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Poetic devices

Poetic devices are specialized literary techniques used by poets to enhance the structure, sound, rhythm, and meaning of their verse, allowing for compressed expression and deeper emotional resonance.^[1] These tools, which include elements like figurative language, imagery, and sound patterns, enable writers to convey complex ideas, tones, and messages more vividly and efficiently than literal prose.^[2] By manipulating language in deliberate ways, poetic devices transform ordinary words into evocative art forms that engage readers on multiple sensory and intellectual levels.^[3] Common categories of poetic devices encompass sound-based elements, structural forms, and figurative expressions. Sound devices, such as alliteration (repetition of initial consonant sounds, e.g., "wild waves") and assonance (repetition of vowel sounds, e.g., "fleet feet sweep"), create musicality and emphasize key ideas.^[3] Structural devices include meter (rhythmic patterns like iambic pentameter) and stanzas (grouped lines that organize the poem's flow), which provide a framework for the poem's progression.^[3] Figurative devices, meanwhile, rely on non-literal comparisons: a metaphor equates two unlike things directly (e.g., "life is a stage"), while a simile uses "like" or "as" (e.g., "brave as a lion"), and imagery evokes sensory details to immerse the reader (e.g., descriptions of scents or textures).^[2] Beyond these, poetic devices also incorporate diction—careful word choice that carries both denotative (literal) and connotative (emotional) meanings—to shape tone and nuance, as seen in how "home" evokes warmth versus the formality of "residence."^[2] Devices like irony, symbolism, and allusion further layer meaning by referencing broader cultural or historical contexts, while rhyme and rhythm contribute to the poem's auditory appeal and memorability.^[1] Overall, these techniques are essential for poetic craft, as they not only heighten aesthetic pleasure but also facilitate profound exploration of human experience, making poetry a distinct and powerful mode of literature.^[3]

Sound Devices

Alliteration

Alliteration is a poetic device characterized by the repetition of the same initial consonant sound in a series of nearby words, creating an audible pulse that enhances rhythm and emphasis in verse.^[4] This repetition typically involves stressed syllables and serves to unify phrases phonetically, distinguishing it from mere visual similarity in spelling.^[5] In poetry, alliteration functions as a sound device that contributes to the overall musicality, often linking to other auditory elements like assonance for broader sonic effects.^[6] The origins of alliteration trace back to Old English poetry, where it formed the structural basis of alliterative verse, a tradition that organized lines through sound patterns rather than end rhyme.^[7] In works like Beowulf, composed around the 8th to 11th centuries, alliteration linked two or three stressed syllables per half-line, with the first half often carrying double alliteration to mark the line's caesura, enabling oral performance without reliance on fixed rhyme schemes.^[8] This Germanic verse form emphasized the repetition of initial consonants to propel narrative momentum, influencing later medieval English literature.^[9] Prominent examples of alliteration appear in later English poetry, such as William Shakespeare's Macbeth, where the witches' chant opens with "Fair is foul, and foul is fair", repeating the 'f' sound to evoke ambiguity and foreboding.^[10] Another instance occurs in the same scene: "Hover through the fog and filthy air", where the 'f' alliteration intensifies the misty, ominous atmosphere.^[11] These uses demonstrate how alliteration can underscore thematic contrasts in dramatic verse. Alliteration influences mood by amplifying emotional resonance and directing reader attention, often building tension through phonetic intensity or mimicking natural sounds for vivid effect.^[12] In Macbeth, the harsh 'f' fricatives in the opening lines create an eerie, unsettling tone that foreshadows moral inversion and chaos.^[10] More broadly, it heightens aesthetic engagement, drawing focus to key ideas and evoking sensory responses that deepen the poem's impact.^[13] Variations of alliteration include head rhyme, also known as initial rhyme, which emphasizes the onset consonants in versification across languages like Old Germanic and Tuvan.^[14] In Tuvan poetry, head rhyme structures lines by repeating initial sounds, similar to alliterative patterns but adapted to Turkic phonology for rhythmic cohesion.^[15] Such forms extend the device's application beyond English, appearing in alphabetic acrostics or modified initial rhymes in medieval and non-Indo-European traditions.^[16]

Assonance and Consonance

Assonance refers to the repetition of similar vowel sounds in nearby words, typically within stressed syllables, to create internal harmony and musicality without relying on full rhyme.^[17] This device enhances the auditory texture of poetry, drawing attention to emotional or thematic undertones through subtle sonic echoes. A classic example appears in Robert Louis Stevenson's line "fleet feet sweep by sleeping geese," where the repeated long "ee" vowel sound evokes swift, light movement.^[18] Consonance, in contrast, involves the repetition of consonant sounds—often non-initial ones—within or at the ends of words in close proximity, contributing to rhythm and cohesion.^[19] Unlike alliteration, which focuses on initial consonants, consonance emphasizes internal or terminal repetitions to build tension or mimic natural cadences. For instance, the onomatopoeic "pitter-patter" repeats the "t" sound to imitate rainfall, while Wilfred Owen's "less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow" from his poem "Exposure" employs recurring "s" and "sh" sibilants to convey the hushed, relentless chill of war.^[20] When assonance and consonance combine, they often form the basis of slant rhyme or internal rhyme schemes, where imperfect sound matches at word ends or mid-line create nuanced, less predictable patterns than traditional end-rhymes.^[21] This technique allows poets to achieve a sense of resolution while maintaining ambiguity, as seen in Emily Dickinson's use of near-matches like "chill" and "tell" to underscore isolation.^[22] In Romantic poetry, assonance and consonance gained prominence for their ability to infuse verse with organic musicality, contrasting the rigid structures of neoclassical forms and emphasizing natural speech rhythms. Poets such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge employed these devices to evoke sensory immersion; for example, Wordsworth's "I wandered lonely as a cloud" repeats "o" vowels in "lonely," "floats," and "o'er" to mirror the drifting motion of clouds and daffodils.^[23] Coleridge similarly layered consonant echoes in "Kubla Khan" to heighten the dreamlike intensity of its landscapes.^[24] This subtle sonic layering supported the Romantic ideal of emotional spontaneity over formal constraint. To analyze assonance and consonance, readers identify repeated sounds by scanning lines for phonetic patterns, noting their proximity and placement to assess contributions to mood or pacing—such as how sibilant consonance might suggest secrecy, or assonant vowels foster fluidity.^[25] This involves phonetic transcription to isolate vowels or consonants, then interpreting their cumulative effect on the poem's thematic resonance, like amplifying desolation in Owen's wartime imagery.^[26]

