Poetic Devices

Alliteration “Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,” ~Walt Whitman “Something we were withholding made us weak Until we found out that it was ourselves We were withholding from our land of living, And forthwith found salvation in surrender.” ~Robert Frost

Allusion “So Eden sank to grief,” ~Robert Frost “Life is real, life is earnest And the grave is not its goal. Dust thou art, to dust returnest Was not spoken of the soul” ~Longfellow

Anaphora “Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice” ~Robert Frost “I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light. I have looked down the saddest city lane. I have passed by the watchman on his beat And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain” ~Robert Frost

Apostrophe “Flood tide below me! I see you face to face! Clouds of the west – sun there half an hour high – I see you also face to face.” ~Walt Whitman “Heart! We will forget him! You and I – tonight! You may forget the warmth he gave – I will forget the light!” ~Emily Dickinson

Assonance “I've heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me.” ~Emily Dickinson

Blank Verse “He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath. And then – the watcher at his pulse took fright. No one believed. They listened at his heart.” ~Robert Frost

Consonance “Whose woods these are I think I know,” ~Robert Frost

Epistrophe “The moth and the fish eggs are in their place, The bright suns I see and the dark suns I cannot see are in their place, The palpable is in its place and the impalpable is in its place.” ~Walt Whitman “But the olives were not blind to Him, The little gray leaves were kind to Him: The thorn-tree had a mind to Him When into the woods He came.” ~Sidney Lanier

Imagery “The straining of the cordage now The creaking of a spar, The deep dumb shock the vessel feels When billows strike and jar” ~Julia Ward Howe “He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake.” ~Robert Frost

Metaphor “Or I guess [grass] is the handkerchief of the Lord, A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt, Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say Whose?” ~Walt Whitman “Fame is a bee.” ~Emily Dickinson

Onomatopoeia “I heard a fly buzz when I died” ~Emily Dickinson “The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard” ~Robert Frost

Personification “Because I could not stop for death, he kindly stopped for me.” ~Emily Dickinson “The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering.” ~Walt Whitman

Repetition “The woods are lovely, dark and deep But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.” ~Robert Frost “It launched forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself” ~Walt Whitman

Rhyme “Tell all the truth but tell it slant. Success in circuit lies Too bright for our infirm delight, The truth’s superb surprise As lightning to the children eased With explanation kind. The truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind.” ~Emily Dickinson

Simile “Now the chimney was all of the house that stood, Like a pistil after the petals go.” ~Robert Frost “He fumbles at your spirit As players at the keys Before they drop full music on; He stuns you by degrees” ~Emily Dickinson “The clouds are flying through the sky Like spectres of affright” ~Julia Ward Howe

Symbol “A luminary clock against the sky Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right,” ~Robert Frost “Two roads diverged in a wood and I, I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference.” ~Robert Frost

Poetry Bingo! Rules: You will see quotes with multiple poetic devices. Choose only one poetic device for each quote, and make a note of it. The team with the first Bingo wins.

Fame is a bee. It has a song – It has a sting – Ah, too, it has a wing Fame is a bee. It has a song – It has a sting – Ah, too, it has a wing. Emily Dickinson

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps. His Day is marching on. Julia Ward Howe

When Death and Shame would woo Him last, From under the trees they drew Him last: 'Twas on a tree they slew Him -- last When out of the woods He came. Sidney Lanier

A noiseless patient spider, I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself, Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them. Walt Whitman

And you O my soul where you stand, Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space, Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them, Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul. ~Walt Whitman

From “A Bird Came Down the Walk” He glanced with rapid eyes That hurried all abroad, - They looked like frightened beads, I thought He stirred his velvet head ~ Emily Dickinson

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveller, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth ~ Robert Frost

“His sister stood beside them in her apron To tell them “Supper “His sister stood beside them in her apron To tell them “Supper.” At the word, the saw, As if to prove saws knew what supper meant, Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap– ~ Robert Frost

Of Courtesy, it is much less Than Courage of Heart or Holiness, Yet in my Walks it seems to me That the Grace of God is in Courtesy. -Hilaire Belloc

Little Lamb, I'll tell thee, Little Lamb, I'll tell thee Little Lamb, I'll tell thee, Little Lamb, I'll tell thee. He is called by thy name, For He calls Himself a Lamb. He is meek, and He is mild; He became a little child. I a child, and thou a lamb, We are called by His name. Little Lamb, God bless thee! Little Lamb, God bless thee! -William Blake

My heart is like an apple-tree Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit; -Christina Rosetti