Alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds at the ...



Poetic Device Glossary with Examples

|Alliteration - The repetition of consonant sounds at the |"Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." |

|beginning of words. | |

|Allusion - Where a poem makes reference to another poem or |“Christy didn't like to spend money. She was no Scrooge, but she seldom |

|text. |purchased anything except the bare necessities" |

|Apostrophe - An address to a person absent or dead or to an |“What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the |

|abstract entity |sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full |

| |moon.” |

| |A Supermarket in California |

| |Allen Ginsberg |

|Assonance - The repetition of vowel sounds in the words of |'Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies |

|the poem. | |

|Cacophony – The use of harsh or meaningless mixture of |We want no parlay with you and your grisly gang who work your wicked will. |

|sounds. Harsh joining of sounds. |W. Churchill |

|Diction - Poet's distinctive choices in vocabulary. |"My mother’s countenance |

| |Could not unfrown itself." |

| |My Papa’s Waltz |

| |Theodore Roethke |

|Hyperbole – An expression of exaggeration. |"I nearly died laughing." |

|Idioms – Expressions that have a meaning apart from the |"It's raining cats and dogs." |

|meanings of the individual words. | |

|Imagery - Mental pictures created by the words of the poem. |“a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water” |

|Metaphor – A figure of speech that compares two unlike things|"Her hair is silk." |

|directly, without the use of like or as. | |

|Meter - The measured arrangement of words in poems. |[pic] |

|Onomatopoeia - Using words which imitate the sound they refer|"Boom. Gurgle. Plunk, Buzzzzz." |

|to. | |

|Oxymoron - A seeming contradiction in two words put together.|Freezer Burn |

|Personification - Endowing animals, objects or ideas with |"The tropical storm slept for two days." |

|human traits or abilities (the trees laughed at us). |“The trees laughed at us” |

|Point of View: First person - The writer is in the poem and |“I came upon two paths…” |

|tells it from his/her perspective. | |

|Point of View: Third person - The writer tells the poem from |“He came upon two paths...” |

|an objective perspective. | |

|Point of View: Third person omniscient - The writer isn't in |“John didn't want to choose, and Mary hated both paths...” |

|the poem, but knows and describes what all characters are | |

|thinking. | |

|Puns - Words with a humorous double meaning, a "play on |"A dog not only has a fur coat but also pants." |

|words." | |

|Repetition - Repeating of words, phrases, lines, sounds, or |“Because I do not hope to turn again |

|stanzas. |Because I do not hope |

| |Because I do not hope to turn....” |

|Rhyming Couplet - A pair of lines which end-rhyme expressing |My English teacher wants me to use imagination |

|one clear thought |So I go to math class and let my mind go on vacation! |

|Rhythm - Internal 'feel' of beat and metre perceived when |How doth the little crocodile |

|poetry is read aloud |Improve his shining tail, |

| |And pour the waters of the Nile |

| |On every golden scale! |

| |How cheerfully he seems to grin, |

| |How neatly spreads his claws, |

| |And welcomes little fishes in |

| |With gently smiling jaws! |

| |Alice's Adventures in Wonderland |

| |Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) |

|Rhyme - Identical or similar ending sounds between two words |“I enjoyed the shade in the hidden glade. And spread out the picnic that I had |

|or lines. |made.” |

|Tone (mood) - Feelings or meanings conveyed in the poem. |Stark naked flower stalks |

| |Stand shivering in the wind. |

| |The cheerless sun hides its black light |

| |Behind bleak, angry clouds, |

| |While trees vainly try |

| |To catch their escaping leaves. |

| |Carpets of grass turn brown, |

| |Blending morosely with the dreary day. |

| |Winter seems the death of life forever. |

| |Winter Garden |

|Rhyme pattern - The way the rhymes occur in a poem (First and|Who will go drive with Fergus now, a |

|third lines of each stanza, for example). |And pierce the deep wood's woven shade, b |

| |And dance upon the level shore? c |

| |Young man, lift up your russet brow, a |

| |And lift your tender eyelids, maid, b |

| |And brood on hopes and fear no more. c |

|Simile - A comparison of objects using "like", "as", or |"His feet were as big as boats." |

|"than" or similar words. | |

|Stanza - One of the divisions of a poem; a grouping of two or|[pic] |

|more lines. |The Tyger |

| |William Blake |

|Symbolism - Sing an object to represent an idea. A symbol |Lions often symbolize royalty. |

|means what it is and also something more. | |

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