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is a figure of speech in which a word imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound associated with the object or action it describes, thereby creating an auditory effect in the reader's mind.^[27] The term derives from the Greek words onoma, meaning "name," and poiein, meaning "to make," literally signifying "the making of a name" through sound imitation; it entered English in the 1570s as a concept from classical rhetoric.^[28] In ancient Greek texts, the earliest recorded use of the word "onomatopoeia" appears in the Geographia of Strabo (ca. 64 BCE–24 CE), where it describes the formation of words that echo natural sounds, reflecting early philosophical discussions on language's mimetic qualities in works by thinkers like Plato and Aristotle.^[29] In poetry, onomatopoeia enhances vividness through examples such as "buzz" for a bee's hum or "hiss" for a snake's sound, directly evoking the auditory experience.^[30] A notable literary instance occurs in Alfred Lord Tennyson's The Princess (1847), in the section "Come Down, O Maid," where the lines "The moan of doves in immemorial elms, / And murmuring of innumerable bees" use "moan" and "murmuring" to replicate the soft, repetitive coos and hums of nature, immersing the reader in a serene soundscape.^[31] This device plays a key role in sensory immersion, particularly in modernist poetry, where it heightens immediacy and emotional resonance; for instance, E. E. Cummings employs onomatopoeic elements like "wee" in "in Just-" (1920) to mimic a balloonman's whistle, blending sound with visual fragmentation to capture fleeting childhood moments.^[32] Such usage can briefly amplify other sound devices, like consonance, by layering imitative echoes onto repeated consonants for deeper phonetic texture. Onomatopoeia exhibits cultural variations, as linguistic structures influence how sounds are mimicked; in Japanese poetry, giongo—words imitating non-vocal sounds—appear in haiku to evoke natural phenomena, such as sara sara for rustling leaves, adding concise auditory layers to brief forms.^[33] However, the device has limitations due to its subjectivity: what qualifies as an imitative sound depends on a language's phonology and cultural perceptions, leading to divergences like English "meow" for a cat versus Japanese nyan, which may not universally convey the same auditory resemblance to non-native speakers.^[34] These differences underscore onomatopoeia's reliance on shared linguistic conventions rather than absolute mimicry.^[35]

Rhyme

Rhyme is the correspondence of sounds between words or the ends of lines in poetry, creating patterns that enhance auditory appeal and structural cohesion. Perfect rhyme, also known as exact or full rhyme, occurs when the final stressed vowel and all succeeding sounds are identical, as in "cat" and "hat," providing a precise auditory match that emphasizes closure and predictability.^[36] Slant rhyme, or imperfect rhyme, involves words with similar but not identical sounds, such as "worm" and "swarm" in Emily Dickinson's poetry, where consonant or vowel approximations create subtle tension and mimic natural speech irregularities.^[37] Internal rhyme places rhyming words within the same line, as in "The cat in the hat sat flat," intensifying rhythm without relying solely on line endings.^[38] In English poetry, rhyme evolved from sporadic use in medieval ballads, where it supplemented alliteration, to a dominant feature by the Renaissance, becoming essential in forms like sonnets during the Victorian era.^[39] Common rhyme schemes include AABB, where consecutive lines pair rhymes for a straightforward, song-like flow, and ABAB, which alternates rhymes to build suspense and balance, as seen in many Shakespearean sonnets.^[40] Rhyme royal, a seven-line stanza in iambic pentameter with the scheme ABABBCC, was pioneered by Geoffrey Chaucer in his narrative poem Troilus and Criseyde (c. 1380s), where the structure's interlocking rhymes supported epic storytelling and thematic depth.^[41] Rhyme serves functions such as reinforcing thematic unity and providing emotional closure, making poems more memorable and performative, evident in the repetitive patterns of nursery rhymes that aid oral tradition and child language development.^[42] In contemporary forms like rap, rhyme structures ideas rapidly, enhancing lyrical density and cultural resonance.^[43] Slant and imperfect rhymes often overlap with assonance by emphasizing vowel similarities in non-exact matches. In modern poetry, free verse frequently avoids rhyme to subvert traditional expectations, prioritizing organic expression over formal constraints since the early 20th century.^[44]

Figurative Language

Metaphor and Simile

A metaphor is a figure of speech that makes a direct comparison between two unlike things by stating that one is the other, thereby transferring qualities from one to the other without using "like" or "as."^[45] In poetry, this implied comparison blends the tenor (the subject being described) with the vehicle (the image used for comparison), creating layered meanings and evoking abstract concepts through concrete imagery. For instance, in William Shakespeare's As You Like It, Jaques declares, "All the world's a stage," equating human life to theatrical performance to explore themes of transience and role-playing.^[46] This device fosters immersion by seamlessly integrating the comparison, allowing readers to perceive the world anew through the lens of performance.^[45] In contrast, a simile explicitly compares two unlike things using "like" or "as," highlighting similarities while maintaining a clear distinction between them.^[47] This stated likeness provides clarity and precision, often enhancing descriptive vividness without fully merging the elements. A classic example appears in Robert Burns's "A Red, Red Rose," where the speaker affirms, "O my Luve is like a red, red rose / That's newly sprung in June," likening enduring love to the fresh beauty of a flower to convey passion and vitality.^[47] Similes thus offer a more accessible entry into figurative interpretation, prioritizing straightforward illumination over total conceptual fusion.^[48] Extended metaphors, also known as conceits, sustain a single comparison across multiple lines or an entire poem, developing complex arguments or themes through prolonged elaboration.^[49] John Donne masterfully employs this in "The Flea," where a flea's bite that mingles the speaker's and his beloved's blood becomes a conceit for premarital intimacy, evolving into symbols of marriage temple and sacred union across three stanzas.^[49] The flea's insignificant form thus expands into a multifaceted vehicle, blending physical, religious, and erotic dimensions to persuasively challenge social norms.^[49] From a cognitive linguistics perspective, metaphors and similes influence psychological perception by structuring thought and reasoning, as they map conceptual domains to reveal hidden connections.^[45] George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's seminal work argues that such figures are not mere ornaments but fundamental to how humans conceptualize experience, shaping understanding of abstract ideas like time or emotion through embodied imagery.^[50] Metaphors achieve greater subtlety and immersion by implying identity, drawing readers into a unified worldview, whereas similes emphasize clarity through explicit signaling, facilitating quicker comprehension but potentially distancing the audience from full empathetic engagement.^[48]

