Poetic Devices – Class XI (2023-24)

Lesson Poetic Device Example

Free verse The poem does not have a fixed rhyme
scheme
Enjambment …appears to have changed less, washed
1. A Photograph their…

Alliteration stood still’, ‘terribly transient

Transferred Epithet terribly transient feet
Oxymoron Laboured ease
Alliteration September sunlight, tree trembles etc.
Personification the whole tree trembles and thrills
2. The Laburnum Top
Hyperbole She launches away, towards the infinite
Simile sleek as a lizard
Personification The rain is personified throughout the poem.
Hyperbole bottomless sea
Metaphor I am the Poem of the Earth

3. The Voice of the Rain Imagery soft-falling shower

Juxtaposition day and night, reck’d or unreck’d
Caesura (For song, issuing … duly with love returns.)
Poetic License reck’d or unreck’d
Enjambment I do not understand this child
Though we have…
Alliteration silence surrounds, seed I spent or sown
4. Father to Son Anaphora The seed I spent or sown…
The land is his…
Simile speak like strangers
Allusion It refers to the story of The Prodigal Son
from the Bible
Inversion I would have him prodigal, returning to his
father’s house
Enjambment In the city of which I sing
There was a just and placid King
Anaphora The chief of builders will be hanged.
5. The Tale of Melon City The rope and gallows were arranged.
Alliteration so since, hanging. Hanged

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Irony The King ordered a hanging, but he ended up
being hanged himself.

Idiom The king saw red

Inversion Truly, the arch it was that
Onomatopoeia Muttering, Quivering

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 Poetic Devices – Class XII (2023-24)
Lesson Poetic Device Example
My Mother at Sixty-six 1. Personification trees sprinting
2. Simile pale as a late winter’s moon
3. Imagery young children , trees sprinting backwards
4. Metaphor merry children spilling out of their homes
5. Ellipsis smile ……
6. Repetition smile and smile and smile
Keeping Quiet 1. Anaphora/ Let’s – (to create a bond between listeners)
repetition
2. Personification earth can teach us as when …
3. Symbolism brothers (show harmony/ fraternity), clean
clothes (no enmity / change of heart/attitude/
behaviour) count to twelve ( marking time/
unit of time)
4. Enjambment .. twelve … still (e.g., first 2 lines)
5. Repetition wars with / without rush
6. Euphemism no truck with
7. Imagery gathering salt / green wars, wars with gas,
wars with fire . ..
A Thing of Beauty 1. Metaphor sweet dreams, flowery band, endless
fountain of immortal drink
2. Alliteration noble natures, cooling covert, band to bind
3. Transferred gloomy days
epithet
4. Imagery flowery wreath, shady boon, green world,
clear rills, cooling covert, endless fountain
5. Enjambment First 4 lines (e.g.)
6. Symbol simple sheep

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 A Roadside Stand 1. Repetition/ little old … little new
Antithesis
2. Personification A …stand …pathetically pled
… sadness that lurks there
3. Symbol flower of cities
4. Imagery golden squash, silver warts
5. Oxymoron/ beneficent beasts / greedy good-doers
alliteration
6. Transferred polished traffic / selfish cars /
epithet
7. Parenthesis They couldn’t (this crossly)
Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers 1. Alliteration fingers fluttering, prancing, proud
2. Irony tigers drawn by Aunt Jennifer are bold while
the creator is weak
3. Visual bright topaz … world of green
Imagery
4. Symbolism wedding band (eternal vows / oppression of
marital life), tigers (freedom), Aunt Jennifer
(oppressed women), uncle (male
chauvinism) embroidery (creativity) screen,
panel (the world / life)
5. Transferred terrified fingers
epithet
6. Anaphora They do … They pace

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