English Poetic Devices

alliteration

repetition of initial consonant sounds (Farting Flamingos)

allusion

a passing reference or indirect mention

apostrophe

address to an absent or an imaginary person

assonance

likeness of sound/partial rhyme, made by vowel sounds (The cry of the siren)

ballad

a songlike poem that tells a story

caesura

a break or pause in the middle of a verse line

connotation

the figurative meaning of a word (what it suggests)

consonance

the repetition of sounds especially at the ends of words

denotation

the dictionary definition of a word

enjambment

continuation from one line of verse to the next line

figurative language

writing or speech that is not meant to be taken literally, used to state ideas in vivid and imaginative ways

hyperbole

an exaggerated used to heighten effect

imagery

the art of making images (usually refers to figurative language)

limerick

a humorous, rhyming five line poem with a specific rhyme scheme

metaphor

(type of figurative language) the direct comparison between to unlike things

extended metaphor

A metaphor that develops beyond a single sentence or phrase

narrative poem

a story told in verse

onomatopoeia

using words that imitate the sound they denote

personification

(type of figurative language) the giving of human qualities to something inhuman or an object

prose

ordinary speech or writing

rhyme

the repetition of sounds at the end of words

end rhyme

rhyming of words at the ends of lines

internal rhyme

the rhyming within lines

rhyme scheme

a regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem

rhythm

movement of action marked by regular recurrence

similie

(type of figurative language) the comparison of two unlike things using as or like

sonnet

a poem of 14 lines, with a prescribed meter and definite rhyme scheme

speaker

whoever
speaks
the poem, the imaginary voice assumed by the writer of a poem

stanza

a group of lines of verse considered a unit (think paragraph)

tone

the poet's or speaker's attitude toward the subject, the reader, or him/herself (It can be using words like serious, sad, cheerful, amused, delighted, to name several)

verse

writing that has a meter. Free verse however, is not written in a rhythmical pattern