1. Form and Stylistic Elements
POETIC DEVICES
Form and Stylistic Elements

2. Form (Poetic Structure)
A particular organization of parts that makes a whole
Examples
• the way words are arranged in a line
• lines are arranged in a stanza
• units of sound are organized to achieve rhythm and rhyme

3. Two categories of forms
Traditional-follows certain fixed rules
Examples-sonnet, ballad, epic, ode etc.
Organic (or irregular form) does not follow any
specific strict rules
Examples-free verse

4. Stylistic Elements
Quatrains, or four-line stanzas, that echo the simple rhythms of church hymns
Example- Hope is a Thing with Feathers” by Emily Dickenson
"Hope" is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all

5. Stylistic Elements Slant Rhymes, or words that do not exactly rhyme
Example- “The Soul Selects her own Society” by Emily Dickinson
The Soul Selects her own Society Then shuts the Door On her divine majority Obtrude no more

6. Stylistic Elements Inventive punctuation and sentence structure
• Dashes- used to break up the rhythm and highlight important words; adds emphasis
• Irregular capitalization
Example
Emily Dickinson’s “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died”

7. Stylistic Elements
Inverted syntax--reversing the normal word order of a
sentence
Example
Whose woods these are I think I know.
-Robert Frost

8. Inverted Syntax
“Smart I am!”

9. More Poetic Devices
Cataloging- frequent lists of people, things, and attributes
Example "Song of Myself." Walt Whitman
The pure contralto sings in the organ loft, The carpenter dresses his plank, the tongue of his foreplane whistles its wild ascending lisp, The married and unmarried children ride home to their Thanksgiving dinner, The pilot seizes the king-pin, he heaves down with a strong arm, The mate stands braced in the whale-boat, lance and harpoon are ready, The duck-shooter walks by silent and cautious stretches,

10. More Poetic Devices
Repetition-repeated words or phrases at the beginning of two or more lines
Example
Beat! Beat! Drums!- blow! Bugles! Blow!

11. More Poetic Devices Parallelism-related ideas phrased in similar ways
Example:
“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

12. Last but not least
Figurative Language!!!!!!