POETRY
SPONTENEOUS OVEFLOW OF POWER
EMOTIONS RECOLLECTED IN TRANQUILITY-
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
POETRY DEALS WITH EMOTIONS/ FEELINGS.
POETIC DEVICES
WHAT ARE POETIC DEVICES?
POETIC DEVICES ARE TOOLS USED
BY POETS TO CREATE RHYME,
RHYTHM,METRICAL, VISUAL AND
VERBAL ELEMENTS TO ENHANCE THE
POEM’S MEANING OR TO INTENSIFY
A MOOD OR FEELING.
POETIC LICENSE
The liberty the poets have assumed to
themselves, in all ages, of speaking things in
words which are beyond the severity of prose.
Dryden
The term is applied to all the ways in which a
poet is held to be free to violate the ordinary
norms of speech and of literal truth, including
the use of metre, rhyme, myth and fiction.
Eg. Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance….
SIMILE
IN A SIMILE A COMPARISON BETWEEN TWO
DISTINCTLY DIFFERENT THINGS IS INDICATED BY
THE WORD “ LIKE “ OR “ AS”.
EG: THE MOON LIKE A FLOWER
IN HEAVEN’S HIGH BOWER
WITH SILENT DELIGHT
SITS AND SMILES ON THE NIGHT- W. BLAKE
HER FACE
ASHEN LIKE THAT OF A CORPSE( MY MOTHER AT
SIXTY SIX)…. I looked again at her, wan,
pale
as a late winter’s moon and felt that……
Metaphor
Metaphor is a poetic device or tool that describes
an object or an action in a way that it isn’t literally
true, but helps in explaining an idea./ a fig. of
speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an
object or action to which it is literally not
applicable.
Eg. All the world’s a stage
And all the men and women merely players
They have their exits and their entrances….
2. He is a busy bee and you can’t meet him.
Egs Snow is a white blanket that covered the
mountains
Other egs.
Narrow street sealed in with a lead sky
On their slag heap
. Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces.
the paper seeming boy …..
Future is painted with fog…
On their slag heap……………
… will keep a bower quiet for us
Sweet dreams
some shape of beauty
Pall
Like an endless fountain of immortal drink
Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.
UNCLE’S WEDDING BAND
SITS HEAVILY UPON AUNT JENNIFER’S HAND.
ALLITERATION- ROOT- LATIRA FROM LATIN MEANING-LETTERS
OF THE ALPPHABET
A CONSPICUOUS REPETITION OF IDENTICAL INITIAL SOUNDS IN
SUCCESSIVE OR CLOSELY ASSOCIATED SYLLABLES WITHIN A GROUP OF
WORDS.
SERIES OF WORDS BEGIN WITH THE SAME CONSONANT SOUND
EG. THE FAIR BREEZE BLEW, THE WHITE FOAM FLEW,S.T. COLERIDGE
HIS SWORD SLICED SILENTLY THROUGH THE AIR
BOYS ARE BUSY BOUNCING BASKET BALLS
OR BEAUTY REST IN A BEAUTIFUL MOUNTAIN SCENE.
AUNT JENNIFER’S FINGERS FLUTTERING THROUGH HER WOOL…
WILL GO ON PRANCING, PROUD AND UNAFRAID.( AUNT JENNIFER’S TIGERS)
OF THE INHUMAN DEARTH(A THING OF BEAUTY)
OF NOBLE NATURES…
Would look at his hurt hands(KEEPING QUIET)
CONSONANCE- SOUND DEVICES
REPETITION OF SEQUENCE OF CONSONANTS,
BUT WITH A CHANGE IN THE INTERVENING
STRESSED VOWEL.
LIVE-LOVE, PETER-PATTER,
“OUT OF THIS HOUSE “SAID RIDER TO READER
COMING HOME ; HOT FOOT
“Yours never will”, SAID FARER TO FEAER
‘THEY’RE LOOKING FOR YOU’ SAID HEARER TO
HORROR- W.H AUDEN
ASSONANCE
REPETITION OF IDENTICAL OR SIMILAR VOWEL SOUNDS
ESPECIALLY IN STRESSED SYLLABLES
EG. KEATS ODE TO GRACIAN URN-
THOU STILL UNRAVISHED BRIDE OF QUIETNESS
THOU FOSTER CHILD OF SILENCE AND SLOW TIME.
-MAKE WAY FOR THE LADY OF THE LAKE
-THAT SOLITUDE WHICH SUITS
ABSTUSER MUSINGS
-WOODS ARE LOVELY DARK AND DEEP
I HAVE PROMISES TO KEEP
AND MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP
AND MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP
Personification
WHEN AN INANIMATE OBJECT OR AN ABSTRACT CONCEPT IS
SPOKEN OF AS THOUGH IT WERE ENDOWED WITH LIFE OR
HUMAN ATTRIBUTES OR FEELINGS IS CALLED PERSONIFICATION.
Eg.
Sky lowered, and muttering thunder, some sad drops
Wept at completing of the mortal sin.- Milton
- looked out at the young trees sprinting …..
