Poetic Techniques Flashcards
This is imagery:
“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone”
What is imagery?
Visually descriptive language.
This is a simile:
“coughing like hags”
What is a simile?
When you compare two things using the word ‘like’ or ‘as.’
This is a metaphor:
“a foetus of metal”
What is a metaphor?
When you describe something as being something else.
This uses onomatopoeia:
“The slap and plop”
What is onomatopoeia?
Words that sound like their meaning.
This uses repetition:
“in every voice, in every ban”
What is repetition?
When words or phrases are repeated in a piece of writing.
This uses personification:
“???”
What is personification?
Giving human qualities to inanimate objects.
This is an example of symbolism:
“Not a red rose or a satin heart. / I give you an onion.”
What is symbolism?
When objects are used to represent something deeper (e.g. using an onion to symbolise love).
This uses plosive sounds:
“guttering, choking”
What are plosive sounds?
Hard-hitting sounds (like ‘b,’ ‘p,’ ‘k,’ ‘d,’ and ‘t.’)
This uses alliteration:
“the blown and broken bird’s egg of a skull”
What is alliteration?
When words that are close together start with the same sound.
Hughes adopts the persona of a hawk in the poem, “Hawk Roosting.”
What is a persona?
The voice or speaker in the poem - not the poet themselves (e.g. in Hawk Roosting, Hughes adopts the persona of a hawk).
This is written in free verse:
“Here. / It will blind you with tears / like a lover.”
What is free verse?
A poem with no clear sense of rhyme or rhythm.
This uses enjambment:
“There are just not enough / straight lines.”
What is enjambment?
When a line of poetry runs on to the next line without pausing.
This line is end-stopped:
“Take it.”
What does ‘end-stopped’ mean?
Punctuation at the end of a line of poetry.
This line uses caesura:
“He - has fallen - in the far South Land”
What is caesura?
A pause (created by punctuation) in the middle of a line.
