Poetic Devices Quiz

Poetic Devices

• Alliteration: Successive words start with the same consonant sound (or stressed syllable)
• Allusion: Reference to a piece of literature or cultural concept
• Anaphora: Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of sentences
• Apostrophe: Addressing an absent person or object
• Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds
• Cacophony: Use of harsh or jarring sounds
• Connotation: Implied meanings beyond a word's literal definition
• Consonance: Repetition of consonant sounds
• Contrast: Highlighting differences between subjects
• End Rhyme: Rhyme at the end of poetic lines
• End-stopped: Syntactic unit (phrase, clause, etc.) corresponds with a line break
• Enjambment: Syntactic unit extending beyond a line break
• Euphony: Pleasant sounds; conveying harmony and beauty
• Extended Metaphor/Conceit: Metaphor extending throughout a stanza or poem
• Figurative Language: Using words to evoke images, feelings, or ideas
• Imagery: Using descriptive language to create imagery
• Internal Rhyme: Rhyme within a single poetic line
• Irony: Contradictory statement or situation revealing a different reality
• Juxtaposition: Placing contrasting elements together to create comparison/contrast
• Metaphor: Direct comparison between two unrelated things
• Metonymy: Substituting a part for a whole or substituting a related idea
• Onomatopoeia: Word that imitates the sound it represents
• Oxymoron: Combining contradictory words
• Paradox: Self-contradictory statement that seems true
• Personification: Giving human qualities to non-human entities
• Rhyme Scheme: Pattern of rhyme throughout a poem or stanza
• Rhythm: Regular or progressive pattern of accents in poetry
• Sibilance: Repetition of "s" or "th" sounds
• Simile: Direct comparison using "like" or "as"
• Sonnet: 14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme and structure
• Symbol: Object representing another, often more complex, concept
• Synaesthesia: Blending of different senses in description
• Synecdoche: Using a part to represent a whole
• Theme: Central idea or message of a work
• Tone: Poet's or narrator's attitude toward a subject
• Zeugma: Using a verb with two objects, where the verb applies differently to each.