Poetic Devices

Metaphor
Explanation: A direct comparison between two unlike things, asserting one is the other.
Example: “Hope is the thing with feathers…” (Emily Dickinson)

Simile
Explanation: A comparison using “like” or “as.”
Example: “My love is like a red, red rose…” (Robert Burns)

Personification
Explanation: Attributing human qualities to animals, objects, or abstract ideas.
Example: “Because I could not stop for Death – / He kindly stopped for me.” (Emily Dickinson)

Alliteration
Explanation: Repetition of initial consonant sounds in closely placed words.
Example: “The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew…” (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

Assonance
Explanation: Repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words.
Example: “The early bird catches the worm.” (repetition of the “er” sound)

Consonance
Explanation: Repetition of consonant sounds, typically at the end of words.
Example: “The lumpy, bumpy road.”

Onomatopoeia
Explanation: Words that imitate the sounds they describe.
Example: “The buzzing bee flew away.”

Hyperbole
Explanation: Deliberate exaggeration for emphasis or effect.
Example: “I’ve told you a million times.”

Irony
Explanation: A contrast between expectation and reality; includes verbal, situational, and dramatic irony.
Example (verbal): “What a pleasant day!” (spoken during a storm)

Imagery
Explanation: Descriptive language that appeals to the senses.
Example: “And the yellow half‑moon large and low / And the startled little waves that leap / In fiery ringlets from their sleep…” (Oscar Wilde)

Symbolism
Explanation: Using an object or action to represent a larger idea.
Example: The “green light” in The Great Gatsby as a symbol of unattainable dreams.

Allusion
Explanation: A brief reference to a person, place, event, or literary work.
Example: “He’s a real Romeo with the ladies.”

Enjambment
Explanation: The continuation of a sentence or clause across a line break without a major pause.
Example:


“I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.” (Joyce Kilmer)

Caesura
Explanation: A strong pause within a line of poetry, often marked by punctuation.
Example: “To be, or not to be — that is the question.” (Shakespeare)

Oxymoron
Explanation: A pairing of seemingly contradictory terms.
Example: “Deafening silence.”

Paradox
Explanation: A statement that appears self‑contradictory yet reveals a deeper truth.
Example: “I must be cruel only to be kind.” (Shakespeare)

Apostrophe
Explanation: Addressing an absent person, abstract idea, or thing as if it were present and capable of response.
Example: “O Death, where is thy sting?” (the Bible, 1 Corinthians 15:55)

Repetition
Explanation: Repeating words or phrases for emphasis or rhythm.
Example: “Because I do not hope to turn again / Because I do not hope…” (T. S. Eliot)

Meter
Explanation: The rhythmic structure of lines, defined by the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables (e.g., iambic pentameter).
Example: “Shall I | comPARE | thee TO | a SUM | mer’s DAY?” (Shakespeare)

Rhyme
Explanation: Correspondence of sounds at the ends of lines (end rhyme) or within lines (internal rhyme).
Example (end rhyme):


“Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night.” (William Blake)