BASIC POETIC DEVICES (2)

Compiled by Tina Rizk

Table of Content

Poetry quotes................................................................................................ 2

Allegory ….................................................................................................... 3

Allusion......................................................................................................... 6

Free Verse…………………………………………………….………………….. 8

Cacophony.................................................................................................... 11

Conceit.......................................................................................................... 13

End-Stopped lines ........................................................................................ 15

Enjambement................................................................................................ 17

Idiom............................................................................................................. 19

Imagery ……................................................................................................. 22

Onomatopoeia.............................................................................................. 24

Repetition...................................................................................................... 26

Rhyme........................................................................................................... 28

Symbolism.................................................................................................... 32

Zeugma......................................................................................................... 34
 Poetry Quotes

It was at that age, that poetry came in search of me.

Pablo Neruda

Poetry and beauty are always making peace. When you read something beautiful you
find coexistence; it breaks walls down.
Mahmoud Darwish

Poetry comes from the highest happiness or the deepest sorrow.

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.

Robert Frost

Poetry is eternal graffiti written in the heart of everyone.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

When I began to listen to poetry, it’s when I began to listen to the stones, and I began
to listen to what the clouds had to say, and I began to listen to other. And I think, most
importantly for all of us, then you begin to learn to listen to the soul, the soul of
yourself in here, which is also the soul of everyone else.
Joy Harjo

There’s a reason poets often say, ‘Poetry saved my life,’ for often the blank page is
the only one listening to the soul’s suffering, the only one registering the story
completely, the only one receiving all softly and without condemnation.
Clarissa Pinkola Estes

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 Allegory
Definition

An allegory has a "surface story" and “hidden story” underneath.

For example, the surface story might be about two neighbours throwing rocks at each
other's homes, but the hidden story would be about war between countries.

Use

● Writers tend to teach moral lessons or critique society in their works which can
be hard to do without getting heavy-handed or preachy. Allegory is the ideal
solution to this dilemma.

● Allegory allows creators to talk about something without directly talking about it
or to add layers and hidden messages to their work.

Example 1

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

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I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference

The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost

The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost emphasises how uncertainty in life can lead to
regret or disappointment in the future. After analysing this poem; there is no road less
travelled. However, “The Road Not Taken” displays choice, equality, and sorrow.

Example 2

A Fox one day spied a beautiful bunch of ripe grapes hanging from a vine trained
along the branches of a tree. The grapes seemed ready to burst with juice, and the
Fox's mouth watered as he gazed longingly at them.

The bunch hung from a high branch, and the Fox had to jump for it. The first time he
jumped he missed it by a long way. So he walked off a short distance and took a
running leap at it, only to fall short once more. Again and again he tried, but in vain.

Now he sat down and looked at the grapes in disgust.

"What a fool I am," he said. "Here I am wearing myself out to get a bunch of sour
grapes that are not worth gaping for."

And off he walked very, very scornfully.

There are many who pretend to despise and belittle that which is beyond their reach.

The Fox & the Grapes - Aesop

The allegorical meaning of this story is that people may pretend the things they
cannot have as not worth having.

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Example 3

“And remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter. No argument must lead
you astray. Never listen when they tell you that Man and the animals have a common
interest, that the prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the others. It is all lies. Man
serves the interests of no creature except himself.”

Animal Farm
George Orwell

Orwell’s Animal Farm is a classic example of political allegory. The story follows a
farm full of tired, overworked animals as they rebel against their farmer to create a
utopian community. Yet in the end, the idealism they sought to promote failed just as
their tyrannical leader did.

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 Allusion
Definition

An allusion in a poem refers to a person, a place, a historical event, or an ancient

source such as the Bible, mythology, ancient poets etc.

The allusion often creates a metaphor which intensifies and vivifies the poet's
message by hinting, indicating, illustrating, or suggesting deeper meaning to the
reader.

Use

● Makes the writing more descriptive and interesting.

● Evokes a mental picture, creates an image, and sets the poem in a larger
context or setting.

Example 1

Narcissus so himself himself forsook

And died to kiss his shadow in the brook.

