INTRODUCTION TO POETRY
Poetic devices and terms
ALLITERATION, ALLUSION, ASSONANCE

alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds
in words that appear closely together

Banana Bill bounced to Buffalo
allusion: references to a person, thing, event,
situation, etc.
 apostrophe: to address someone not present or
to personify an object/idea



“Oh Death, where is your sting?”
assonance: a likeness of sounds in words and
syllables, especially vowel sounds side by side
which each other
stony, holy
 bike, like

BALLAD, BLANK VERSE, CAESURA, COUPLET
ballad: a narrative poem of folk origin, composed
in short stanzas and adapted for singing
 blank verse: poetry with ten syllables per line
and no rhyme
 caesura: a break or pause in the middle of a
verse and usually marked by a scansion



Example: know then thyself ‖ presume not god to
scan
couplet: a pair (two) lines of verse that rhyme
and are the same length
ELEGY, EPITAPH
elegy: a mournful/sad poem of lament,
especially for the dead
 epitaph: a brief poem or praise for a deceased
person; a summary of one’s life

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Figurative language is language based on
some sort of comparison that is not literally true.
 A figure of speech is language in which one
thing is compared to something that seems to be
entirely different; a good figure of speech always
suggests a powerful truth to our imaginations
 simile: comparison using the words like or as
 metaphor: a kind of comparison between unlike
things where some connect is revealed

direct metaphor: says that something is something
else
 extended metaphor: over several lines of poetry
 implied metaphor:

FREE VERSE, IDIOM, IMAGERY
Free verse is poetry that is free of metric rules;
poets of free verse do not use elaborate metrics or
stanza patterns; everyday speech
 idiom: a phrase that has a different meaning
from the literal meaning
 An image is a representation of anything we can
see, hear, taste, touch, or smell. A poet, using
only words, can make us see and feel by
describing weight or roundness; they can help us
taste and smell by using words like “rosy,”
“sweet,” “bitter,” “mushy,” etc.
 imagery/sensory imagery: language that
appeals to our five senses and creates images in
our minds

METRICAL POETRY
rhythm: the alternation of stressed and
unstressed sounds that make the voice rise and
fall.
 syllable: a segment speech that expresses one
sound; one unit of sound (clap it out)

boy, cat, bike, row
 understand (three sounds= three syllables)

meter: a strict rhythmic pattern of stressed or
unstressed syllables in each line
 foot: unit consisting of at least one stressed
syllable and usually one or more unstressed
syllables
 scansion: metrical analysis of poetry

METRICAL POETRY

The following are the most commonly used
metrical units in poetry
 iamb (unstressed, stressed): ˘ ¯


trochee (stressed, unstressed): ¯ ˘


understand, accolade
dactyl (stressed, unstressed, unstressed): ¯ ˘ ˘


double, angel
anapest (unstressed, unstressed, stressed): ˘ ˘ ¯


insist, irate
excellent, imagery
spondee (stressed, stressed): ¯ ¯

football, rescue
MOOD, NARRATIVE POETRY, ODE,
ONOMATOPOEIA, PARODY,
mood: tone or general attitude of a poem
 narrative poetry: poetry that tells a story
 An ode is a lyric poem that expresses exaltation
of feeling and style
 onomatopoeia: the use of words that sound like
they mean



snap, crackle, pop, boom, smack, rattle, buzz
A parody is a work of humorous imitation of a
serious work of literature, art, or music
OCTAVE, QUATRAIN, SESTET
octave: a stanza or poem of eight lines
 quatrain: a stanza or poem of four lines, usually
with alternate rhymes
 sestet: a stanza or poem of eight lines,
specifically the last six lines of an Italian sonnet

PERSONIFICATION, PROSE, QUATRAIN,
REFRAIN, REPETITION

personification: giving animate qualities to
inanimate objects

example: The couch ate the quarters right out of my
pocket.
prose: ordinary written language; not poetry
 quatrain: a stanza with four lines, often with
alternate rhymes
 refrain: a phrase that repeats especially at the
end of each stanza, like a chorus
 repetition: repeated words or phrases
throughout a poem

RHYME

Rhyme is the repetition of the accented vowel
sound and all subsequent sounds in a word

lime/dime, history/mystery, lobster/mobster
rhyme scheme: pattern of sounds repeated at
the end of lines
 end rhyme: rhymes at the end of lines
 internal rhyme: rhyme within lines of poetry
 exact rhyme: perfect rhyming



cat/mat, can/man, bake/cake
approximate (slant) rhyme: when sounds are
similar but not exact

fellow/follow, mystery/mastery
SONNET, SPEAKER, STANZA, SYMBOLISM
sonnet: a poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic
pentameter
 The speaker in a poem is the voice that talks
directly to us/readers. The speaker is not always
the same person; sometimes the speaker is the
poet, but can be anyone else: a fictional
character, an animal, or even an object.
 stanza: an arrangement of lines in poetry
(functions like a paragraph in writing)
 symbolism: when objects, characters, or other
things give additional meaning or represent
something else

TONE, VERSE, VOICE
The tone is the attitude expressed toward a
subject and audience.
 verse: a type of metrical line/language; written
poetry
 The voice is a combination of the speaker’s tone
and style.
