Untitled Flashcards Set

Poetic Devices & Terms Study Guide

1. Sound Devices: definitions & examples

• Alliteration –   Repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words placed near each other, usually on the same or adjacent lines.  

•  Example: fast and furious

• Assonance – Repeated vowel sounds in words placed near each other, usually on the same or adjacent lines. These should be in sounds that are accented, or stressed, rather than in vowel sounds that are unaccented. Also the repetition of accented vowel sounds in a series of words.

•        Example: He's a bruisin' loser

• Consonance – Repeated consonant sounds at the ending of words placed near each other,produces a pleasing kind of near-rhyme.

•        Example: "And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

•    The "d" sound is in consonance. The "s" sound is also in consonance.

• Onomatopoeia –  Words that sound like their meanings.   Example: boom, buzz, crackle, gurgle, hiss, pop, sizzle, snap, swoosh, whir, zip

• Rhyme Scheme –  The repetition of sounds in two or more words or phrases that appear close to each other in a poem.  Rhyme scheme: Is the pattern of end rhymes.

• Meter – Meter describes the rhythm (or pattern of beats) in a line of poetry. Meter is a combination of the number of beats and the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in each line.

2. Figurative Language: definitions & examples

• Simile – A direct comparison of two unlike things using "like" or "as."

• Example: he is as dumb as an ox. Her eyes are like comets

• Metaphor –  A direct comparison between two unlike things, stating that one is the other or does the action of the other. Time is money. The road was a ribbon of moonlight.

•        Wolfing your lunch. His ships were the hawks of the sea.

• Personification – Attributing human characteristics to an inanimate object, animal, or abstract idea       Example: The wind cried in the dark.

• Hyperbole – An outrageous exaggeration used for effect. Also a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration.

•        Example: He weighs a ton.

• Symbolism –  An ordinary object, event, animal, or person to which we have attached extraordinary meaning and significance - a flag to represent a country, a lion to represent courage, a wall to symbolize separation. Example: A small cross by the dangerous curve on the road reminded all of Johnny's death.

• Allegory – A representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning. Sometimes it can be a single word or phrase, such as the name of a character or place. Often, it is a symbolic narrative that has not only a literal meaning, but a larger one understood only after reading the entire story or poem.

3. Structural Elements: definitions & examples

• Stanza –  a group of lines in a poem that resemble a paragraph with or without a rhyme scheme ( couplet -2 quatrain- 4 octet- 8) 

• Sonnet – Expresses themes of beauty, nature, and love 

Petrachan: 2 stanzas ( first is octave, second is sestet) ,14 lines, has a rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA CDECDE 

Shakespearean: 4 stanzas ABAB CDCD EFEF GG pattern 

• Blank Verse – Same as free verse but it DOES have a meter with an iambic pattern, 10 syllables per line and switches between stressed syllables and unstressed in the line. 

• Free Verse –  There is no rhyme scheme, structure, meter, more complex with deeper meanings and flexibility

• Ballad – a poem that tells a story of love, tragedy, or adventure. Simple structure with short lines and small stanzas (ABCB) pattern 

• Elegy – a poem relating to the dead or passing of someone and is a poem mourning them; a way to reflect and honor someone and reflect on their life 

4. Additional Literary Devices: definitions & examples

• Apostrophe – addressing that person or thing by name. Also a form of personification in which the absent or dead are spoken to as if present and the inanimate, as if animate. These are all addressed directly. Common in odes and elegies.

•        Example: O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done...

• Paradox – A statement in which a seeming contradiction may reveal an unexpected truth.  Although the statement may appear illogical, impossible, or absurd, it turns out to have coherent meaning that reveals a hidden truth.

•        Example: The hurrier I go the behinder I get.

• Oxymoron –  A combination of two words that appear to contradict each other. Also a form of paradox that combines a pair of opposite terms into a single unusual expression.  Example: "sweet sorrow” or “cold fire”

• Pun – Word play in which words with totally different meanings have similar or identical sounds.

•        Example: Like a firefly in the rain, I'm delighted.

• Euphemism – An understatement, used to lessen the effect of a statement; substituting something innocuous for something that might be offensive or hurtful.

•        Example: She is at rest. (meaning, she's dead)

Tips for the Test

• Memorize key definitions for major poetic devices.

• Practice identifying devices in poetry excerpts.

• Understand how structure impacts meaning, especially in forms like sonnets or ballads.