Poetic Devices NCERT 12th English

What Is Poetry?

Poetry is a type of literature that conveys a thought, describes a scene or tells a story in a concentrated, lyrical arrangement of words. Poems can be structured, with rhyming lines and meter, the rhythm and emphasis of a line based on syllabic beats. Poems can also be freeform, which follows no formal structure.

The basic building block of a poem is a verse known as a stanza. A stanza is a grouping of lines related to the same thought or topic, similar to a paragraph in prose. A stanza can be subdivided based on the number of lines it contains. For example, a couplet is a stanza with two lines. On the page, poetry is visibly unique: a narrow column of words with recurring breaks between stanzas. Lines of a poem may be indented or lengthened with extra spacing between words. The white space that frames a poem is an aesthetic guide for how a poem is read.

 

What Are The Poetic Devices?

Poetic devices are used to embellish a piece of a literary text. it is one of the forms of literary devices used in poems to enhance the piece structure. it is used by authors and poets to bring life to poetry.

 

1. Simile- 

It is used to compare one thing to others that are somewhat similar.

A simile is a figure of speech that is mainly used to compare two or more things that possess a similar quality. It uses words such as ‘like’ or ‘as’ to make the comparison.

According to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, a simile is defined as

“a word or phrase that compares something to something else, using the words like or as.”

For Eg;

• As cold as ice 
• As white as a ghost 
• As sweet as sugar 
• As good as gold 
• As sharp as a razor
• Sings like a cuckoo
• Climbs like a monkey
• Move like a snail
• Sleeps like a baby
• He fought like a king.
• This world is like a rattrap.
• Her face ashen like that of a corpse.

2.  Metaphor- A word or phrase that is used to compare two different things which are alike in nature.

A metaphor is a figure of speech that is used to make a comparison, but in a way different from a simile. It makes the comparison as if it was literally true. In other words, it can be said that a metaphor is an implied comparison.

Now, let us also take a look at how different dictionaries define a metaphor to have a clearer understanding of the same.

example 

• My mom has a heart of gold.
• My friend’s sister, Sharon, is a night owl.
• My hands were icicles because of the cold weather.
• You just have to consider the world a stage and act accordingly.
• Dileep has a stone heart.
• You have ideas flowing one after the other. Your mind is an ocean.
• She was an autumn leaf.
• He is a lion when he comes to the field.
• Phoebe is a nightingale. Everyone waited eagerly for her to come up on stage.
• She is such a firecracker.  
• Life is a big roller-coaster ride.
• Garbage to them is gold.
• He is the big fish who must be trapped.

3. Alliteration is used to repeat consonant sounds, and the words are placed adjacent to each other.

For eg;

•          Don’t drink and drive.

•          He saw a spider and the snake on the shelf.

•          Some say the world end in fire.

Alliteration is a literary device that uses similar phonetic sounds in continuity to make an effect. This device is usually used to decorate the words with a musical, lyrical or emotional effect.

•          Alliteration is formed using words beginning with similar consonant or vowel sounds.

•          These words have to be used consecutively, one after the other.

•          Similar sounding syllables can also be used to form alliterated sentences.

•          There is no definite rule that alliteration can be used only for a number of definite words. It can be just two similar sounding words used one after the other in a sentence.

 

•          “The fair breeze blew,

•          The white foam flew,

•          And the furrow followed free.

•          There is nothing but death in the desert during the day.

•          She happily helped the homeless.

•          My neighbors are not normally noisy.

 

4. Repetition- The words are repeated to lay emphasis on the said lines.

Repetition is a figure of speech where a word or phrase within a sentence is repeated. It is done for emphasis or for poetic effect. It is a very frequently used figure of speech.

“If you think you can win, you can win.”

“I‘m nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody too?”

I searched and searched and searched. (The act of searching is highlighted and emphasised.)

He came, He saw, He conquered. (The pronoun ‘He‘ is repeated thrice for emphasis.)

Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday to you.

Break o break open till they break the town.

All she did was smile, smile, and smile.

I feel happy to see happy people make others happy.