- lightning danced across the sky
- wind howled and roared fiercely
- I am the poem of the earth (VOICE OF THE RAIN)
- The road side stand that too pathetically pled
OXYMORON
Utterances that combine two terms that in
ordinary usage are contraries is an
OXYMORON
Eg. pleasing pains,
I burn and freeze,
loving hate,
death in life etc.
Beneficent beasts of prey
greedy good doers
True lies.
PUN
A play on words that are either identical in sound or
similar in sound but are sharply diverse in meaning.
Eg. Matthew XVI:18-Thou art Peter (petros)and upon
this rock(petra) I will build my church.
… the white and green leaves open
Would not move our arms so much
….reciting his father’s gnarled disease
His lessons, from his desk
… her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by
Transferred Epithet- Gk. Epitheton=
something added
It is an adjective or adjectival phrase used to define
the special quality of a person or a thing transferred
to something else.
It often involves shifting a modifier from the
animate to the inanimate.
Eg. cheerful money, sleepless night, cruel bars of
cage, wrinkled sea, lazy road.
When aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie…
The polished traffic
Of all the thousand selfish cars that pass
Washed their terribly transient feet
PARADOX
A statement which seems on its face to be self
contradictory or absurd, yet turns out to have a
valid meaning.
A friend is a foe and a foe is a friend.
The truth is honey, which is bitter.
I can resist all things apart from temptation.
I have to be cruel in order to be kind
Child is father of the man.
A paradox is the juxtaposition of two phrases which
contradict one another but reveal the truth.
Hyperbole- Gk = overshooting.
It is a bold overstatement or extravagant exaggeration of fact used
either for a comic or a very serious purpose.
Eg. I’ve told you to clean your room a million times!
She is so hungry, she could eat a horse.
There were many storms….. That’s why they left, looking for gold in the
big city….
Garbage to them is gold.
…. Scrounging for gold.
IRONY
Irony is the difference between what is asserted and what is actually
the case.
Types of irony:
Verbal irony: Wachter, “ Don’t go so fast, bub; you’ll get to your
school in plenty of time!”
Situational irony: Pesticide factory infested with locusts.
Saheb-e-Alam which means the Lord of the universe is directly in
contrast to what Saheb is in reality.
Dramatic irony: the audience or spectators know what the characters
do not. Situation in play or narrative in which the audience shares
with the author knowledge of which a character is ignorant.
onomatopoeia
Is applied to a word or a combination of words whose sound seems to
resemble the sound it denotes.
Eg. HISS, BUZZ, BANG, JINGLE
SPLASH, DRIBBLE,SWISH, ETC.
I CHATTER CHATTER AS I GO
METONYMY- GK. CHANGE OF NAME
THE TERM FOR ONE THING IS APPLIED TO ANOTHERWITH WHICH
IT HAS BECOME CLOSELY ASSOCIATED IN EXPERIENCE. THUS
“THE CROWN” OR THE SCEPTRE CAN STAND FOR THE KING.
I HAVE READ MILTON AND SHAKESPEARE.(BOOKS WRITTEN BY
THEM)
‘ DOUBLET AND HOSE OUGHT TO SHOW ITSELF COURAGEOUS
TO PETTICOAT’.
W. SHAKESPEARE(AS YOU LIKE IT)
A PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN SWORD.
THE WHITE HOUSE- AUTHORITY OF THE U.S.
REDTAPE-EXCESSIVE BUREAUCRACY OR TOOMUCH IMPORTANCE
IS GIVEN TO OFFICIAL FORMALITIES.
FOURTH ESTATE - PRESS
SYNECDOCHE
A PART REPRESENTING THE WHOLE or whole
representing the part.
Eg. He bought a four wheeler.(car)
India won three gold medals in Olympics Hockey
( 1928, 1932 and 1936).(Indian hockey team)
All hands on deck.(people)
India lends a helping hand to neighbouring nations
in time of distress.
He works hard to earn bread for the family.
He feeds many mouths every week.
Differences between metonymy and synecdoche
Concept= metonymy
Part or whole= synecdoche
REFRAIN
A LINE OR A PART OF LINE,OR A GROUP OF LINES WHICH IS REPEATED
IN THE COURSE OF A POEM, SOMETIMES WITH SLIGHT CHANGES AND
USUALLY AT THE END OF EACH STANZA IS CALLED A REFRAIN.
FOR MEN MAY COME AND MEN MAY GO
BUT I GO ON FOR EVER – ( THESE LINES ARE REPEATED ALL
OVER THE POEM) THE BROOK BY LORD TENNYSON
FOR THE MOON NEVERBEAMS WITHOUT BRINGING ME DREAMS
OF THE BEAUTIFUL ANNABEL LEE
BUT THE STARS NEVER RISE BUT I FEEL THE BRIGHT EYES
OF THE BEAUTIFUL ANNABEL LEE - ANNBELLEE BY ALAN EDGAR
POE
ANAPHORA ana=repeat/ back pherein=to carry
The repetition of a word or a group of words at the beginning of
consecutive sentences, clauses or phrases.
Eg.: For ever piping songs for ever new
More happy love! More happy more happy love
For ever warm and still to be enjoy’d,
For ever panting and for ever young
THANK YOU.
