Whispers Of Soul: Poetic techniques

I. What is Imagery?

Imagery is language used by poets, novelists and other writers to create images in the mind of the reader. Imagery includes figurative and metaphorical language to improve the reader’s experience through their senses.

II. Examples of Imagery

Example 1

Imagery using visuals:

The night was black as ever, but bright stars lit up the sky in beautiful and varied constellations which were sprinkled across the astronomical landscape.

In this example, the experience of the night sky is described in depth with color (black as ever, bright), shape (varied constellations), and pattern (sprinkled).

Example 2

Imagery using sounds:

Silence was broken by the peal of piano keys as Shannon began practicing her concerto.

Here, auditory imagery breaks silence with the beautiful sound of piano keys.

Example 3

Imagery using scent:

She smelled the scent of sweet hibiscus wafting through the air, its tropical smell a reminder that she was on vacation in a beautiful place.

The scent of hibiscus helps describe a scene which is relaxing, warm, and welcoming.

Example 4

Imagery using taste:

The candy melted in her mouth and swirls of bittersweet chocolate and slightly sweet but salty caramel blended together on her tongue.

Thanks to an in-depth description of the candy’s various flavors, the reader can almost experience the deliciousness directly.

Example 5

Imagery using touch:

After the long run, he collapsed in the grass with tired and burning muscles. The grass tickled his skin and sweat cooled on his brow.

In this example, imagery is used to describe the feeling of strained muscles, grass’s tickle, and sweat cooling on skin.

III. Types of Imagery

Here are the five most common types of imagery used in creative writing:

a. Visual Imagery

Visual imagery describes what we see: comic book images, paintings, or images directly experienced through the narrator’s eyes. Visual imagery may include:

Color, such as: burnt red, bright orange, dull yellow, verdant green, and Robin’s egg blue.

Shapes, such as: square, circular, tubular, rectangular, and conical.

Size, such as: miniscule, tiny, small, medium-sized, large, and gigantic.

Pattern, such as: polka-dotted, striped, zig-zagged, jagged, and straight.

b. Auditory Imagery

Auditory imagery describes what we hear, from music to noise to pure silence. Auditory imagery may include:

Enjoyable sounds, such as: beautiful music, birdsong, and the voices of a chorus.

Noises, such as: the bang of a gun, the sound of a broom moving across the floor, and the sound of broken glass shattering on the hard floor.

The lack of noise, describing a peaceful calm or eerie silence.

c. Olfactory Imagery

Olfactory imagery describes what we smell. Olfactory imagery may include:

Fragrances, such as perfumes, enticing food and drink, and blooming flowers.

Odors, such as rotting trash, body odors, or a stinky wet dog.

d. Gustatory Imagery

Gustatory imagery describes what we taste. Gustatory imagery can include:

Sweetness, such as candies, cookies, and desserts.

Sourness, bitterness, and tartness, such as lemons and limes.

Saltiness, such as pretzels, French fries, and pepperonis.

Spiciness, such as salsas and curries.

Savoriness, such as a steak dinner or thick soup.

e. Tactile Imagery

Lastly, tactile imagery describes what we feel or touch. Tactile imagery includes:

Temperature, such as bitter cold, humidity, mildness, and stifling heat.

Texture, such as rough, ragged, seamless, and smooth.

Touch, such as hand-holding, one’s in the grass, or the feeling of starched fabric on one’s skin.

Movement, such as burning muscles from exertion, swimming in cold water, or kicking a soccer ball.

IV. The Importance of Using Imagery

Because we experience life through our senses, a strong composition should appeal to them through the use of imagery. Descriptive imagery launches the reader into the experience of a warm spring day, scorching hot summer, crisp fall, or harsh winter. It allows readers to directly sympathize with characters and narrators as they imagine having the same sense experiences. Imagery commonly helps build compelling poetry, convincing narratives, vivid plays, well-designed film sets, and descriptive songs.

V. Imagery in Literature

Imagery is found throughout literature in poems, plays, stories, novels, and other creative compositions. Here are a few examples of imagery in literature:

Example 1

Excerpt describing a fish:

his brown skin hung in strips

like ancient wallpaper,

and its pattern of darker brown

was like wallpaper:

shapes like full-blown roses

stained and lost through age.

This excerpt from Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “The Fish” is brimming with visual imagery. It beautifies and complicates the image of a fish that has just been caught. You can imagine the fish with tattered, dark brown skin “like ancient wallpaper” covered in barnacles, lime deposits, and sea lice. In just a few lines, Bishop mentions many colors including brown, rose, white, and green.

