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