5. Personification- This is used to give human feelings to inanimate objects or any abstract ideas.

When you personify an object, animal, or anything else that’s not human in your writing, you make that “thing” feel more human.

By humanizing a non-human through personification, you can do several things:

Make it easier for readers to empathize with it

Make a human character’s relationship with the non-human clearer to readers

Make it easier for the reader to empathize with the human characters in the story

Demonstrate the non-human’s role in the story more clearly

• The city that never sleeps.
• Howling wind
• Actions speak louder than words.
• The sun smiled down on us.”
• ‘The story jumped off the page.”
• “The light danced on the surface of the water.”
• Let the flood clap their hands.
• I kissed the hand of death.
• Necessity knows no law.

 

6. Pun- the pun can use multiple meanings; it is a play on words in which a humorous effect is produced by using a word that suggests two or more similar meanings.

A pun is a figure of speech that includes a play of words that have more than one meaning or those that sound alike. Among the figures of speech, pun can be said to be the most intriguing and amusing. All that one requires is a creative intellect and some wit to create humorous puns.

A pun is a figure of speech that includes a play of words that have more than one meaning or those that sound alike.

• What an emotional wedding, the cake was even in tiers.
• Fish are smart because they live in a school.
• My dog wears his coat in the winter but in the summer he wears a coat and pants.
• You wouldn’t hit a guy with glasses, would you?
• A horse is a very stable animal.
• An elephant’s opinion carries a lot of weight.
• I am a mender of bad soles.

 

7. Paradox- one thing is opposite to another in a sentence in an absurd manner.

A paradox is a statement that appears at first to be contradictory, but upon reflection then makes sense. This literary device is commonly used to engage a reader to discover an underlying logic in a seemingly self-contradictory statement or phrase. As a result, paradox allows readers to understand concepts in a different and even non-traditional way.

• He is nobody.
• Your enemy’s friend is your enemy.
• He is a wise fool.
• The truth is honey, which is bitter.
• Do not go into the water until you have learnt to swim.
• Nobody goes to that bar, it is too busy.
• If you get my message then call me but if you don’t get it, then don’t call.
• I know one thing, I know nothing.
• Anything that you do will be insignificant but it is essential that you do it.
• War is peace, freedom is slavery
• A child is the father of the man

8. Oxymoron- 

The words are opposite to each other and are placed adjacent to each other, seems absurd while reading. It is the conjoining of the two contradictory words.

An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines contradictory words with opposing meanings, like “old news,” “deafening silence,” or “organized chaos.” Oxymorons may seem illogical at first, but in context they usually make sense. 

An oxymoron is a literary device that juxtaposes contradictory terms. Oxymorons are often used poetically as a way of bringing out a fresh meaning in a word or phrase. Like a paradox, an oxymoron is what’s known as a “contradiction in terms,” although oxymorons and paradoxes are two different things, as explained below.

 

The word oxymoron is an ancient Greek word, which translates most closely to something like “sharply dull” or “cleverly stupid.” In other words, the oxymoron definition is itself an oxymoron.

 

Oxymorons have been used for millennia. More than a few have even become commonplace expressions in modern-day English, such as these oxymoron examples:

 

• accurate estimate
• alone together
• awfully good
• bittersweet
• climb down
• close distance
• grow smaller
• jumbo shrimp
• only option
• original copy
• passive-aggressive
• same difference
• seriously funny
• small crowd
• virtual reality

9. Irony- in this poetic device, one thing is said when the opposite is meant.

Irony is a figure of speech in which there is a contradiction of expectation between what is said and what is really meant. It is characterized by an incongruity, a contrast, between reality and appearance. There are three types of irony: verbal, dramatic and situational.

 

Types Of Irony

Verbal irony:

• It is a contrast between what is said and what is meant

Dramatic irony:

• It occurs when the audience or the reader knows more than the character about events. In other words, what the character thinks is true is incongruous with what the audience knows.

Situational irony:

• This refers to the contrast between the actual result of a situation and what was intended or expected to happen.