Personification and Apostrophe

Personification is a rhetorical device in which human characteristics, emotions, or behaviors are attributed to non-human entities, such as animals, objects, or abstract concepts, thereby animating them to enhance poetic expression.^[51] This figure of speech, rooted in classical rhetoric where it was known as prosopopoeia, allows poets to imbue inanimate elements with agency, fostering a deeper emotional connection between the reader and the subject.^[52] In John Keats's "To Autumn," for instance, the season is personified as a nurturing figure: "Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? / Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find / Thee sitting careless on a granary floor," portraying Autumn as a relaxed, bountiful woman to evoke a sense of abundance and tranquility.^[53] Such attributions humanize nature, creating empathy and allegorical depth, as seen in epic poetry where personification underscores moral or cosmic themes. Apostrophe, closely related yet distinct, involves a direct address to an absent person, deceased figure, or inanimate object, often to invoke emotion or seek response from the unresponsive.^[54] Originating in classical oratory as a "turning away" from the audience to engage another entity, it heightens dramatic intensity and personalizes abstract ideas.^[55] Walt Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!" exemplifies this through its repeated invocation of the deceased Abraham Lincoln: "O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done," transforming grief into a communal lament that amplifies patriotic pathos. Similarly, in John Milton's Paradise Lost, the poet employs apostrophe to summon the "Heav'nly Muse" at the outset—"Sing, Heavenly Muse"—invoking divine inspiration to elevate the narrative of human fallibility and redemption.^[56] Both devices contribute to pathos by humanizing the non-human or distant, evoking reader empathy and emotional resonance; personification animates the world to mirror human experience, while apostrophe simulates intimate dialogue to intensify longing or reverence.^[57] In epic contexts like Milton's, they blend to allegorize theological concepts, making abstract forces relatable. A subset of personification, the pathetic fallacy, projects human emotions onto external nature, as in Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind," where the wind is beseeched as a "Destroyer and Preserver" amid the poet's turmoil, reflecting inner despair through stormy imagery to stir revolutionary fervor.^[58] This technique, while evocative, risks sentimentality but powerfully bridges personal sentiment with the natural world.^[59]

Hyperbole and Understatement

Hyperbole and understatement represent contrasting rhetorical strategies in poetry, where hyperbole employs deliberate exaggeration to amplify emotions or ideas for dramatic effect, while understatement, often through litotes, minimizes expression to underscore irony, restraint, or subtle emphasis.^[60]^[61] These devices manipulate scale to engage readers, with hyperbole intensifying urgency or satire and understatement evoking dry wit or understated profundity, particularly in English traditions.^[62]^[63] Hyperbole originates from the ancient Greek term hyperbolē, meaning "excess" or "throwing beyond," and was recognized in classical rhetoric as a figure of speech involving obvious exaggeration not intended literally.^[64] Aristotle noted its use in rhetoric to create pleasure through excess, and it appears prominently in ancient Greek epics like Homer's Iliad, where battle descriptions exaggerate warriors' strength and divine interventions to heroic proportions, such as portraying Achilles' rage as consuming the entire Trojan plain.^[64]^[65] In later poetry, hyperbole evolved to heighten emotional intensity, often for satirical or persuasive purposes; for instance, in Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" (1681), the speaker declares, "An hundred years should go to praise / Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze; / Two hundred to adore each breast, / But thirty thousand to the rest," exaggerating the time required to admire his beloved to underscore the futility of delay and urge immediate action.^[62] This device risks cliché if overused without contextual irony, but in Marvell's hands, it balances metaphysical wit with genuine urgency, demanding careful interpretation to distinguish exaggeration from sincerity.^[66] Understatement, the inverse of hyperbole, deliberately diminishes the significance of an event or quality to imply greater impact through negation or minimalism, with litotes—a form of understatement—emphasizing a positive by denying its opposite.^[61] In poetry, it fosters irony and restraint, aligning with British literary traditions of understated wit, as seen in W.H. Auden's "The More Loving One" (1957), where the speaker notes, "indifference is the least / We have to dread from man or beast," litotes that downplays emotional detachment to highlight its profound cruelty in unrequited love.^[63] Similarly, Philip Larkin employs understatement in "Lines on a Young Lady's Photograph Album" (1954) to mask jealousy and disillusionment, as in "Too much confectionery, too rich: / I choke on such nutritious images," reducing overwhelming nostalgia to a mild digestive discomfort for ironic effect.^[67] Larkin's technique, evoking a "spot of bother" for deeper chaos, serves satirical purposes by critiquing domestic mundanity without overt complaint.^[67] Like hyperbole, understatement requires contextual nuance to avoid misinterpretation as indifference, often amplifying effects when paired briefly with devices like personification for layered emotional depth.^[61]

Symbolism and Imagery

Symbolism in poetry involves the use of an object, action, or idea to represent something beyond its literal meaning, often evoking deeper emotions, themes, or abstract concepts.^[68] For instance, in William Blake's "The Sick Rose," the rose symbolizes love corrupted by destructive forces, as the "invisible worm" that flies "in the night" in the howling storm destroys its "bed of crimson joy," illustrating themes of innocence tainted by experience.^[69] Symbols can be universal, carrying widely recognized meanings independent of a specific text—such as the rose generally evoking romantic love—or contextual, deriving significance solely from the poem's narrative and details.^[70] Imagery, closely allied with symbolism, employs vivid, descriptive language to appeal to the reader's senses, creating mental pictures that immerse them in the poem's world and evoke emotional responses.^[71] It encompasses various types: visual imagery paints scenes with colors and shapes, as in William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," where "a host, of golden daffodils" beside the lake "fluttering and dancing in the breeze" conveys joy and natural vitality; auditory imagery suggests sounds, like the "twittering" of birds; tactile imagery evokes touch, such as the feel of rough bark; olfactory imagery calls up scents, like rain's "delicious breath"; and gustatory imagery involves tastes, though less common in poetry.^[72]^[71] These sensory layers often enhance similes or metaphors by grounding abstract comparisons in concrete perceptions.^[73] The Symbolist movement, emerging in late 19th-century France as a reaction against realism and naturalism, elevated symbolism to suggest the ineffable and spiritual through indirect, evocative means rather than explicit narrative.^[74] Charles Baudelaire, a precursor, pioneered this in his poem "Correspondences" from Les Fleurs du Mal (1857), positing nature as a "temple" of "living pillars" where "forests of symbols" link senses—perfumes, colors, sounds—to hidden spiritual realities, influencing later Symbolists like Mallarmé and Verlaine.^[75] Poets build symbolic layers through recurring motifs that accumulate meaning across a work, as in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922), where water, barrenness, and fertility myths recur to symbolize modern spiritual desolation and the quest for renewal, drawing on allusions to ancient rites like the Fisher King legend.^[76] Unlike allegory, which sustains a parallel narrative where symbols consistently map to a structured moral or story (e.g., Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress), symbolism in poetry remains suggestive and open-ended, prioritizing emotional resonance over fixed interpretation.^[3]

