English 332
Intro to Literacy
Poetic Devices
Metaphors - a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract.
Imagery - visually descriptive or figurative language
Alliteration - the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
Personification - the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman
Rhythm - a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound
Couplets - two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit.
Repetition - the action of repeating something that has already been said or written
Stanza - a group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem
Colloquial Language - Informal language employed in casual conversation
Simile - a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind ex. ‘like’ or ‘as’
Sonnet - a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes
Onomatopoeia - the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named ex. Bang!
Hyperbole - exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. Ex. Mom is gonna kill me!
Turn of Phrase - Manner of expression
Juxtaposition - the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.
Assonance - the repetition of the sound of a vowel
Oxymoron - a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction
Caesura - a break between words
Enjambment - the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line
Stream of Consciousness - a person's thoughts and conscious reactions to events, perceived as a continuous flow.
Play on words/Pun - A word or turn of phrase with a double meaning, a pun or other humorous use of language.
What kinds of poetic devices can you find within these two poems?
Can these also be found in hip-hop lyrics?
Check out the music page and look for similarities!
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
-Shakespeare
Marvell Noir
Sweetheart, if we had the time,
A week in bed would be no crime.
I’d light your Camels, pour your Jack;
You’d do shiatsu on my back.
When you got up to scramble eggs,
I’d write a sonnet to your legs,
And you could watch my stubble grow.
Yes, gorgeous, we’d take it slow.
I’d hear the whole sad tale again:
A roadhouse band; you can’t trust men;
He set you up; you had to eat,
And bitter with the bittersweet
Was what they dished you; Ginger lied;
You weren’t there when Sanchez died;
You didn’t know the pearls were fake …
Aw, can it, sport! Make no mistake,
You’re in it, doll, up to your eyeballs!
Tears? Please! You’ll dilute our highballs,
And make that angel face a mess
For the nice Lieutenant. I confess
I’m nuts for you—but take the rap?
You must think I’m some other sap!
And, precious, I kind of wish I was.
Well, when they spring you, give a buzz;
Guess I’ll get back to Archie’s wife,
And you’ll get twenty-five to life.
You’ll have time then, more than enough,
To reminisce about the stuff
That dreams are made of and the men
You suckered. Sadly, in the pen
Your kind of talent goes to waste.
But Irish bars are more my taste
Than iron ones: stripes ain’t my style.
You’re going down; I promise I’ll
Come visit every other year.
Now kiss me, sweet—the squad car’s here.
- Ann Lauinger