Venus and Adonis

William Shakespeare

Narcissus is used as an allusion, taken from the classical mythology where a

handsome man falls in love with his own body and keeps looking at himself in the
water.

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Example 2

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Robert Frost

In his poem, Frost makes an allusion to the “fall of man” and exile from Paradise by
referring to Eden and how it “sank to grief.” This allusion helps to connect the human
experience to the poet’s lament about the cycle of life and death, beginning and
ending, in nature. The allusion to Eden also provides an interesting context to the
poem, in that the reader can infer that the fall of man

Example 3

All overgrown by cunning moss,

All interspersed with weed,
The little cage of "Currer Bell"
In quiet "Haworth" laid.

All Overgrown by Cunning Moss

Emily Dickinson

In this poem, Emily Dickinson makes an allusion to Currer Bell, which was the pen
name for English author Charlotte Brontë, who is most famous for her novel Jane
Eyre. Dickinson also alludes to the English village of Haworth, where Brontë died and
was later buried.

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 Free Verse
Definition

Free verse is a literary device that can be defined as poetry that is free from the
limitations of a regular meter, rhythm or specific rhyme scheme.

In this way, poets can give their own shape to a poem as they wish.

Nevertheless, free verse still allows poets to use alliteration, rhyme, cadences,
rhythms and other poetic devices. Most poets writing today write in free verse.

What is the difference between blank verse and free verse?

Despite their similar names, free verse poems and blank verse poems are very
different:

● Free verse poetry has been popular from the nineteenth century onward and is
not bound by rules regarding rhyme or meter.

● Blank verse poetry came of age in the sixteenth century and has been famously
employed by the likes of William Shakespeare, John Milton, William
Wordsworth, and countless others. Unlike free verse, it adheres to a strong
metrical pattern.

● Blank verse is poetry written with a precise meter—almost always iambic

pentameter—but that does not rhyme.

● While Shakespearean sonnets exemplify iambic pentameter, they are not

examples of blank verse. Why? Because Shakespearean sonnets rhyme and
blank verse does not. However, Shakespeare himself wrote extensively in blank
verse.

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Use

● Free verse is attractive to poets simply because it lacks the restrictions and
constraints imposed on poetry by meter and rhyme.
● Free verse still involves all the elements that make up the form of a poem,
including diction, syntax, lineation, stanza, rhythm, and the many different types
of rhyme. It's just that there aren't any rules governing how they must be used.

Example 1

I now delight
In spite
Of the might
And the right
Of classic tradition,
In writing
And reciting
Straight ahead,
Without let or omission,

In any little time

That runs in my head;
Because, I’ve said,
My rhymes no longer shall stand arrayed
Like Prussian soldiers on parade
That march,
Stiff as starch,
Foot to foot,
Boot to boot,
Blade to blade

Free Verse
Robert Grave

Famous free verse wordsmith Robert Graves uses sporadic rhyme within this work;
however, there is no specific rhyme scheme.

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Example 2

I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,

Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,
Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,
Stuff’d with the stuff that is coarse and stuff’d with the stuff that is fine,
One of the Nation of many nations, the smallest the same and the largest the
same,
A Southerner soon as a Northerner, a planter nonchalant and hospitable down by
the
Oconee I live.

Song of Myself
BY Walt Whitman

Whitman was an American poet who was often called the "Father of Free Verse",
because he was known to have little to no form or meter or rhyme. He began as an
original, conventional poet. However, he evolved into a much more sophisticated poet
of unique style that reflected flowing formlessness.

Example 3

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in

my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear

no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want

no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you…

i carry your heart with me

e.e. cummings

Free verse poetry came naturally to e.e. cummings, who enjoyed breaking both poetic
and writing conventions in all-lowercased poems such as "i carry your heart with me"

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 Cacophony
Definition

The word “cacophony” comes from the Greek meaning “bad sound.”

It is used to describe the musicality of language, or in this case, how interrupting the
natural flow of writing with hard, sharp words can change how the reader perceives a
piece of writing.

It is the opposite of euphony, which is concerned with creating harmonious sounds in

literature.

Use

● Just as a beautiful or melodious sound can draw the reader to a passage or

poem, the jarring sounds of cacophony can also serve a purpose.

