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Poetic Devices and Terms:
Alliteration: A sound device in which there is a repetition of the first consonant sound in words
located close together. Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Allusion: An indirect reference by one text to another in relation to a historical, political,
mythological, biblical, or other literary source.
Ambiguity: Purposeful use of open-ended interpretations by the author in order to make the
reader think.
Assonance: A sound device in which there is a repetition of the vowel sound in words located
close together. Easy and Eve, Harley and barley, keep, and reap are all examples of the
repetition of the same long “e” sound in various positions in words (first, end, and middle).
Blank Verse: A structure of poetry that is unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Caesura: A pause in the middle of a line of poetry. Caesuras are most commonly shown by the
use of colons or dashes in the middle of a line of poetry.
Consonance: The sound device in which there is the repetition of the consonant sound in the
middle or end of words. Examples: Buzz and busy, and last and late.
Couplet: Two lines of verse forming a unit of meaning. Couplets usually rhyme.
Dialect: accent or regionalization of speech.
Diction: word choice
Elegy: A structure of poetry in which a meditative poem laments a death.
Figurative Language: Description that is not literal. Figurative language is made up of similes,
metaphors, personification, allusion, hyperbole, and synecdoche.
Foreshadowing: Hints or predictions about what will happen in the story.
Free Verse: The structure of poetry that uses no rhyme, metrical pattern (rhythm), or
conventions of punctuation or (sometimes) spelling. This structure uses sensory detail and
the use of white space to underscore the meaning of the poem.
Hyperbole: A deliberate exaggeration
Iamb: A popular type of meter that is unstressed, stressed.
Imagery: Literal description that presents a picture with words created by sensory images
(using the five senses).
Irony: The opposite of what one expects. There are 3 kinds of ironies: dramatic, verbal, and
situational. Dramatic irony occurs when the audience and the narrator know something the
characters do not. Verbal irony is sarcasm or when the meaning of one speaker is
misunderstood by one or more other characters. Situational irony is when the setting for an
event is odd or humorous. (Ex: a fire at a firehouse).
Lyric Poetry: The structure of poetry that expresses strong emotional state in a relatively short
form.
Metaphor: The comparison of two unlike things without the use of “like” or “as.” An extended
metaphor is the use of a metaphor for more than four lines.
Meter: The rhythm or beat of a poem. This measure is based on the emphasis of stressed or
unstressed syllables within a line of poetry.
Popular patterns of meter:
Iambic: unstressed, stressed (Example: u-pon)
Trochaic: stressed, unstressed (Example: ta-ken)
Anapestic: unstressed, unstressed, stressed (Example: T'was the night)
Dactylic: stressed, unstressed, unstressed (Example: ten-der-ly)
Spondaic: stressed, stressed (Example: Oh! Oh!)
Metonymy: A figure of speech (a type of metaphor) in which a word or phrase is substituted for
another with which it is closely associated or symbolic of. Example: “crown” for king; “sword”
for military; “pen” for literature; “fireside” for domestic life.
Mood: The feeling the reader gets from the literature. Mood is often interpreted by diction,
tone, and topic and/or theme of a piece of literature.
Ode: That structure of lyric poem that celebrates and elevates its topic. (Cheat sheet to
identification: Often they are entitled "Ode to something.")
Onomatopoeia: Words whose sounds suggest their meanings. Examples: hiss, pop, slam,
sizzle.
Paradox: A seemingly contradictory or absurd statement that is nevertheless true or sensible.
“The pen is mightier than the sword” is a paradox using metonymy.
Parallelism: The arrangement of related words, phrases, or clauses used to create emphasis
through similarity. Example: “Give me liberty, or give me death.” (In each part of the
statement the “You” implied subject, verb, indirect object, and direct object parallel each
other).
Parody: Humorous imitations of styles, characters, or plots of other works of literature.
Pastoral: That structure of poem that praises the simple, pure country life. It often features
shepherdesses, shepherds, and tranquility.
Personification: The poetic device by which an inanimate object or animal is given human
qualities.
Plot: Artistic arrangement of events (actions) in a piece of literature.
Point of View: Perspective from which the story is told. First, second, or third are common.
Quatrain: A four-lined poem.
Refrain: A repetition of a line or part of a line in a poem or song.
Rhetorical Questions: A question posed that is not meant to be answered. Its purpose is to
make the reader think.
Rhyme: Repetitions of similar sounds sustained through two or more lines of verse.
End rhyme: Occurs when the last words of at least two lines rhyme.
Masculine rhyme: Is perfect rhyme found only in one syllable in the final stressed
syllable. Example: shapes, drapes.
Feminine rhyme consists of two or more rhyming syllables which may be
unaccented. Example: Going, and flowing; scenting and repenting;
auroral, and choral.
Eye Rhyme: Looks like it should rhyme (by nature of similar spelling) but
actually doesn’t. Example: cough and bough; love and move.
Slant Rhyme: Rhyme that is not perfect but has consonance in
common. Example: bodies and ladies; soul and all.
Satire: That type of literature that makes fun of society in order to bring about socialchange.
Shaped Poem (or Concrete Poem): that structure of poetry in which the words of the poem are
arranged on paper to suggest a shape that relates to the theme or topic of the poem.
Simile: The comparison of two unlike things with the use of “like” or “as.”
Sonnet: A fourteen line poem about love written in iambic pentameter. The Shakespearean
sonnet (or “English sonnet”) is comprised of three quatrains and a couplet. The Petrarchan
sonnet (or "Italian sonnet") is 8 lines, an octave, and 6 lines, a sestet.
Stanza: A formal grouping of lines in a poem.
Sestina: That poetic structure that has 39 lines, 6 stanzas of 6 lines each and ends in a tercet.
Symbol: A concrete object that stands for an abstract concept. Example: the flag represents a
country and nationalistic beliefs.
Synecdoche: Like metonmy, synecdoehe is a part for a whole and a type of metaphor.
Synecdochem, however, is more a literal part of a whole. Example: “hands” for sailors in “All
hands on deck!”; the “brass” for high ranking military men (the brass buttons are a physical part
of their uniforms).
Synesthesia: The overlapping or confusion of senses for effect. Example: The grass smells
green. (Green is a color, not a smell)
Theme: The message that an author is trying to communicate to the reader. Themes are never
expressed as one word like “love” or “power.” They are statements like “Love makes
madmen of us all,” or “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Tone: The attitude of the narrator toward the topic of the literature.
Villanelle: That poetic structure that is 19 lines of 5 tercets (stanzas of three lines) followed by
a quatrain. It is a French form that uses repetition of sound to duplicate a death knell or
tollng of the death bell. The poem, therefore, usually has a sad tone or theme of loss.