Poetic Devices
The Sounds of Poetry
Examples:
● Buzz
● Fizz
● Woof
● Hiss
Onomatopoeia
● Clink
When a word’s pronunciation
imitates its sound.
● Boom
● Beep
● Vroom
● Zip
Example:
Repetition
Repeating a word or words for
effect.
When you, my Dear, are away,
away, How wearily goes the
creeping day.
Example:
There once was a girl from Chicago
Who dyed her hair pink in the
bathtub
Rhythm
When words are arranged in
such a way that they make a
pattern or beat.
I own a solace shut within my heart,
A garden full of many a quaint
delight
Hint: hum the words instead of
saying them.
Examples:
Rhyme
When words have the same end
sound.
Happens at the beginning, end, or
middle of lines.
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Where
Fair
Air
Bear
Glare
Example:
Alliteration
When the first sounds in words
repeat.
Peter Piper picked a pickled
pepper.
Slim-pinioned swallows sweep and
pass.
Examples:
Fixed in onyx
Consonance
A pillar of valor
The calm lamb
Fish in a mesh net
When consonants repeat in the
middle or end of words.
Creates a near rhyme sound
Practice
Write down which techniques are used:
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Alliteration
Consonance
Rhythm
Rhyme
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.
Answers:
Rhythm
Rhyme
Consonance
Alliteration
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.
Answers:
Onomatopoeia
Consonance
Repetition
Rhyme
3
A trumpet-vine covered an arbour
With the red and gold of its blossoms.
Red and gold like the brass notes of
Trumpets.
Answers:
Alliteration
Consonance
Repetition
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.
Answers:
Rhyme
Rhythm
Alliteration
5
Upon the enchanted ladder of his rhymes,
Round after round and patiently
The poet ever upward climbs.
Answers:
Repetition
Rhyme
Light alliteration