Poetic Devices

Allegory

A system of connected symbols, typically employing personification to give abstract qualities human shape, in which a text’s explicit story tells another, specific more global story.

Apostrophe

A direct address to an inanimate object, abstract qualities, or a person not present or living.

Allusion

A reference to some event, person, place, or artistic work, the relevance of which is usually not explained by the writer.

Hyperbole

Exaggeration for emphasis (the opposite of understatement).

Imagery

Language that evokes sense-impressions by reference to objects, scenes, actions, or experiences.

Simile

Comparison between two essentially unlike things using words such as “like,” “as,” or “as though.”

Metaphor

Comparison between essentially unlike things without using “like” or “as.”

Synecdoche

A part substituted for the whole (hands for manual laborers) or a comprehensive whole substituted for a part (the law for a police officer).

Metonymy

A closely related term substituted for an object or idea.

Oxymoron

A combination of two words that appear to contradict each other.

Paradox

A situation or phrase that appears to be contradictory but which illuminates a truth worth considering.

Personification

The endowment of inanimate objects or abstract concepts with animate or living qualities.

Symbolism

Using one thing to stand in for or represent something else beyond it—usually an idea conventionally associated with it.

Blank verse – Unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Meter – The rhythmic measure of a line or verse.

Assonance – The repetition of vowel sounds.

Free verse – Unmetrical verse: lines that are not measured or counted for the number of accents or syllables; lines that are free of meter.

Alliteration – The repetition of consonant sounds

Simile – A comparison that uses a linking word (such as like, as) to make the likeness clear. Similar to a metaphor, but a metaphor does not use linking words.