Rhythm and Meter

Meter

Meter refers to the rhythmic structure of a poem, created by the patterned arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables into units called feet. Common metrical feet include the iamb (unstressed-stressed, e.g., "to BE"), trochee (stressed-unstressed, e.g., "TY-ger"), anapest (unstressed-unstressed-stressed, e.g., "in the FOR"), and dactyl (stressed-unstressed-unstressed, e.g., "THIS is the"). The number of feet per line determines the meter, such as pentameter (five feet), as in William Shakespeare's iambic pentameter: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" which establishes a steady, heartbeat-like rhythm.^[77]^[78]

Caesura and Enjambment

A caesura is a pause or break within a line of poetry, often occurring mid-line and marked by punctuation such as a comma, dash, or ellipsis, or by natural syntax, which interrupts the flow to emphasize rhythm or meaning.^[79] In Old English poetry, the caesura served to divide lines into two halves in alliterative verse, facilitating oral recitation by providing a breath pause and structural emphasis, as seen in Beowulf where lines like "Ice-clad, || outbound, || a craft for a prince" use the break to highlight key elements.^[80]^[79] Caesurae are classified as masculine or feminine based on their position relative to stress patterns. A masculine caesura follows a stressed syllable, creating a sharp, abrupt halt that intensifies drama, as in Alexander Pope's "Alas, how chang’d! || what sudden horrors rise!" from An Essay on Criticism.^[81] In contrast, a feminine caesura occurs after an unstressed syllable, producing a softer, more subtle pause, exemplified by W.B. Yeats's "I hear lake water lapping || with low sounds by the shore" in "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," which gently modulates the rhythm.^[79]^[81] Enjambment, the counterpart to caesura, involves a sentence or phrase running over from one line to the next without a pause or terminal punctuation, propelling the reader forward and building suspense.^[82] In John Milton's Paradise Lost, enjambment spills complex thoughts across lines to mimic the expansive momentum of epic narrative, as in the opening: "Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit / Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste / Brought death into the World, and all our woe," where the continuation heightens the unfolding sense of consequence.^[83] These devices manipulate pacing by contrasting interruption with continuity: caesurae introduce moments of reflection or emphasis, slowing the rhythm to allow absorption of ideas, while enjambment accelerates flow, generating urgency or emotional propulsion that complements meter's steady beat.^[79]^[84] In modern free verse, poets like Walt Whitman employ caesura and enjambment to replicate natural speech patterns, as in "The Voice of the Rain" from Leaves of Grass, where mid-line pauses and line overruns create a conversational fluidity, such as the enjambment between lines 9 and 10 that evokes the ceaseless cycle of rain.^[85]^[82]

Structural and Formal Devices

Stanza Forms

A stanza is a grouped set of lines within a poem, functioning as a unit similar to a paragraph in prose, often separated by extra space to organize content visually and rhythmically. Basic stanza forms include the couplet, consisting of two rhyming lines that provide a concise, emphatic closure, as seen in heroic couplets of 18th-century English poetry; the tercet, a three-line unit that may employ an enclosed rhyme scheme (ABA) for tight cohesion; and the quatrain, a four-line stanza commonly structured in alternating rhymes (ABAB) or enclosed patterns (ABBA) to balance expansion and resolution.^[86]^[87] Fixed stanza forms impose stricter patterns to enhance structural unity and thematic depth. The sonnet, a 14-line poem, appears in two primary variants: the Shakespearean (or English) sonnet, comprising three quatrains (rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF) followed by a concluding couplet (GG), which builds argument through progressive development before a volta or turn in the final lines; and the Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet, divided into an octave (ABBAABBA) that poses a proposition and a sestet (often CDECDE or CDCDCD) that resolves it, emphasizing contrast and reflection.^[88]^[89] The villanelle, a 19-line form of five tercets and a final quatrain with repeating refrains and an ABA rhyme scheme, creates hypnotic repetition for emotional intensity, as exemplified in Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," where the refrains "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" underscore defiance against mortality.^[90] Terza rima, an interlocking tercet scheme (ABA BCB CDC and so on), propels narrative forward while linking ideas, invented by Dante Alighieri for his Divine Comedy to mirror the soul's progressive journey through Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.^[91] In non-Western traditions, the ghazal employs independent couplets (each a self-contained stanza) unified by a repeating radif (refrain word or phrase) and preceding qafia (rhyme), originating in Persian poetry to evoke themes of love and loss through fragmented, meditative autonomy.^[92] Stanzas serve key functions such as dividing poems thematically to shift focus or mood between sections, and employing repetition across stanzas to reinforce motifs and build emotional resonance, often integrating with rhyme and meter for auditory harmony.^[93] Poetic stanzas evolved from rigidly fixed forms in medieval and Renaissance traditions, where prescribed patterns like those in sonnets enforced discipline and communal resonance, to freer structures in the 20th century onward, with free verse dominating modern lyric poetry by abandoning stanzaic constraints for organic line groupings that prioritize content over convention, as pioneered by Walt Whitman and Ezra Pound.^[94]

