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
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