Poetic Devices
"Her smile was as bright as the Georgia sun." This device compares two unlike things using "like" or "as."
What is a simile?
A group of lines forming a unit in a poem, similar to a paragraph in prose.
Answer: What is a stanza?
Language that appeals to the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch) to create a visual picture.
What is imagery?
Clue: "Green leaves on the trees,
Dancing in the gentle breeze,
Summer's here at last."
Answer: What is a haiku?
Clue: In Katy Perry's "Firework", the line "’Cause baby, you’re a firework" uses this type of figurative language to compare a person to an explosive light display.
Answer: What is a metaphor?
"Life is a highway." This device directly compares two things without using "like" or "as."
Answer: What is a metaphor?
A traditional Japanese poem consisting of 3 lines with a 5-7-5 syllable structure, often focusing on nature.
What is a haiku?
The attitude an author or speaker takes toward their subject, such as playful, serious, or sarcastic.
What is tone?
There once was a fellow named Tim,
Who decided to go for a swim.
He fell off the dock,
And landed on a rock,
And that was the end of poor Tim!"
Answer: What is a limerick?
Clue: In Hamilton's "My Shot", Lin-Manuel Miranda raps, "I’m past patiently waitin'. I’m passionat'ly smashin' every expectation." The repeated "P" and "S" sounds at the start of adjacent words demonstrate this sound device.
Answer: What is alliteration?
Words like buzz, hiss, pop, and snap that imitate the actual sound they describe.
Answer: What is onomatopoeia?
Poetry that does not follow a fixed pattern of rhyme, meter, or stanza length.
What is free verse?
Clue: The overall feeling or atmosphere created in the reader by a poem's word choice and imagery.
Answer: What is mood?
"The fog comes / on little cat feet. / It sits looking / over harbor and city / on silent haunches / and then moves on."
Answer: What is free verse?
Clue: In Taylor Swift's "Mean", the line "You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard" uses this device to make a vivid comparison using "like."
Answer: What is a simile?
"The old oak tree stretched its arms toward the sky." This device gives human qualities to non-human objects.
What is personification?
A humorous 5-line poem with an AABBA rhyme scheme.
What is a limerick?
Clue: The underlying central message, lesson, or insight about life communicated through a poem.
Answer: What is theme?
Clue: A poem shaped visually like an apple, a lightning bolt, or a baseball bat, where the words wrap around to form the outline of the subject.
Answer: What is a concrete poem (or shape poem)?
Clue: In Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow", the repeated title words emulate the real-world noises of drums and bass. This technique uses words that copy their sound.
Answer: What is onomatopoeia?
"Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" demonstrates this repetition of initial consonant sounds.
What is alliteration?
When a sentence or phrase runs over from one line of poetry into the next without a terminal punctuation mark.
What is enjambment?
The literal, dictionary definition of a word, as opposed to its implied or emotional meaning (connotation)
Answer: What is denotation?
Clue: A 14-line poem written in iambic pentameter with a strict rhyme scheme (such as ABAB CDCD EFEF GG), often ending in a rhyming couplet.
Answer: What is a sonnet?
Clue: In "Let It Go" from Frozen, the line "The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside" gives the wind the human ability to howl. Giving human traits to non-human things is known as this device.
Answer: What is personification?