Poetic Devices and Literary Terms: Definitions

Poetic Forms

• Sonnet: 14 hendecasyllable lines, consisting of two quartets with the same rhyme and two tercets, typically following the rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA CDC DCD.
• Romance: An indeterminate number of octosyllabic lines with assonant rhyme in even-numbered lines and no rhyme in odd-numbered lines.
• Silva: An unlimited series of seven-syllable and eleven-syllable verses rhymed in couplets as the poet wishes, with some verses potentially unrhymed.
• Blank Verse: Poems exhibiting all rhythms except for the rhythm of rhyme, without rhyme.
• Free Verse: Poetry with no fixed metrical pattern.

Literary Devices

• Allegory: A sustained metaphor.
• Alliteration: Repetition of one or more phonemes.
• Anadiplosis: Repetition of the last part of a verse at the beginning of the next.
• Anaphora: A series of phrases that begin the same way.
• Antithesis: Contrasting two opposing ideas or terms.
• Apostrophe: Addressing animate or inanimate beings with passion.
• Asyndeton: Elimination of conjunctions (e.g., and, or).
• Chiasmus: Repetition of words or expressions in a mirrored, symmetrical structure.
• Ellipsis: Omission of words usually considered necessary.
• Enjambment: Continuation of a syntactic unit from one verse to the next.
• Epanadiplosis: A phrase that begins and ends the same way.
• Epithet: An ornamental adjective that highlights the characteristics of a noun.
• Euphemism: A mild or indirect expression used to hide or soften something unpleasant.
• Hyperbaton: Modification of the usual word order.
• Hyperbole: Excessive exaggeration.
• Rhetorical Question: A question posed not for an answer but to emphasize a point.
• Irony: Suggesting or asserting the contrary of what is thought or felt.
• Metaphor: Identification of a real term with an image; the actual term may be expressed (impure metaphor) or not (pure metaphor).
• Metonymy: Designating the whole with the name of a part or vice versa.
• Paradox: A statement that seems contradictory but holds a deeper truth.
• Parallelism: Anaphora is called parallelism when the repetition is almost complete with a slight final variation.
• Paronomasia: Placing near each other two words with similar sounds but different meanings.
• Pleonasm: Unnecessary words that reinforce an idea.
• Polysyndeton: Multiplication of unnecessary conjunctions.
• Prosopopeya: Attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or animals. Personification is a type of prosopopeya.
• Reduplication: Repetition of a word at the beginning or within a sentence.
• Symbol: An object or quality mentioned as real, representing something else.
• Simile: A comparison between a real term and an image, always explicit and using a comparative word like "as" or "like".
• Synesthesia: The blending of two images belonging to different sensory worlds.
• Onomatopoeia: Imitation of natural sounds with words.