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POETIC DEVICES
SOUND OF WORDS
ALLITERATION: Repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words placed near
each other
Example: Forest’s ferny floor; Betty bought some butter

ASSONANCE: Repeated vowel sounds in words placed near each other

Example: Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far; the glade in a frail agony of grace

CONSONANCE: Repeated consonant sounds at the ending of words placed near

each other
Example: boats into the past; cool soul
SOUND OF WORDS
CACOPHONY: A discordant series of harsh, unpleasant sounds helps to convey disorder. This is
often furthered by the combined effect of the meaning and the difficulty of pronunciation.
Example: Crash, bang, clang;
My stick fingers click with a snicker
And, chuckling, they knuckle the keys;
ONOMATOPOEIA: refers to words whose very sound is very close to the sound they are meant
to depict.
Example: sizzle, snap, swoosh, whir, zip
SIBILANCE: A specific type of alliteration that uses the soft consonants. In sibilance, hissing
sounds are created. These soft consonants are s, with sh, ch, and th, including three others such
as z, x, f and soft c.
Example: “Silence surged softly backwards”; Sixth sense
MEANING OF WORDS
HYPERBOLE: An outrageous exaggeration used for effect.
Example: He weighs a ton
IRONY: refers to playing around with words such that the meaning implied by a
sentence or word is actually different from the literal meaning.
Example: Wow, thanks for expensive gift...let’s see: did it come with a Fun Meal?
SIMILE: An indirect comparison of two unlike things using “like” or “as.”
Example: Her eyes are like comets
METAPHOR: Metaphors directly state a comparison
Example: “Love is a battlefield.”
 MEANING OF WORDS
OXYMORON: allows the author to use contradictory, contrasting concepts placed together in a manner that
actually ends up making sense in a strange, and slightly complex manner.
Example: a pointless point of view; bittersweet

PERSONIFICATION: Attributing human characteristics to an inanimate object/non human or abstract idea.

Example: “The raging winds”
ANTHROPOMORPHISM: Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics to a god, animal, or
object. Some famous characters in children’s stories, films and cartoons such as Winnie-the-Pooh, Mickey
Mouse, Pinocchio, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Goofy, Peter Rabbit are some examples of
anthropomorphism.

SYMBOL: An ordinary object, event, animal, or person to which we have attached extraordinary meaning
and significance.
Example: A small cross by the dangerous curve on the road reminded all of Johnny’s death.
MEANING OF WORDS
APOSTROPHE: A writer or speaker using apostrophe, speaks directly to someone who
is not present or is dead, or speaks to an inanimate object.
Example: “Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful”
ALLUSION: A brief reference to some person, historical event, work of art, or Biblical
or mythological situation or character.
Example: “Don’t act like Romeo in front of her”; “Guess who is the new Newton of our
school”
ANALOGY: A comparison, usually something unfamiliar with something familiar.
Example: Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the
frog dies in the process
CONNOTATION: The emotional, psychological or social overtones of a word; its
implications and associations apart from its literal meaning
Example: “Wall Street” literally means a street situated in Lower Manhattan, but
connotatively it refers to wealth and power
MEANING OF WORDS
Anaphora: In rhetoric, an anaphora is a rhetorical device that
consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginning of
neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis.
Example: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it
was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the
epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season
of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of
hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before
us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to
Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...”
- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
MEANING OF WORDS
Epistrophe: Epistrophe is the repetition of the same word
or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or
sentences It is a figure of speech and the counterpart of
anaphora. It is an extremely emphatic device because of
the emphasis placed on the last word in a phrase or
sentence.
Example: "There is no Negro problem. There is no
Southern problem. There is no Northern problem.
There is only an American problem."
-Lyndon B. Johnson in "We Shall Overcome“.
 MEANING OF WORDS
POLYSYNDETON: Polysyndeton refers to the process of using conjunctions or connecting words
frequently in a sentence, placed very close to one another. Opposed to the usual norm of using
them sparsely, only where they are technically needed. The use of polysyndetons is primarily for
adding dramatic effect as they have a strong rhetorical presence.
Example: “Marge and Susan and Anne and Daisy and Barry all planned to go for a picnic”,
instead of “Marge, Susan, Anne, Daisy and Barry…” emphasizes each of the individuals and
calls attention to every person one by one instead of assembling them as a group.

ASYNDETON: Asyndeton refers to a practice in literature whereby the author purposely leaves
out conjunctions in the sentence, while maintaining the grammatical accuracy of the phrase. This
compact version helps in creating an immediate impact whereby the reader is instantly attuned
to what the writer is trying to convey. Use of this literary device helps in creating a strong
impact and such sentences have greater recall worth since the idea is presented in a nutshell.
Example: Read, write, learn.
ARRANGEMENT OF WORDS
ENJAMBMENT: Moving over from one line to another without a terminating punctuation mark. it
is the running on of a sense from one couplet or line to the next without a major pause or
syntactical break.
Example: Lovely nature has something to offer
you; so inhale the fresh air
And, beautifully, learn by deciding where to go.
RHYME SCHEME: The pattern established by the arrangement of rhymes in a stanza or poem.
FORM: The arrangement or method used to convey the content
A) Open: poetic form free from regularity and consistency in elements such as rhyme, line
length and metrical form.
B) Closed: poetic form subject to a fixed structure and pattern.
C) Free Verse: lines with no prescribed pattern or structure — the poet determines all the
variables as seems appropriate for each poem.
IMAGE OF WORDS
IMAGERY: The use of vivid language to generate ideas and/or evoke mental images, not only
of the visual sense, but of sensation and emotion as well. Imagery can apply to any component
of a poem that evoke sensory experience and emotional response.
Example:
• Visual Imagery: Smoke mysteriously puffed out from the clown’s ears.
• Auditory Imagery: Tom placed his ear tightly against the wall; he could hear a faint but
distinct thump thump thump.
• Tactile Imagery: The burlap wall covering scraped against the little boy’s cheek.
• Gustatory Imagery: A salty tear ran across onto her lips.
• Olfactory Imagery: Cinnamon! That’s what wafted into his nostrils.
• Kinesthetic Imagery: Jerking her head in his direction, Tossing away the pillow

SYNESTHESIA: An attempt to fuse different senses by describing one kind of sense impression in
words normally used to describe another.
Example: The sound of her voice was sweet; a loud aroma, a velvety smile