POETIC DEVICES

Poetry
the word poetry is derived from the Greek word poiesis which literally means creating
a word composition arranged in a rhythmic pattern and is used to express thoughts and feelings through a
specialized and heightened language

Unique characteristics of poems compared to other forms of creative writing include the following:
1. It expresses creative thoughts in much briefer way than a short story and novel.
2. It uses elements such as rhythm, imagery, verse and meter, and poetic devices.
3. It has a musical quality.
4. It has structure.
5. It is used to express intense personal emotions and experiences.
6. The content of a poem shows the universal truths and connotes a deeper meaning.
7. It does not use everyday language.
I. Form - Refers to external patterns of a poem including the way lines and stanzas are organized
A poem's not
A black cat hiding 1. Poetic Line the words that form a single line of poetry. They do not necessarily
Under the bed correspond to sentences, but rather to a series of metrical feet. Generally, but not
In a dark room. always, the line is printed as one single line on the page. If it occupies more than one line,
its remainder is usually indented to indicate that it is a continuation.
Poem's the cat 2. Stanza - a section of a poem named for the number of lines it contains. It is also
That jumps to life referred to as a unit of poetic lines which is the equivalent of paragraph in prose. They
At mice of ideas are separated by a blank lines.
Roaming around Forms No. of Lines Forms No. of Lines
Couplet 2 Sestet 6
Excerpt from Poems a Poem Tercet 3 Septet 7
by Tirupathi Chandrupatla Quatrain 4 Octave 8
Quintet 5
3. Enjambment when there is
no written or natural pause at the end of a poetic line, so that the word-flow carries over l(a
to the next line. le
4. Placement the way words and poetic lines are placed on the page of a poem. af
5. Capitalization and Punctuation In poetry, rules of capitalization and punctuation are not fa
always followed; instead, they are at the service of the poets artistic vision. ll
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A. Sounds one
1. Rhythm the basic beat in a line of a poem. l
Example: Whose woods these are, I think I know is iness
the first line from Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
Evening by Robert Frost. Notice that the accented - e.e. cummings
words (underlined) give the line a distinctive beat.
2. Meter a pattern of stressed and unstressed (accented and unaccented)
syllables (known as a foot) in a line of poetry.
3. Rhyme the repetition of sounds
a. End Rhyme same or similar sounds at the end of words that finish
different lines.
b. Internal Rhyme same or similar sounds at the end of words within a line.
4. Rhyme Scheme a pattern of rhyme in a poem.

II. Structure - Organization of images, ideas and words to present a unified impression or an idea to the reader

1. Subject - what a poem literally and physically discusses -- just the facts.
2. Theme - the unifying concept or idea of a literary work -- a readers interpretation of what the author intended the
poem to mean.
3. Tone - the poets attitude toward the subject of a poem as expressed through the use of diction, sounds, and other
poetic devices.
4. Diction - the word choice in a poem -- poets should always choose their words very carefully to impart the right
imagery, meaning, sound, rhythm, and tone.
5. Image - word pictures that relate sensory details -- or language that addresses the senses.
6. Speaker/Persona - the narrative voice of a poem. The speaker may or may not be in the poem itself. The speaker is
never to be confused with the author of the poem.
7. Point of View - the authors point of view concentrates on the vantage point of the speaker, or teller of the story
or poem. This may be considered the poems voice the pervasive presence behind the overall work. This is also
sometimes referred to as the persona.
1st Person: the speaker is a character in the story or poem and tells it from his/her perspective (uses I).
3rd Person limited: the speaker is not part of the story, but tells about the other characters through the limited
perceptions of one other person.
3rd Person omniscient: the speaker is not part of the story, but is able to know and describe what all characters
are thinking.
8. Genre types of poetry
Descriptive poem focuses on details
Narrative poem tells a story
Lyric poem expresses the feelings and thoughts of the poet