Example

• His argument was as clear as mud.
• The two identical twins were arguing. One of them told the other: "You're ugly"
• The thieves robbed the police station.
• A robber steals valuables from a policeman’s house. This is ironic because a policeman is supposed to catch thieves but gets robbed himself.
• A pilot who has a fear of heights. This is ironic because a pilot’s job is to fly an airplane at great heights.
• You wake up and get dressed quickly for school only to realize it’s a holiday. This is ironic because you were trying not to get late when you can’t even go to school.
• The smartest student in a class is caught cheating in a test. This is ironic because you would think the smartest student would have studied for the test beforehand.
• A bookstore owner who doesn’t like to read books. This is a situational irony since you would expect a person who spends so much time around books to also like to read.
• It was an intelligent donkey.
•  A pilot has a fear of flying.
• The police station gets robbed.

10. Hyperbole-

 It is an exaggeration that adds a bit of humor to a literary text.

Go through the following points. 

• When you want to write a hyperbole, all you have to do is think of what you want to write about, the quality of that particular person, place, animal, object or idea that you want to exaggerate, probably because you are extremely impressed or disgusted by it.
• The main purpose of a hyperbole is to emphasise something or to make a mind-blowing effect on the reader or listener.
• Degrees of comparison and other adjectives can be employed to construct a hyperbole.
• A hyperbole should never be taken literally as they are exaggerated statements and are not exactly true.
• A hyperbole can be just a word, a group of words, a phrase or a clause.

Example

• They ran like greased lightning. 
• He's got tons of money. 
• Her brain is the size of a pea. 
• He is older than the hills. 
• I will die if she asks me to dance. 
• She is as big as an elephant! 
• I'm so hungry I could eat a horse. 
• I have told you a million times not to lie!
• When she did the flips at the dance, she landed as light as a feather.
• I am so hungry I could eat all the food here.
• My brother said that he had a million things to do when he was actually sitting idly.
• Amrita carried home a ton of papers that she had to grade before Friday.
• Rory went on forever about the city she lived in.
• I am dying of shame.
• My grandmother is as old as the hills.
• The burglar runs as fast as lighting.

11 Apostrophe is used in the literary text to call out a dead or absent person from the scene.

Apostrophe is a figure of speech that is used to address someone who is absent or already dead. It can also be used to address an abstract quality or idea, and even a non-living object.

• “Twinkle, twinkle little star , How I wonder what you are”
• Love, who needs you?
• Come on, Phone, give me a ring!
• Chocolate, why must you be so delicious?
• Alarm clock, please don’t fail me.
• Seven, you are my lucky number!
• Thank you, my guardian angel, for this parking space!
• Heaven, help us.
• Oh, bed! Finally, I am with you!
• Oh, bed! Finally, I am with you!
• My dear chair! Why are you so uncomfortable with me?

• Come on the phone, ring for me!
• The Moon, you have seen my tears many times Oh money, why do you bother all the time? 

12. Imagery- it creates abstract thoughts, ideas, and ambiance in readers’ minds by the poets or authors.

Imagery is the art of creating a mental image through descriptive words. Writers use either literal or figurative language to help readers picture an image of a scene by engaging their senses and evoking emotions.

This literary device describes objects, actions, or ideas while providing readers with sensory imagery that pulls them into a story, allowing them to relate to the characters and better understand the narrator.

• The grass was green, and the flowers were red.
• He has a heart of stone

13. Metonymy- it is used to substitute one term for another.

For eg;

•          I am reading Chetan Bhagat these days. ( talking about the book)

•          They were listening to Lata Mangeshkar. ( Songs)

 

What Is Meter in Poetry?

A poem can contain many elements to give it structure. Rhyme is perhaps the most common of these elements: countless poetic works, from limericks to epic poems to pop lyrics, contain rhymes. But equally important is meter, which imposes specific length and emphasis on a given line of poetry. Learn more about meter in poetry here.

What Is a Stanza?

In poetry, a stanza is used to describe the main building block of a poem. It is a unit of poetry composed of lines that relate to a similar thought or topic—like a paragraph in prose or a verse in a song. Every stanza in a poem has its own concept and serves a unique purpose. A stanza may be arranged according to rhyming patterns and meters—the syllabic beats of a line. It can also be a free-flowing verse that has no formal structure. Learn more about stanzas in poetry here.

