Poetic Devices

  1. Simile

  • A comparison between two unlike things using the words “like” or “as

  • Used to write about abstract concepts with the adoption of concrete images

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  1. Metaphor:

  • Used to describe an object, person, situation, or action in a way that helps a reader understand the message 

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  1. Irony:

  • Occurs when an outcome is different than expected. 

  • Situational irony: When an expected outcome is overturned

  • Cosmic irony: A subset of situational irony that highlights incongruities between the absolute, theoretical world and the mundane, grounded reality of everyday life

  • Dramatic irony: When the reader/ audience knows something the main character does not

  • Verbal irony: When a characters words are contradictory to their intent - words don’t match thoughts

  • Irony is used to create humor, suspense, and emphasis on a certain point. By highlighting the incongruence of a situation or action, irony draws attention to a plot point, character trait, or thematic argument. 

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  1. Synecdoche

  • Microcosm: a smaller part represents a larger whole

  • Macrocosm: a larger whole represents a smaller part or parts

  • It is used to emphasize certain parts of a whole nd to help the reader think about the situation in a different way

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  1. Transferred Epithet

  • Figure of speech in which a modifier a noun other than the person/thing it is actually describing

  • Eg. sleepless nights, woeful ballad

  • It is used to create new implicit meanings and create polyphony

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  1. Alliteration
  • A technique that makes use of repeated sound at the beginning of multiple words grouped together. 
  • Used to give the text a lyrical effect 
  • Sibilance: hissing/whooshing sound (e.g she sells seashells by the seashore) - 
  • Consonance: repeated consonant sounds at any point in successive words (e.g front and center) 
  • Assonance: vowel rhymes normally found in the middle of a word (e.g she fell asleep under the willow tree)
  • Fricative Alliteration: ‘v’ and ‘f’ sounds to give an airy/breathless sound (e.g flowers slowly fading in the spring fields) - mysterious + light atmospheres
  • Plosive Alliteration: sounds which block the air movement (b, g, k, p) (e.g Bella broke the breakfast bar perched on the tabletop) - added emphasis + meaning
  • Dental Alliteration: ‘d’ and ‘t’ sounds (e.g Danny turned his table upside down)
  • Vocalic Alliteration: same vowel sounds are repeated at the beginning of a set of words (e.g exceptional work was produced by every editor)
  • General Alliteration: beginning sound is repeated in every word in a phrase (e.g Sophie saw a sausage stand)
  • Unvoiced alliteration: alliteration on paper but not when read (e.g Penny partied with a purple pterodactyl) 
  • Guttural Alliteration: ‘g’ and ‘c’ sounds (e.g Grace ran after the cat that got away) - deeper + harsher sound
  • Liquid Alliteration: ‘l’ and ‘r’ sounds (e.g the father played the rattle for the baby) - fluid + light
  • Symmetrical Alliteration: phrase begins and ends with the same sound in a mirrored format (e.g the boys played patacake badly)
  1. Anaphora
  • The repetition of a word in a phrase or sentence
  • Used for emphasis
  1. Allusion
  • to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly