[Sourced by Mr Gill, not necessarily produced by him!

Canadian Academy
English Department

Poetic Techniques
The following list of literary technique definitions may help you analyze how a poet
makes meaning.
A Few Literary Techniques to Consider:
In the body of your literature essays and your commentaries, you will be discussing
the methods that authors use to convey their message or to achieve their purpose.
Some of the possible ideas that you might consider in poetry are listed below:
Technique:

Definition and/or What you should ask yourself

Allusion:

A reference to a historical event or another literary work. Ask

yourself, "What effect does the author achieve with this
reference?" How does the reference convince you?

Alliteration:

Alliteration is the repetition of the first consonant sound in a

line of prose or verse. It is often used to indicate beauty
however, in Macbeth, it is a mark of the evil witches.

Anthropomorphism: Anthropomorphism is when a writer gives an animal (or other

living thing) human characteristics. (The technique is much
like personificationwith the focus here on living things.)
Apostrophe:

The direct and explicit address either to an absent person or to

an abstract or nonhuman entity. The technique functions much
like a confidant, in that it allows the character to give voice to
her thoughts.

Assonance:

Assonance is the repetition of vowel soundssuch as If aught

of oaten stop or pastoral song. It is often used to indicate
beauty or perfect form.

Atmosphere:

The overall feeling in the passage. Ask yourself, How does

the feeling in the work affect the reader? Mood is similar;
however, tone is differentas tone describes an attitude that
the writer wants you to take toward a character or subject.

Ballad:

A poem written in song form to tell a story. Originally, ballads

were sung.

Blank Verse:

Non-rhyming lines (either from poetry or drama) which are

written in iambic pentameter. See Meter.

Cacophony:

In poetry, cacophony is an unpleasant set of sounds that hurt

the ear. In general, a cacophony often parallels another

unpleasant aspect of the poemperhaps an unpleasant theme

or speaker. See Dissonance.
Close Reading:

The detailed analysis of complex interrelations and ambiguities

(multiple meanings) of both the figurative and verbal
components within a work. This is done both within texts and
with short passages of text (such as with commentaries).

Comparison:

Comparison is when the author presents two things or

characters as similar. Ask yourself, why would the author
want you to see this similarity?

Conflict:

A struggle between two sides. Consider which side the author

wants you to take?

Connotation:

When considering the diction used in a literary work, you will

want to consider the connotation of a word. While the word
murder means killing someonemurder also connotes
blame. See Denotation and Tone.

Contrast:

Differences--between two ideas, characters, images, etc.

Usually the author wants you to take one of the two sides
presented. This is similar to juxtaposition.

Couplet:

A pair of verse lines in poetryoften that rhyme in an aa

rhyme scheme.

Denotation:

Denotation indicates what the word means in the dictionary.

While that is the correct meaning of the wordthat
definition often misses the connotation of the wordor the
meaning behind the same word. See Connotation and
Tone.

Denouement:

See Resolution.

Diction:

The words chosen by the author. Why does the author choose
that word and not another? For instance, "gal" and "lady" both
indicate females--but why would the author choose lady--but
not gal. What feelings do you have toward the word chosen?

Dissonance:

A set of dissimilar soundsthat particularly jars the ear. It can

create the opposite effect of assonancesuch as to create
ugliness. See Cacophony.

Elegiac Stanza

An iambic pentameter quatrain, rhyming ababused to express

sorrow or lamentation. Owen uses the form often in WW I poems.

Enjambment:

Enjambment describes a line of poetry that continues from one

line onto the next lineoften with the period coming in the
middle of a line. This technique is often used to show

connectionrather than abrupt ends.

Figurative speech:

Written words that create pictures in your mind. What do the

images make you think of? See Imagery, Metaphor,
Simile, and Personification.

Foil:

A foil is a persona, which is placed in sharp contrast to another

personain order to highlight the second personas qualities.
The term comes from effect created when placing a diamond
on a piece of gold foil. The foil serves to make the diamond
shine all the more.

Foot:

The basic unit of measurement in a line of poetry. In scansion, a

foot represents one instance of a metrical pattern and is shown
either between or to the right or left of vertical line markers, as in
the following:

Monometer = one foot to a line

Dimeter = two feet to a line

Trimeter = three feet to a line

Tetrameter = four feet to a line

Pentameter = five feet to a line

See Meter.

Free Verse:

Unrhymed verse in which there is no apparent meter pattern.

See Blank verse.

Genre:

A type of literaturesuch as the following literary genres:

drama, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

Hyperbole:

Exaggeration. Why would the author exaggerate his/her point?

How does it make you feel?

Iamb:

A simple footcomposed of one unstressed syllable followed

by a stressed syllable. See meter and foot.

