Alliteration is the repetition of the beginning sound of 2 or more words placed near one another.

Poets use alliteration to set a mood, emphasise a subject or create a memorable image.

For example, softer consonants like ‘l’, ‘y’ or ‘h’ creates a romantic atmosphere, whereas harsher sounds like ‘k’, or ‘t’ seems more confronting.

Other sounds hold connotations. For example, the ‘s’ sounds mirror a snake’s hiss, which evokes feelings of danger. Repetition of an 'S' sound has its own technique, called sibilance.

Example:

Between the hands, between the brows,

Between the lips of Love-Lily,

A spirit is born whose birth endows

My blood with fire to burn through me;

Love Lilly, Dante Gabriel Rossetti 

Rossetti uses alliteration of ‘b’ sound throughout the whole stanza – ‘between’, ‘brows’, ‘born’, ‘birth’, ‘blood’ and ‘burn’ – to emphasise his feelings of love.

Anaphora is the repetition of the first word or clause of consecutive sentences.

It helps create a rhythm, makes the line more memorable and draws emotions. It can also be used symbolically.

Example:

“Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,

Out of the mocking-bird’s throat, the musical shuttle,

Out of the Ninth-month midnight,“

Out of the Cradle, Walt Whitman

Whitman heavily relies on anaphora throughout his whole poem. It creates a repetitive feeling that imitates a rocking cradle.

• a description of the distinctive nature or features of someone or something.
  "she rejected that characterisation of her film"

Chiasmus is when the structure of one clause is reversed in the following clause. (Not to be confused with antimetabole)

The ideas of both clauses must be related to each other to be considered chiasmus.

Poets use chiasmus to create a cyclical or ringing effect. It also puts more emphasis on the line.

Example:

“Adam, first of men,

To first of women, Eve“

Paradise Lost, John Milton 

Two lines of poetry that rhyme with each other. Also, they sometimes have the same metre.

Couplets are memorable because of their rhyme and metre. It can also add emphasis to the lines.

Example:

“So, lovers dream a rich and long delight,

But get a winter-seeming summer’s night.”

Love’s Alchemy, John Donne

Enjambment is when a sentence runs over into the next line or stanza.

Lines with enjambment are incomplete and won’t make sense on its own. As such, readers are compelled to continue reading the next line.

Example:

“April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.“

Waste Land, TS Eliot

Eliot uses enjambment to symbolise the never ending effects of war.

Words that work together to create a harmonious and pleasing sound to the ears.

Longer vowels (like a, o…) and soft consonants (like m, r, and l) sound more melodious compared to the harsh explosive sounds of cacophony.

Poets tend to use euphony to create a calm, pleasant and even magical auditory imagery.

Example:

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Robert Frost

The ‘l’, ‘ee’ and ‘i’ sounds (in ‘miles’, ‘sleep’ and ‘lovely’) are euphonic. It sounds almost dream-like.

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. It compares two unlike things, usually to create some additional meaning. This is not strictly a poetic technique, but there is often deep metaphorical significance in poetic imagery.

Example: 'Juliet is the sun.' - Romeo

Juliet is not 'like' the sun, not 'as bright as' the sun - or that would be a simile, not a metaphor. Juliet indeed IS the sun - a much stronger comparison.

Mood refers to the atmosphere of the poem. (Note: It is different from tone, which is explicitly created from word choice)

To help you figure it out, think about the emotions that are conveyed through imagery, rhythm, metre, rhyme schemes etc.

You can use different emotions to describe the mood of the poem. Keep in mind that moods can shift throughout the poem.

Examples:

Unknown seaman’ – the ghostly pencil

Wavers and fades, the purple drips,

The breath of the wet season has washed their inscriptions

As blue as drowned men’s lips,

Beach Burial, Kenneth Slessor

Slessor has created an ominous mood with the descriptions of death.

Repetition refers to words or phrases that are repeated.

It is used to create a sense of rhythm or motif.  Also, it can be used to add emphasis on a particular subject and makes it more memorable.

Example

“Herr God, Herr Lucifer

Beware

Beware.”

Lady Lazarus, Sylvia Plath

Plath uses repetition for the word ‘beware’ to emphasise the need for caution. This also evokes feelings of fear from the audience.

Rhyme refers to the last sound of a word being repeated in other words. 

Rhyme is used to create a rhythm and also makes the poem more memorable. It can also help establish a certain atmosphere.

Example

“Everything forgiven and in common –

Not that I see her behind you, where I face you,

But like Owen, after his dark poem,

Under the battle, in the catacombs,”

A Picture of Otto, Ted Hughes

Hughes uses an ABAA rhyme scheme for this stanza. This rhyme scheme creates an echo effect which adds to the ominous atmosphere of the poem.

Rhythm refers to the pattern of sounds in a poem.

Poets can create rhythm through various methods; repetition, rhyme schemes, metre etc.

Example:

“Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,

We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,

But had thought they were different; this Birth was

Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.”

Journey of The Magi, TS Eliot

Eliot creates a sense of rhythm through his repetition of ‘Birth’ and ‘Death’

A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g. as brave as a lion ).

Sonnets are poems made of 1 stanza with 14 lines.

They are usually written in iambic pentameter (see our Metre article to find out more about iambic pentameters) and tend to follow a ABABCDCDEFEFGG rhyme scheme.

Sonnets are usually written about human themes like love, nature and death. It also has melodic elements and sounds like a song; in Italian, the word ‘sonnetto’ means little song.

Example

“Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,

The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—

No—yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,

Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever—or else swoon to death.“

Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art, John Keats

Tone refers to the poet’s attitude towards a subject in a poem. (Do not confuse with mood)

Like mood, it is created through word choice, metre, rhythm, figurative language etc.

The poet’s tone in a poem affects how readers respond to the subjects in the poem. We can either feel the same way towards a subject as the poet or the opposite.

Example

“V

I do not know which to prefer,

The beauty of inflections

Or the beauty of innuendoes,

The blackbird whistling

Or just after.“

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, Wallace Stevens

Stevens uses a tone of contemplation or uncertainty in this poem. In this particular stanza, the line “I do not know” and the repetition of the word “or” highlights that the persona is unsure of many things in the world.