POETIC DEVICES

Alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words ("nodded nearly napping)

Allusion: a reference to a well known person, place, event, or literary work

Onomatopoeia: words that imitate sounds (buzz)

Personification: a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics

Simile: making a direct comparison using like or as

Metaphor: a comparison not using like or as

Symbolism: the use of symbols to represent greater ideas

Irony: a contrast between what is expected to happen and what actually happens

Imagery: descriptive language used to create word pictures for the reader

Rhyme/ rhyme scheme: the repetition of sounds at the ends of words

Foreshadowing: using clues to suggest upcoming events

Apostrophe: when a speaker directly addresses an absent person or a personified object

Hyperbole: an exaggeration

Mood: the feeling created in the reader by the literary work

Tone: the author's attitude toward his/her subject

Oxymoron: combining two opposing or contradictory ideas (jumbo shrimp, thunderous silence)

Parallelism: the elitist ion of a grammatical structure

TYPES OF POETRY

NARRATIVE POEM

Tells a story in verse

Ballad: song like poem that tells a story

Epic: a long poem that tells the deeds of gods or heroes

Metrical romance: poem that tells a tale of love or chivalry

LYRIC POEM

A melodic poem that expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker (most common in American Poetry)

Types: Elegy, Ode, Sonnet

ELEGY

Poem or song composed especially as a lament for a deceased person

ODE

A long, formal poem with a serious theme

Often honor people, commemorate events, respond to natural scenes, or consider serious problems

SONNET

14 line lyric poem focused on a single theme, usually written in iambic pentameter

10 syllables per line, alternating stresses

Petrarchan sonnet: divided into an 8 line octave and a 6 line sestet

SHAKESPEARIAN SONNETS

SONNETS

Made up of four quatrains and one couplet

Quatrain= 4 lines; Couplet= 2 lines

Rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

SONNETS: QUATRAIN

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun (A)

Coral is far more red than her lips' red (B)

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun (A)

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head (B)

SONNETS: COUPLET

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare (G)

As any shy belied with false compare. (G)