Example 2

Another example:

A taste for the miniature was one aspect of an orderly spirit. Another was a passion for secrets: in a prized varnished cabinet, a secret drawer was opened by pushing against the grain of a cleverly turned dovetail joint, and here she kept a diary locked by a clasp, and a notebook written in a code of her own invention. … An old tin petty cash box was hidden under a removable floorboard beneath her bed.

In this excerpt from Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement, we can almost feel the cabinet and its varnished texture or the joint that is specifically in a dovetail shape. We can also imagine the clasp detailing on the diary and the tin cash box that’s hidden under a floorboard. Various items are described in-depth, so much so that the reader can easily visualize them.

VI. Imagery in Pop Culture

Imagery can be found throughout pop culture in descriptive songs, colorful plays, and in exciting movie and television scenes.

Example 1

Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox:

Wes Anderson is known for his colorful, imaginative, and vivid movie making. The imagery in this film is filled with detail, action, and excitement.

Example 2

Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.”

Armstrong’s classic song is an example of simple yet beautiful imagery in song. For instance, the colors are emphasized in the green trees, red blooming roses, blue skies, and white clouds from the bright day to the dark night.

VII. Related Terms

(Terms: metaphor, onomatopoeia and personification)
.........................................

Metaphor

Metaphor is often used as a type of imagery. Specifically, metaphor is the direct comparison of two distinct things. Here are a few examples of metaphor as imagery:

Her smiling face is the sun.

His temper was a hurricane whipping through the school, scaring and amazing his classmates.

We were penguins standing in our black and white coats in the bitter cold.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is also a common tool used for imagery. Onomatopoeia is a form of auditory imagery in which the word used sounds like the thing it describes. Here are a few examples of onomatopoeia as imagery:

The fire crackled and popped.

She rudely slurped and gulped down her soup.

The pigs happily oinked when the farmer gave them their slop to eat.

Personification

Personification is another tool used for imagery. Personification provides animals and objects with human-like characteristics. Here are a few examples of personification as imagery:

The wind whistled and hissed through the stormy night.

The tired tree’s branches moaned in the gusts of wind.

The ocean waves slapped the shore and whispered in a fizz as they withdrew again.

Categories: Term

What is a Metaphor?

Metaphor (pronounced meh-ta-for) is a common figure of speech that makes a comparison by directly relating one thing to another unrelated thing. Unlike similes, metaphors do not use words such as “like” or “as” to make comparisons. The writer or speaker relates the two unrelated things that are not actually the same, and the audience understands that it’s a comparison, not a literal equation. The word comes from a Latin phrase meaning “to carry across,” and a metaphor does just that—it carries a shared quality or characteristic across two distinct things.

Writers use metaphor to add color and emphasis to what they are trying to express. For instance, if you say someone has “a sea of knowledge,” you are using a metaphor to express how smart or educated they are. “Knowledge” and “the sea” are not literally related, but they are figuratively related because they are both immense things that are difficult to measure. By putting them together, you can accentuate how vast a person’s knowledge is.

A lot of common expressions are metaphors, and this includes phrases like “heart of gold” or calling someone a rat, snake, pig, or shark. These figurative expressions are so widespread that we rarely stop to think about them – but unless you literally think that someone has gills and fins, you’re using a metaphor when you call that person a shark.

II. Examples of Metaphor

Example 1

All religions, arts, and sciences are branches of the same tree. (Albert Einstein)

Clearly, Einstein wasn’t talking about a literal tree. But he’s showing a close relationship between different topics by suggesting that they’re all part of the same living thing. He also basically raises an interesting question – if art, religion, and science are all branches, what should we call the tree’s trunk?

Example 2

That football player is really putting the team on his back this evening!

Football commentators use this phrase all the time when an entire team appears to be depending on its running back. The image of a single man running hard with a whole football team on his back is an expression of hard work and dedication.

Example 3

She was a rock star at our last business presentation.

This is probably not referring to a literal rock star falling from space or the other common metaphor: a musician performing at a rock concert. Instead, it simply means the person delivered a great performance at the meeting and stood out like a rock star on the stage.

III. The Importance of Metaphor

Like other forms of comparison, metaphor adds powerful detail to your writing. By bringing in sensory details in the form of metaphors, you can make your words more interesting and real, and help the readers imagine and even feel a scene or character. A good metaphor also exercises the reader’s imagination – it helps him or her see familiar concepts in a new way, or helps explain an otherwise vague topic.

Because metaphors are so common, you may find that they have all sorts of effects. This is part of what’s useful about analyzing them! You can take each one on its own terms and figure out how it works within its own specific context. And, as we’ll see in the following sections, there are plenty of metaphors that authors use as a sort of reflex – when someone says they have a “broken heart,” they aren’t necessarily employing metaphor deliberately. Sometimes, they’re just looking for a common figurative expression.

IV. Examples of Metaphor in Literature

Example 1

But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun! (William Shakespeare – Romeo & Juliet)

This is one of the most famous metaphors in all of English literature. Obviously, Juliet, is not literally the sun, or Romeo would burn to death. The effect of using metaphor here is similar to the effect of simile, but stronger. Because Romeo doesn’t insert “comparing” words into his line, we get the sense that he is really stunned by Juliet’s beauty. She is, for him, just as radiant as the sun.

Example 2

Our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind. (Khalil Gibran – Sand & Foam)

This has more or less the same meaning as other overused metaphors like “tip of the iceberg” or “mere shadows.” What’s seen and heard in the world is just a tiny fraction of what’s going on below the surface. But this metaphor is far more creative and original. It also has the benefit of being extended to two separate comparisons within a single unmixed metaphor: words=crumbs AND mind=feast.

Example 3

I’ve eaten a bag of green apples. (Sylvia Plath, Metaphors)

Sometimes, the meaning of a metaphor is not clear. Sylvia Plath’s poem Metaphors is full of figurative language like this one, whose meaning is not clear. In general, the poem is about Plath’s pregnancy, so this line may refer to her morning sickness (green apples can be sour and highly acidic, and a bag of them would certainly upset your stomach!) But the act of eating so many apples is strangely overindulgent, which adds a different view to the metaphor. What, on this metaphor, was the ravenous hunger that caused Plath to eat so many apples? This one is very much open to interpretation.

V. Examples of Metaphor in Pop Culture

Example 1

Seek thee out the diamond in the rough. (Aladdin)

This cryptic phrase from Disney’s Aladdin refers to the hero of the movie as a “diamond in the rough.” Obviously, Aladdin is not literally a diamond in the rough – but he’s like one in that he’s scruffy and unpolished. But with a little work and polish, Alladin and a diamond in the rough can be great. Throughout the movie, there are frequent metaphors comparing jewels and gemstones to human beings, though most are more subtle than this one.

Example 2

God is a DJ, life is a dance floor, love is a rhythm. (Pink – God Is a DJ)

Again, an extended unmixed metaphor is often more effective than a simple one. These lyrics paint a whole picture of the world within the metaphor of a nightclub – which is especially effective since the song itself was often played in nightclubs, allowing dancers to connect their moment-to-moment experience with larger ideas.

Example 3

You put the thing that kills you right between your teeth, but you never give it the power. (The Fault in Our Stars)

One of the characters in The Fault in Our Stars uses cigarettes as a metaphor for his relationship to death. He puts them in his mouth, but never lights them. The idea is that this makes him more comfortable with his own mortality without actually bringing him any closer to dying.

VI. Similar Terms

Simile/Analogy vs Metaphor

Simile (also called “analogy”) is very similar to metaphor – so similar, in fact, that they’re often confused! But there’s a key difference: similes use explicit comparative language such as “like” and “as” to show a relationship between two things, often in the form of A is like B or A is as (adjective or adverb) as B. In this way, similes can be literally true, whereas a metaphor is not literally true.

Example 1

Metaphor: All the world’s a stage.

Simile: All the world is like a stage.

Example 2

Metaphor: My heart is a lonely hunter.

Simile: My heart is like a lonely hunter.

Example 3

Metaphor: She was a wildfire of rage.

Simile: In her rage, she was as deadly as a wildfire.

The last simile is an exaggeration, so it’s not literally true – but the comparing language still makes it different from a metaphor.

Personification

Personification is a figure of speech in which the author describes an inanimate object as if it were behaving in a human-like way. Metaphors and personification are related because with both devices, one idea stands in for another. For instance, if you say “lies can’t run very far,” this is a metaphor expressing that lies don’t last long, but it is also personification in that it describes lies running like people.

Here are some other examples:

The door shrieked as it was opened.

