Poetic Devices English 10 Honors Mrs. Caine
Alliteration The repetition of beginning consonant sounds: The students wrote fast and furious Students study SAT skills to improve scores
Hyperbole An extreme exaggeration or overstatement The teacher gave a ton of homework The class was never going to end
Metaphor A comparison of two unlike things in which no comparison word is used Books are the doorways to adventure A thesis statement is the steering wheel of the essay
Onomatopoeia The use of the word whose sound suggests its meaning Example: boom, buzz, crackle, gurgle, hiss, pop, sizzle, snap, swoosh, whir, zip The pencils scratch the paper quickly Binders snap closed
Personification When the author/poet speaks of or describes an inanimate object or idea as if it were a person The chalkboard stared at the students The bell screamed the end of class
Simile The comparison of two unlike things using the words like or as Students work like machines A thesis statement as clear as mud
Assonance The repetition of internal vowel sounds Hear the mellow wedding bells Try to light the fire
Consonance It is the repetition of internal consonant sounds, usually in the more important words And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Whose woods these are I think I know.
allusion A brief reference to something popular or well known – can be people, places, events, ideas, songs – historical, real or fictional. Like a Scrooge, she rarely splurged on anything Like men before, we step small and leap giant
Free verse Lines with no prescribed pattern or structure The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.
Refrain a phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated throughout a poem, usually after each stanza From the day I was born I was his and he was mine. We were two of a kind. He hung the moon. I grew as he watched And we had the best of times. I saw in him a person I admired and watched to become. He hung the moon. He is the lock on my door That protects me from all harm. He shields the burning brightness Of my eyes. He hung the moon.
Rhyme Words that have different beginning sounds but whose endings sound alike The warping night air having brought the boom Of an owl’s voice into her darkened room, We tell the wakened child that all she heard Was an odd question from a forest bird, Asking of us, if rightly listened to, “Who cooks for you?” and then “Who cooks for you?”
Symbol Person, place, thing, or event that stands both for itself and something beyond itself. Heart = love Snake = evil
Speaker The voice that is talking to us in a poem.
Tone/Mood Tone is the attitude the writer takes toward a subject and conveyed through the choice of words & details Mood is the feeling in a work of literature