This document defines and provides examples of common poetic devices including alliteration, assonance, consonance, end rhyme, rhyme scheme, internal rhyme, onomatopoeia, repetition, refrain, stanza, quatrain. It explains that these devices help create rhythm, imagery and meaning in poetry through techniques like repeating sounds within or at the end of words.

1. Poetic Devices
Taken from
Write Source 2000

2. Elements of Poetry
 Understanding the elements and devices
of poetry will help you better comprehend
the meanings of poems.
 Remember, often in poetry, the meaning
of the words isn’t literal. It’s figurative.

3. Understanding Internalizing
 As you already know, figurative language
and symbolism are very important to
poetry. However, there are other
elements that help create images,
rhythm, and meaning.

4. Alliteration
 The repeating of beginning consonant
sounds
 Ex: “creamy and crunchy”
 Ex: “nodded nearly napping”
–
“The Raven”

5. Assonance
 The repetition of vowel sound
 Notice the repetition of the long “i” sound in the
following example
 Till the shining scythes went far and wide
And cut it down to dry.
- “The Hayloft” by R.L. Stevenson

6. Consonance
 The repetition of consonant sounds
(differs from alliteration because the
sounds can be anywhere within the word,
not just the beginning)
 The sailor sings of ropes and things
In ships upon the seas.
- “Singing”

7. End Rhyme
 The rhyming of words at the end of two or
more lines of poetry
 She always had to burn a light
Beside her attic bed at night.
- “The Night Light” by Robert Frost

8. Rhyme Scheme
 A pattern of lines that rhyme in poetry
 There are many different common rhyme
schemes: AABB, ABAB, and AAAB (to name a
few)
I shall be telling this with a sigh A
somewhere B
ages and ages hence: A
two roads A
diverged in a wood, and I – B
I took the one
less traveled by,

9. Internal Rhyme
 The rhyming of words within one line of
poetry
 Jack Sprat could eat no fat
 Peter Peter pumpkin eater

10. Onomatopoeia
 The use of a word that sounds like what it
means
 buzz, gunk, gushy, swish, zigzag, zip

11. Repetition
 The repeating of a word or phrase to add
rhythm or to emphasize an idea
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door –
- “The Raven” by E.A. Poe

12. Refrain
 Line, lines, or stanza repeated throughout
a poem (like a “chorus” in a song)
 Quote the raven, “Never more.”
- “The Raven” by E.A. Poe

13. Stanza
 A group of lines within a poem that go
together
 Stanzas may consist of anywhere from
two or more lines

14. Quatrain
 A four-line stanza
 Common rhyme schemes in quatrains are
AABB, ABAB, and AAAB
 I wish I had no teachers.
That’s what I’d like to see.
I’d do whatever I wanted to,
And nobody’d yell at me.