Iambic Pentameter: Iambic pentameter describes a line of poetry in which there are
five feeteach of which is an iamb. See meter and foot.
Most of Shakespeares plays are written in iambic pentameter.
Lines in Shakespeares plays, such abnormal lines that fail to
follow this pattern often indicate either a staging direction or
a abnormality of the character speaking the line.
Imagery:

Phrases that engage your senses. While the technique is called

imagery an example is called an image. There are seven
types of imagery:
Visual: How do these pictures contribute to a message?
Auditory: How do these sounds make you feel?
Tactile: How do you react to the texture?
Olfactory: How do the smells make you react?
Gustatory: How do you react to the tastes?
Organic: Images of body functionssuch as hearts

beating.
Kinesthetic: Descriptions of how muscles or the body
moves.

Juxtaposition:

Differences--between two ideas, characters, or images

pointed out by placing the different aspects next to each other.
Usually the author wants you to prefer one of the two sides
presented. Often, the writer will end with the idea that he
wants you to take. See Contrast.

Leitmotif:

A recurring idea in a longer workwhich is used to develop

the story. Leitmotifs often represent other ideas.

Metaphor:

An idea that is compared directly to another ideafor instance

a bear market. How might the comparison support the
author's purpose?

Meter:

A regular pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables in a line or

lines of poetry. See Scansion.

Mise en Scne

A dramatic term sometimes used in the same way as Setting;

however, the term usually implies introducing the directors
overall conception, including staging and directing.

Mood:

See Atmosphere.

Onomatopoeia:

A word whose sound resembles the sound it denotes, such as

buzz or bang. In a larger sense, a passage that corresponds
to or strongly suggest in any wayin size, movement, or force.
For instance, a narrow poem with jagged edges about climbing
a mountain may be using onomatopoeia. Ask: why is the
author using words to suggest the physical or non-physical
characteristics of the subject?

Parallelism:

Two ideas or themes being developed in similar ways. One

might be physicalthe other mental. By structuring ideas in
this way, the writer can make the non-physical easier to
understand or he can make the theme easier to grasp.

Persona:

In literature, sometimes an author will insert herself into the

textin such a way that she has created a fictional voice.
That author-like fictional voice is called a persona. It is a
specific type of character in which is found in either prose
or poetry.

Personification:

When a non-human object is given human characteristics.

Often the similarity between the object and the human helps to
explain the reason for the writers comparison. (See
anthropomorphism.)

Point of View:

The angle of vision from which a story is told.

Omniscient point of view: The narrator tells the story,
using the third person. He knows what all characters are
thinking and can explain why they act as they do.
Limited omniscient point of view: The narrator tells the
story in the third person, but limits himself to a complete
knowledge of one character in the story, knowing only
what that character thinks, feels, and decides.
First-person point of view: The story is told by one of the
characters, using the first person: I.
Objective point of view: The narrator tells the story in the
third person; however, the narrator only reports what his
characters say or dohe knows neither the reasons for their
behavior nor their private thoughts or feelings.

Quatrain:

A quatrain is four lines of rhymed or unrhymed verse.

Register:

The register of a writers work can be formal or informal. Ask

yourself, "Why would the author select a certain register?"
Often, informal language might invite us to see the writer as a
friend, while a formal register often helps create respect.

Repetition:

Why would the author emphasize that word or phrase by

repeating it? What is he/she trying to get you to pay attention
to?

Rhyme:

In English, rhyme consists of the repetition of the last vowel

sound and consonants around that vowel. For instance: greatlate or sister-blister.
End rhymes, the most common, describe the similar
sounds at the end of verse lines.
Internal rhymes describe the similar sounds within a
single line of verse.
Major rhyme or true rhyme describes words that are
perfect rhymeswith exact vowel soundssuch as blewtrue. Such perfect rhyme can imply a perfect form or
imply fully beautiful idea.
Minor rhyme or imperfect rhyme describes words that
almost rhyme, such as such as crooned-crowned.
Such rhyme often accompanies an imperfection in the
content of the poem. (See assonance and dissonance,)
Masculine rhyme consists of a single stressed syllable
rhymingsuch as bore-whore.
Feminine rhyme requires a stressed rhyme followed by an
unstressed rhymesuch as fasting-lasting.

Rhyme scheme:

Rhyme scheme indicates the pattern of end rhyme in a poem. It

is indicated with letterssuch as abab cdcd efef gg. The
rhyme pattern may be parallel to the theme of the poem. For
instance, in a poem about parachuting, the rhyme might

increase in occurrence and the speaker falls nearer to the

ground.
Scansion:

Scansion describes the act of counting the number of feet in a

line of verseand to look for numerical patterns that can
indicate meaning. For instance, while a perfect
Shakespearean line contains ten syllables, an imperfect one
often contains 11 syllables. Those imperfect lines often
parallel another imperfection in the text.

Setting:

The time and place of the passage. How do the time and place
of the scene affect the message? The setting may be parallel to
the theme or purpose of the passage.

Simile:

An idea that is compared to another ideausing the words as

or like. How might the comparison suggest you follow the
writers logical comparison?

