Poetic Devices

Question 1

What are the 8 things to look for in every poem?

Answer 1

Literal Meaning: What do the words mean? What’s the ‘plot’ of the poem?
Diction: What are the important words and phrases?
Persona: Who is speaking?
Tone: What is the persona’s attitude?
Opposition: What two (or more) things/ideas are conflicting?
Shift: Where are the major changes?
Poetic and sound devices: What are their intended effects?
Theme: What are the messages of this poem?

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

using a reference to an outside fact, event, or another source.

Question 3

Diction

Answer 3

a poet’s choice of words. Denotation refers to the dictionary definition of a word, and connotation refers to the ideas associated with the word.

Question 4

Enjambment

Answer 4

the running over of a sentence from one line or stanza into the next without stopping at the end of the first.

Question 5

Full-stop line

Answer 5

The opposite of enjambment, in which a pause comes at the end of a syntactic unit (sentence, clause, or phrase). This pause can be expressed in writing as a punctuation mark, such as a colon, semi-colon, period, or full stop.

Question 6

Imagery

Answer 6

the use of words to represent things, actions, or ideas by sensory description (the five senses).

Question 7

Irony

Answer 7

the contrast or gap between actual meaning and the expected meaning.

Question 8

Juxtaposition

Answer 8

the placement of two things closely together to establish comparisons or contrasts.

Question 9

Metaphor

Answer 9

a direct comparison of unlike objects by identification or substitution.

Question 10

Opposition

Answer 10

similar to conflict in prose, the two things that are going against each other in a poem.

Question 11

Shift

Answer 11

where the poet signals a change in idea, direction, or attitude in a poem.

Question 12

Simile

Answer 12

a direct comparison of two unlike objects, using ‘like’ or ‘as.’

Question 13

Stanza

Answer 13

In poetry, a stanza is a division of four or more lines having a fixed length, meter, or rhyming scheme. They are the “paragraphs” of poetry.

Question 14

Symbolism

Answer 14

the use of one object to suggest another, hidden object or idea.

Question 15

Syntax

Answer 15

the word order and line structure, as opposed to diction, the actual choice of words.

Question 16

Theme

Answer 16

the idea of a literary work abstracted from its details of language, character, and action, and cast in the form of a generalization. The message about the motifs.

Question 17

Tone

Answer 17

the attitude of the poet toward the subject she is writing about. It is the style or manner of a piece of work, an inflection of the mood of the piece.

Question 18

Alliteration

Answer 18

when a number of words, having the same first consonant sound, occur close together in a series.

Question 19

Anaphora

Answer 19

a repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses.

Question 20

Assonance

Answer 20

repetition of two or more vowel sounds within a line.

Question 21

Consonance

Answer 21

a repetition of two or more consonant sounds within a line.

Question 22

End rhyme

Answer 22

When a rhyme occurs at the end of a line.

Question 23

Internal rhyme

Answer 23

When a rhyme occurs within a single line or a verse.

Question 24

Onomatopoeia

Answer 24

a word/phrase whose sound suggests its meaning.

Question 25

Repetition

Answer 25

words, syllables, or sounds are repeated to present a certain effect.