POETIC

DEVICES
 DEFI N IT I ON AN D
I LLUS T R A T I ON O F
10 POET I C D E V IC ES
-SHUBHODEEP MONDAL
 CERTIFICATE
THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT SHUBHODEEP MONDAL
A STUDENT OF CLASS 12 A HAS SUCCESSFULLY
TH

COMPLETED HIS PROJECT UNDER THE GUIDANCE

OF SUBJECT TEACHER.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my teacher as well as our
principal who gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on the
topic DEFINATION AND ILLUSTRATION OF 10 POETIC DEVICES, which also helped me in
doing a lot of research and I came to know about so many new things I am really
thankful to them.
Secondly I would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in
finalizing this project within the limited time frame.
1.WHAT IS POETIC DEVICES? WHY IT IS USED?
2.ALLITERATION
3.ASSONANCE
4.IMAGERY
5.ONOMATOPOEIA
6.PERSONIFICATION
7.REFRAIN
8.RHYME
9.SIMILE
10.
KENNING
11.
COUPLETS
 What is poetic
devices? And why it
is used?
 Poetry can follow a strict structure, or none at all, but many different types of poems use poetic
devices. Poetic devices are tools that a poet can use to create rhythm, enhance a poem's meaning, or
intensify a mood or feeling. These devices help piece the poem together, much like a hammer and
nails join planks of wood together. Some of these devices are used in literature as well, but for the
sake of clarity, we will look at all of these devices through the lens of poetry.

Poetic devices make poetry, all literary devices can be used in our poetry such as suits our purpose
and it fits the poem. Poetic devices often spill over into our pros with out harm, maybe some
confusion but entirely permissible.

Passage; “He fell.... But the fall was a rise. Even as he fell, he felt himself rise up, up, up into the
clouds. All around him he could see only white. The clouds were white, and the walls around were
white. And the one seated on the throne was white. Beautifully, eternally, white.”
In the passage above I find; poetry in the repetitions, metaphor in the characterization, contradiction
with a care for simplicity in the emphasis and punctuation.

lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
1. ALLITERATION
 Alliteration can be defined as a series of words, occurring close together in the phrases or lines of
poetry, that have the same first consonant sound.
The term itself derives from the Latin word “latera”, meaning “letters of alphabet”.

A strong example of alliteration is in the tongue twister Peter Piper.

Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
2. ASSONANCE
 Assonance is the repetition of the vowel sound across words within the lines of the poem creating
internal rhymes.
Examples of assonance across words include: crying time; hop-scotch; great flakes; between trees; and, the
kind knight rides by.
Look at this stanza from John Laggard's poem ‘Hop aloo Kangaroo':
If you can boogaloo
boogaloo
I can do
the boogaloo too
for I’m the boogiest
hopaloo kangaroo
from The Puffin Book of Fantastic First Poems (Puffin, 2000)
There are examples of the repeated /oo/ sound within the 1st, 4th and 6th lines (assonance), as well as it being
used as a rhyme at the end of all the lines, except the 5th line.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
3. IMAGERY
 Imagery, in a literary or poetic sense, is the author's use of description and vivid language,
deepening the reader's understanding of the work, by appealing to the senses.
There are different types of imagery. These include:

•Visual imagery which refers to sights and allows the reader to visualize the
subject, objects or events in the poem.
•Auditory imagery refers to sounds and reminds the reader of common or specific
sounds as a point of reference to deepen understanding.
•Kinesthetic imagery is related to movement and reminds the reader of body
movement or positions that are familiar or imagined – such as the feeling of flying.
•Smells and tastes can be referred to as Olfactory or Gustatory imagery
respectively.
•Tactile imagery refers to texture and feeling.

All imagery is aided through the use of other poetic devices, such as simile, metaphor, personification,
onomatopoeia, etc.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
4. ONOMATOPOEIA
 Onomatopoeia, according to the oxford dictionary, is the 'formation of a word which describes its
sound'. Examples of onomatopoeic words include sizzle, clap, moo, roar, etc.
It is a common feature in many poems written with children in mind. The onomatopoeia can sometimes form a
refrain, that repeats through the poem, providing structure.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
5.
PERSONIFICATION
 Personification is a poetic device where animals, plants or even inanimate objects, are given
human qualities – resulting in a poem full of imagery and description.
Consider the first stanza of Jackie Kay's poem Way Down below in the Streets of Paris
:
I spied a small lonely boy.
I was his beautiful red balloon,
from morning through to noon,

In this example, the poet is the red balloon, and the poem continues by describing the boy and the poet (as the
balloon) sharing a walk through Parisian streets.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
6. REFRAIN
 In poetry, a refrain is a word, line or phrase that is repeated within the lines or stanzas of the poem itself.

There are three common types of refrain:

•the repetend – where particular words are repeated throughout the poem;

•the chorus – usually read by more than one person '_in unison_', and sometimes can be considered the theme
of the poem;
•the burden – the most common form of refrain, in which a whole word or phrase is repeated a regular
intervals.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
7. RHYME
 Rhyme is the repetition of syllables, typically at the end of a verse line. Rhymed words conventionally share all
sounds following the word's last stressed syllable.

Rhyme is one of the first poetic devices that we become familiar with but it can be a tricky poetic device to
work with. Matching content to a rhyming pattern takes a lot of skill.
As James Carter says…
A lazy rhyme is a poetry crime!
There are different types of rhyme and many poems, especially sonnets and sestinas, follow strict rhyme
schemes with regular patterns.
Rhyming patterns can be in couplets
Types of rhyme include: where pairs of lines rhyme or can be
alternate where every other line rhymes. 
Full rhyme – cat/hat/, dog/log.
Half or para-rhyme – cat/hit, lover/river.
Internal rhyme – rhyme that does not occur at the end of the
line (the usual place rhyme is found) – Today, as I walked, the
large black cat, tipped his hat at me and smiled.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
8. SIMILE
 Simile is common poetic device. The subject of the poem is described by comparing it to another
object or subject, using 'as' or 'like'. For example, the subject may be 'creeping as quietly as a
mouse' or be 'sly, like a fox.'

A simile is a figure of speech in which two essentially dissimilar objects or concepts are expressly
compared with one another through the use of “like” or “as.” Simile is used as a literary device to
assert similarity with the help of like or as, which are language constructs that establish
equivalency. A proper simile creates an explicit comparison between two things that are different
enough from each other such that their comparability appears unlikely.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
9. KENNING
 A kenning names something by describing it's qualities in a two word compound expression (often
consisting of a noun and a verb made into a noun using  an -er ending) for example mouse catcher
= cat. The kenning has its origins in Anglo-Saxon or old Norse where kennings were used to name
swords: death bringer.

Kennings can be developed into a poem or a riddle but a Kenning refers to the two word expression. 
The example below builds a picture of a dog

My Dog
ankle biter
bone cruncher
night howler
rabbit catcher
love giver

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
10. COUPLETS
 A couplet is a pair of lines in a poem which have both the same rhythm (meter) and that rhyme. The
lines can be independent sentences (closed form) or can run on from each other (open form).

This example from Rachel Rooney's Post shows the open form and consists of  2 rhyming lines with 10 beats
each.

A queen in a palace, slumped on a throne,

Surrounded by servants but all alone.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII