1. Poetic
Devices

2. Poetic Devices
Simile
DEFINITION: a figure of speech that uses like or as to make a direct comparison between two unlike ideas.
EXAMPLES:
He is as tall as a redwood tree.
She runs like a snail.

3. Metaphor Poetic Devices
DEFINITION: a figure of speech that describes something as though it were something else.
EXAMPLES:
from Tombstone >>> “Why Wyatt, you’re an oak.”
You are such a stick in the mud.

4. Poetic Devices
Idiom
DEFINITION: an expression that has a meaning particular to a language or region. A phrase in which the literal meaning of the words does not add up to the actual meaning.

5. idioms EXAMPLES: to go bananas = to get super excited
on pins and needles =
waiting with much anxiety
hit the ground running =
to get a quick start on something
copycat =
someone who copies or mimics
in the doghouse =
on someone’s bad side / in trouble
fly off the handle =
to get super angry, very fast

6. Analogy Poetic Devices
DEFINITION: makes a comparison between two or more things that are similar in some ways but otherwise unalike – typically, A : B :: C : D –
2 things compared to 2 things.
EXAMPLES:
A glove is to hand as monitor is to computer.
Horses are to past societies as computers are to future societies.

7. Hyperbole Poetic Devices
DEFINITION: obvious and intentional exaggeration
EXAMPLES:
These books weigh a ton.
I’m so tired I could sleep for a year.

8. Poetic Devices
Symbol
DEFINITION: anything that stands for or represents something else. Symbols are common in everyday life.
EXAMPLES:
See the following slides…

13. What do the following things usually stand for in literature
and film?

14. the color black

15. the color
white

16. the color green

17. the color
blue

28. Personification Poetic Devices
DEFINITION: a type of figurative language in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics.
EXAMPLES:
Nature speaks to people.
The window winked at me.

29. Poetic Devices
Pun
DEFINITION: the humorous use of a word or phrase to emphasize or suggest different meanings or applications; words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning; a play on words.
EXAMPLES:
Illusionists always find themselves in tricky situations.
Romance isn't a science it's a heart.

30. Pun
See

31. Poetic Devices
Irony
DEFINITION: literary techniques that involve surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions
EXAMPLES:
from Sideshow Bob on the Simpsons:
“I'm aware of the irony of appearing on TV in order to decry it.” (decry - condemn or denounce)

32. Poetic Devices
Parody
DEFINITION: a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing
EXAMPLES:
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
Parry Hotter and the Seamy Side of Magic

33. Onomatopoeia Poetic Devices
DEFINITION: the use of words that imitate sounds and can help put the reader in the activity of a poem.
EXAMPLES:
Thump
Phlblblbplb
Kerplunk
Squish
Thwack
Splink

34. Poetic
Devices