What tools do poets use?
Poetic devices and their definitions
Tools
Poets use tools to add sound, rhythm, meaning,
and emotional effect for the reader. Poets use
their power of observation, previous experiences,
and their emotions to create poetry. Other tools
include:
• Rhyme and Rhyme scheme
• Simile and Metaphor
• Personification and Repetition
• Alliteration and Onomatopoeia
• Imagery and Symbols
• Hyperbole and Exaggeration
Rhyme
Words with the same ending sound.
• Ex. Shy and hi
Rhyme scheme
The pattern in which the rhyme occurs in a
stanza or poem.
• Ex. Bid me to weep, and I will weep, A
While I have eyes to see;
B
And having none, yet I will keep A
A heart to weep for thee.
B
Simile
The comparison of two unlike things by saying
one is like, or as the other.
• Ex. Sunshine, like hope aglow,
Streams from heaven's sky
Bringing smiles of warming grace
On breeze whispers like a sigh.
Sunshine is like a hope.
Metaphor
The comparison of two unlike things by saying
one is the other.
• Ex. Clouds are ships in full sail
Racing across the sky-blue sea
Clouds are compared to ships.
Personification
Giving human traits to non-human things
incapable of having those traits.
• Ex. Anger frowns and snarls,
Sending bolts of fire from darkest night
Frowning and snarling are human traits that
anger cannot experience; however using them
as traits for anger creates the desired imagery.
Repetition
When one or more words are repeated to show
urgency or importance.
• Ex. Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so-called problems,
Better put 'em in quotations
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Alliteration
The repetition of a beginning sound.
• Ex. Rain reigns roughly through the day.
Raging anger from the sky
In the first two lines, the r sound is repeated.
Onomatopoeia
The sound a thing makes.
• Ex. Roaring with the pain
Caused by flashing lightning strikes,
Thunders yells, "Booooom! Craaaashhhh! Yeow!"
Then mumbles, rumbling on its way.
Grrrr, the lion's cry echoes
Roaring, rumbling, cry are not examples of
onomatopoeia, but are verb forms. Boooom,
craaaashhh, yeow, and grrrrr are examples of
onomatapoeia.
Imagery
The use of words to create a mental picture.
• Ex. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls
He watches from his mountain walls
The lines give you a vivid image of the scene.
The poem is about a predatory bird roaming the
sea for prey.
Symbols
An ordinary object, event, animal, or person to which
extraordinary meaning and significance is attached .
• Ex. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
The wood and the roads are symbols; The roads are 'paths of
life' and stand for choices to be made with reference to the
'course' of the traveler's life; the woods are life itself, and so
on.
Hyperbole /Exaggeration
An extreme exaggeration for effect.
• Ex. Giants standing tall as mountains
Giants aren't really tall as mountains, but the
use of the exaggeration helps create the desired
image.