Elements of Poetry
Alliteration
• Repeating consonant sounds at the beginning
of words
• She sells sea shells down by the sea
shore
hyperbole
• When the truth is exaggerated
• The dog she saw was as big as a bus!
personification
• Giving human qualities to an animal, object,
or idea.
• The trees seemed to warn us with their
bare arms.
stanza
• A group of two or more lines that form a unit
in a poem.
As the icy droplets dance through the air
I shiver with cold and delight
metaphor
• A comparison of two unlike things
• *without like or as
• Life is a roller coaster
simile
• Compares two unlike things using the words
like or as
• He is as strong as an ox
Onomatopoeia
• Words whose sounds echo their meanings
• Buzz, smack, gargle
repetition
• When a sound, word, phrase, or line is
repeated for emphasis
Cannon to the right of them
Cannon to the left of them
Cannon in front of them
tone
• Expresses the writers attitude towards his or
her subject
rhyme
• Repetition of sounds at the ends of words
Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe
All mimsy were the borogroves
And the mome raths outgrabe