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I am leading a series of Poetry Workshops on another website and thought some poetry fans here might enjoy a refresher course in the fundamentals of writing poetry. The fist workshop is a general overview of some Poetic Devices.
Workshop: Poetic Devices
Poetry, even blank verse, must use some form of poetic device to be considered a poem. I thought I would begin by posting a list of common poetic devices. Some of you have expressed the desire to learn more about writing poetry, so if you guys want to, we can go through these (and other) poetic devices during the next few weeks and discuss how to use them in our poetry.
Poetic Devices:
Alliteration – The repetition of initial consonant sounds.
Assonance – The repetition of vowel sounds.
Consonance – The repetition of identical consonant sounds in nearby words, usually with different vowel sounds.
Imagery – Words or phrases that appeal to any sense or any combination of senses.
Metaphor – A comparison between two objects with the intent of giving clearer meaning to one of them.
Simile – A comparison between two objects using a specific word or comparison such as “like”, “as”, or “than.”
Meter – The recurrence of a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.
Onomatopoeia – The use of words which imitate sound.
Personification – A figure of speech which endows animals, ideas, or inanimate objects with human traits or abilities.
Point-of-view – The speaker, or “teller”, of the story or poem.
• 1st person limited: the speaker is a character in the story or poem and tells it from his/her perspective (uses “I”)
• 1st person omniscient: the speaker is a character and is able to “know” and describe what all the other characters are thinking.
• 3rd person limited: the speaker is not part of the story, but tells about the other characters but limits information about what one character sees and feels.
• 3rd person omniscient: the speaker is not part of the story, but is able to “know” and describe what all characters are thinking.
Repetition – the repeating of words, phrases, lines, or stanzas.
Rhyme- The similarity of ending sounds existing between two words.
Rhyme Scheme- The sequence in which the rhyme occurs.
Stanza – a grouping of two or more lines of a poem in terms of length, metrical form, or rhyme scheme.
Refrain – A phrase, verse, or group of verses repeated at intervals throughout a song or poem, especially at the end of each stanza.
Related Articles:
Poetry by Kathryn E. Darden – Poems, Tips, Poetry Workshops and More…