Poetic Diction

Poetic diction encompasses the deliberate selection of words in poetry that elevates or distinguishes the language from prosaic speech, often employing formal, archaic, or specialized vocabulary to evoke specific emotional or atmospheric effects. This practice contrasts sharply with everyday language by prioritizing connotation over mere denotation, allowing poets to layer meanings and tones that resonate beyond literal interpretation. For instance, in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800), William Wordsworth lambasted the contrived "poetic diction" of eighteenth-century poets as artificial and remote from genuine emotion, advocating instead for the simple, rustic language of ordinary people to convey profound feelings in moments of heightened perception.^[95] In opposition, John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) exemplifies elevated Latinate diction, with borrowings from Latin such as "auspicious" and "effulgence" that impart a sublime, epic grandeur suited to its cosmic themes.^[96] Key types of poetic diction include archaisms, which revive outdated words or forms to create a sense of antiquity or solemnity; examples abound in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590–1596), where terms like "whilom" and "yclept" evoke a medieval aura. Neologisms, newly coined words, offer fresh expressions for novel ideas, as in Gerard Manley Hopkins' poetry, where inventions like "inscape" (the unique essence of an object) and "instress" (the force binding it) capture his innovative perceptions of the natural world. Diction further divides into concrete, which deploys tangible, sensory-specific terms such as "velvet petal" to ground the reader in vivid physicality, and abstract, relying on intangible concepts like "eternity" to explore philosophical depths— a distinction that underscores poetry's capacity to balance immediacy with universality.^[97]^[98]^[99] In specific genres, poetic diction tailors word choice to thematic demands: pastoral poetry favors idyllic, nature-infused terms like "pasture" and "nymph" to idealize rural simplicity and harmony with the environment, as seen in Virgil's Eclogues. Elegiac poetry, by contrast, employs somber, evocative vocabulary such as "threnody" and "bereft" to articulate mourning and loss, intensifying the emotional weight of remembrance in works like Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751). These choices not only align with genre conventions but also amplify the poem's affective register, drawing readers into contemplative or empathetic states.^[100]^[101] Historically, poetic diction evolved from neoclassical rigidity toward greater flexibility, with the Romantic era—epitomized by Wordsworth's push for colloquial authenticity—challenging ornate conventions in favor of accessible, emotive language reflective of individual experience. The modernist period further innovated through fragmentation and eclecticism, as in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922), where diction weaves allusions to Shakespeare, the Bible, and Eastern philosophy into a polyphonic tapestry that mirrors cultural disarray. This progression highlights diction's adaptability to shifting aesthetic priorities, from elevation to experimentation.^[102]^[76] To analyze poetic diction, scholars scrutinize its impact on connotation—the implied emotional or cultural associations of words—and register—the degree of formality or social level it implies—revealing how these elements shape a poem's overall tone and interpretive depth. For example, a shift from concrete to abstract diction might heighten ambiguity, inviting multiple readings, while archaic register can signal reverence or irony, as in modernist appropriations of tradition. Such techniques enable critics to unpack how diction constructs meaning, bridging linguistic choice with thematic resonance.^[100]^[103]

Punctuation in Poetry

Punctuation in poetry has evolved significantly from its origins in medieval manuscripts, where it was minimal and primarily served to aid oral recitation rather than denote syntax or semantic pauses. In medieval texts, marks such as points or virgules were sporadically used to indicate breath units for performers, reflecting a rhetorical tradition inherited from classical sources like the Alexandrian schools, but without standardized conventions for written interpretation.^[104] By the Elizabethan period, punctuation began to balance grammatical structure with prosodic rhythm, as grammarians like Richard Mulcaster emphasized its role in clarifying sense units in verse, though still influenced by rhetorical delivery over modern logical flow.^[104] This progression culminated in modernist innovations, where punctuation shifted toward aesthetic and expressive functions, enabling poets to manipulate visual layout and reader perception beyond traditional prose rules.^[105] In free verse, where meter is absent, punctuation often guides rhythm by creating pauses that mimic natural speech or emotional cadence, while also resolving or amplifying syntactic ambiguity to deepen interpretive layers.^[106] Dashes and ellipses, for instance, introduce interruptions or trailing thoughts, evoking hesitation and fragmentation; Emily Dickinson frequently employed dashes to simulate breath pauses and convey unspoken emotion, as in her poem "Because I could not stop for Death –," where the mark halts the narrative to invite reflection on eternity.^[106]^[107] Similarly, ellipses suggest omissions that build suspense, allowing readers to fill interpretive gaps in the poem's flow.^[106] Exclamation and question marks heighten emotional intensity by signaling urgency, doubt, or rhetorical confrontation, particularly in confessional poetry. In Sylvia Plath's Ariel, question marks underscore anxiety and defiance, as in "The Arrival of the Bee Box" with "So why should they turn on me?," amplifying the speaker's fear of rebellion and loss of control.^[108] Exclamation marks further intensify outbursts, evident in Plath's revisions of lines like "Does not my heat astound you!" in "Fever 103°," where they emphasize themes of purification and subjection through fervent tone.^[108] These marks, drawn from manuscript evidence, reveal Plath's deliberate punctuation choices to evoke visceral responses.^[108] The deliberate absence of punctuation appears in visual or concrete poetry, promoting fluidity and reader interactivity by dissolving conventional boundaries. E.E. Cummings pioneered this approach, omitting marks and using lowercase letters to create seamless, organic movement across the page, as in his typographically experimental works where such omissions shift tempo and emphasize visual chaos over syntactic closure.^[109] This technique invites multiple readings, contrasting with punctuated pauses like caesura, and aligns punctuation's role more with spatial arrangement than linear progression.^[109]

