Poetic devices

Assonance

Repetition of identical vowel sounds in order to achieve a particular effect. Long vowel sounds can slow down a line, making it sound sad and weary:

"A four foot box, a foot every year"

Blank Verse

Poetry written in non-rhyming, ten syllable lines.

Caesura

A stop or a pause in a line of poetry – usually caused by punctuation.

Elegy

A slow, thoughtful peom written for a passed person

Enjambment

A running over of the sense and grammatical structure from one line to another, or between stanzas. The enjambed line has no punctuation at the end:

“Small round hard stones click

 under my heels”

Epigraph

A quotation from another text, included in a poem

Free Verse

Poetry written with lines of irregular verse and often without rhyme

Metaphor

An image where one thing is said to be something else. Like the simile, it is based on a point of similarity, but this image identifies them completely:

“Stick is the whip”

Anadiplosis

The word or phrase is used at the end of a line and then used again at the beginning of the next line

Aphorism

A short phrase that expresses an important truth about life

Aporia

An expression of real or pretended doubt or uncertainty especially for rhetorical effect. Or a logical contradiction

"I can resist anything but temptation,"

Assonance

A figure of speech in which the same vowel sound repeats within a group of words.

“The bright city lights during the night is a delightful sight.”

Cacophony

A combination of words that sound harsh or unpleasant together, usually because they pack a lot of percussive or "explosive" consonants (like T, P, or K) into relatively little space.

Catharsis

The process of releasing strong or pent-up emotions through art.

Chiasmus

In which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order

"She has all my love; my heart belongs to her,”

Colloquialism

The use of informal words or phrases in writing or speech.

Euphony

Euphony is the combining of words that sound pleasant together or are easy to pronounce, usually because they contain lots of consonants with soft or muffled sounds (like L, M, N, and R)

Oxymoron

An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two contradictory terms or ideas are intentionally paired in order to make a point—particularly to reveal a deeper or hidden truth.

“Parting is such sweet sorrow.”