poetic devices poem A fairly short piece of writing, normally with a complex structure, divided into single lines. Often it expresses the speaker’s experience. Poems may be divided into groups of lines called stanzas, and they may feature rhyme and rhythm. Free verse is a form of poetry which does not rhyme. Usually the lines of a poem of this kind do not have a strict metre (regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables). The lines may vary greatly in length. concrete poetry Poetry whose pattern represents the subject. A concrete poem about a house would be shaped like a house. stanza A number of lines in a poem grouped together by the author, often with a regular pattern of rhyme and rhythm. verse It’s a single line of a poem. theme It is the central idea or ‘message’. It may be demonstrated by the use of symbols, repetition and statements. metre It’s the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem. simile A comparison between two objects or ideas, using as, like, and as if. (“The door creaked like an old man’s bones”) metaphor An idea is expressed by an image. Idea and image must share a certain feature. (“The door was a gravestone hiding old memories.”) personification Human qualities are given to an object or animal. (“The door screamed…”) alliteration A poetic device in which two or more words close together in a passage have the same consonant at or near the beginning of the word. (“Betty Botter bought some butter…”) assonance In this poetic device vowels in stressed syllables are repeated for emphasis. (“loud sounds”) run-on-line Also called enjambement. A thought does not end where the line ends but runs into the next line. The opposite is end-stopped line. repetition In a text, single words or whole phrases, appear several times. Repetition is a way of creating emphasis.

antithesis The use of a pair of opposites for effect. (“War and Peace”, Leo Tolstoy “To be or not to be…”, Hamlet) rhyme Two words rhyme when they share sounds in their stressed syllables. Normally the last syllables of a line rhyme with those of another line (end rhyme). The pattern the rhymes follow is called the rhyme scheme (a/b/a/b; c/c/d/d). If words in the middle of lines rhyme, this is called internal rhyme. rhythm The sound pattern of a phrase. It is mainly based on metre, i.e. the regular pattern of stresses and unstressed syllables. climax The moment in a play, novel, short story, narrative or poem at which the suspense reaches its highest point. It is usually the turning point in the action. lyrical I First –person narrator in a poem.