Below is a table of various poetic devices and their meanings. Over the past year I’ve done articles on individual ones, but here are I am putting them all together in one post. These are just some of them.
| Poetic Devices | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Assonance | Rhyming of the same vowel sounds | Leaves blew in the breeze |
| Alliteration | The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. | Sweet singing doves |
| Metaphor | This is where an object in, or the subject of, a poem is described as being the same as another otherwise unrelated object. | The sand is a warm blanket |
| Simile | A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind. It’s used to make a description more vivid. | As fast as a cheetah. |
| Personification | Giving an inanimate object human characteristics. | The moon smiled back. |
| Imagery | Used in poetry, novels, or other writing that uses vivid description that appeals to the readers’ senses. This creates an image or idea in their head. | The leaves sounded like clapping hands. |
| Allusion | An expression intended to call something to mind without mentioning it specifically. It’s a hint towards something. | Chocolate is his kryptonite. Superman is alluded to but not mentioned. |
| Hyperbole | Exaggerated statements or not meant to be taken literally | I am so hungry I could eat a whole side of beef. |
| Allegory | A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, like a moral or political moral. | Animal Farm by George Orwell is an example of an allegory. |
| Consonance | The repetition of consonant sounds within a line of text. | The boss had a loss. Molly remained jolly. |
| Repetition | The act of repeating something that has already been said. Used to create effect. | Time after time. Over and over. |
| Enjambment | The continuation of a sentence or phrase from one line of poetry to the next. | Birds fly above a dew covered grassy meadow. |
| Meter | In poetry, meter is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse | iambic pentameter trochaic foot anapestic foot (More on these in another post) |
WRITE TIME AND AGAIN 