Transcript poetic-devices

Poetic Devices
The Sounds of Poetry
Repetition
Repeating a word or words for effect.
Example
When you, my Dear, are away, away,
How wearily goes the creeping day.
Rhythm
When words are arranged in such a way
that they make a pattern or beat.
Example
There once was a girl from Chicago
Who dyed her hair pink in the bathtub
I own a solace shut within my heart,
A garden full of many a quaint delight
Hint: hum the words instead of saying them.
Meter
Meter is a unit of rhythm in poetry, the
pattern of the beats. It is also called a foot.
Each foot has a certain number of syllables
in it, usually two or three syllables. The
difference in types of meter is which
syllables are accented and which are not.
Shmoop Meter Video
Rhyme
When words have the same end sound.
Happens at the beginning, end, or middle of lines.
Examples
Where
Fair
Air
Bear
Glare
Rhyme Scheme
The pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem
or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to
indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the
same letter all rhyme with each other.
The people along the sand (A)
All turn and look one way. (B)
They turn their back on the land. (A)
They look at the sea all day. (B)
As long as it takes to pass (C)
A ship keeps raising its hull; (C)
The wetter ground like glass (D)
Reflects a standing gull. (D)
Onomatopoeia
When a word’s pronunciation imitates its
sound.
Examples
Buzz
Hiss
Beep
Fizz
Clink
Vroom
Woof
Boom
Zip
Alliteration
When the first sounds in words repeat.
Example
Peter Piper picked a pickled pepper.
Slim-pinioned swallows sweep and pass
Consonance
When consonants repeat in the middle or
end of words.
Creates a near rhyme sound
Examples
Fixed in onyx
The calm lamb
A pillar of valor
Fish in a mesh net
Assonance
When vowel sounds repeat in words
close to each other in a poem.
Creates an internal rhyme sound
Examples
The light of the fire is a sight
Go slow over the road
The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain
Practice Quiz
I’ll put some lines of poetry on the board.
Write down which techniques are used:
Alliteration, consonance, rhythm, rhyme,
and onomatopoeia.
Some poems use more than one
technique.
1
Oh! To be a wave
Splintering on the sand,
Drawing back, but leaving
Lingeringly the land.
2
Drip--hiss--drip--hiss– fall the raindrops
on the oaken log which burns, and steams,
and smokes the ceiling beams.
Drip--hiss--the rain never stops.
3
A trumpet-vine covered an arbour
With the red and gold of its blossoms.
Red and gold like the brass notes of
Trumpets.
4
I passed through the gates of the city,
The streets were strange and still,
Through the doors of the open churches
The organs were moaning shrill.
5
Upon the enchanted ladder of his rhymes,
Round after round and patiently
The poet ever upward climbs.
Answers
1. Rhythm, rhyme, consonance, alliteration.
2. Onomatopoeia, consonance, repetition,
rhyme
3. Alliteration, consonance, repetition
4. Rhythm, rhyme, alliteration
5. Repetition, rhyme, light alliteration