Be it prose or poetry, writers often use literary devices, which are techniques that help make a piece of writing interesting, poignant, and engrossing. Several literary devices are commonly used in writing. While some can be used in both prose and poetry, those used specifically in poetry are known as poetic devices.
Various poetic devices serve different purposes. Be it creating imagery or adding rhyme and rhythm to a poem, poetic devices can make a poem more appealing. Below are some commonly used poetic devices with examples.
Alliteration
Alliteration is when a particular sound or a letter is repeatedly used in the same paragraph to create a rhythmic effect. Usually, consecutive words or alternate words begin with the same letter, which can either be a consonant or a vowel.
Example:
When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them. But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay
Birches by Robert Frost
In the above example, words containing the letter “b” are frequently used to create a rhythmic effect.
Allusion
Allusion is a reference to any biblical, historical, mythological, or literary figures, events, places, things, etc. They are used under the assumption that readers are familiar with the reference being made by the poet.
Example:
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door—
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
In the above example, the raven is perched on the bust of Athena, known as Pallas, who is the Greek goddess of wisdom. This implies that the narrator thinks that the raven is there to bestow wisdom upon him.
Assonance
Assonance is a repetitive sound created using words that contain vowels either at the beginning, middle, or end of a word or phrase. Assonance is similar to alliteration. However, while alliteration uses words that contain repetitive consonants or vowels at the beginning of the word, assonance only uses vowels, which are placed at the beginning, middle, or end of the word, to create rhythm.
Example:
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
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Daffodils by William Wordsworth
In the example above, words containing vowels “o” and “e” are frequently used to create a rhythmic effect.
Blank Verse
Poems written in blank verse don’t have any rhyme scheme. However, blank verses follow a strict meter (the pattern in which syllables are stressed and unstressed). They use different combinations of accented and unaccented syllables. Blank verses are used for writing monologues or poems that are written in a colloquial style.
Example:
I am poor brother Lippo, by your leave!
You need not clap your torches to my face.
Zooks, what’s to blame? you think you see a monk!
What, ’tis past midnight, and you go the rounds,
And here you catch me at an alley’s end
Where sportive ladies leave their doors ajar?
Fra Lippo Lippi by Robert Browning
In the example above, there are no rhyming words used to create rhythm.
Consonance
Consonance is a repetitive sound created using words that contain consonants either at the beginning, middle, or end. Consonance, like assonance, is similar to alliteration. Alliteration uses words that contain repetitive consonants or vowels at the beginning of the word. Consonance, on the other hand, uses only consonants (but not vowels) either at the beginning or at the end of a word.
Example:
The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
Out-Out by Robert Frost
In the above example, words containing “d” (a consonant) are frequently used, both at the beginning and the end of words, to create a rhythmic effect.
Enjambment
Enjambment is a writing technique used by poets to break one line into two or more lines. The word “enjambment” is derived from the French phrase en jambe, which means to “go beyond” or “stride over.” Enjambment refers to when a poet stops a sentence midway and continues it in the next line of the same or the next paragraph. Depending on the context, a line break may or may not end with a punctuation mark.
Example:
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sunIs sinking down in its tranquility;
It is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free by William Wordsworth
In the above example, the second line continues into the third as an enjambed line.
Irony
Irony is another common literary device that is used in prose and poetry alike. It is used to show the contrast between what should have been and what is. Irony is often used to present an outcome that doesn’t meet the expectations of readers. This difference between expectations and reality often heightens the emotions of readers and evokes strong responses.
Example:
Aye; all was hushed. The about-to-fire fired not,
The aimed-at moved away in trance-lipped song.
One checkless regiment slung a clinching shot
And turned. The Spirit of Irony smirked out, ‘What?
Spoil peradventures woven of Rage and Wrong?
And There Was a Great Calm by Thomas Hardy
In the above example, the poet writes about the calm after the First World War, brought about by a gunshot, which is an act of violence. The irony that an act of violence led to peace is hard to miss.
Metaphor
Metaphor is a way of equating one thing with another without using the words “as” or “like.” This technique of likening one thing to another helps create imagery in the minds of the readers, resulting in better understanding of what the poet is trying to convey.
Example:
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Dreams by Langston Hughes
In the example above, the poet compares life without dreams to a wounded bird. This implies that a life without dreams can’t reach its full potential just like a bird that can’t use its wings.
Rhyme
Rhyme is a common poetic device used by poets. The technique involves using words that have similar pronunciation, which in turn makes them sound rhythmic. While different poets use different types of rhyme, the ABAB rhyme scheme is both popular and common in poetry. This rhyme scheme is a technique where the last words of the first and third lines and the second and fourth lines in a paragraph rhyme.
Example:
Bid me to weep, and I will weep
While I have eyes to see
And having none, yet I will keep
A heart to weep for thee.
To Anthea, who may Command him Anything by Robert Herrick
Rhythm
Rhythm is the effect created by stressing and destressing syllables or words. It sets the pace of a poem by emphasizing select words and also helps evoke emotions from readers.
Example:
When have I last looked on
The round green eyes and the long wavering bodies
Of the dark leopards of the moon?
All the wild witches, those most noble ladies
Dejection by William Butler Yeats
In the above example, although the words don’t exactly rhyme, the words have the same number of syllables, which adds a rhythm to the poem.
