Poetic Devices Year 7 Flashcards
Denotation
The literal, dictionary definition of a word.
Cloud: A visible mass of condensed water vapour floating in the atmosphe
Connotation
The figurative meaning, and the thoughts and feelings we associate with a word.
Cloud: Daydreaming, gloom, sadness, ominous, dull, unhappiness…
Verb
An action word, doing word, process, happening.
to run, to chase, to wander, to amble, to bake
Adjective
A word that describes or changes a noun.
Beautiful, ugly, red, green, dark, light
Noun
A naming word, a thing, the doer, usually the subject of a sentence.
Concrete: a chair, a table, the pen, person. Abstract: the celebration,
Sensory Language
Language that describes using the five senses: sight, smell, sound, taste, touch.
Creamy pasta sauce, crunchy leaves, rancid aid…
Simile
A figurative comparison saying something is lik something else.
My love is like a rose. She sprinted like a thief. The room looked like
Metaphor
Figuratively saying or implying something is something else.
Direct: My brother is a pig. Implied: The pig ate all my chocolates.
Personification
Giving human features to non-human things.
The wind whispered through the trees. Discarded plastic crawls through
Alliteration
The same letter or sound at the beginning of closely connected words.
S: Southern birds sang sweetly. H: He heaved himself from hell.
Onomatopoeia
Words that mimic the sound they make.
Bang! Crash! Clang! Pop!
Contrast
When opposites are put close to each other in or across a text.
Light and dark. Good and evil. Sunshine and rain. Old and new.
Repetition
The deliberate recurrance of words or phrases.
They tell me I’m unworthy. They tell me to leave. They tell me ‘don’t to
Sonnet
A poem with 14 lines that uses rhyme that is usually about love.
Example: Tree by Denise Rodgers [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tJh
Speaker
The voice or perspective of the poem.
Soemtimes this is the poet, sometimes this is a ‘third person narrator’,
Message
The main idea that the poet is trying to tell the reader.
It might be about how nature is important, or how love is hard.
Atmosphere
The main, overall feeling created by the poem.
This could link to the place being described - it might be an eerie atmo
Mood
The way the reader feels about the topic being written about.
The reader might feel pity for the speaker or the thing being described
Tone
The way the writer feels about the topic being written about.
They might have an angry tone or a disappointed tone or a sense of celeb
Hyperbole
Intentional exaggeration
It was the worst day. This school is the size of a small town.
