Poetic Devices

Poetry

➢Is considered to be the true voice of feeling

➢Poetry is usually written in lines and stanzas (instead of sentences and paragraphs)

➢There are many different kinds of poems.

Elements of a poem

Stanza

❑ A group of lines make up what is referred to as a stanza

❑ A stanza is named based on the number of lines:

- Tercet→3 lines

- Quatrain→ 4 lines

- Quintain→ five lines

- Sestet→ 6 lines

- Septet→ 7 lines

- Octave→ 8 lines

Rhyme Scheme

❑ Although poems do not have to rhyme, many poets choose to use this device in their poetry

→End rhyme

- the vowel sounds of the words at the ends of the lines rhyme.

- These rhymes may follow different patterns.

- For example: a four-line stanza with an ABAB rhyme scheme means the first and third lines rhyme and the second and fourth lines rhyme.

Rhyme Scheme

▪Rhyme scheme refers to the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line

▪Example: a four-line stanza with an ABAB rhyme schememeans the first and third lines rhyme and the second fourthlines rhyme

▪Many od Shakespeare’s sonnets follow this rhyme scheme.

Shakespearean Sonnets

- Many of Shakespeare’s sonnets follow this rhyme scheme.

- Letters like this form a stanza

Couplet

• This consists of two lines

• Those two lines will have the same rhyme

• You will refer to this as a rhyming couplet

Look at the example below:

These two lines are referred to

as a couplet

▪Below is an example of a Shakespearean sonnet ( Sonnet 130) that follows an ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme:

Alliteration

▪Words that begin with the same sound are placed closed together.

▪Alliteration is a repetition of letters

Enjambment

▪ This is the continuation of a sentence or phrase from one line of poetry to the next

▪You can spot this enjambment when you notice a lack of punctuation at the end of a line.

Look at the below example of enjambment

Anaphora

▪An anaphora is the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of each line.

Allusion

▪An allusion is a reference to a: person, thing, place or event

▪ Typically writers allude to something they suppose the audience will already know about

Look at the example below

Personification

▪Sometimes the sun smiles, the wind whispers to the trees, and the shadows of the leaves dance in the wind

▪Although literally, the sun cannot smile, the leaves cannotdance with legs, and the wind cannot whisper because it does not have a mouth

▪ Thus, personification is a kind of metaphor in which youdescribe an inanimate object, abstract thing, or non-human animal in human terms

Simile

▪A direct comparison between two dissimilar things; using words such as: ‘like’ or ‘as’ to state the comparison

Literal Meaning

▪Words used literally mean exactly what they say

▪ Example 1: I saw a bull in a field (means exactly that)

▪ Example 2:

Figurative Language

▪ Figurative language makes use of: metaphor, simile, euphemism and other figures of speech to create a vivid image(or to express an idea)

Imagery

▪ An important function of figurative language is to create vivid images in the reader’s mind, by evoking one or more of the five sense

Examples of imagery

Examples of Imagery