Poetic Devices Poetic devices Alliteration the repetition of

Poetic Devices

Poetic devices � Alliteration – the repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together › Ex: “But the sea, the sea in darkness calls. ” � Allusion – a reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or some other branch of culture. › Ex: T. S. Eliot drew on his knowledge of the Bible when he alluded to the raising of Lazarus from the dead in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. ” The title of Sandra Cisneros’s essay “Straw into Gold” is an allusion to the folk tale about Rumpelstiltskin.

Poetic devices � Ambiguity – a technique by which a writer deliberately suggests two or more different, and sometimes conflicting, meanings in a work. › Robert Frost’s poems tend to have multiple meanings. � Anapest – a metrical foot that has two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable. › Ex: coexist (~ ~ /) � Assonance – the repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds, especially in words close together. › Ex: The tide rises, the tide falls, / The twilight darkens, the curlew calls

Poetic devices � Atmosphere – the mood or feeling created in a piece of writing. › Ex: melancholy, peaceful, festive, menacing. � Ballad – a song or poem that tells a story. › The typical ballad tells a tragic story in the form of a monologue or dialogue. Ballads usually have a simple, steady rhythm, a simple rhyme pattern, and a refrain, all of which make them easy to memorize. � Blank verse – poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Used by Shakespeare, Milton, Robert Frost.

Poetic devices � Caesura – a pause or break within a line of poetry. Some pauses are indicated by punctuation; others are suggested by phrasing or meaning. In the lines below, the caesuras are marked by double vertical lines. These pauses are indicated by punctuation. › Ex: Announced by all the trumpets of the sky, / Arrives the snow, II and, II driving o’er the fields, / Seems nowhere to alight: II the whited air / Hides hills and woods. . . � Cliché – a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse. › Ex: green with envy, quiet as a mouse, pretty as a picture

Poetic devices � Conceit – an elaborate metaphor or other figure of speech that compares two things that are startlingly different › Emily Dickinson and T. S. Eliot are known for their conceits. � Consonance – the repetition of the same or similar final consonant sounds on accented syllables or in important words. › Ex: ticktock, singsong � Couplet – two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry. › If ever wife was happy in a man, / Compare with me, ye women, if you can.

Poetic devices � Dactyl – a metrical foot of three syllables in which the first syllable is stressed and the next two are unstressed. › Ex: “tendency” (/ ~ ~) is a dactyl Dramatic monologue – a poem in which a character speaks to one or more listeners whose responses are not known. The reactions of the listener must be inferred by the reader. From the speaker’s words the reader learns about the setting, the situation, the identity of the other characters, and the personality of the speaker. � Elegy – a poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died. Most elegies are written to mark a particular person’s death. �

Poetic devices End-stopped line – a line that is a grammatical unit and ends with punctuation � Enjambment – the running on from the end of one line of verse into the next, without a punctuated pause. �

Poetic devices Epic – a long narrative poem, written in heightened language, which recounts the deeds of a heroic character who embodies the values of a particular society. Epics include Beowulf, Paradise Lost, and some see Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass as an American epic in which the hero is the questing poet. � Epithet – a descriptive word or phrase that is frequently used to characterize a person or a thing. � › Ex: “the father of our country” for George Washington, “the Big Apple” for New York City, “patient Penelope, ” “wily Odysseus, ” and earthshaker” for Poesidon.

Poetic devices Foot – a metrical unit of poetry. A foot always contains at least one stressed syllable and usually one or more unstressed syllables. � Free verse –poetry that does not conform to regular meter or rhyme scheme. Poets who write in free verse uses the natural rhythms of spoken language. � Haiku – a short, unrhymed poem developed in Japan in the fifteenth century. A haiku consists of three unrhymed lines and a total of seventeen syllables. The first and third lines of a traditional haiku have five syllables each, and the middle line has seven syllables. Haiku often convey feelings through a descriptive snapshot of a natural object or scene. �

Poetic devices Heroic couplet – two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry in iambic pentameter. � Hyperbole – a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement for effect. � › Ex: I could eat a horse. � Iamb – a metrical foot in poetry that has an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in the word “protect. ” The iamb (~ /) is a common foot in poetry written in English.

Poetic devices � Iambic pentameter – a line of poetry that contains five iambic feet. The iambic pentameter line is most common in English and American poetry. Shakespeare and John Milton used iambic pentameter in their major works. So did such American poets as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Frost, and Wallace Stevens. › Ex: In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes � Idiom – an expression particular to a certain language that means something different from the literal definitions of its parts. › Ex: Falling in love, I lost my head.

