Name:_________________________________
Date:________________
Poetic Devices Study Guide
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Stylized Language – Language made to look like a style or a pattern rather than the way it would normally look
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Consonance – Repetition of the same consonant two or more times in short succession (example: “Pitter Patter “or
“All mammals named Sam are clammy”)
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Rhyme Scheme - the ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse.
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Assonance – Repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases and/or sentences
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Internal Rhyme - rhyme between a word within a line and another word either at the end of the same line or within
another line (example: I am the daughter of Earth and Water)
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Example: That solitude which suits abstruser musings. The vowel sound being “ou”
Ex: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary.
Personification- A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes
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Ex: Quoth the Raven “Nevermore”
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Imagery- Words or phrases that appeal to any sense or any combination of senses
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Alliteration- The repetition of consonant sounds at the BEGINNING of words.
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Ex: Sally Sells Sea Shells down by the Sea Shore
Now you try! Figure out if you can figure out which of the words above matches the example below (be careful as some
terms can be repeated!)
1. Toss the glass, boss. _______________
2. Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled purple peppers.
3. Mike likes his new bike. ___________________
4. These bees need knees. _________________
5. Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary _______________
6. Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
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7. The baseball screamed all the way into the outfield. ___________________
This next one is a tough one. Pay attention to the way in which things are said.
8. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d
His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
9. ...rare and radiant maiden
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10. The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky.
Look at the following poem and determine which poetic device most accurately describes it as a whole.
11. A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way
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12.
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13. Double, double toil and trouble _______________
14. Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December. _______________________
Create a rhyme scheme for the following poem.
If I can stop one heart from breaking, _______
I shall not live in vain;
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If I can ease one life the aching,
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Or cool one pain,
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Or help one fainting robin
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Unto his nest again,
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I shall not live in vain.
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