Poetic Devices: Definition, Types &

Examples
Introduction
Poetic devices are tools that a poet can use to create rhythm, enhance a poem's meaning, or intensify a
mood or feeling. Poetry can follow a strict structure, or none at all, but many different types of poems
use poetic devices. These devices help piece the poem together, much like a hammer and nails join
planks of wood together. Some of these devices are used in literature as well, but for the sake of clarity,
we will look at all of these devices through the lens of poetry.
Definitions And Examples
Although some devices can be used for more than one purpose, they can be loosely grouped together
to show their primary purpose. Carefully read the definitions and examples grouped together below so
that you can easily identify these tools while understanding why a poet might use them.
Poetic Devices That Can Create Rhythm
Repetition: Repeating words, phrases, or lines in poetry. For example, Edgar Allen Poe's poem 'The
Bells' repeats the word bells. By doing so, Poe creates a sing-song rhythm similar to that of bells
ringing.
To the swinging and the ringing
of the bells, bells, bells--
Anapest: Two unaccented syllables with an accented one right after it. Examples: com-pre-HEND or in-
ter-VENE. An anapestic meter creates rhythm as in Byron's lines from 'The Destruction of Sennacherib'.
Read the lines below and count out the syllables, noting how every third syllable is the accented one.
Anapestic meter is challenging to craft, but it creates a powerful rhythmic flow as seen below.
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
Dactyl: A stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones, as in FLUT-ter-ing or BLACK-ber-ry.
Tennyson's poem 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' uses dactyl meter in the lines below. As you read it,
you'll notice that he consistently follows the pattern of one stressed syllable then two unstressed
syllables.
Forward, the Light Brigade!...Half a league, half a league
Couplet: Two rhymed lines that are together and may or may not stand alone within a poem.
Shakespeare's sonnets end in couplets, as in his 'Sonnet 29' below. Shakespeare's couplet below
consists of two lines that have end rhyme because of the words 'brings' and 'kings.'
'For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.'
Internal Rhyme: A rhyme that typically occurs within the same line of poetry. Edgar Allen Poe's 'The
Raven' uses internal rhyme with the words dreary and weary':
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary'
End Rhyme: A rhyme that occurs when two words at the end of lines rhyme. Emily Dickinson's poem 'A
Word' uses end rhyme by rhyming the words 'dead' and 'said' at the end of the lines.
A word is dead
When it is said
Poetic Devices That Can Enhance a Poem's Meaning
Simile: A comparison between two unlike things using like or as. Often the similar qualities that these
two unlike things possess will use sight, sound, touch, etc. A simile can get the reader to look at
something in a different way. In 'Harlem', Langston Hughes compares a dream deferred to a raisin using
the word 'like'. His comparison encourages the reader to look at raisins and dreams postponed in a new
way.
'What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun'
Metaphor: A comparison between two unlike things without using like or as. Just like a simile, a
metaphor uses the senses and compares two things in a meaningful way. John Donne's poem 'The Sun
Rising' uses a powerful metaphor: 'She is all states, and all princes, I.' Through this comparison, Donne
is saying that his beloved is richer than all states, while he is richer than the princes because of their
love, and he does not use 'like' or 'as' in his comparison.
Symbol: An object that means more than itself and represents something else. In Robert Frost's poem
'The Road Not Taken', he talks about deciding which path to take when coming to a fork in the road. He
examines both routes: that road could symbolize choices in life, a specific decision that must be made,
etc. So, the actual road that he describes represents something much greater that what it is.
Imagery: Using words to create an image in the reader's mind. Imagery is based on our five senses
though visual imagery is used the most. The images created contribute to a poem's meaning. In William
Wordsworth's poem 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud', his emotions build with the images he creates.
Read the lines below and notice how Wordsworth's lines create images in your head because of the
specific details that he uses, thereby creating imagery.
'I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;'
Apostrophe: Addressing a person within the poem who is usually absent or deceased. In William
Wordsworth's poem 'London, 1802' he calls to the late English poet John Milton. He is, in essence,
quoting himself 'speaking' to the late poet:
'Milton! Thou shouldst be living in this hour; England hath need of thee'
Poetic Devices That Can Intensify a Mood or Feeling
Hyperbole: An exaggeration that is used for dramatic effect. John Donne uses hyperbole in his poem:
'Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star.'
'Ride ten thousand days and nights,
'Til age snow white hairs on thee,'
Obviously, 'ten thousand days and nights' might be a bit of an exaggeration (as is claiming that we'll be
white-haired by the time the journey is over), but the point gets across: a long, long time will pass.
Onomatopoeia: Using words that resemble or imitate sounds. Words like 'bang' and 'boom' could add
to the intensity of a poem as those sounds could be reminiscent of war or violence, whereas
words/sounds like 'tweet' and 'purr' could add to a tranquil feeling within a poem about the calming
effects of nature.
Personification: Giving a non-living thing qualities of something that is alive. How the poet chooses to
describe the inanimate object behaving as if it's alive shapes what type of feeling will be magnified in
the poem. If a poet describes the sun as 'angrily beating down on the people below', negative feelings
are heightened. But, if the poet says the sun 'smiled down on the people, gently warming them' then
positive feelings of contentment are conveyed through the use of personification. Of course, the sun
can't actually beat down on people nor can it smile, but personifying it means the poet makes it behave
like it's a living thing with a personality.