Poetic devices � Imagery – the use of language to evoke a picture or concrete idea of a person, a thing, a place, or an experience. Although most images appeal to the sense of sight, they may appeal to the sense of taste, smell, hearing, and touch as well. › Ex: And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side / Of my darling – my life and my bride. . Internal rhyme – rhyme that occurs within a line of poetry or within consecutive lines. � Inversion – the reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase. Not the usual subject-verbcomplement. � › In silent night when rest I took

Poetic devices � Metaphor – a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as, than, or resembles. › Ex: Fame is a bee Meter – a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry. � Metonymy – a figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing is referred to by something closely associated with it. Referring to a king or queen as “the crown” is an example of metonymy, as is calling a car “wheels. ” �

Poetic devices � Mood – the overall emotion created by a work of literature. › Ex: bittersweet, playful, scary. Octave – an eight-line poem, or the first eight lines of a Petrarchan/Italian sonnet. In a Petrarchan/Italian sonnet the octave states the subject of the sonnet or poses a problem or question. � Ode – a lyric poem, usually long, on a serious subject and written in dignified language. �

Poetic devices � Onomatopoeia – the use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning. › Ex: buzz, snap – crackle – pop, sizzle, hiss � Oxymoron – a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. › Sweet sorrow, deafening silence, and living death. � Paradox – a statement that appears self-contradictory but reveals a kind of truth. › Ex: “Much Madness is divinest Sense” � Pastoral – a type of poem that depicts country life in idyllic, idealized terms. › Some might consider Robert Frost to be a pastoral poet.

Poetic devices � Personification – a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes. › Ex: In “Mirror” Sylvia Plath personifies a mirror by giving it human thoughts and characteristics. � Pun – a play on words based on the multiple meanings of a single word or on words that sound alike but mean different things. › Ex: a singer explaining her claim that she was locked out of an audition because she couldn’t find the right key. � Quatrain – a poem consisting of four lines, or four lines of a poem that can be considered as a unit.

Poetic devices � Refrain – a word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated, for effect, several times in a poem. › Ex: the word “Nevermore” in The Raven � Rhyme – the repetition of vowel sounds in accented syllables and all succeeding syllables. There is internal rhyme (rhyming words in the same line in a poem) and end rhyme (at the ends of lines). Also rhyme schemes. › Ex: listen/glisten, chime/sublimes

Poetic devices Rhythm – the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in language. Rhythm occurs naturally in all forms of spoken and written English. The most obvious kind of rhythm is produced by meter. � Scanning – the analysis of a poem to determine its meter. When you scan a poem, you describe the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in each line. � Sestet – six lines of poetry, especially the last six lines of a Petrarchan/Italian sonnet. In the Petrarchan/Italian sonnet the sestet offers a comment on the subject or problem presented in the first eight lines, or the octave, of the poem. �

Poetic devices Simile – a figure of speech that makes an explicit comparison between two unlike things, using a word such as like, as, than, or resembles. › Helen, thy beauty is to me / Like those Nicéan barks of yore. � Slant rhyme – a rhyming sound that is not exact. › Ex: follow/fellow, mystery/mastery � Soliloquy – a long speech made by a character in a play while no other characters are on stage. A soliloquy is different from a monologue in that the speaker appears to be thinking aloud, not addressing a listener. �

Poetic devices Sonnet – a fourteen-line poem, usually written in iambic pentameter, that has one of two basic structures. � The Petrarchan sonnet, also called the Italian sonnet, is named after 14 th century Italian poet Petrarch. Its first lines, called the octave, ask a question or pose a problem. These six lines have a rhyme scheme of abba, abba. The last six lines, called the sestet, respond to the question or problem. These lines have a rhyme scheme of cde, cde. � The English/Elizabethan/Shakespearean sonnet has three four-line units or quatrains, and it concludes with a couplet. The most common rhyme scheme for the Shakespearean sonnet is abab, cdce, efef, gg. �

Poetic devices Speaker – the voice that addresses the reader in a poem. › May be the poet or a persona, a character whose voice and concerns do not necessarily reflect those of the poet. � Spondee – a metrical foot consisting of two syllables, both of which are stressed. › Ex: “true blue” “nineteen” � Stanza – a group of consecutive lines that forms a structural unit in a poem. (Think of it as the “paragraph” of poetry). � Symbol – a person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something more than itself. › Ex: dove for peace �

Poetic devices � Synecdoche – a figure of speech in which a part represents the whole. › The capital city of a nation is often spoken of as though it were the government – Washington. � Synesthesia – the juxtaposition of one sensory image with another image that appeals to an unrelated sense. › Sound conveyed in terms of taste as in “sweet laughter” › “golden touch”

Poetic devices Tone – the attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience. Based on diction and style. Can be described in a single word: ironic, playful, solemn, critical, reverent, irreverent, philosophical, cynical, etc. � Tragedy – in general, a story in which a heroic character either dies or comes to some other unhappy end. � Trochee – a metrical foot made up of an accented syllable followed by an unaccented syllable, as in the word “taxi. ” � Villanelle – a nineteen-line poem consisting of five tercets (three-line stanzas) with the rhyme scheme abaa. �