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Poetic Device

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41 views2 pages

Poetic Device

Uploaded by

Sabit Hassan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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BANGLADESH INTERNATIONAL TUTORIAL

Poetic Devices/Figures of Speech


Nazrin Akter Sumy

Poetic devices are a form of literary device used in poetry. Poems are created out of poetic
devices via a composite of: structural, grammatical, rhythmic, metrical, verbal, and
visual elements. They are essential tools that a poet uses to create rhythm, enhance a
poem's meaning, or intensify a mood or feeling.

A figure of speech is a creative use of language to generate an effect. Some figures of


speech, like metaphor, simile, and metonymy, are found in everyday language. Others,
like antithesis, circumlocution, and puns take more practice to implement in writing.

Some common figures of speech are:


1. Personification
Personification attributes human nature or human qualities to abstract or inanimate
objects.
For example, we often use phrases like the howling wind, dancing leaves, time flies
etc. Some examples of personification in a sentence are:
i. The opportunity knocked at his door
ii. The plants in her house silently begged to be watered
iii. Lightning danced across the sky

2. Simile
A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a
different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid
Example: “as brave as a lion”

3. Metaphor
Comparing two unlike things without using “like” or “as”.
Example: “You are my sunshine.”

4. Connotation
Connotation is the use of a word to suggest a different association than its literal
meaning, which is known as denotation. For example, blue is a color, but it is also a
word used to describe a feeling of sadness, as in: “She's feeling blue.” Connotations can
be either positive, negative, or neutral.

5. Alliteration
It refers to the repetition of similar consonant sounds in a phrase or sentence.
Example: “She sells seashells by the seashore.”

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6. Assonance
The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a phrase or sentence.
For example: “His tender heir might bear his memory” (William Shakespeare, “Sonnet
1”). The “eh” sound in “tender,” “heir,” “bear,” and “memory” is an assonant sound.”

7. Consonance
Consonance is a literary device that occurs when words share the same consonant sounds, but
they come after different vowel sounds. The words 'dog' and rig' are near rhymes that use
consonance. They share the same hard 'g' sound, but the sound is followed by different vowels.
'Paint' and 'dent' are similar, sharing the 'nt' sound that follows a different vowel sound in each
word. These sets of words are examples of consonance and examples of near rhymes.
Consonance is not the only way to create a near rhyme. Alliteration and assonance are also
devices that create different kinds of near rhymes.

8. Anaphora
Refers to the repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of consecutive sentences
or clauses.
Example: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we
shall fight in the fields and in the streets.

9. Antithesis
Contrasting ideas expressed through parallel structure.
Example: “To be, or not to be—that is the question.”

10. Apostrophe
Directly addressing an absent person, thing, or idea.
Example: “O death, where is thy sting?”

11. Hyperbole
A hyperbole is an intentional exaggeration or an exaggerated statement that isn't
meant to be taken literally.
The sentence “I slept for a week after that tough practice” is an example of a hyperbole.
The speaker didn't literally sleep for a week, but they are using hyperbole to express that
they slept for a long time.
Other examples are_
“I gave her the ocean, for she gave me a drop.” – A line signifying boundless gratitude.
“His ideas were as endless as the sky.” – A line portraying vast imagination.

12. Irony
Irony as a literary device is a situation in which there is a contrast between expectation
and reality.
For example, the difference between what something appears to mean versus its literal
meaning. Irony is associated with both tragedy and humour

[N.B: Find out about imagery and allusion as well.]

Now you find out your poetic devices from the covered poems

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