Poetic Devices

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4,6

Poetic Devices 

Poetic devices can be found everywhere, not just in poetry...

What poetic device is this?

"Tyger Tyger, burning bright,"
- William Blake, Tyger (1794).

"I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king"
- That's life, Frank Sinatra (1966).

1. assonance
2. metaphor
3. enjambent
4. alliteration

Alliteration

Alliteration: the repetition of a sound or letter at the beginning of multiple words in a series.

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…” 

Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven (1845)

What poetic device is this?

"Psychic spies from China try to steal your mind's elation"
- Californication, Red Hot Chili Peppers (2000).

Boy toy named Troy used to live in Detroit
- Anaconda, Nicki Minaj (2014).

1. assonance
2. metaphor
3. enjambent
4. volta

Assonance

Assonance is the repetition of vowel (klinker) or diphthong sounds (tweeklank) in one or more words found close together.

Chips and dips

Surf and turf 

What poetic device is this?

Cause baby you’re a firework
Come on show them what you’re worth
Make them go oh, oh, oh
As you shoot across the sky
- Firework, Katy Perry (2010).

1. onomatopoeia
2. enjambment
3. metaphor
4. volta

Metaphor

Metaphor describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison.

life is an emotional rollercoaster

the apple on your cheek

love is a battlefield

What poetic device is this?

Sweet like a honey bun, spit like a Tommy gun
Rollie a one of one, come get your mommy some
- Money, Cardi B (2018).

1. assonance
2. alliteration
3. metaphor
4. simile

Simile

Simile describes something by comparing it to something else with the words like or as.

life is like a box of chocolates

Those two are as different as night and day.

Similes are like metaphors. But metaphors aren’t the same as similes.

What poetic device is this?

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
- Sonnet 18, William Shakespeare (1609).

"Forget Barbie, fuck Nicki 'cause sh-she's fake"
"She on a diet, " but my pockets eatin' cheesecake
- Monster, Kanye West (Nicki Minaj's verse) (2010).

1. enjambment
2. personification
3. onomatopoeia
4. volta

Personification

With personification, you emphasize a non-human’s characteristics by describing them with human attributes. That non-human can be an object, an animal, or even an idea or a concept. 

The heart wants what it wants—or else it does not care . . .

“You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes.” 

- Thriller, Michael Jackson (1982).

What poetic device is this?

“Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
(...)
By the twanging,
And the clanging,

1. enjambment
2. pun
3. onomatopoeia
4. anaphora

Onomatopoeia

In an onomatopoeia the sound of a word imitates its sense. 

“Piddle-paddle, piddle-paddle, splash, splash, splash

Into the pool with a great big dash!”

What poetic device is this?

Bring me my bow of burning gold
Bring me my arrows of desire
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!

- Jerusalem, William Blake (1808).

1. anaphora
2. eye rhyme
3. simile
4. caesura

Anaphora

Anaphora is a figure of speech in which words repeat at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, or sentences. 

"So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania..." 

- "I have a dream", Martin Luther King

What poetic device is this?

Your skin
your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
You know, you know I love you so

- Yellow, Coldplay (2000).

1. anaphora
2. caesura
3. enjambment
4. assonance

enjambment

Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence or clause across a line break. 

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

That alters when it alteration finds

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! It is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

- Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare (1609).