Harlem Renaissance Poetry Literary Devices

anaphora

the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of each line

apostrophe

the speaker addresses a person who is not present or a personified object

caesura

a pause or break in a line to create emphasis

catalog

a list of various items, ideas, or qualities in a poem

free verse

doesn’t adhere to regular meter or rhyme scheme

inversion

the reversal of the normal order of words in a sentence to create emphasis

iamb

unstressed syllable, stressed syllable

trochee

stressed syllable, unstressed syllable

dactyl

stressed syllable, unstressed syllable, unstressed syllable

parallelism

the repetition of similar grammatical structures to create emphasis or rhythm

quatrain

a stanza with four lines

slant rhyme

a rhyme with similar but not identical sounds