● Readers are looking for harmony in sounds and writing, and when they hear the
opposite, they pay attention.

● In many cases, this is to illustrate something shocking, ugly, horrifying, or

otherwise unpleasant.

Example 1

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

The Jabberwocky
Lewis Carroll

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In his poem Lewis Carroll describes a monster and an imaginary world. To do this, he
employs cacophony. This famous poem, full of nonsense words, is a classic example
of this literary device.

Example 2

But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,

Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore—
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking “Nevermore.

In The Raven
Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allen Poe uses cacophony to increase the feeling of tension and anxiety in the
poem. The harsh sounds also call to mind the call of a raven. You can see this in
action in this excerpt.

Example 3

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!

Jabberwocky
Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll’s excerpt is a wonderful example of cacophony. The poem is filled with
Carroll’s nonsense words like “Bandersnatch” and “Jabberwock.

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 Conceit
Definition

Conceit is a figure of speech in which two vastly different objects are likened together
with the help of similes or metaphors.

Conceits usually demand your attention because the comparison seems so

farfetched. For example, "A broken heart is like a damaged clock."

The difference between a broken heart and a damaged clock is unconventional, but
once you think about it, you can see the connection. Both a broken clock and a broken
heart seem to stop, but both can be mended with time.

Use

● Because conceit makes unusual and unlikely comparisons between two things,
it allows readers to look at them in a new way.

● Conceit surprises and shocks readers by making farfetched comparisons.

● It helps develop interest in readers.

Example 1

Thou counterfeit’st a bark, a sea, a wind;

For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is,
Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, thy sighs;
Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them,
Without a sudden calm, will overset
Thy tempest-tossed body.

Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare

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Shakespeare compares Juliet to a boat in a storm. The comparison is an extended
metaphor in which he compares her eyes to a sea, her tears to a storm, her sighs to
the stormy winds, and her body to a boat in a storm.

Example 2
Her goodly eyes like sapphires shining bright,
Her forehead ivory white
Her cheeks like apples which the sun hath rudded,
Her lips like cherries charming men to bite

Epithalamion
Edmund Spenser

In "Epithalamion," it is easy to see how the conceit was used to discuss features of his
love. Not only were her eyes compared to sapphires but her skin to ivory, her cheeks
to apples and her lips to cherries.

Example 3
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

T.S. Eliot

In his opening line, Eliot uses the conceit to create a shocking image of night sky
compared to a person strapped to a table and waiting for surgery. It is a very stark
and bold contrast. The conceit becomes even more bold when you compare it to the
title, since it is supposed to be a love song.

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 End-Stopped lines
Definition

End-stop refers to a pause at the end of a poetic line. An end-stop can be marked by
a period (full stop), comma, semicolon, or other punctuation denoting the end of a
complete phrase or cause, or it can simply be the logical end of a complete thought.

Use

● To give it more weight

● To add a feeling of finality or certainty to the language

● End-stopped lines make poetry more coherent and accessible, and helps
readers ponder on the sentences. Hence, the reader is able to explore deeper
meanings and sense in lines where end-stop is given.

Example 1

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

Sonnet 18
William Shakespeare

This excerpt is a perfect example of an end-stopped line. All of these lines carry a
pause at the end. There is a pause in both meter and sense; therefore, this device
gives a complete poetic effect.

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Example 2

Fame is a bee.
It has a song—
It has a sting—
Ah, too, it has a wing.

Fame is a bee
Emily Dickinson

The poet’s use of punctuation is a bit unusual (she uses dashes to replace many
different types of punctuation), so her poems make for an interesting example
of end-stopped lines.

Example 3

Bright Star, would I were as stedfast as thou art —

Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,

Bright Star
John Keats

This excerpt is a good example of an end-stopped line. Each line ends with a
punctuation mark, followed by a pause, which gives a sense of a separate unit. These
pauses give rhythm and tempo to the poem.

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 Enjambment
Definition

An enjambment is the continuation of a sentence beyond a line break, couplet, or

stanza without an expected pause.

Enjambment allows for flow and energy to enter a poem, mirror the poem’s mood or
subject. It’s the opposite of an end-stopped line.

