Poetic Devices and Rhyme

Allegory

a story in which the characters, settings, and events stand for abstract or moral concepts

Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds

Allusion

reference to a statement, person, place, event, or thing that is known from literature, history, religion, mythology, politics, sports, science, or popular culture

Apostrophe

a figure of speech in which the speaker directly addresses an absent or dead person, an abstract quality, or something nonhuman as if it were present and capable of responding

Assonance

the repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds in words that are close together

Conceit

a fanciful and elaborate figure of speech that makes a surprising connection between two seemingly dissimilar things

Consonance

The repetition of consonant sounds. This repetition is not limited to initial consonant sounds.

Dissonance (cacophony)

a harsh, discordant combination of sounds. It is usually created by the repetition of harsh consonant sounds.

Epigram

short, condensed, polished, pointed phrases often ending in surprising or witty turns of thought

Euphemism

A pleasant way of stating an unpleasant truth (usually to be avoided). The euphemism is vague and less direct, especially when used in reference to death, irreligious references to God, and discreet references to body parts and functions.

Irony

A contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality - between what is said and what is really meant, between what is expected and what really happens, or between what appears to be true and what is really true

Antithesis

a contrasting of ideas made sharp by the use of words of opposite meaning in contiguous clauses or phrases (next to one another) with grammatically parallel structure

Hyperbole

a great exaggeration

Oxymoron

a paradoxical utterance that combines two terms that in ordinary usage are contraries, especially frequent in Petrarchan and Elizabethan love poetry (1590s). Also found in devotional prose or religious poetry as a way of expressing the Christian mysteries

Paradox

a statement which seems untrue but proves valid upon close inspection

Understatement

deliberately representing something as less important than it really is

Metaphor

a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two seemingly unlike things without using the connective words

Dead metaphor (to be avoided)

common usage makes you forget that the two items being compared are really separate items.

Extended metaphor

this type of metaphor is developed over several lines of writing or even throughout an entire poem

Implied metaphor (implicit metaphor)

doesn't use a linking verb, so one term of the comparison is implied.

Kenning

In Anglo-Saxon poetry, a metaphorical phrase or compound word used to name a person, place, thing, or event indirectly.

Mixed metaphor (to be avoided)

combines two or more diverse metaphors that do not fit together logically.

Metonymy

a closely associated idea used for the idea itself. The major effect is to communicate through abstract, intangible terms the concrete and tangible

Onomatopoeia

the use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning

Personification

gives life to inanimate objects or makes animals human

Pun

a play on the multiple meanings of a word, or two different words that sound alike but have different meanings

Synecdoche

a figure of speech in which a part of a thing stands for the whole

Simile

an expressed comparison between two distinctly different things, especially using like or as

Synaesthesia

the deliberate mixing of the senses

Rhyme

Repetition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following them in words that are close together in a poem.

Approximate Rhyme (half rhymes, slant rhymes, or imperfect rhymes)

words sound similar but do not rhyme exactly. A slant rhyme calls attention calls attention to itself in a way that may occasionally help the poet say something meaningful

End rhyme (the most common form of rhyme)

occurs at the ends of lines

Internal rhyme

occurs within lines

masculine rhyme

A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable

Rhythm

the alteration of stressed and unstressed syllables in language. In speech, it is the natural rise and fall of the language

meter

a generally regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry

verse

metrical language. All verse is not poetry; all poetry is not verse

Blank verse

poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

free verse

poetry that has no regular meter or rhyme scheme

Foot

the basic metrical unit which consists of one accented syllable plus one or two unaccented syllables