Poetic Devices Worksheet
Poetic Device Definition
enjambment occurs when the sense of a line
runs over to the succeeding line;
also called a run-on line
caesura A break or pause in the middle of
a line or verse
alliteration the repetition of a speech sound
(typically a consonant) at the
beginning of a word in a sequence
of nearby words
assonance the repetition of identical or
similar vowels
refrain a phrase, line, or lines repeated at
intervals during a poem,
especially at the close of stanzas
onomatopoeia a word whose sound seems to
resemble closely the sound it
denotes
Student’s name: Diego Aguilar Brenes
Example
. . .We spin and spin
back to the villages of our mothers’ mothers.
We leave behind
the men, a white blur
like moonlight on empty bajra fields
seen from a speeding train.
To be or not to be // that is the question
I am your son, amá, seeking
the security of shadows,
The Lotos blooms below the barren peak:
The Lotos blows by every winding creek:
All day the wind breathes low with mellower tone
Thro' every hollow cave and alley lone,
Round and round the spicy downs the yellow Lotos-dust is
blown.
see Poe's use of "nothing more" and "Nevermore" in
"The Raven"
The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees.
My Own Example (write the example and the
name of poem it belongs to )
After dark, stars glisten like ice, and the distance they span
Hides something elemental. Not God, exactly. More like
Some thin-hipped glittering Bowie-being—a Starman
Or cosmic ace hovering, swaying, aching to make us see.
From Tracy K. Smith’s “Don’t You Wonder,
Sometimes?”
“Oh, say can you see || by the dawn’s early light…”
From The lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner”
Allie likes all alliterations!
Soft language issued from their spitless lips as they
swished in low circles round and round the field,
winding hither and thither through the weds.
From A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by
James Joyce
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
From Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
“It went zip when it moved and bop when it
stopped,
And whirr when it stood still.
I never knew just what it was, and I guess I never
will.”

rhyme the repetition of sounds at the end
of words
Device Definition
simile a comparison between two
different things using "like" or
"as"
metaphor an implied comparison between
things essentially unlike
symbol a word or an image that signifies
something other than what it
represents, with multiple
meanings and connotations
hyperbole the use of exaggeration for effect
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Example
In the spring our palms peeled like snakes.
Their high keening is an electric net
pulling us in, girls who have never seen
the old land. . .
all I wanted was to be
one of those hybrid
ornamental plums
whose blossoms are sweet and glorious
but fall to the ground
without ever bearing fruit.
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
From the Marvelous Toy By Tom Paxton
My family's gone; there's no one home.
It's only me who's home alone.
I shouldn't hear a single squeak.
There shouldn't even be a creak
From Home Alone by Innareko
My Own Example
"Your teeth are like stars;
They come out at night.
They come back at dawn
When they're ready to bite."
From "Your Teeth" by Denise Rogers
"She is all states, and all princes, I.
Nothing else is.
Princes do but play us; compared to this,
All honour's mimic, all wealth alchemy."
From "The Sun Rising," by John Donne
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
From "My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold" by
William Wordsworth
My love is a box
That is deep as the ocean.

personification an inanimate object or concept is
given human characteristics or
feelings
metonymy an object, place, or person is used
to represent something with
which it is closely associated
allusion a passing reference to a literary or
historical person, place, or event,
or to another literary work
apostrophe a direct address to an absent
person or abstract entity
Nothing would sleep in that cellar, dank as a ditch,
Bulbs broke out of boxes hunting for chinks in the
dark,
As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap—
....................................
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling.
I got into a thing
with someone
because I called her
miss ann/kennedy/rockerfeller/hughes
instead of ms.
Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword and pen,
My heart is a crater
Waiting to be filled.
My stomach,
Impatiently waiting for your response,
Is a group of drunken butterflies
Struggling to take flight.
What will you tell me?
Are you - my love?
From “My love” by Natasha Niemi
If winter were a person, she would be a girl with
frosty hair.
Winter would wear snow pants, snow boots, gloves,
a hat, and scarf.
Winter would smell like hot chocolate and peanut
butter and Hershey Kiss cookies baking in the oven.
From “Winter” by Olivia Kooker
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
From Easter, 1916 by William Butler Yeats
All overgrown by cunning moss,
All interspersed with weed,
The little cage of "Currer Bell"
In quiet "Haworth" laid.
From "All Overgrown by Cunning Moss" by
Emily Dickinson
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we
sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all
exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim

and daring;

But O heart! heart! Heart!

O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

From O Captain! My Captain!

by Walt Whitman