References

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Literary Terms: Pl - R - PHSC Writing Center
Poetic devices – ways of using language such as imagery, figures of speech, irony, symbolism, allusion, fantasy, point of view, rhyme, rhythm, and theme; used ...
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[PDF] understanding poetry and literature: poetic and literary devices - LAVC
Poetic and literary devices are tools used to convey tone and message, including figurative language, imagery, and diction. Metaphors and similes are types of ...
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Guide to Poetic Terms | Poetry at Harvard
This guide lists terms for describing texts, especially poetry, that are frequently used in literary criticism, and are not exhaustive.
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What is Alliteration? || Definition & Examples - College of Liberal Arts
Jul 13, 2021 · Alliteration is the repetition of the same sound at the start of a series of words in succession whose purpose is to provide an audible pulse.
[5]
What Is Alliteration? | Definition & Examples - Scribbr
Oct 30, 2024 · Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words in close proximity to each other.
[6]
Rhyme and alliteration (Chapter 5) - What is Poetry?
Oct 5, 2015 · Rhyme and alliteration are added forms pairing words by sound. Alliteration repeats syllable onsets, while rhyme repeats the end of the ...
[7]
Beowulf and Verse History (Chapter 1) - English Alliterative Verse
Nov 9, 2016 · This chapter reviews some metrical tests thought to establish a very early date (before c. 750) for the composition of Beowulf. The first ...
[8]
Alliterative Verse / Avant-Garde | The Poetry Foundation
Dec 12, 2022 · This collection connects things. The bodies of work it connects are alliterative verse, an early poetic tradition exemplified in Beowulf, and contemporary ...
[9]
[PDF] Beowulf: Language and Poetics Quick Reference Sheet
Versification: Beowulf, like all Old English poetry, is written in alliterative verse, a verse form that uses alliteration as one of the major organizing ...
[10]
Sound Devices in Shakespeare's "Macbeth" : Lesson Plans
Apr 30, 2013 · Alliteration: The use of the same consonant sound at the beginning of nearby words. Example: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair." Assonance: The ...
[11]
Alliteration in Macbeth - Lesson - Study.com
Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air. The repetitive 'f' sound is used in these famous lines that set the tone for the ...
[12]
(PDF) Sweet Silent Thought Alliteration and Resonance in Poetry ...
Aug 9, 2025 · Poetic devices like alliteration can heighten readers' aesthetic experiences and enhance poets' recall of their epic pieces. The effects of ...
[13]
[PDF] The Use of Alliteration and Its Effects in Hopkin's Poems
Mar 1, 2020 · Alliteration hasa very great effect on poetry and it also plays an important role in attractingreaders' attention on a particular poem. In doing ...
[14]
[PDF] Alliteration and assonance as mnemonic devices in second ... - -ORCA
Alliteration is sometimes labelled 'head rhyme' or 'initial rhyme' and broadly refers to “the repetition of the same sounds – usually initial consonants of ...
[15]
The Phonology of Head-Rhyme in Tuvan Versification - jstor
Two fundamental principles of versification in the poetry of many languages are rhyme and alliteration. For the purposes of this paper, rhyme can be generally ...
[16]
[PDF] Towards a typology of poetic rhyme*
1.3.2 Variations on initial rhyme: Alliteration, alphabetic acrostic. The alliterating verse of Old-Germanic and other languages could be considered a.
[17]
Assonance - Oxford Reference
The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in the stressed syllables (and sometimes in the following unstressed syllables) of neighbouring words.
[18]
[PDF] APSU Writing Center Alliteration, Assonance, & Consonance
Assonance involves the repetition of only vowel sounds, whereas alliteration can involve the repetition of either vowel sounds or consonant sounds. The ...
[19]
Consonance - Definition and Examples - Poem Analysis
Consonance is the repetition of a consonant sound within a group of words. E.g. The repeated 's' sound in the phrase 'she sells seashells' is an example of ...
[20]
[PDF] Poems _ by Wilfred Owen ; with an introduction by Siegfried Sassoon.
Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence. Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow,. With sidelong flowing flakes that flock ...Missing: consonance | Show results with:consonance
[21]
Slant Rhyme - Definition and Examples - LitCharts
Slant rhyming is the use of consonance or assonance at the ends of words. · But assonance or consonance can exist anywhere in a word.Slant Rhyme Definition · Slant Rhyme Examples · Slant Rhyme Function
[22]
Poetry 101: What Is Assonance in Poetry? Assonance Definition with ...
Aug 16, 2021 · Examples of Assonance in Poetry · I wandered lonely as a cloud. That floats on high o'er vales and hills, · He gives his harness bells a shake
[23]
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud Poem Summary and Analysis
The speaker walks alone, similar to a solitary cloud in the sky floating over hills and valleys. Suddenly, the speaker sees a long and bustling row of ...
[24]
Kubla Khan Summary & Analysis by Samuel Coleridge - LitCharts
Underlying these formal shifts, however, is the speaker's consistent and prolific use of alliteration (plus assonance and consonance). For example, each of the ...
[25]
How to write an awesome analysis on sound in poetry - Hyperbolit
Jun 13, 2020 · Assonance, then, is structurally freer, and so the impression is one of holistic, rather than regular, sonic harmony. It's more organic, in a ...
[26]
What are Assonance and Consonance? | Definition & Examples
Dec 4, 2020 · Both terms are associated with repetition—assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds and consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds ...
[27]
Onomatopoeia | The Poetry Foundation
Onomatopoeia is a figure of speech in which a word imitates the sound associated with an action or an object, effectively mimicking the sound it describes.
[28]
Onomatopoeia - Etymology, Origin & Meaning
Onomatopoeia, from Greek onomatopoiia meaning "the making of a name," refers to word formation by imitating natural sounds, originating in the 1570s via ...
[29]
Onomatopoeia and Sound Symbolism (Chapter Four)
Oct 2, 2019 · “Onomatopoeia” is indeed an odd word, for its original meaning in Greek does not imply anything about sound similarity or mimicry.
[30]
Onomatopoeia | Academy of American Poets
The word "onomatopoeia" traces back to Greek onoma, meaning "name," and poiein, meaning "to make." Poiein is also the root of “poem” and “poet.” While the term ...
[31]
from The Princess: Come down, O Maid | The Poetry Foundation
Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet; Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro' the lawn, The moan of doves in immemorial elms, And murmuring of innumerable ...Missing: onomatopoeia | Show results with:onomatopoeia
[32]
Onomatopoeia Definition and Examples - Writers.com
May 6, 2024 · Cummings' Modernist poetry sought to translate experiences exactly as they happened. In “I Was Sitting in McSorley's,” that experience is ...
[33]
Japanese sound-symbolic words in global contexts - NIH
Oct 8, 2021 · This paper explores the artistic expression of onomatopoeia and mimetic words in Japanese literary texts.
[34]
The Mystery of Onomatopoeia Around the World - The Atlantic
Nov 27, 2015 · Words formed from a sound and intended to imitate that sound—what linguists refer to as onomatopoeia—fluctuate around the world even when the ...Missing: subjectivity | Show results with:subjectivity
[35]
[PDF] The Functions of Onomatopoeia in Modern English and Arabic Poetry
