Poetic Devices

Alliteration

Repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words placed near each other.

Assonance

Repeated vowel sounds in words placed near each other, usually accented.

Consonance

Repeated consonant sounds at the ending of words placed near each other.

Cacophony

A discordant series of harsh unpleasant sounds conveying disorder.

Euphony

A series of musically pleasant sounds conveying harmony and beauty.

Onomatopoeia

Words that sound like their meanings (e.g., boom, buzz).

Repetition

The purposeful re-use of words and phrases for effect.

Rhyme

Words with different beginning sounds but similar ending sounds.

Slant rhyme

Final consonant sounds are the same, but initial consonants and vowels differ.

Near rhyme

Final vowel sounds are the same, but final consonant sounds differ slightly.

Sight rhyme

Words spelled the same but pronounced differently (e.g., enough, cough).

Rhythm

Organization of speech rhythms into a regular pattern of accented syllables.

Meter

Organization of voice patterns, including stress arrangement and frequency.

Scansion

Conscious measure of the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry.

Allegory

A representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through symbolic narrative.

Allusion

A brief reference to a person, event, or work of art.

Ambiguity

A word or phrase that can mean more than one thing.

Analogy

A comparison between something unfamiliar and something familiar.

Apostrophe

Speaking directly to a real or imagined listener or inanimate object.

Cliché

An overused figure of speech that has become outdated.

Connotation

The emotional or social overtones of a word beyond its literal meaning.

Contrast

Closely arranged things with strikingly different characteristics.

Denotation

The dictionary definition of a word; its literal meaning.

Euphemism

An understatement used to lessen the effect of a statement.

Hyperbole

An outrageous exaggeration used for effect.

Irony

A contradictory statement or situation revealing a different reality.

Metaphor

A direct comparison between two unlike things, stating one is the other.

Metonymy

Referring to a person or thing by something closely associated with it.

Oxymoron

A combination of two contradictory words (e.g., bittersweet).

Paradox

A statement that reveals an unexpected truth despite seeming contradictory.

Personification

Attributing human characteristics to inanimate objects or ideas.

Pun

Word play using similar sounds for different meanings.

Simile

A direct comparison using "like" or "as."

Symbol

An ordinary object or event with extraordinary meaning.

Synecdoche

Indicating a whole by referring to a part of it.

Point of view

The vantage point of the speaker or narrator in a work.

3rd person limited

The speaker tells about characters through one person's perceptions.

3rd person omniscient

The speaker knows and describes what all characters are thinking.

Line

A unit of poetry that does not necessarily correspond to sentences.

Verse

A single line of poetry or a piece of poetry.

Stanza

A division of a poem created by arranging lines into a unit.

Rhyme scheme

The pattern of rhymes in a stanza or poem denoted by letters.

Enjambment

Continuation of a sentence beyond the end of a line of poetry.

Lyric

A form of poetry expressing personal emotions, often meant to be sung.

Ode

A complex stanzaic form praising a person or object with rich expression.

Pantoum

A poem with alternating rhymes and repeated lines in a specific structure.

Rondeau

A fixed form of light verse with a specific rhyme scheme and refrain.

Sestina

A fixed form with six stanzas where end words recur in a rotating order.

Sonnet

A fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter with a prescribed rhyme scheme.

Shakespearean Sonnet

A sonnet with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg.

Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet

A sonnet with a rhyme scheme of abbabba cdecde.

Spenserian Sonnet

A sonnet with interlocked rhyme scheme abab bcbc cdcd ee.

Sonnet Sequence

A series of sonnets with a unifying theme.

Triolet

An eight-line poem with repeated lines and a specific rhyme scheme.

Synesthesia

An attempt to fuse different senses by describing one kind of sense impression in words normally used to describe another.

Tone, Mood

Poet reveals attitudes and feelings, in the style of language or expression of thought used to develop the subject. Certain tones include not only irony and satire, but may be loving, condescending, bitter, pitying, fanciful, solemn, and a host of other emotions and attitudes. (refers to the overall mood of the poem itself) (reference to pitch or to the demeanor of a speaker as interpreted through inflections of the voice; conveyed through the use of connotation, diction, figures of speech, rhythm and other elements of poetic construction.