Use

● Enjambment allows lines to move more quickly as the eye hops to the next line
to follow the thought or meaning of the poem.

● Choosing to end-stop or enjamb your poem can help better communicate its
overall mood and theme.

Example 1

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

The Waste Land

T.S. Eliot

With Eliot’s use of enjambment, the action words are deliberately placed at the end of
each line. This emphasises the verbs in the poem and underscores the upheaval and
reproduction experienced by nature in April.

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Example 2

How can I keep my soul in me, so that

it doesn’t touch your soul? How can I raise
it high enough, past you, to other things?
I would like to shelter it, among remote
lost objects, in some dark and silent place
that doesn’t resonate when your depths resound.
Yet everything that touches us, me and you,
takes us together like a violin’s bow,
which draws one voice out of two separate strings.
Upon what instrument are we two spanned?
And what musician holds us in his hand?
Oh sweetest song.

Love Song
Rainer Maria Rilke

The pattern is as follows: lines 1 and 2 are enjambed with the third end-stopped. The
same pattern occurs with lines 3-5. In the following lines, though, end-stopping
becomes normal and takes over the poem from line 5 to 11, the poem ending with a
short statement: “Oh sweetest song.” Enjambment at the beginning of the poem
provides it with a dreamy, thoughtful sound. As the poet becomes more confident in
speaking of his love and their connection, end-stopping provides the poem with a
stronger rhythm.

Example 3

We were dancing—it must have

been a foxtrot or a waltz,
something romantic but
requiring restraint,

American Smooth
Rita Dove

This excerpt uses enjambment between “have” and “been” and “but” and “requiring”
whereas “waltz” ends with a comma as an end-stopped line.

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 Idiom
Definition

An idiom is a saying or expression that is widely used among speakers of a certain

language and whose figurative meaning is different from its literal meaning.

William Shakespeare was a master of using the English language in new ways, and
many of the idioms we use today come from his plays. Here's a sampling of them:

Wear my heart upon my sleeve - This saying was first used in Othello. Today, people
use this phrase to mean that they are showing their real feelings about something.

Set my teeth on edge - In Henry IV. Today the phrase is used to express distaste for
something, particularly annoyance, and discomfort.

Dead as a doornail - In Henry IV, The phrase is still used emphatically, implying that
something is so dead, it's as if it were never alive in the first place.

The world is my oyster - In The Merry Wives Of Windsor. Today the phrase is full of
optimism and is used to say the world is full of possibilities and you can do anything.

Use

Great literature has always been filled with idioms to describe characters and settings
in vivid, memorable terms.

Whether the authors were the first to coin a phrase or were simply making the best
use of the language they heard around them, idioms add sparkle and wit to the works
in which they are employed.

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Example 1

If it be so, sir, that you are the man

Must stead us all, and me amongst the rest,
And if you break the ice and do this feat,
Achieve the elder, set the younger free
For our access, whose hap shall be to have her
Will not so graceless be to be ingrate.

The Taming of the Shrew

William Shakespeare

‘Break the ice’ as an idiom made its first appearance in Shakespeare’s The Taming of
the Shrew (Act 1, Scene 2). Shakespeare used it as a term for a social gesture when
Tranio, in talking about the problem of wooing the ice cold Katherine.
Being Shakespeare, though, and never letting us off with a single meaning, he is also
talking about cracking the ice cold demeanour of the feisty Katherine.

Example 2

PRINCE OF MOROCCO:
All that glitters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold:
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.

The Merchant of Venice

William Shakespeare

This example of idiom comes from William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice;
suitors from around the world have come to try for Portia’s heart. The princes must
solve a riddle of choosing the correct casket of three. The Prince of Morocco chooses
the golden casket, and inside he finds the message beginning “All that glitters is not
gold.” This idiom means that not everything superficially attractive is valuable.

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Example 3

I am glad ’tis night, you do not look on me,

For I am much ashamed of my exchange:
But love is blind and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit.

The Merchant of Venice

William Shakespeare

“Love is blind” is a direct idiom, one that clearly refers to the way that love blinds the
lover to certain truths. It is used to refer to the fact that men and women often lose
sight of reality or the true nature of their beloved when they’re consumed by love.