Oct 16, 2014 · As a figure of speech, onomatopoeia occurs when the meaning of a word is echoed or suggested by its sound (Barnet, Berman & Burto, 1985,p.530) .
[36]
Rhyme | The Poetry Foundation
-Identical rhyme employs the same word, identically in sound and in sense, twice in rhyming positions. -Internal rhyme is rhyme within a single line of verse, ...
[37]
What Is Slant Rhyme? Understanding the Definitions ... - MasterClass
Sep 9, 2021 · Assonance is repeating the sound of a vowel in two words that aren't perfect rhymes. Some slant rhymes have final syllables that share assonance ...
[38]
What Is Rhyme? | Definition & Examples - Scribbr
Oct 22, 2024 · Along with end rhymes and internal rhymes, other forms of rhymes include slant rhymes, perfect rhymes, and eye rhymes. Using rhyme in writing ...What is rhyme? · Perfect rhyme · Internal rhyme · End rhyme
[39]
Rhyme | Research Starters - EBSCO
Exact rhyme (also called perfect, true, full, or whole rhyme) is the recognizable norm: glad/sad. Near rhyme (slant, approximate, imperfect, half, or oblique ...Kinds Of Rhyme · The Start Of Rhyme · Rhyme Today
[40]
Rhyme Scheme - Definition and Examples - LitCharts
For instance, rhyme schemes in which rhymes are coupled (AABB) or in which they alternate (ABAB) tend to feel highly predictable and repetitive, which makes ...Rhyme Scheme Definition · Rhyme Scheme Examples · Rhyme Scheme Function
[41]
Rhyme royal (rime royale) | The Poetry Foundation
A stanza of seven 10-syllable lines, rhyming ABABBCC, popularized by Geoffrey Chaucer and termed “royal” because his imitator, James I of Scotland, employed it ...Missing: heptameter | Show results with:heptameter
[42]
Nursery rhyme | Research Starters - EBSCO
Nursery rhymes are rhythmic poems or songs designed to entertain and educate young children, primarily aiding in their language acquisition.Missing: closure rap<|separator|>
[43]
Advice from rappers on writing rhymes for rap lyrics and poems
Mar 10, 2025 · Explore tips from rappers on writing raps. Learn how to write rap lyrics and a rhyming poem with rhyme schemes and Lyric Lab.
[44]
Is Free Verse Killing Poetry? | VQR - Virginia Quarterly Review
Sep 4, 2012 · Free verse has now ruled the poetry roost for ten decades, and its record for memorable poetry is spotty.
[45]
What is a Metaphor? | Definition & Examples | College of Liberal Arts
Metaphor is a comparison between two things that are otherwise unrelated. With metaphor, the qualities of one thing are figuratively carried over to another.
[46]
Speech: “All the world's a stage” | The Poetry Foundation
Speech: “All the world's a stage”. By William Shakespeare. Share. (from As You Like It, spoken by Jaques). All the world's a stage,. And all the men and women ...
[47]
Simile | The Poetry Foundation
A comparison (see Metaphor) made with “as,” “like,” or “than.” In “A Red, Red Rose,” Robert Burns declares: O my Luve is like a red, red rose
[48]
116 Common Literary Devices: Definitions & Examples - Writers.com
Sep 18, 2025 · The obvious difference between these two common literary devices is that a simile uses “like” or “as,” whereas a metaphor never uses these ...
[49]
The Flea Summary & Analysis by John Donne - LitCharts
The first six lines of “The Flea” establishes the poem's conceit. ... Like "The Flea" many metaphysical poems are marked by elaborate conceits and strange ...
[50]
[PDF] The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor George Lakoff Introduction
The word metaphor was defined as a novel or poetic linguistic expression ... The most comprehensive of Winter's many articles discussing the role of metaphor in ...
[51]
What is Personification? || Oregon State Guide to Literary Terms
Nov 26, 2019 · Personification can lend atmosphere to a setting or give lifelikeness to an object or animal that might otherwise seem dull.
[52]
Personification and Enchantment | Stanford Humanities Center
On the history of personification theory, including its roots in classical rhetoric, see James Paxson, The Poetics of Personification (Cambridge, 1994), 8–34.
[53]
Close reading- 'To Autumn' by John Keats
Keats sustains the use of personification in the second stanza by portraying the season as a fertile female goddess, allowing audiences to feel empathy for the ...
[54]
Literary Terms - Purdue OWL
Personification: The artistic representation of a concept, quality, or idea in the form of a person. Personification can also refer to “a person who is ...
[55]
Glossary of Rhetorical Terms | University of Kentucky College of Arts ...
Apostrophe: a sudden turn from the general audience to address a specific group or person or personified abstraction absent or present. *For Brutus, as you know ...
[56]
[PDF] Figures of Speech - City Tech OpenLab
How would the effect of the poem be different if it were in the form of an address to Wordsworth's contemporaries rather than an apostrophe to. Milton? What ...
[57]
[PDF] Sensibility and Obscurity in the Odes of Thomas Gray - ScholarWorks
Mar 15, 2004 · Apostrophe is commonly accompanied by personification, in which an abstract quality or physical object is treated as if it were a person able to ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[58]
[PDF] the theory of the pathetic fallacy in anglo-american avian poetry
possess, that the poem accords with Ruskin's approbation of a more “delicate attribution of life” than the examples of the pathetic fallacy he critiques.
[59]
https://academia.edu/32423108/Common_Figures_of_Speech_and_Poetic_Devices
[60]
What is Hyperbole? || Oregon State Guide to Literary Terms
You need hyperbole to convey the sense that what's happening is larger than life. Want to cite this? MLA Citation: Passarello, Elena. "What is Hyperbole?" ...Missing: scholarly | Show results with:scholarly
[61]
What is Understatement? || Oregon State Guide to Literary Terms
“Her video is not bad” is also an example of a particular kind of understatement called a litotes. Litotes emphasizes a certain quality by negating the ...Missing: scholarly | Show results with:scholarly
[62]
To His Coy Mistress Summary & Analysis by Andrew Marvell
"To His Coy Mistress" is a carpe diem poem: following the example of Roman poets like Horace, it urges a young woman to enjoy the pleasures of life before death ...
[63]
The More Loving One Summary & Analysis by WH Auden - LitCharts
Where understatement appears in the poem: Lines 3-4: “But on earth indifference is the least / We have to dread from man or beast.” Line 16: “Though this ...
[64]
Hyperbole - Etymology, Origin & Meaning
Hyperbole, from Greek hyperbolē meaning "exaggeration" (literally "a throwing beyond"), originates in rhetoric as obvious exaggeration, noted by Aristotle ...
[65]
Epic hyperbole in Homer - Iowa Research Online
Sep 27, 2017 · The best explanation of these two pieces of data is that the Iliad and the Odyssey rationalize traditional hyperbole. This was done so that ...
[66]
Analysis of Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress
Jul 9, 2020 · Some critics label the poem a near-parody on the theme, as Marvell incorporates so liberally the figurative language of hyperbole. He ...
[67]
Lines On A Young Lady’s Photograph Album by Philip Larkin - Poem Analysis
### Examples of Understatement in Philip Larkin's "Lines on a Young Lady’s Photograph Album"
[68]
What is Symbolism? | Oregon State Guide to Literary Terms
let's say, the color red — and ...
[69]
William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience
Mar 2, 2017 · ” In “The Sick Rose,” a very feminine image, the rose, is violated ... if the rose can mean love, innocence, humanity, imagination, and ...
[70]
[PDF] Symbolism - Del Mar College
A literary symbol is an object, a person, a situation, or an action that has a literal meaning in a story but suggests or represents other meanings. Two Types ...
[71]
What is Imagery? || Definition & Examples | College of Liberal Arts
