POETIC DEVICES
Poetic device    Definition               Example
Alliteration     Repetition of a letter   “Sudden successive flights of
                 in a group or words      bullets streak the silence”
         aaa     close together.
Poetic device    Definition               Example
Assonance        Repetition of a          “Keep your head down and
                 vowel sound.             stay in doors –
    aeiou                                 we’ve lost this war before it
                                          has begun.”
Poetic device    Definition               Example
Onomatopoeia     Using words to       “when miners roared past in
                 describe or imitate lorries”
                 sound.
Poetic device    Definition               Example
Repetition       The purposeful re-       “I hate that drum’s
                 use of words and         discordant sound,
                                          Parading round, and round,
                 phrases.
                                          and round”
Poetic device    Definition               Example
Rhyme            The use of words         “And will you succeed?
                 with matching            Yes! You will, indeed!
                 sounds. Can be in        (98 and ¾ percent
                                          guaranteed.)”
                 the middle or at
                 ends of lines.
Poetic device    Definition               Example
Rhythm           The pace or beat         “You’re on your own.
                 of the poem - can
                                          And you know what you
                 vary from line to        know.
                 line.                    And YOU are the guy who’ll
                                          decide where to go.”
Poetic device    Definition               Example
Imagery          Words that appeal         “Less deadly than the air
                 to the senses and        that shudders black with
                                          snow,”
                 help us picture
Miss Dillon
                  .
Poetic device     Definition            Example
Simile            A comparison          “The rain poured over the
                  between two           window like someone had
 ‘like’ ‘as’      unlike things using   turned on a garden hose”.
                  like or as.
Poetic device     Definition            Example
Metaphor          A comparison          “I couldn’t believe what was
                  saying something      happening to me as they
        ‘is’      is something else.    opened the cell. This is hell.”
Poetic device     Definition            Example
Personification   Giving human         “and the storm continued to
                  qualities or        scream  and bash down the
                                      doors”.
                  characteristics to
                  animals or objects.
Poetic device     Definition            Example
Emotive language Words and phrases      “mangled limbs, and dying
                  that cause an         groans,
                                        And widows’ tears, and
                  emotional
                                        orphans’ moans”
                  response in
                  the reader.
Poetic device     Definition            Example
Couplet           A pair of lines,      “Bread pudding is wet nelly
                  usually rhymed        And me stomach is me belly”
Poetic device     Definition            Example
Enjambment        A line ending in      “the danger of the mission
                  which the syntax,     still around them
                                        and night falling, its silver
                  rhythm and
                                        stars just like the ones
                  thought are           you got for remembering
                  continued into the    your Bible texts.”
                  next line.
Miss Dillon