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 Imagery
Definition

In poetry, imagery is a vivid and vibrant form of description that appeals to readers’
senses and imagination. Despite the word’s connotation, “imagery” is not focused
solely on visual representations or mental images—it refers to the full spectrum of
sensory experiences, including internal emotions and physical sensations.

Imagery allows the reader to clearly see, touch, taste, smell, and hear what is
happening—and in some cases even empathise with the poet or their subject.

Use
.
● The use of imagery captivates the readers' attention in an effective way.

● Help poets get their messages across in a strong, vivid and very visual.
language.

Example 1
O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night,
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear

Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare

Romeo, comparing the beauty of Juliet, says that she looks more radiant than brightly
lit torches in the hall. Further, he says that her face glows like a precious bright jewel
against the dark skin of an African in the night. Here he uses the contrasting images
of light and dark to portray her beauty. The imagery also involves the use of figurative
language; he uses the simile to enhance the imagery.

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Example 2

They silently inhale

the clover-scented gale,
And the vapors that arise
From the well-watered and smoking soil

Rain In summer
H.W.LongFellow

In the lines below, the poet has used olfactory imagery (sense of smell). The phrases
‘clover- scented’ breeze and ‘well-watered and smoking soil’ paint a clear picture in
the reader’s mind about the smells after rainfall.

Example 3

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

William Wordsworth

In this poem, Wordsworth makes use of visual imagery.

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 Onomatopoeia
Definition

Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles,

or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word is also called an onomatopoeia.
Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as oink, meow (or miaow), roar,
and chirp.

Use

● Creates a heightened experience for the reader.

● Provides a sensory effect and vivid imagery in terms of sight and sound.

Example 1

Hark, hark!
Bow-wow.
The watch-dogs bark!
Bow-wow.
Hark, hark! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, ‘cock-a-diddle-dow!

The Tempest
William Shakespeare

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Example 2

Oh, the bells, bells, bells!

What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows;
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling,
And the wrangling.

The Bells
Edgar Allan Poe

Example 3
He saw nothing and heard nothing but he could feel his heart pounding and then he
heard the clack on stone and the leaping, dropping clicks of a small rock falling.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway

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 Repetition
Definition

Repetition is a technique to repeat the same words or the same phrases or

full-sentence several times. When using repetition, a poet should be aware that what
he/she is repeating is important to the subject of the poem. Otherwise, it can sound
overdone.

Use

To emphasise an idea, feeling, or thought which the poet wants to express more
deeply.

Example 1

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

All the world's a stage

William Shakespeare

Shakespeare described old age as a second childishness, the stage of oblivion in

which a man sinks into nothingness. The repetition of the word ‘sans’ means that a
person remains without teeth, without eyes, without taste and without everything.

Example 2

The best kind of people are warm and kind

They are always there and they never mind
The best kind of people smile and embrace,
They support you with strength and grace.

Best Kind
Alex

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Example 3

The woods are lovely dark and deep

But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Stopping by the woods in the snowy evening

Robert Frost

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 Rhyme
Definition

Rhyming is the repetition of syllables, typically at the end of a line, we organise those
end rhymes into patterns or schemes, called rhyme schemes.

Rhyme is principally a function of sound rather than spelling.

For example these words rhyme together, though their spelling differs:

day, prey, weigh, bouquet

vain, rein, lane

What is a Rhyme Scheme?

● A rhyme scheme is the pattern of sounds that repeats at the end of a line or
stanza.

● Rhyme schemes can change line by line, stanza by stanza, or can continue
throughout a poem.

● Poems with rhyme schemes are generally written in formal verse, which has a
strict meter: a repeating pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

● Rhyme scheme patterns are encoded by letters of the alphabet. Lines

designated with the same letter rhyme with each other.

● For example, the rhyme scheme ABAB means that the first and third lines of a
stanza rhyme with each other; the same applies to the second and fourth lines.

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Use

● Establish structure while creating a pleasant or even beautiful symmetry among

a poem’s verses.

