Poetic Devices to Know

In order to prepare for your upcoming poetic devices quiz, I've listed some of the main devices that show up frequently in poems.  Below you will find the term, definition and examples.

1) Alliteration

Repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words placed near each other, usually on the
same or adjacent lines. A somewhat looser definition is that it is the use of the same consonant in any
part of adjacent words.

Example: fast and furious
Example: Peter and Andrew patted the pony at Ascot

In the second definition, both P and T in the example are reckoned as alliteration.

2) Rhyme

This is the one device most commonly associated with poetry by the general public. Words that
have different beginning sounds but whose endings sound alike, including the final vowel sound and
everything following it, are said to rhyme.

Example: time, slime, mime

Double rhymes include the final two syllables. Example: revival, arrival, survival

Triple rhymes include the final three syllables. Example: greenery, machinery, scenery

3) Repetition

The purposeful re-use of words and phrases for an effect. Sometimes, especially with longer
phrases that contain a different key word each time, this is called parallelism. It has been a central part
of poetry in many cultures. Many of the Psalms use this device as one of their unifying elements.

Example: I was glad; so very, very glad.

Example: Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward…
…
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d and thunder’d…

4) Simile

A direct comparison of two unlike things using “like” or “as.”

Example: He’s as dumb as an ox.

Example: Her eyes are like comets.

5) Metaphor

A direct comparison between two unlike things, stating that one is the other or does the action
of the other.

Example: He’s a zero. Example: Her fingers danced across the keyboard.

6) Allusion

A brief reference to some person, historical event, work of art, or Biblical or mythological situation or character.

Example: "Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"

Plutonian refers to Pluto, god of the underworld.

7) Personification

Attributing human characteristics to an inanimate object, animal, or abstract idea.

Example: The days crept by slowly, sorrowfully

8) Onomatopoeia

Words that sound like their meanings.

Example: boom, buzz, crackle, gurgle, hiss, pop, sizzle, snap, swoosh, whir, zip

9) Symbol

An ordinary object, event, animal, or person to which we have attached extraordinary meaning andsignificance – 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.

10) Hyperbole

An outrageous exaggeration used for effect.

Example: He weighs a ton.