Transcript Poetic Devices - Nova Scotia Department of Education

Poetic Devices
Poetic Devices

Poetic devices, techniques, gimmicks
- whatever you want to call them,
there are "tricks" that make poems
"work."

You see and hear poetic devices
everyday – in poems, prose, song
lyrics, and advertisements.
Alliteration

The repetition of the initial consonant
sounds.

Example:

terrible truths and lullaby lies
Imagery

Language that evokes sensory images.

Examples:




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drip of ruby teardrops (aural/sound)
to wake up where the green grass grows
(visual/sight)
lips like cool sweet tea (oral/taste)
streaming through a velvet sky (tactile/touch)
the stench of the underworld (olfactory/smell)
Metaphor

A comparison of unlike things (made
without using like or as).

Example:

I am the "Lone Star"
Onomatopoeia

A word that imitates the sound it
represents.

Examples:
The fly buzzed past
 He clattered and clanged as he
washed the dishes.

Personification

Giving human qualities or characteristics
to animals or objects.

Examples:
The tree groaned.
 The wind whispered.

Repetition

Repeating of words, phrases, lines,
sounds, or stanzas.

Example:

Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn....
Rhyme

a pattern of words that contains
similar sounds at the end of the line

Example:

life for me
is wild and free
Simile

A comparison using like or as.

Example:

notes dance across the page like stars
twinkle in the night sky
Please put next slide on new page or
separate from your Poetic Devices
with a line as it is a new topic!
Rhyme scheme

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A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming
lines in a poem or in lyrics for music.
It is usually referred to by using letters to
indicate which lines rhyme.
Example:
Bid me to weep, and I will weep,
While I have eyes to see;
And having none, yet I will keep
A heart to weep for thee.
A
B
A
B
Please put next slide on new page or
separate from your Poetic Devices
and Rhyme Scheme with a line as it is
a new topic!
Point of view

The author's point-of-view concentrates on
the speaker, or "teller", of the story or poem.

1st person: the speaker is a character in the
story or poem and tells it from his/her
perspective (uses "I")
Example:


Then, turning to my love, I said,
`The dead are dancing with the dead,
The dust is whirling with the dust.'
Point of view (con’t)
3rd person: the speaker is not part of
the story, but tells about the other
characters.
 Example:


His story is old,
His heart is young,
He the strong, noble one.