Poetic Devices
There are many ways of creating effects in poetry. This is part of a poet’s style of writing. A poet plays with words to create images or particular sounds.
ALLITERATION - When two or more words, close together, begin with the same letter or sound and affect the ear with an echoing sound. This can create a musical effect and can lend emphasis to what is being said.
E.g.: To the tick of two clocks (Heaney)
Dapple-dawn-drawn falcon (Hopkins)
ASSONANCE - When vowel sounds (i.e. a,e,i,o,u,(y)) are repeated in a sequence of sounds close to each other. This can create atmosphere / mood.
E.g.: Low sounds by the shore (Yeats)
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone (Auden)
HYPERBOLE - Deliberate used of exaggeration for poetic effect and emphasis.
E.g.: Ten thousand saw I at a glance (Wordsworth)
IMAGE - A mental picture illustrated through words.
E.g.: The Black Lace Fan my Mother Gave me (Boland)
METAPHOR - This is an implied comparison between two things.
E.g.: He was my North, my South, my East and West / My working week and my Sunday rest (Auden)
ONOMATOPOEIA - This is when the sound of the word suggests the sound of the action being described.
E.g.: Buzz, squeal, click, howl, drip, cuckoo, bash, etc.
PERSONIFICATION - When human features or qualities are projected on to inanimate objects.
E.g.: How the sick leaves reel down in throngs! (Hardy)
RHYME - the repetition of similar sounds in two or more words, most often in the final syllables of lines in poems.
E.g.: I knew a simple soldier boy / Who grinned at life in empty joy / Slept soundly through the lonesome dark / And whistled early with the lark. (Sassoon)
SIBILANCE – Alliteration using an ‘s’ or ‘sh’ sound producing a hissing effect.
E.g.: He sipped with his straight mouth / Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body / Silently.
(Lawrence)
SIMILE – A direct comparison between two things using the words ‘like’,‘as’, or ‘than’.
E.g.: The evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherised upon a table (Eliot)
SYMBOL – an object that represents, stands for, or suggests an idea, visual image, belief or action.
E.g. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood […] And I, I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference (Frost)
There are many ways of creating effects in poetry. This is part of a poet’s style of writing. A poet plays with words to create images or particular sounds.
ALLITERATION - When two or more words, close together, begin with the same letter or sound and affect the ear with an echoing sound. This can create a musical effect and can lend emphasis to what is being said.
E.g.: To the tick of two clocks (Heaney)
Dapple-dawn-drawn falcon (Hopkins)
ASSONANCE - When vowel sounds (i.e. a,e,i,o,u,(y)) are repeated in a sequence of sounds close to each other. This can create atmosphere / mood.
E.g.: Low sounds by the shore (Yeats)
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone (Auden)
HYPERBOLE - Deliberate used of exaggeration for poetic effect and emphasis.
E.g.: Ten thousand saw I at a glance (Wordsworth)
IMAGE - A mental picture illustrated through words.
E.g.: The Black Lace Fan my Mother Gave me (Boland)
METAPHOR - This is an implied comparison between two things.
E.g.: He was my North, my South, my East and West / My working week and my Sunday rest (Auden)
ONOMATOPOEIA - This is when the sound of the word suggests the sound of the action being described.
E.g.: Buzz, squeal, click, howl, drip, cuckoo, bash, etc.
PERSONIFICATION - When human features or qualities are projected on to inanimate objects.
E.g.: How the sick leaves reel down in throngs! (Hardy)
RHYME - the repetition of similar sounds in two or more words, most often in the final syllables of lines in poems.
E.g.: I knew a simple soldier boy / Who grinned at life in empty joy / Slept soundly through the lonesome dark / And whistled early with the lark. (Sassoon)
SIBILANCE – Alliteration using an ‘s’ or ‘sh’ sound producing a hissing effect.
E.g.: He sipped with his straight mouth / Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body / Silently.
(Lawrence)
SIMILE – A direct comparison between two things using the words ‘like’,‘as’, or ‘than’.
E.g.: The evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherised upon a table (Eliot)
SYMBOL – an object that represents, stands for, or suggests an idea, visual image, belief or action.
E.g. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood […] And I, I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference (Frost)