Poetry speaks to the senses. Poets create word pictures that create images in your mind.
Poetry speaks to the heart. Poetry asks you to feel something, not just think about it.
Poetry looks different from prose. Poetry is written in lines and stanzas rather than paragraphs.
Poetry sounds different. Poets pay special attention to how their work sounds. Think about the sound techniques listed below.
Poets are precise about the words they use. It is the right word in the right place.
Here are some Literary Devices used in poetry.
Literary Devices
Sound Devices:
Alliteration: repetition of the initial sounds of words, usually consonants
example: The river rose rapidly.
Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds in stressed syllables
example: We went deep into the green woods.
Onomatopoeia: using words that are like sound effects
example: We heard the zoom of the jet overhead.
Repetition: repeating a particular word or phrase several times for emphasis.
Rhyme: using words that rhyme in a particular pattern
Other Devices:
Simile : a comparison using “like” or “as” to point out a similar quality in two generally unlike things.
example: The small room was like an oven.
Metaphor: also points out a similar quality in two generally unlike things but does not use “like” or “as” Sometimes a metaphor simply states that two things are the same.
example: Jealousy is a knife that cuts deeply.
You can also create a metaphor by writing about one thing as if it were another thing. The following metaphor uses words to describe a crowd as if it were water. The words that create this metaphor are italicized.
example: The crowd floods into the open area, swirls around, and collects in small pools of people.
Extended Metaphor: a metaphor that continues beyond a single phrase or sentence
Imagery: language that appeals to the senses of hearing, touch, taste, sight, or smell.
Personification: An animal, object, or abstract idea is given human qualities. In the following example the human emotion of anger is given to the sea.
example: As the storm came, the sea roared its anger.
Line Break: the poet's decision of where to end a line of free verse poetry
The line breaks give the poem a particular visual shape. They are also used to accentuate particular words and/or images.