What Is a Rhyme Scheme?

There are many different types of rhymes that poets use in their work: internal rhymes, slant rhymes, eye rhymes, identical rhymes, and more. One of the most common ways to write a rhyming poem is to use a rhyme scheme composed of shared vowel sounds or consonants. Learn about 10 different poetry rhyme schemes here.

Types of Poetic Forms

From sonnets and epics to haikus and villanelles, learn more about 15 of literature’s most enduring types of poems.

Blank verse. 

Blank verse is poetry written with a precise meter—almost always iambic pentameter—that does not rhyme. Learn more about blank verse here.

Rhymed poetry. 

In contrast to blank verse, rhymed poems rhyme by definition, although their scheme varies. Learn more about rhymed poetry here.

Free verse. 

Free verse poetry is poetry that lacks a consistent rhyme scheme, metrical pattern, or musical form. Learn more about free verse here.

Epics. 

An epic poem is a lengthy, narrative work of poetry. These long poems typically detail extraordinary feats and adventures of characters from a distant past. Learn more about epics here.

Narrative poetry. 

Similar to an epic, a narrative poem tells a story. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” exemplify this form. Learn more about narrative poetry here.

Haiku.

 A haiku is a three-line poetic form originating in Japan. The first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and the third line again has five syllables. Learn more about haikus here.

Pastoral poetry. 

A pastoral poem is one that concerns the natural world, rural life, and landscapes. These poems have persevered from Ancient Greece (in the poetry of Hesiod) to Ancient Rome (Virgil) to the present day (Gary Snyder). Learn more about pastoral poetry here.

Sonnet. 

A sonnet is a 14 line poem, typically (but not exclusively) concerning the topic of love. Sonnets contain internal rhymes within their 14 lines; the exact rhyme scheme depends on the style of a sonnet. Learn about Petrarchan sonnets here. Learn about Shakespearean sonnets here.

Elegies. 

An elegy is a poem that reflects upon death or loss. Traditionally, it contains themes of mourning, loss, and reflection. However, it can also explore themes of redemption and consolation. Learn more about elegies here.

Ode. 

Much like an elegy, an ode is a tribute to its subject, although the subject need not be dead—or even sentient, as in John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”. Learn more about odes here.

Limerick. 

A limerick is a five-line poem that consists of a single stanza, an AABBA rhyme scheme, and whose subject is a short, pithy tale or description. Learn more about limericks here.

Lyric poetry.

 Lyric poetry refers to the broad category of poetry that concerns feelings and emotion. This distinguishes it from two other poetic categories: epic and dramatic. Learn more about lyric poetry here.

Ballad. 

A ballad (or ballade) is a form of narrative verse that can be either poetic or musical. It typically follows a pattern of rhymed quatrains. From John Keats to Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Bob Dylan, it represents a melodious form of storytelling. Learn more about ballads here.

Soliloquy. 

A soliloquy is a monologue in which a character speaks to him or herself, expressing inner thoughts that an audience might not otherwise know. Soliloquies are not definitionally poems, although they often can be—most famously in the plays of William Shakespeare. Learn more about soliloquies here.

Villanelle. 

A nineteen-line poem consisting of five tercets and a quatrain, with a highly specified internal rhyme scheme. Originally a variation on a pastoral, the villanelle has evolved to describe obsessions and other intense subject matters, as exemplified by Dylan Thomas, author of villanelles like “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.”

What Is Imagery in Poetry?

In poetry and literature, imagery is the use of figurative language to evoke a sensory experience in the reader. When a poet uses descriptive language well, they play to the reader’s senses, providing them with sights, tastes, smells, sounds, internal and external feelings, and even internal emotion. Learn about the seven types of imagery in poetry here.

What Is the Difference Between Blank Verse and Free Verse Poetry?

