This text outlines various poetic techniques and literary devices often used in writing. It begins by describing euphony, which involves smooth-sounding words, and continues to explain anaphora, the repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive lines.
Repetition of any group of verse elements e.g. ABBA rhyme scheme
Litotes
Under exaggeration
Subtopic
Oxymoron
A figure of speech that brings together contradictory words for effect
Pathetic Fallacy
When the weather or seasons reflect the mood of a poem
Similie
A comparison made with 'like'
Volta
In Italian it means 'turn', it is the turn of thought or argument
Motif
A certain or recurring image or action in a literary work that is shared by other works and may serve an overall theme
Allegory
An extended metaphor in which the characters, places and objects in a narrative carry figurative meaning often an allegory's meaning is religious, moral or historical in nature
A syndetic Listing
A list without connectives or conjunctions
Anaphora
The repetition of a word or a phrase at the beginning of a successive lines of writing or speech
Alliteration
The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words
Enjambment
Where the lines of a poem do not end but run on
Sibilance
Repetition of the letter s
Euphony
Smooth sounding words
Carpe Diem
In Latin "seize the day" the fleeting nature of life and the need to embrace its pleasures constitute a frequent theme of love poems.
Hyperbole
Extreme Exaggeration
Neologism
Made up literary words as in Lewis Carrols Jabberwocky
Paradox
As a figure of speech it is self contradictory
Poetic Licence
A poets departure from the rules of grammar, syntax and vocabulary in order to maintain a metrical or rhyme scheme, can also mean the manipulation of facts to suit the needs of a poem
Synechdoche
A figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole e.g. a set of wheels
Ubi Sunt
Poems about the transitory nature of life and the inevitability of death. These poems question the fate of the strong and virtuous.
Metaphor
A comparison that is made directly or indirectly
Anthropomorphism
A form of personification in which human characteristics are attributed to anything inhuman
Syndetic Listing
A list separated by connectives
Onomatopoeia
The use of words that evoke sounds
Personification
Attributing something that isn't human human characteristics