POETRY DEVICES

When writing an appreciation of poetry, it is not enough to be able to point out devices. You must always explain what effect they have and how they help the poet to fulfill his intentions.

Structural Devices

1.Contrast, This is one  of the most common of all structural devices. It occurs when we find two completely opposite pictures side by side.  Sometimes it is immediately obvious and sometimes implied.

Example:

In the Masefield’s The Cargoes, where a direct  comparison is made between ancient and modern times; the last ship differs greatly from the first two.

2. Illustration, This is an example which usually takes the form of a vivid picture by which a poet may make an idea clear.

Example: in the Masefield’s The Cargoes, the cargoes consist of three such pictures each of which represents the poet’s view of different ages. The bygone times were refined and gracious and that modern times are squalid.

3. Repetitions, Poets often repeat single lines or whole stanzas at intervals to emphasize a particular idea.  Repetition is to be found in poetry whis is aiming at special musical effects or when a poet wants us to pay very close attention to something.

Example:

Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, everywhere

Nor any drop to drink.

(Coleridge’s The Ancient Mariner the fifth stanza)

Sense Devices

1.Simile, This is a direct comparison and can be recognized by the use of the words like and as.

Fair as a star, when only one

Is shining in the sky

(Wordsworth’s Lucy)

2. Metaphor, This is rather like a simile except that the comparison is not direct but implied; the words like and as are not used.

Example:

A violet by a mossy stone

Half hidden from the eye

(Wordsworth’s Lucy)

3. Personification, This occurs when inanimate objects are given a human form, or when  they are made to speak’

Example:

Many have loved me desperately,

Many with smooth serenity,

While some have shown contempt of me

Till they dropped underground.

(On His Eighty-sixth Birthday)

Sound Devices

1. Alliteration, This is the repetion of the same sound at frequent intervals.

Ex. The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free

(The Ancient Mariner)

2. Onomatopoeia,  It occurs in words which imitate sounds and this suggest the object described. Words like cuckoo, hum, buzz, swish, crash, jangle are the examples.

3. Rhyme, This usually occurs at line endings in poety and consists of words which have the same sound. Example.The word                           Nightand sight

4. Assonance, This occurs when a poet introduces imperfect rhymes.

Ex.     Wreck                   rock

               Grind                     ground

               Speak                    break              

5. Rhythm, Poetry has much common with music. When we read a poem aloud, it is nearly always possible to notice that the sounds used follow a definite pattern and are meant  to appeal to the ear. This pattern of sounds which a poet imposes on the language he uses is called rhyme.

Ex. Notice how in the line from The Ancient Mariner the rhythm of ‘The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew’, matches the speed of the ship.