Poetic Devices

yee/ ELA Sem 3 PPISMP 1

Poetic Devices in Poetry

Figurative Language Simile Metaphor Personification Sound Effects Alliteration Assonance Onomatopoeia Rhyme
yee/ ELA Sem 3 PPISMP 2

Poetic Devices in Poetry

Figurative Language
Simile - the comparison of two unlike things by saying one is like
or as the other.
Example:
Sunshine, like hope aglow, Streams from heaven's sky Bringing smiles of warming grace On breeze whispers like a sigh. Clouds are like ships in full sail Racing across the sky-blue sea. Wind fills the cotton canvas Pushing them further away from me.
Vivian Gilbert Zabel
Note: Sunshine is compared to hope while clouds are compared to ships.

yee/ ELA Sem 3 PPISMP

Poetic Devices in Poetry

Figurative Language
Metaphor - the comparison of two unlike things by
saying one is the other. A literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea.
Example:
Her eyes were glistening jewels.

yee/ ELA Sem 3 PPISMP

Poetic Devices in Poetry

Figurative Language
Personification- the giving of human traits to non-human things incapable of having those traits
Example:

Anger frowns aind snarls, Sending bolts of fire from darkest night That bring no brilliance, Rather only added blackness of sight.
Vivian Gilbert Zabel
Note: Frowning and snarling are human traits that anger cannot experience; however using them as traits for anger creates the imagery needed.

yee/ ELA Sem 3 PPISMP

Poetic Devices in Poetry

Sound Effects
Alliteration - the repetition of a beginning sound.
Example: Rain reigns roughly through the day. Raging anger from the sky Partners prattle of tormented tears From clouds wondering why Lightning tears their souls apart.

Vivian Gilbert Zabel

Note: The r sound is repeated in the first two lines. In the third line, p starts two adjoining words.

yee/ ELA Sem 3 PPISMP

Poetic Devices in Poetry

Sound Effects
Assonance - repetition of vowel sound
Example: the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven" And murmuring of innumerable bees Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Princess VII.203 The crumbling thunder of seas Robert Louis Stevenson Gradually kids who talked about Narnia kept getting balmier and balmier C.S. Lewis The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

yee/ ELA Sem 3 PPISMP

Poetic Devices in Poetry

Sound Effects
Onomatopoeia - the sound a thing makes
Example:

Roaring with the pain Caused by flashing lightning strikes, Thunders yells, "Booooom! Craaaashhhh! Yeow!" Then mumbles, rumbling on its way. Grrrr, the lion's cry echoes Through the jungle's den Causing creatures small To scurry to their holes.
Vivian Gilbert Zabel
Note: Roaring, rumbling, cry are not examples of onomatopoeia, but are verb forms. Boooom, craaaashhh, yeow, and grrrrr are examples of onomatapoeia.

yee/ ELA Sem 3 PPISMP

Poetic Devices in Poetry

Sound Effects
Onomatopoeia - the sound a thing makes
Example:

Roaring with the pain Caused by flashing lightning strikes, Thunders yells, "Booooom! Craaaashhhh! Yeow!" Then mumbles, rumbling on its way. Grrrr, the lion's cry echoes Through the jungle's den Causing creatures small To scurry to their holes.
Vivian Gilbert Zabel
Note: Roaring, rumbling, cry are not examples of onomatopoeia, but are verb forms. Boooom, craaaashhh, yeow, and grrrrr are examples of onomatapoeia.

yee/ ELA Sem 3 PPISMP

Poetic Devices in Poetry

Sound Effects
Rhyme - the correspondence of two or more words with similar-sounding final syllables placed so as to
echo one another
Example:

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled mefilled me with fantastic terrors never felt before So that now, to still the beating of my heart,I stood repeating: Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door.

yee/ ELA Sem 3 PPISMP

10

NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY

Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. Robert Frost
yee/ ELA Sem 3 PPISMP 11