Sonnet:

The sonnet has fourteen lines and is almost always written in iambic
pentameter; however, in structure and rhyme scheme there is some
variation. Most sonnets conform more or less closely to one of two
general types: the Italian and the English The Italian (or Petrarchan)
sonnet, (named so because the Italian poet Petrarch used it so often) is
divided usually between eight lines called the octave, using two rhymes
arranged abbaabba, and six lines called the sestet, using any
arrangement of either two or three rhymes: cdcdcd and cdecde being
common patterns. Usually in the Italian sonnet, there is a division of
thought between the octave and the sestet. The octave presents a
situation and the sestet a comment--or the octave a question and the
sestet an answer. The English (or Shakespearean) sonnet (invented by
the English poet Surrey and made famous by Shakespeare) is
composed of three quatrains (four lines each) and a concluding couplet,
rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. Again there is often a correspondence
between the units marked off by the rhymes and the development of
thought. The three quatrains, for instance, may present three examples
and the couplet a conclusion or the quatrains may present a unifying
idea and the couplet a comment or "twist" on the original theme.

Sound Elements

For Poetry and Shakespeare:

Consonants and their linguistic types:
Liquids: /l/ and /r/ flowing and fluid
Fricatives: /v/ /z/ /zh/ /th/ /f/ /s/ /sh/ /th/ /h/ speed and friction
Plosives: /b/ /d/ /g/ /g/ /p/ /t/ /k/ hard and explosive
Nasals: /m/ /n/ /ng/ inward sounds
Glides: /w/ /y/ suggesting duration and weight
Sibilants: /s/ /z/ /j/ /sh/ length and vibration / Snake hissing.
Dentals: /t/ /d/ /th/ abrupt stops / softer sounds
Gutturals: /g/ /k/ croaking like a frog or crow

Acceleration of tempo: when a few unaccented

syllables are grouped together, so that they are read fast.

Alliteration: the same consonant sounds at the
beginning of words. The effect can emphasize ideas,
make connections between ideas or words, or just be
pleasing to the ears.
Cacophony: harsh, unharmonious sounds; for example,
the harsh consonant sounds of attacked, cut, and
hacking.
Cadence: balanced, rhythmic flow.
Euphonic: pleasing to the ear suggesting euphoric.
Legato: smooth, even flow. Slow as in the musical
term.
Sibilance: hissing or secretive or softened sounds.
Spondaic: with two or more stresses next to each
othera spondeeoften to reflect the weight or
importance of the stressed words.
Staccato: crisp and detachedwith short, distinct
sounds.

Speaker:

In poetry, the voice that speaks the poem is the speaker. In

prose, the voice is called a narrator.

Stanza:

A stanza is a major division of a poem. It is similar to a

paragraph in prose.

Structure:

You can analyze the structure of a passagefrom the

beginning to the end. You will want to take notice the order
that information is presentedand other details. For instance,
in a poem about parachuting, the lack of any punctuation until
the final line might parallel the free fallwithout stop.

Style:

Style includes the many literary techniques that contribute to

the success of a literary work. They include the diction, the
tone, the structure, and other key techniques that altogether
contribute to the effectiveness of the written work.

Symbol:

The use of a widely recognized object to represent an idea.

How might the author be using this idea or object to get you to
think about a topic? An American flag can be used as a symbol
(as many people can recognize its use), whereas a red cat is
normally not used in such a way.

Syntax:

Syntax is the sequence in which words are ordered in phrases

or sentences. Ask yourself, What effect does the writer
achieve by giving the information in this order? The
sophistication or simplicity of the sentence may well help
convince you.

Theme:

The theme is what the work is about. It gives the work unity or

focus.
Tone:

Tone is the attitude the writer wants you to take toward a

subject or a character. Tone is often created through the
diction, imagery, details, language level (register), and syntax
that the writer chooses. It is different from atmosphere and
moodwhich both describe the more general feeling of the
passage.

These are some of the attitude words that you can use to describe tone:
Angry
Tired
Confused
Sentimental
Sharp
Bitter
Childish
Complimentary
Upset
Dreamy
Peaceful
Condescending
Silly
Restrained
Mocking
Sympathetic
Boring
Proud
Objective
Contemptuous
Afraid
Dramatic
Vibrant
Apologetic
Happy
Sad
Frivolous
Humorous
Hollow
Cold
Audacious
Horrific
Joyful
Urgent
Shocking
Sarcastic
Allusive
Joking
Somber
Nostalgic
Sweet
Poignant
Giddy
Zealous
Vexed
Detached
Provocative
Irreverent
Pitiful
Seductive
Benevolent
Didactic

Understatement:

The opposite of hyperbole: representing something as much

less in important that it actually is. Usually the writers effect
is to create ironysuch as when Mark Twain wrote: The
reports of my death a greatly exaggerated.

Verse:

Verse includes poetry and drama that is written in linessuch

as in Shakespearean plays. The opposite of verse is prose.

Voice:

That sense of a pervasive authorial presenceor intelligence

and moral sensibility, who has invented, ordered, and presented
the literary characters and material in just this way.