The town huddled against the foot of a steep cliff.

Small fires raced through the forest.

Obviously, doors don’t literally shriek, towns don’t huddle, and fires don’t race; people do these things. But personification adds sensory detail and makes these sentences more vivid.

Allegory

Allegory is a literary and rhetorical device that is essentially a complex, extended metaphor. To employ an allegory, an author uses a person, thing, image, or idea that, when interpreted, expresses hidden, symbolic, or secondary meaning. For example, George Orwell is well known for using this technique in his book Animal Farm, where the pigs on the farm are an allegory for important political figures from the Russian Revolution. A metaphor is generally just a phrase, but an allegory “extends” a metaphor (i.e. pigs as politicians) by drawing it out and using it to convey more complex beliefs or ideas.

Metonym

Because they sound similar, people often confuse metaphor and metonym. In truth, these two things are almost opposites of each other. While both metaphor and metonym replace one thing with another, a metaphor applies an unrelated term to something, while a metonym uses a related term to replace another. In other words, a metaphor provides a substitute idea, and a metonym provides an associated idea. Often, a metonym is a smaller part of something–for example, if you get a new car, you may say you got “new wheels”–wheels are not a metaphor for the car, but an associated part of the car that represents the whole.

Example 1

The British fleet was thirty sails stronger than our own.

Here, sails stand in for ships; the sails are not a metaphor for ships. They stand in for the word “ship” because they are actual part of a ship.

Example 2

Washington is now in talks with Beijing to coordinate a new trade policy.

This is an extremely common metonym in newspapers and foreign policy circles. The sentence is really talking about the national governments of China and the USA, but it uses the names of those countries’ capitals as metonyms.

Example 3

My father had about a dozen hired hands working on his farm.

Another very common expression, in which hands stand in for workers (note that each person only counts for one hand, not two.) Again, “hands” are not a metaphor for workers, but they stand in for the word “worker” because hands are what workers actually use to do their trade.

......
What is a Simile?

Simile (pronounced sim–uh-lee) is a literary term where you use “like” or “as” to compare two different things and show a common quality between them. A simile is different from a simple comparison in that it usually compares two unrelated things. For example, “She looks like you” is a comparison but not a simile. On the other hand, “She smiles like the sun” is a simile, as it compares a woman with something of a different kind- the sun.

II. Examples of Similes

Similes find, or perhaps create, similarities in typically different things. In fact, there may be no real similarity between the things compared, such a woman and the sun.

Example #1

The image below describes a girl’s smile.

Using the sun to describe a girl’s smile gives you an idea of how bright her smile seems, you can just picture its radiance.

Example #2

Consider this description of a thin man:

He’s as thin as a rail!

There can be no real similarity between a man and a rail. But, describing a man as “as thin as a rail” evokes the image of a remarkably thin man, as a rail is a very thin pole.

Example #3

Consider a description of a graceful woman:

She moved like a deer.

In this case, the comparison is much closer; a deer and a person are at least both living creatures. But they are still different enough for it to be a simile. After all, if she literally moved just like a deer, she might be graceful, but we would also worry about her sanity. The simile is still figurative, because we’re just saying that she moves with some of the qualities of a deer, not just like one!

III. The importance of using Similes

Similes are an important tool that make language more creative, descriptive, and entertaining. The mind thinks in images and associations, so similes are used to make stronger and more effective descriptions than if only adjectives or literal descriptions were used; they can stir up associated emotions, create new connections in the mind, and emphasize certain characteristics. Similes are almost essential to creative expression from everyday speech to poetry.

IV. Examples of Similes in Literature

Similes give the reader a more vivid experience of the story, calling powerful images to mind.

Example #1

For an example of simile in prose, read this excerpt from George Orwell’s novel 1984:

He sat as still as a mouse, in the futile hope that whoever it was might go away after a single attempt. But no, the knocking was repeated. The worst thing of all would be to delay. His heart was thumping like a drum, but his face, from long habit, was probably expressionless.

This passage uses two similes: “as still as a mouse” and “thumping like a drum.” Comparing the fearful man to a mouse emphasizes both his stillness and his helplessness. Comparing a heartbeat to a drumbeat emphasizes its pounding due to fear. Similes create a much more evocative passage than literal alternatives such as “He was afraid” and “His heart beat hard.”

Example #2

For a poetic example of simile, read an excerpt from Christina Rossetti’s poem “A Birthday”:

My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water’d shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
Because my love is come to me.

