Poetic Devices
A comparison using “like” or “as”
What is a simile?
Roses are red,
Violets are ________,
Sugar is sweet,
And so is this homophone of a depressed female sheep.
What is a “blue you?”
While he also wrote under the pseudonym “Theo LeSieg,” this poet and children’s author wrote rhyming classics such as “Green Eggs and Ham” and “The Lorax.”
Who is Dr. Seuss?
Simply put, it’s the technical name for a paragraph in poetry.
What is a stanza?
Betty had a bit of bitter…this dairy product can be salted or unsalted, and is produced by churning cow’s milk with a high fat content.
What is butter?
The repetition of phonetic sounds.
What is alliteration?
“Hey diddle-diddle…” a four-stringed instrument played by a cat while the cow jumped over the moon.
What is a fiddle?
This children’s poet, whose first name sounds like a sea-borne mollusk you might find on a beach, has written such classics as “Giraffe-and-a-Half” and a host of others contained in an anthology titled “Where the Sidewalk Ends.”
Who is Shel Silverstein?
Popularized by Walt Whitman, T.S. Eliot, and Ezra pound, this style of poetry does not follow strict rhyme, meter, or structure rules.
What is Free Verse?
Bobby Bales hit before Billy Bob using Bart’s homograph for a nocturnal, flying mammal.
What is a bat?
The attribution of human-like qualities to inanimate objects.
What is personification?
Forgive by me for my manners,
I know it wasn’t smart,
If it came out the other end,
It would have been this type of gas comprised of Nitrogen, Carbon Dioxide, and Sulphur.
What is a fart?
Widely considered the “Father of English Literature” and one of the most renowned poets of all time, this 16th Century writer was known for his sonnets, and plays such as Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet.
Who William Shakespeare?
A traditional Japanese poem with three lines, 17 syllables, and arranged in a 5-7-5 pattern, focusing on nature. It is often unrhymed.
What is a haiku?
Danny Donkey downed dozens of these sweet, hole-filled pastries, perfect for dipping in a hot cup of coffee.
What are donuts?
Descriptive language that appeals to the five senses.
What is imagery?
Jack and Jill went up a hill,
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down…
and broke this part of his body, a homonym for jewel-encrusted head-gear worn by royalty.
What is a crown?
This American poet with a “chilly” sounding last name, wrote poems about nature and the human condition, perhaps most notably “The Road Not Taken,” and “Nothing Gold Can Stay” as recently featured in S.E. Hinton’s coming-of-age novel “The Outsiders.”
Who is Robert Frost?
A humorous, 5-line poem with an AABBA rhyme scheme and a bouncy rhythm. Lines 1, 2, and 5 are longer (three beats), while lines 3 and 4 are shorter (two beats).
Example:
There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, "It is just as I feared!—
Two Owls and a Hen, four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard."
- Edward Lear
What is a limerick?
Seventy sneaky snakes snuck secretively in this North African biome characterized by sparse vegetation, specialized wildlife, and less than 20 inches of annual precipitation.
What is the Sahara Desert?
A direct comparison between two unlike things.
What is a metaphor?
Not the Fantastic variety of Roald Dahl’s imagination, but a member of the canine family just the same; this knitted booty-wearing animal made famous by Dr. Seuss, tries to slip-up a character named Knox with tongue twisters.
Who is “Fox in Socks?”
Widely considered the author of the first detective story, this American writer was better know for his macabre and horror style short stories and poems. “Thus quoth the Raven, never more!”
Who is Edgar Allan Poe?
The basic rhythmic structure of a line in poetry, defined by a repeating pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. It organizes the rhythm of a poem, adding a musical, structured quality that can make the verse easier to remember and enhance its emotional tone.
What is Meter?
Theopholus the Thistle-sifter sifted seven-thousand of these flowering plants. A symbol of Scotland, they are characterized by sharp, spiny leaves and stems, designed to ward off predators.
What are thistles?