Storytellers and poets use vivid language designed to appeal to these senses. This language is called imagery.Missing: poetry | Show results with:poetry
[72]
Poetry: Literary Elements
Example: Golden daffodils and swaying breezes appear in William Wordsworth's poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", where nature imagery is used to show the ...
[73]
Imagery - Del Mar College
Jun 13, 2023 · Imagery refers to words that trigger the reader to recall images, or mental pictures, that engage one of the five senses: sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch.
[74]
Symbolism · World Studies · DH Projects
Symbolism was a primarily literary movement which was first named in 1885 by Jean Moreas, who wrote the Symbolist Manifesto in 1886.
[75]
[PDF] 011_Symbolism.doc READINGS: SYMBOLISM Background
Baudelaire's lines from his poem Correspondance (Les Fleurs du mal, 1857) illustrate the belief in the connection between nature and the soul: 'Nature is a ...
[76]
The Waste Land – Modernism Lab - Yale University
Much of the symbolism of The Waste Land suggests these ancient fertility rites, but always gone awry, particularly in such modern instances as the fortune- ...Missing: recurring | Show results with:recurring
[77]
Caesura - Definition and Examples - LitCharts
A caesura is a pause that occurs within a line of poetry, usually marked by some form of punctuation such as a period, comma, ellipsis, or dash.
[78]
Old English prosody and style - Web Hosting at UMass Amherst
The pause is called the caesura. Two words must alliterate across the caesura, but three make for a stronger line. You can see the alliteration marked in red. I ...
[79]
Caesura - Examples and Definition - Literary Devices
A feminine caesural pause occurs after a non-stressed and short syllable in a poetic line. This is softer and less abrupt than the masculine version. For ...
[80]
Enjambment - Poem Analysis
### Summary of Enjambment from Poem Analysis
[81]
Paradise Lost Book 1 Analysis - Literary Devices
enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break; instead, it continues in the next verse. For example,. “Or ...
[82]
Caesura - (English 12) - Vocab, Definition, Explanations | Fiveable
The use of caesura allows poets to control pacing, giving readers time to reflect on a thought or image before moving on. Famous examples of caesura can be ...
[83]
The Voice of the Rain by Walt Whitman - Poem Analysis
Walt Whitman is known as the father of free verse poetry. His deeply ... These include but are not limited to apostrophe, enjambment, and caesura.
[84]
Connections: Poetry: Terms: Stanzas - Erik Simpson
Shakespearean sonnets consist of three quatrains and a couplet. Those are the most common groupings, but you should also know the sestet, or group of six, and ...
[85]
Poetic Techniques – ENG134 – Literary Genres
The number of lines in a stanza determines its name. A couplet, for instance, consists of two lines. A tercet has three lines. Quatrains have four lines. As you ...
[86]
Shakespearean sonnet | The Poetry Foundation
The variation of the sonnet form that Shakespeare used—comprised of three quatrains and a concluding couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg—is called the English ...
[87]
Learning the Sonnet | The Poetry Foundation
Aug 29, 2013 · Petrarchan: ABBA ABBA CDECDE or ABBA ABBA CDCDCD; Shakespearean: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. In the Petrarchan sonnet, the sections are broken up into an ...
[88]
Villanelle | The Poetry Foundation
A French verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately.Do Not Go Gentle into That · One Art · The House on the HillMissing: rhyme | Show results with:rhyme
[89]
Terza rima | The Poetry Foundation
An Italian stanzaic form, used most notably by Dante Alighieri in Commedia (The Divine Comedy), consisting of tercets with interwoven rhymes.
[90]
Ghazal | The Poetry Foundation
Each couplet ends on the same word or phrase (the radif), and is preceded by the couplet's rhyming word (the qafia, which appears twice in the first couplet).
[91]
What is poetry?: 5.3 Stanzas and verse | OpenLearn - Open University
A stanza concentrates attention on a particular area of thought or image. The reasons for dividing a poem into stanzas or verses may vary from poem to poem ...Missing: thematic repetition
[92]
Free verse | The Poetry Foundation
Since the early 20th century, the majority of published lyric poetry has been written in free verse. See the work of William Carlos Williams, T.S. Eliot, Ezra ...
[93]
Preface to Lyrical Ballads By William Wordsworth
Preface to Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth. Transcription, correction, editorial commentary, and markup by John O'Brien, Christiana Ogbolu.Missing: scholarly | Show results with:scholarly
[94]
Milton's Latinisms
The first to enter the fray was Lalia Phipps Boone, who argues in "The Language of Book VI, Paradise Lost," that Milton's diction is not, in fact, Latinate.
[95]
Introduction: conceptualising archaism - Archaic Style in English ...
Spenser's Shepheardes Calender and Faerie Queene are two of the sixteenth century's best-known examples of literary archaism: the self-conscious incorporation ...
[96]
Language (Chapter 26) - Gerard Manley Hopkins in Context
Jan 16, 2025 · He came to believe that the metrical system he named 'sprung rhythm' also appeared in the accentual Anglo-Saxon line. And the compound ...
[97]
4.2: Abstract and Concrete Diction - Humanities LibreTexts
Aug 15, 2023 · Concrete diction uses tangible, physical words, while abstract diction uses intangible, nonphysical words. Examples include 'parrot' (concrete) ...
[98]
Diction (Chapter 11) - The Cambridge Companion to the Poem
May 30, 2024 · The chapter thereby proposes that diction reveals in the individual poem a constitutive tension between singularity and exemplarity. Keywords.
[99]
Elegy, Diction of - Brill Reference Works
Thus, elegy is characterized by the elegiac couplet, i.e., the combination of a dactylic hexameter and a dactylic pentameter. The couplet may, in principle, be ...
[100]
[PDF] On T. S. Eliot's Literary Views and Poetic Practices - CSCanada
Jul 26, 2018 · 32) In his poems, Eliot uses different languages, draws materials from different culture and quotes allusions from modern or ancient literature ...
[101]
[PDF] Poetic Diction, Poetic Discourse and the Poetic Register
Poetic diction includes archaic words and non-normal meanings. The poetic register is defined by the frequency of these characteristics, including archaic ...
[102]
Historical Backgrounds of Elizabethan and Jacobean Punctuation ...
Dec 2, 2020 · The disputes centering about the oratorical value of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century punctuation in England have hinged mostly upon a ...
[103]
[PDF] a grammar of punctuation in poetry
Only in the past thirty years has punctuation become an object of empirical linguistic study, apart from prescriptive accounts of its usage. This is probably ...
[104]
Unveiling the Implications of Punctuation Marks in English Poetry
Punctuation marks in poetry serve as critical tools that guide the reader's interpretation and engagement with the poetry. The key objective of this article ...
[105]
[PDF] Dashes in Emily Dickinson's Selected Poems
Apr 22, 2020 · Though dash creates a certain problem in the poem, it achieves various benefits of reflecting the sighs, emotion and loss without writing words.<|separator|>
[106]
[PDF] The Subjects of Poesis in Sylvia Plath's Ariel - Digital Collections
If Plath wavered on issues of punctuation, she rarely seemed to abandon entire stanzas or radically change themes. Plath's manuscripts suggest she wrote with ...
[107]
Unconventional patterns in the experimental poetry of E. E. Cummings
Aug 8, 2017 · An in-depth analysis of these poems reveals that there are three basic unconventional devices in Cummings' use of punctuation marks (substitution, omission and ...