POETRY TERMS

Imagery Devices

Imagery creates an image in the reader's mind. Key imagery devices include:

  1. Simile: A comparison of two things using the words "like" or "as."

    • Examples:

      • Bob is hungry as a wolf.

      • Sue smells like a rose.

      • Lisa looks like a total fox today.

  2. Metaphor: A comparison of two unlike things without using "like" or "as."

    • Examples:

      • Bob is a hungry wolf.

      • Sue is a rose filling the room with her sweet scent.

      • My sister is such a witch.

  3. Personification: A type of metaphor where nonhuman things or ideas possess human qualities or actions.

    • Examples:

      • The wind whispered her name.

      • Love is blind.

Sound Devices

Sound devices enhance the auditory quality of poetry. Major sound devices include:

  1. Alliteration: The repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of neighboring words.

    • Examples:

      • The dark dance of death whisked her away.

      • Like a lucky charm, he looks on.

  2. Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds within stressed syllables of neighboring words.

    • Examples:

      • Talking and walking hours on end.

      • A turtle in the fertile soil.

  3. Onomatopoeia: Words that imitate the sounds they refer to.

    • Examples:

      • The eagle whizzed past the buzzing bees.

      • Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is.

  4. Rhyme: Words that end with the same sounds, usually at the ends of lines.

    • Examples:

      • So go ahead and preach because I'm the one you teach.

      • You think you're just so cool but you're looking like a fool.

  5. Internal Rhyme: Rhyme within a line.

    • Examples:

      • Bright night, a full moon above.

      • We will stay today, and then we must go.

  6. Half Rhyme: Slight or inaccurate repetition of sounds, also called impure rhyme.

    • Examples:

      • On top of the hill, the moon is full.

      • Give this to the man; he'll know what I mean.

  7. Eye Rhyme: Words that look like they rhyme but do not.

    • Examples:

      • Listen to the water flow from top.

      • When the game is over, a true champion will discover.

Miscellaneous Devices

These devices provide additional layers of meaning and emphasis in poetry. Key miscellaneous devices include:

  1. Hyperbole: An obvious and deliberate exaggeration to emphasize something or for humorous purposes.

    • Examples:

      • I love you more than life itself.

      • He could eat a horse.

  2. Irony: Saying the opposite of what you actually mean.

    • Examples:

      • Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.

      • The directions were as clear as mud.

  3. Paradox: A statement that seems to contradict or oppose itself yet reveals some truth.

    • Examples:

      • It's hard work doing nothing.

      • Youth is wasted on the young.

Other Poetic Terms

Additional terms commonly encountered in poetry include:

  1. Slant Rhyme: Both the beginning and final consonant sounds are alike but the vowels are not.

    • Examples:

      • Spilled and soiled.

      • Chitter and chatter.

  2. Anaphora: The repetition of words at the beginning of a clause.

    • Examples:

      • Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech where he repeats "I have a dream."

      • William Blake: "In every cry of every man, in every infant's cry of fear..."

  3. Epistrophe: The repetition of words at the ending of a clause.

    • Examples:

      • "There is no Southern problem, there is no Northern problem; there is only an American problem." (Lyndon B. Johnson)

      • "We shall overcome."

  4. Allusion: A reference to a famous person, place, event, or literary work.

    • Examples:

      • Sally had a smile rivaled only by that of the Mona Lisa.

      • "Don't act like a Romeo in front of her." (Reference to Shakespeare's Romeo.)

  5. Idiom: A common phrase or figure of speech not to be taken literally.

    • Examples:

      • Beating around the bush.

      • Raining cats and dogs.