● Poetry treats language as an art form. Those who know how to execute a
well-crafted rhyme are all the more likely to see their work endure for
generations

Example 1

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed, A

The dear repose for limbs with travel tired; B
But then begins a journey in my head, A
To work my mind, when body’s work’s expired: B

For then my thoughts, from far where I abide, C

Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee, D
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide, C
Looking on darkness which the blind do see: D

Save that my soul’s imaginary sight E

Presents thy shadow to my sightless view, F
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night, E
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new. F

Lo! Thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind, G

For thee and for myself no quiet find. G

Sonnet 14
William Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s sonnet follows the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, written in
the iambic pentameter. This rhyme scheme and verse structure are unique to a
Shakespearean sonnet.

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Example 2

Did you want to see me broken? A

Bowed head and lowered eyes? B
Shoulders falling down like teardrops, C
Weakened by my soulful cries? B

Does my haughtiness offend you? A

Don’t you take it awful hard B
’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines C
Diggin’ in my own backyard. B

You may shoot me with your words, A

You may cut me with your eyes, B
You may kill me with your hatefulness, C
But still, like air, I’ll rise. B

Does my sexiness upset you? A

Does it come as a surprise B
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds C
At the meeting of my thighs? B

Still I Rise
Maya Angelou

In these stanzas, Angelou demonstrates the power of artistic language for the reader
by utilising almost consistent perfect rhymes as a literary device with the ABCB
rhyme scheme.

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Example 3

Lyrics of popular songs are populated by rhymes, like the lyrics to Justin Timberlake’s
2002 hit “Cry Me A River”.

You told me you love me

Why did you leave me all alone
Now you tell me you need me
When you call me on the phone
Girl, I refuse
You must have me confused
With some other guy
The bridges were burned
Now it's your turn, to cry

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 Symbolism
Definition

Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas or meanings. They are imbued
with certain qualities often only interpretable through context.

The difference between symbolism and allegory is that allegory is a narrative, as the
moral lesson is in the form of an allegorical story. Symbolism is a literary device that
presents one particular item, like a dove, to represent something else (peace). In
other words, an allegory is a whole story, poem, or book.

Use

● Gives writers the opportunity to communicate big ideas efficiently and artfully.
● Helps readers visualise complex concepts and central themes.
● Adds emotional weight to a text.

Example 1

My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold

William Wordsworth

In William Wordsworth's poem, we see sparks of hope. When he sees a rainbow in

the sky, it's not merely a beautiful sight to behold. It also symbolises his childish
wonder.

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Example 2

O my Luve is like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune

A Red, Red Rose

Robert Burns

In poetry, roses are commonly a symbol of love and romance. The red rose
symbolises love, while the melody symbolises the beauty and grace of his lover.

Example 3

The passing spring

Birds mourn,
Fishes weep
With tearful eyes.

Where the spring passing

Matsuo Basho

Haiku is a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and
five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world. Haiku poems are full of
symbolism. Explore this famous haiku by Matsuo Basho, where the spring passing
symbolises the passing of life.

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 Zeugma
Definition

Zeugma is when you use a word in a sentence once, while conveying two different
meanings at the same time. Sometimes, the word is literal in one part of the sentence,
but figurative in another. At other times, it’s just two completely separate meanings for
the word.

Ex: The farmers in the valley grew potatoes, peanuts, and bored.

The word “grew” is being used in two different senses: literally, the farmers grew
potatoes and peanuts, but figuratively they also grew bored.

Use

● Produces a unique artistic effect, making the literary works more interesting and
effective.

● Serves to adorn expressions, to add emphasis to ideas in impressive style.

● Keeps the reader's attention, surprises them, or even creates a humorous turn
of phrase.

● Makes writing more creative and interesting depending on how a writer

arranges the wording in a particular sentence.

Example 1

Yet time and her aunt moved slowly — and her patience and her ideas were nearly
worn out before the tete-a-tete was over.

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen

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Example 2

She lost her shawl and confidence.

Tangible volatilized illusion

Elly Wouterse

Example 3

She lowered her standards by raising her glass,

Her courage, her eyes and his hopes.

Have Some Madeira, M’Dear

Flanders and Swann

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