Free verse poetry has been popular from the nineteenth century onward and is not bound by rules regarding rhyme or meter. Blank verse poetry came of age in the sixteenth century and has been famously employed by the likes of William Shakespeare, John Milton, William Wordsworth, and countless others. Unlike free verse, it adheres to a strong metrical pattern. Learn more about the differences between blank verse and free verse poetry here.

What Is Mimesis in Poetry?

Copying is something writers usually strive to avoid. And yet, the literary theory of mimesis says that artists copy constantly, as a matter of necessity. Does this make their art bad? Centuries of thinkers from Plato and Aristotle onwards have attempted to answer this question by debating the nature of mimesis. Learn more about mimesis in poetry here.

What Is Onomatopoeia in Poetry?

Usually, how words sound bears no relationship to what they mean. That’s not true in the case of onomatopoeia, where words sound like what they are. The English language is littered with these mimicking words, from meowing cats to babbling brooks. In poetry and literature, the onomatopoeic effect is something writers can harness to create vivid imagery without verbosity. Learn more about onomatopoeia in poetry here.

What Is Enjambment in Poetry?

Poetry is a structured literary form, with patterns and rhythms that dictate the flow of verses. Lineation in poetry is how lines are divided and where they end in relation to a clause or thought. Having a line break at the end of a phrase or complete thought is a regular and expected pattern in poetry. Poets subvert this expectation by using a technique called enjambment. Learn more about enjambment in poetry here.

What Is Dissonance in Poetry?

The human brain instinctively looks for harmony. When it is denied harmony, it can create a powerful moment—whether that’s for the purposes of creating tension, capturing inner turmoil, or bringing a bit of levity. Dissonance injects discomfort into text through inharmonious sounds and uneven rhythms. Learn more about dissonance in poetry here.

What Is Consonance in Poetry?

In poetry, rhyme isn’t the only way to introduce memorability and musicality. Consonance presents poets with the possibility of playing around with the repetition of consonant sounds. Learn more about consonance in poetry here.

What Is Assonance in Poetry?

From William Wordsworth to Kendrick Lamar, generations of poets have used assonance as a looser alternative to strict rhymes. Assonance, the repetition of vowel sounds, is distinct from consonance, which refers to the repetition of consonant sounds. Along with rhyme and alliteration, it is a powerful poetic device that writers can use to make their words stand out. Learn more about assonance in poetry here.

What Is Alliteration in Poetry?

Sometimes called initial rhyme or head rhyme, alliteration is one poetic device that’s unmissable in our everyday world. Poets, advertisers and headline writers all regularly take this approach of repeating initial letter sounds to grab people’s attention. In poetry, it also injects focus, harmony, and rhythm. Learn more about alliteration in poetry here.

Learn more about reading and writing poetry in US Poet Laureate Billy Collins’s MasterClass.

 

What is a Stanza?

In poetry, a stanza is a dividing and organizing technique which places a group of lines in a poem together, separated from other groups of lines by line spacing or indentation. Stanzas are to poetry what paragraphs are to prose. Stanzas can be rhymed or unrhymed and fixed or unfixed in meter or syllable count.

 

There are numerous types of stanzas ranging in complexity and length. Here are some of the most common types of stanzas:

Couplet

The couplet is a couple of lines, a stanza made of two lines. Often, couplets are used to mimic togetherness and are found in love poems, though they can be used for all manner of subjects. 

Tercet

A tercet is a stanza consisting of three lines. Each haiku, by definition, is a tercet consisting of lines of five, seven, and five syllables:

Quatrain

A quatrain is a stanza of four lines. Quatrains are very common in poetry. Here is an example of a quatrain from Pablo Neruda’s poem “One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII”:

Quintain

A quintain is a stanza of five lines. One prominent example of the quintain is the tanka, a five-line traditional Japanese poem:

 

Verse

Verse has many definitions; it is a line within poetry (usually with meter and rhyme) or even a synonym for poem. Verse is also the songwriter’s equivalent of stanza. This can be confusing in that sometimes stanzas are also referred to as verses, but the more technical term for divisions of lines in poetry is the stanza. Singers divide their song lyrics similarly to poets, though the divisions are referred to as verses rather than stanzas.