POETIC TERMS & DEVICES

FORM

The arrangement of words and the way a poem looks on a page

Examples: haiku, ballad, blank verse, cinquain, limerick, and sonnet

LINE

The form in which poems are written The lines may or may not be complete

sentences.

STANZA

A group of lines within a poem A stanza is the equivalent of what a

paragraph would be in a work of prose.

SPEAKER

The speaker of a poem is the voice that relates the story or ideas of the poem.

The speaker may be the poet, speaking directly to the reader, or the speaker may be a character or voice created by the poet.

IDIOM

A descriptive expression that is not meant to be taken literally

Examples: It’s a piece of cake….Speak your mind…Getting cold feet

RHYTHM

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in each line

Stressed syllables ( ) are read with more emphasis, and unstressed syllables () are read with less emphasis.

Some poems have a regular, repeated arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables. This is called meter.

REPETITION

The repeating of sounds, words, phrases, or whole lines

This is a device poets use to emphasize an idea or create a certain feeling.

ALLITERATION

The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words

Ex: the “w” in the line : “And wait to watch the water clear, I may.”

ONOMATOPOEIA

The use of words whose sounds suggest their meanings, such as crack, boom, and bang

IMAGERY

Language that appeals to the reader’s five senses---sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch

Writer’s often use imagery to draw readers into a scene.

Ex. “ blistering sands”/ “feather clouds”

SIMILE

A comparison that uses the signal word like, as or than.

Example: Her eyes shone like stars.

METAPHOR

A metaphor is a direct comparison, with no signal words.

“Into the sea of death” is a metaphor that compares death to the sea.

PERSONIFICATION

When a poet describes an animal or objects as if it were human or had human qualities

Ex.: “The warm smile of the sun…”

SYMBOLISM

Symbolism occurs when an object has meaning in and of itself and is also used to represent an abstract idea.

Example: In Call of the Wild, the color red was symbolic of savagery.

RHYME SCHEME

The pattern of rhymes in a poem. A rhyme scheme can be described by using

letters to represent the rhyming sounds at the ends of lines.

Lines that rhyme are given the same letter. Example:

If I can stop one Heart from breaking a I shall not live in vain b If I can ease one Life the Aching a Or cool one Pain b

RHYME

Rhyme is the repetition of sounds at the end of words. Words rhyme when their accented vowels and all the letters that follow have identical sounds.

Example: dog, log End rhyme- the most common form of rhyme in

poetry, where the rhyming words occur at the end of lines.

Internal rhyme- rhyme that occurs within a line Slant rhyme- A.K.A. near rhyme or half-rhyme…

occurs when rhyming words have similar but not exact or identical rhyming sounds

COUPLET

A rhymed pair of lines in a poem. Example: The garbage reached across the

state/From New York to the Golden Gate

ASSONANCE

The repetition of vowel sounds Example: Annie Apple is an ant.

VERSE

Writing arranged with metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme

Poetry is written in verse.

SONNET

A sonnet is a poetic form. The word sonnet comes from the Italian word “sonetto” which means “little song”.

A sonnet contains 14 lines and can have several rhyme schemes.

The Shakespearean sonnet has 14 lines with 10 syllables each.

HYPERBOLE

The use of exaggeration or overstatement for emphasis

Example: I am so hungry, I could eat a horse.