An Outstanding Poetic Devices Guidelines with Examples (2023)

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What are Poetic Devices?

If you have enrolled in an English course, certainly, you will understand the significance of poetic devices. Also, you might understand, how important it seems to make appropriate use of poetic devices, as you want to score well in your English paper. Mostly, students experience trouble in using correct poetic devices, perhaps they know what it is. So, if you want to know, what poetic devices are, possibly this is the best place to learn. To illustrate, poetic devices serve as tools to develop rhythm, improve meaning and moods through different writing strategies. However, applying rhyme to develop rhythm is only one poetic devices examples. Thus, let’s learn more about its definition, examples, and uses as well as advantages and thereby deliver flawless English papers.

Precisely, every poem follows a rigid structure, however, various kinds of poems apply poetic devices. Also, poetic devices stitch different pieces of poems together, just as hammers and nails integrate planks of woods. Moreover, few poetic devices apply to literature as well, but we ought to explore it through the lens of poetry. Besides, writing a poem is not every person’s cup of tea, yet you may learn the skill. Perhaps, if you make effective use of words and choose the right rhythm, certainly, you have mastered the skill. Furthermore, in literature, you need to understand different types of writing and make use of appropriate words.

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What are the Examples of Poetic Devices?

Let’s now explore 12 important poetic devices and understand them through suitable examples.

1. Anaphora

To illustrate, an anaphora indicates a poem that repeats a phrase at the starting of each line. Frequently, it’s the core component of the poem’s development and in other cases, it’s used in one or two paragraphs. However, it’s not applied to the entire piece of poem.

Example: I am a feather in the bright sky

I am the blue horse that runs in the plain

I am the fish that rolls, shining, in the water

I am the shadow that follows a child

Precisely, the poem “The Delight Song of Tsoai- tale” by N.Scott Momaday is an experiment of metaphor. Also, the easy “I am “anaphora drives the audience’s attention towards the increasing need of the poet to describe himself.

2. Alliteration

Simply, alliteration is the repetition of a continuous sound at the starting of 2 or more subsequent words. Perhaps, an alliteration is a strong and subtle way of regulating the poem’s mood. For instance, a range of “s’es” words might make your poem sneaky, sharp, and sinister. On the other hand, a series of b’s, d’s, and p’s might give your poem a persuasive or heavy sound. Moreover, this sounds like beating sticks on a drum.

Example: Lord Ullin’s daughter

“His horsemen hard behind us ride;

Should they our steps discover,

Then who will cheer my bonny bride

When they have slain her lover/”

Subsequently, this example focuses on words like his horsemen and hard. Moreover, you will identify the “h” sound in three continuous sentences.

3. Assonance

Besides, assonance portrays the iteration of the vowel sound in specific sentences. Despite its complexity, assonance is identified regularly in modern poetry.

Example: Poem – The duck and the Kangaroo

“Good gracious! How you hop!

Over the fields and the water too:”

Consequently, in the above poem, you may find the iteration of the “o” vowel in words like good, you, hop, and too.

4. Consonance

Alternatively, consonance demonstrates the iteration of consonant sounds in specific sentences. Perhaps, the repetition is either identified in the starting or at the middle of specific sentences. Let’s understand the same through the example below.

Example: Poem – The Tyger

“Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry”

To illustrate, check the consonant “r” sound in each line of the given stanza.

5. Cacophony

Subsequently, the cacophony communicates the disorder message by providing a range of unpleasant and hard sounds. Consequently, poems which masters musicality might sound cacophonous. Though a cacophony sounds unpleasant, yet its impact isn’t unpleasant for the readers. Generally, a cacophony happens, when the poet uses a rude sound repeatedly.

Example: Poem – Jabberwocky

“Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves, an

And the mome raths outgrabe.

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!”

Did you identify any unpleasant or nonsense sounds in the above example? If yes, perhaps you have understood what cacophony is.

6. Euphony

Generally, euphony is one such poetic device that sounds pleasant to the ears of the readers. Unlike a cacophony, the flow of euphony is pleasant as well as sounds sweet.

Example: Poem – To Autumn

“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run”

Mostly, you may find few simple words that sound like a melody in the above stanza.

7. Onomatopoeia

If you want to create a dramatic effect, certainly you ought to use the right set of words. Let’s look at the example below and understand how onomatopoeia works.

Example: Poem- The Brook

“I chatter over stony ways,

In little sharps and trebles,

I bubble into eddying bays,

I babble on the pebbles.”

Did you notice the dramatic effect in the above stanza? To illustrate, words like chatter, trebles, bubble, and pebbles explain the summer season. Moreover, they establish a significant effect of flowing water in the poem.

Let’s further explore the sounds that might create a dramatic effect on a poem.

8. Repetition

Frequently, repetitions occur to highlight a specific scenario. Occasionally, it’s applied to make poems more appealing as well as attractive. Usually, repetitions take place in children’s poems and thereby drive the reader’s attention.

Example: Poem – The Green Grass grows all around

“There was a tree

All in the wood

The prettiest tree

That you ever did see

The tree in a hole

And the hole in the ground

And the green grass grows all around, all around

The green grass grows all around”

Consequently, words like “green grass” and “tree” display the right motto to all children.

9. Rhyme

Another, important type of poetic device is the rhyme that establishes a musical effect through the right sets of words. Moreover, two types of rhymes exist in poems that we ought to explore in the following paragraphs. However, before, we go any further, let’s explore one general example of a rhyme.

