell down like an old tree falling down in a storm.He felt like the flowers were waving him a hello.

implied metaphor

• A subtle, suggested comparison without using "like" or "as“

• Example:An example of an implied metaphor

a woman barked at her childan ice cream snowfall 

line

• A line in the stanza of a poem• Example:

A sentence of a poem

lyric poetry

• a highly musical verse that expresses the thoughts, observations and feelings of a single speaker

metaphor

• A comparison NOT using "like" or "as“• Example:• Shakespeare “a sea of troubles” “All the world's a stage” • An example of a metaphor is calling the dependable father a

rock.

meter

• The rhythmical pattern of a poem

mood

• The feeling or atmosphere of a poem•  If you have dark words in a poem such as the horrid,

terrible, cold, wet night, then you would assume that the poem is based on sad and or depressing moods.

narrative poetry

• a poem that tells a story

quatrain

• a stanza or poem made up of four lines, usually with a definite rhythm and rhyme scheme

• Example:Hope is the Thing with Feathers, by Emily Dickinson

"Hope" is the thing with feathersThat perches in the soulAnd sings the tune without the wordsAnd never stops at all,

rhyme

• Repetition of sounds at the ends of words• Example: Shakespeare “Sonnet 65”• Since brass nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, A• But sad mortality o’er-sways the power, B• How his rage shall beauty hold a plea, A• Whose action is no stronger than a flower? B

rhythm

• The pattern of beats, or stresses, in spoken or written language• Example:

Because I Could Not Stop For Death by Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for Death,He kindly stopped for me;The carriage held but just ourselvesAnd Immortality.

simile

• Figure of speech in which "like" or "as" is used to make a comparison between two basically unlike ideas.

• Example:• a heart as big as a whale • her tears flowed like wine

sonnet

• a fourteen line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter• Example:Sonnet 18, by William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate.Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date.Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

speaker

• The voice of the poem• Example:

Annabel Lee, By Edgar Allan PoeIt was many and many a year ago,In a kingdom by the sea,That a maiden there lived whom you may knowBy the name of ANNABEL LEE;And this maiden she lived with no other thoughtThan to love and be loved by me.

stanza

• A repeated grouping of two or more lines in a poem that often share a pattern of rhythm or rhyme.

• Example: This short poem by Emily Dickinson has two stanzas of four lines each.I had no time to hate, becauseThe grave would hinder me,And life was not so ample ItCould finish enmity.

Nor had I time to love; but sinceSome industry must be,The little toil of love, I thought,Was large enough for me.

tone

• The writer's attitude concerning his or her subject.• Example:• Robert Frost “The Roads Not taken”• “I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.”

Frost tells us about his past with a “sigh” the gives the above lines an unhappy tone. This tone convinces us into thinking that Frost is telling us sullenly of a choice in the past about which he was not happy or contented in the present.