1. Poetry Terms & Examples
Figurative & Stylistic Language:

2. DIRECTIONS: Set up a 3-column note sheet in your Literacy notebook.
Heading: Figurative Language and Poetic Devices
Label each column: Term  -  Definition  -  Example
Copy each term, definition and an example of each item into your chart. Leave the examples blank for now.

3. 1. Imagery/Sensory Details
Descriptive language used to create an IMAGE in the reader’s mind using words that appeal to the five senses:
Sight
Sound
Smell
Taste
Touch

4. Simile Metaphor Personification
CATEGORY #1 Figurative Language Devices Language devices used to draw comparisons and crate images in the reader’s mind.
Simile
Metaphor
Personification

5. A comparison of two things using the words like or as.
2. Simile
A comparison of two things using the words like or as.

6. Examples of a Simile DO NOT COPY
Bob is hungry as a wolf.
Bob and wolf are the two things being compared, using “as”
Sue smells like a rose.
Sue & rose are the two things being compared, using “like”

7. 3. Metaphor
A comparison of two things without using like or as. (Things = person, place, thing, or thought)

8. Examples of a Metaphor DO NOT COPY
Bob is a hungry wolf.
Bob is compared to a wolf.
Sue is a rose, filling the room with her sweet scent.
Sue (or Sue’s scent) and rose are being compared.

9. 4. Personification
A type of metaphor in which non-human things or ideas possess human qualities or actions.

10. Examples of Personification DO NOT COPY
The wind whispered her name.
Wind is being personified: “wind whispered”, because “wind” can’t actually “whisper.”
Justice is blind.
Justice is being personified: blind justice, because justice has no actual eyes that could be blinded.

11. Category #2 Rhyming Devices Purpose is to create RHYME and RHYTHM or set the TONE (MOOD) in the poem.
Rhyme
A. End Rhyme
B. Internal Rhyme
C. Slant Rhyme (or Half rhyme)
D. Sight Rhyme (or Eye rhyme)

12. 5. End Rhyme
A. Rhyme (true or pure rhyme): Words which end with the same sounds, at the end of lines.

13. Examples of End Rhyme DO NOT COPY
The deepest night
burning bright.
“night” and “bright”
A time to feel,
and a time to heal.
“feel” and “heal”

14. B. Internal Rhyme: Rhyme within a line.

15. Examples of Internal Rhyme DO NOT COPY
Bright night, a full moon above.
“bright” and “night”
We will stay today and then
we must go.
“stay” and “today”

16. C. Slant/Half Rhyme: Slight or inaccurate repetition of sounds (also called impure rhyme).

17. Examples of Slant/Half Rhyme DO NOT COPY
On top of the hill,
the moon is full.
“hill” and “full”
Give this to the man,
he’ll know what I mean.
“man” and “mean”
This as also called consonance when the consonants match (man/mean) but the vowel sound doesn’t.

18. D. Sight Rhyme (Eye Rhyme):
Words that look like they rhyme (similar spelling), but do NOT rhyme (also called sight rhyme).

19. Examples of Eye Rhyme DO NOT COPY
Listen to the water flow,
from above I don’t see how.
“flow” and “how”
When the game is over,
a true champion we’ll discover.
“over” and “discover”

20. Category #3 Sound Devices Purpose is to create RHYME and RHYTHM or set the TONE (MOOD) in the poem.
Alliteration
Assonance
Consonance
Epistrophe
Anaphora

21. 6. Alliteration
The repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of neighboring words. (Consonants are all the letters except a, e, i, o, u, and y.)

22. Examples of Alliteration DO NOT COPY
The dark dance of death whisked her away.
Repetition of the “d” sound in “dark dance of death”
Like a lucky charm, he looks on.
Repetition of the “l” sound in “Like,” “lucky,” and “looks”

23. 7. Assonance
The repetition of vowel sounds (within stressed syllables) of neighboring words. (Vowels are a, e, i, o, u, and y.)

24. Examples of Assonance DO NOT COPY
Talking and walking, hours on end.
Repetition of the “ah” sound in “talking” “walking”
A turtle in the fertile soil.
Repetition of the “er” sound in “turtle” “fertile”

25. 8. Anaphora The repetition of words at the beginning of clauses.
Purpose is to add emphasis/meaning or build to a climax.
EXAMPLE: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech”

26. 9. Epistrophe The repetition of words at the end of clauses.
Purpose is to add emphasis/meaning or build to a climax.
Example:DO NOT COPY
"For no government is better than the men who compose it, and I want the best, and we need the best, and we deserve the best."
(Senator John F. Kennedy, speech at Wittenberg College, Oct. 17, 1960)

27. Miscellaneous Devices
10. Onomatopoeia
11. Hyperbole

28. 10. Onomatopoeia
Words which imitate the sound they refer to.

29. Examples of Onomatopoeia DO NOT COPY
The eagle whizzed past the buzzing bees.
“whizzed” and “buzzing”
Rip-roar fire, the gun stutters on.
“Rip-roar” and “stutters”

30. 11. Hyperbole
An obvious and deliberate exaggeration (to emphasize something or for humorous purposes).

31. Examples of a Hyperbole
I love you more than life itself.
Love is exaggerated.
He could eat a horse.
His appetite is exaggerated.