Poetic Devices

Front 1

Alliteration

Back 1

Consonant sounds repeated at the beginning of words in close proximity
Example: "light lies"
from "Tulips"

Front 2

Assonance

Back 2

The repetition of vowel sounds in words near each other; these are usually in stressed sounds
Example: "a great scapegoat"
from "Stings"
and "blunt, clumsy stumblers"

Front 3

Consonance

Back 3

Consonant sounds repeated at the ends of words
Example: "Oval soul-animals"
from Balloons

Front 4

Cacophony

Back 4

A series of harsh sounds
Example: "It stuck in a barb wire snare"
from "Daddy"

Front 5

Euphony

Back 5

A series of pleasant sounds communicating a harmony
Example: "Its bowl of red blooms out of sheer love for me"
from "Tulips"

Front 6

Onomatopoeia

Back 6

Words that sound like what they mean
Example: "Giving a shriek and pop"
from "Balloons"

Front 7

Repetition

Back 7

Using the same word or phrase again and again
Example: "my fear, my fear, my fear"
from "The Bee Meeting"

Front 8

Rhyme

Back 8

Words with repeated ending sounds
Example: "neat and sweet"
from "Stings"

Front 9

Rhythm

Back 9

Organization of speech rhythms in patterns of accented and unaccented syllables

Front 10

Meter

Back 10

Organized voice patterns, including the arrangement of stresses and frequency

Front 11

Syllables

Back 11

A unit consisting of one vowel sound; it can either be stressed or unstressed
Example: "Ax-es"
from "Words"

Front 12

Allegory

Back 12

Words/ text representative of an abstract meaning

Front 13

Metonymy

Back 13

A person, place, or thing referred to as something associated with it
Example: "this suit"
from "The Applicant"

Front 14

Oxymoron

Back 14

Two contradicting words placed together
Example: "Lady Lazarus"

Front 15

Paradox

Back 15

A contradiction of ideas revealing a truth
Example: "the murderess into a heaven that loves her"
from "The Bee Meeting"

Front 16

Personification

Back 16

An object, animal, or idea is given human qualitites
Example: "Since Christmas they [balloons] have lived with us"
from "Balloons"

Front 17

Pun

Back 17

Words that sound the same, yet have entirely different definitions
Example: "Stupid pupil"
from "Tulips"

Front 18

Simile

Back 18

A comparison (using "like" or "as"" of two unlike entities
Example: "lips like lies"
from "Stings"

Front 19

Symbol

Back 19

An entity is representative of a larger idea or significance
Example: Tulips as symbol of life
in "Tulips"

Front 20

Synecdoche

Back 20

A part of an entity represents the whole
Example: "These are my hands/My knees" (representing the "same, identical woman")
from "Lady Lazarus"

Front 21

Point of view

Back 21

The perspective of the speaker; the voice could be either 1st person, 3rd person limited, or 3rd person omniscient
Example: "I am too pure"
from "Fever 103"

Front 22

Speaker

Back 22

Who is telling the story or poem
Example: Executive super salesman in "The Applicant"

Front 23

Line

Back 23

Arrangement of the series of metrical feet
Example: "You do not do, you do not do"
first line in "Daddy"

Front 24

Allusion

Back 24

A reference to a historical, mythological, or well-known situation/character
Example: "I lay my ear to furious Latin./I am not Caesar."
from "The Arrival of the Bee Box"

Front 25

Ambiguity

Back 25

A word or phrase with more than one meaning; even within one conterxt there are often deeper meanings
Example: "Somebody's done for."
from "Death & Co"

Front 26

Analogy

Back 26

A comparison of something familiar to unfamiliar
Example: "square as a chair"
from "The Arrival of the Bee Box"
"Naked as paper"
From "The Applicant"

Front 27

Apostrophe

Back 27

Speaking directly to a real or imagined listener or inanimate object, addressing him/it by name
Example: "Your small/Brother" (addressing his sister)
from "Balloons"

Front 28

Cliché

Back 28

A widely known and overused figure of speech

Front 29

Connotation

Back 29

Emotional, psychological, social associations with a word
Example: The title of "Balloons" connotes childhood, innocence, and celebration

Front 30

Contrast

Back 30

Arranging opposites/very different ideas near eachother
Example: "through their white swaddlings, like an awful baby./Their redness talks to my wound"
and "They seem to float, though they weigh me down"
from "Tulips"

Front 31

Denotation

Back 31

The dictonary/ literal definition of a word
Example: in "The Bee Box" what this means

Front 32

Euphemism

Back 32

An understatement; lessening an effect so it is less offensive or hurtful
Example: "And comes from a country far away as health."
From "Tulips"

Front 33

Hyperbole

Back 33

Exaggeration for effect
Example: "with one grey toe/Big as a Frisco seal"
from "Daddy"

Front 34

Irony

Back 34

A contradictory statement/situation revealing a different reality than what had been assumed true

Front 35

Metaphor

Back 35

A comparison between two unlike things, stating one is or performs the action of another
Example: "My body is a pebble to them"
from "Tulips"
"The throats of our wrists brave lilies"
from "Stings"

Front 36

Stanza

Back 36

Lines of a poem arranged as a unit, separated by blank lines
Example:
"Stasis in darkness.
Then the substanceless blue
Pour of tor and distances."
from "Ariel"

Front 37

Rhetorical Question

Back 37

A question used for effect that does not require an answer
Examples: "Will you marry it?"
from "The Applicant"
"Where has she been, With her lion-red body, her wings of glass?"
from "Stings"

Front 38

Rhyme Scheme

Back 38

The pattern created by the arrangement of rhymes; e.g. aabb denotes two rhymed lines followed by another two lines rhyming each other

Front 39

Enjambment

Back 39

The continuation of the grammatical construction/logical sense of an idea further than a line
Example:
"Her dead

Body wears the smile of accomplishment,
The illusion of..."
frfom "Edge"

Front 40

Form

Back 40

The arrangement and structure of a poem compared to established conventions; e.g. open, closed, blank verse, free verse
Example: Plath's poetry is mainly written in free verse

Front 41

Free Verse

Back 41

Lines with no prescribed pattern or structure; all are appropriately chosen by the poet

Front 42

Imagery

Back 42

Vivid language used to evoke mental images or ideas; there can be correlation with any of the five senses.
Example: "Tongues of dull, fat Cerberus/Who wheezes at the gate. Incapable/ Of licking clean/The aguey tendon"
from "Fever 103"

Front 43

Synesthesia

Back 43

Fusing different senses in that one kind of sense impression words describe another
Example: "The bees are flying. They taste like spring."
from "Wintering"

Front 44

Tone

Back 44

By which the poet's attitudes and feelings are revealed, culminating from language used; described by emotions or attitudes including: ironic, loving, condescending, solemn, etc. Also it can be conveyed as voice inflection evident through diction, connotations, rhythm

Front 45

Mood

Back 45

The feelings evoked by the poem, i.e. the atmosphere created