Example: Poem – The rime of the ancientmariner

“The ship was cheered, the harbor cleared,

Merrily did we drop

Below the Kirk, below the hill,

Below the lighthouse top”

Did you find the rhymes examples in the above stanza? Of course, cheered-cleared and drop-top is your answer.

· Internal Rhyme

Precisely, internal rhyme happens in the same line of a poem, for instance, words like “dreary” and “weary” demonstrate internal rhyming. Let’s check it below:

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

· End- Rhyme

Generally, it happens when two words are used in the same line and generate the same sound.

For example: “A word is dead

When it is said”

Thus, words like dead and said demonstrate the end rhyme in the same sentence.

10. Caesura

Do you speak without a break? Of course not, then how may you write a poem without giving a pause? Thus, caesura demonstrates a pause in the rhythm of the poems.

Example: Poem – The Star-Spangled Banner

“Oh, say can you seeIIby the dawn’s early light,

What so proudly we hailedIIas the twilights last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright starsIIthrough the perilous fight,

O’er the ramparts we watchedIIwere so gallantly streaming”

Did you notice the bold words in the above stanza? If yes, then start reading the stanza and use the bold words as a pause.

11. Allusion

Simply, an allusion serves as an indirect reference to a character, person, art, historical events, or even mythological situations. In a nutshell, it briefly describes the above-mentioned things.

For example, “The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers, and the crash hit them hardest”.

Perhaps, in the above line, the poet indirectly talks about the stock market, while he uses the phrase “crash hit”. Hence, this sentence is an allusion.

12. Analogy

Subsequently, an analogy communicates the poet’s message by comparing two different situations. Moreover, it supports the readers to understand the link between different or similar situations.

What are the types of Analogy?

Let’s now explore the different types of analogies that might help you to fare well in competitive exams.

• Simile- Simply, a simile compares two words, using the words like “as” or “like”.
• Metaphor- Unlike a simile, it compares two words, however, it doesn’t use words like “as” or “like”.
• Allegory- In short, an allegory describes a person, event, or symbol and might describe political or historical situations.
• Parable- Similar to an allegory, however, it presents the story with educational lessons or even principles.
• Exemplification- Generally, it describes the connection between a sample and what it states.

What are examples of Analogy?

• As light as a feather.
• Sly like a fox.
• As happy as a clam.
• Busy like a bee.
• As quiet as a mouse.

Further, you may explore below to understand the examples of kenning, marked in bold.

1. “There was Shield Sheafson, scourge of many tribes,

A wrecker of mead-benches, rampaging among foes.

This terror of the hall-troops had come far.”

2. “As his powers waxed and his worth was proved.

In the end each clan on the outlying coasts

Beyond the whale-road had to yield to him

And begin to pay tribute. That was one good king.”

13. Hyperbole

Simply, hyperbole explains the disgraceful exaggeration of an effect that pays attention to the practical context. Also, in Greek, it’s called overcasting.

Example: “Ride ten thousand days and nights,

Till age snow white hairs on thee,”

If you consider “ten thousand days and nights” certainly it’s not a normal situation. Hence, the above stanza demonstrates an exaggeration.

14. Irony

Generally, irony explains a contradictory situation that compares reality and what seems true. Let’s explore few lines from the play “Romeo and Juliet” and understand the irony better.

“Go ask his name: if he is married.

My grave is like to be my wedding bed.”

If you read the line’s rights, perhaps you will understand what irony is. To clarify, the lines describe a situation, where the speaker states that she will die if she finds the man married.

15. Imagery

Usually, imagery provides the visual representation of a situation and not describes the real condition. Moreover, it inculcates a feeling in the poem and develops a sensory effect.

Example: Poem – I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

“I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host of golden daffodils;”

Mostly, in the above stanza, William Wordsworth shares his feeling through the components of nature.

16. Oxymoron

Subsequently, an oxymoron creates a link between the contradicting words. Moreover, oxymoron words don’t contradict each other, but it depicts a different meaning.

Example: All the politiciansagreedtodisagree.

To illustrate the bold words the above are an oxymoron, so if you find it, perhaps you understood it right.

17. Paradox

Simultaneously, a paradox explains the opposite to expectations, existing believes, or even the perceived opinions.

Example: “The child is a father of the man…”

Though the sentence seems incorrect, yet it has a core meaning attached to it.

18. Pun

In brief, a pun depicts the word games that share different meanings and generates similar sounds.

Example: “I can’t remember which state my wife wanted to visit for our next vacation — it’s OK, Alaska.”

So, if you read the sentence right, possibly you will understand the joke in “Alaska”. To clarify, it sounds as if I will ask her.

19. Personification

Simply, a personification compares non-living objects to human beings. Also, it enables the readers to understand the true message of the poem.

Example: Poem – The song of the rain

“I have dotted silver threads dropped from heaven

By the gods. Nature then takes me, to adorn

Her fields and valleys.”

Did you find any personification here? To illustrate the poet compares the rain to silver threads that comes from heaven.

What are the Advantages of Poetic Devices?

• If you gain mastery in all the above 19 poetic devices, perhaps you will enrich the poems you write.
• Subsequently, if you don’t use poetic devices, then your work may look like any other piece of literature. Hence, to make your poem effective, it’s important to use poetic devices.

Final Thoughts

If you have clicked here, possibly this blog might have driven your interest. Moreover, if you read this blog twice or thrice, certainly you will understand poetic devices better. However, if you still face problems, talk to your professors, who may give you the best guidance. Also, if you need help with your assignments, consider talking to our English assignment experts, who will give you the finest deliveries. Though the poetic devices sound complex, ultimately it’s possible to learn them.

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