15 poetic devices with their definition and examples
Answers
1. Allegory
An allegory is a story, poem, or other written work that can be interpreted to have a secondary meaning.
Aesop’s Fables are examples of allegories, as they are ostensibly about one thing such as “The Ant and the Grasshopper”
2. Allusion
An allusion is an indirect reference to something. For Example -
“The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers, and the crash hit them hardest.”
3. Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of a sound or letter at the beginning of multiple words in a series. For Example-
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…”
4. Apostrophe
An apostrophe is a poetic device where the writer addresses a person or thing that isn’t present with an exclamation.
For example-
“O stranger of the future!
O inconceivable being!
whatever the shape of your house,
no matter how strange and colorless the clothes you
may wear,
I bet nobody there likes a wet dog either.
I bet everybody in your pub
even the children, pushes her away.”
5.Assonance
Assonance is the repetition of vowel or diphthong sounds in one or more words found close together.
For example-
“ Hear the loud alarum bells—
Brazen bells!/ What tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune….”
6. Blank Verse
Blank verse refers to poetry written without rhyme, especially if that poetry is written in iambic pentameter.
For example-
“But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,
So far from cheer and from your former state,
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must.
7. Consonance
Consonance is the repetition of specific consonant sounds in close proximity.
For example-
“Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” - William Blake, “The Tyger”
8. Enjambment
An enjambment is the continuation of a sentence beyond a line break, couplet, or stanza without an expected pause.
For example-
“What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?”
9. Irony
Irony has a few different meanings. The most common is the use of tone or exaggeration to convey a meaning opposite to what's being literally said.
For example-
"Yeah, I love dogs," she said dryly, holding the miniature poodle at arm's length as hives sprang up along her arms.
10. Metaphor
A metaphor is when a writer compares one thing to another.
For Example-
“An emotional rollercoaster” is a common example of a metaphor
11. Meter
Meter refers to the rhythm of a poem or other written work as it’s expressed through the number and length of the feet in each line.
For example-
“But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief…”
12. Ode
An ode is a short lyrical poem, often in praise of something.
For example-
“Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?”
13. Pun
A pun is a play on words, using multiple meanings or similar sounds to make a joke.
For example-
"Mine is a long and a sad tale!" said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing.
"It is a long tail, certainly," said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse's tail; "but why do you call it sad?" And she kept on puzzling about it while the Mouse was speaking...."