Rossetti uses simile three times in this section of the poem: her heart is “like a singing bird,” “like an apple-tree,” and “like a rainbow shell.” Rossetti compares the heart to a joyful bird in a full nest, an apple tree full of fruit, and a beautiful shell in a peaceful sea in order to poetically describe its joy, fullness, and peacefulness.

V. Examples of Similes in Pop Culture

Similes are just as prevalent in pop culture as they are in art, from movies and television to song.

Example #1

Lenka’s Everything at Once:

As sly as a fox

As strong as an ox

As fast as a hare

As brave as a bear

Lenka performing the song:

This video uses Lenka’s song “Everything at Once” which is full of similes. Lenka describes many character traits that she wishes to have, including shyness, strength, quickness, and bravery, by using animals or objects that symbolize those traits.

Example #2

I don’t mean to brag, I don’t mean to boast, but we like hot butter on the breakfast toast.

This example is an excerpt from Sugarhill Gang’s song “Rappers Delight.” Comparing themselves to hot butter on toast is a way of saying just how ‘hot,’ or popular, the group is.

Example #3

The next example of Simile even became a popular catch-phrase:

Shake it like a Polaroid picture!

This example is from Outkast’s hit song “Hey Ya!” Comparing the body to a Polaroid picture encourages the audience to get up, dance, and shake the same way people used to shake a polaroid picture to dry it out more quickly.

VI. Related Terms: Simile vs. Metaphor

Both similes and metaphors compare two different types of things. Unlike simile, though, metaphor makes a direct comparison without using “like” or “as.” For example, consider the following descriptions:

Metaphor:

He’s a wolf.

In this metaphor, the comparison made is that a person is equal to a wolf, not like a wolf. Since this cannot be literal, we know that it must mean that he is like a wolf in some way, probably that he is predatory, wild, or hungry. In order to express the same idea, simile is slightly different:

Simile:

He’s like a wolf. Or

He’s as hungry as a wolf.

As you can see, both metaphors and similes make the same kinds of vivid comparisons, just in different words. Which one you use may just depend on what kind of wording sounds or feels best in context.

VI. In Closing

Similes are a powerful and creative form of description that uses comparison to evoke images or symbols of whatever you are trying to describe. The simile can make a woman’s smile beautiful by comparing it to a rose, or it can make her sly by comparing her to a fox. Similes use comparison to create connections between very different things, creating strong feelings and images.

Categories: Term

.........

What Is Poetry, and How Is It Different?

Flipboard

Goodshoped35110s/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 4.0

Mark Flanagan

Updated July 19, 2019

There are as many definitions of poetry as there are poets. William Wordsworth defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." Emily Dickinson said, "If I read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is poetry." Dylan Thomas defined poetry this way: "Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing."

Poetry is a lot of things to a lot of people. Homer's epic, "The Odyssey," described the wanderings of the adventurer, Odysseus, and has been called the greatest story ever told. During the English Renaissance, dramatic poets such as John Milton, Christopher Marlowe, and of course, William Shakespeare gave us enough words to fill textbooks, lecture halls, and universities. Poems from the Romantic period include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Faust" (1808), Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" (1816), and John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (1819).

Shall we go on? Because in order to do so, we would have to continue through 19th-century Japanese poetry, early Americans that include Emily Dickinson and T.S. Eliot, postmodernism, experimentalists, form versus free verse, slam, and so on.

What Defines Poetry?

Perhaps the characteristic most central to the definition of poetry is its unwillingness to be defined, labeled, or nailed down. Poetry is the chiseled marble of language. It is a paint-spattered canvas, but the poet uses words instead of paint, and the canvas is you. Poetic definitions of poetry kind of spiral in on themselves, however, like a dog eating itself from the tail up. Let's get nitty. Let's, in fact, get gritty. We can likely render an accessible definition of poetry by simply looking at its form and its purpose.

One of the most definable characteristics of the poetic form is the economy of language. Poets are miserly and unrelentingly critical in the way they dole out words. Carefully selecting words for conciseness and clarity is standard, even for writers of prose. However, poets go well beyond this, considering a word's emotive qualities, its backstory, its musical value, its double- or triple-entendres, and even its spatial relationship on the page. The poet, through innovation in both word choice and form, seemingly rends significance from thin air.

One may use prose to narrate, describe, argue, or define. There are equally numerous reasons for writing poetry. But poetry, unlike prose, often has an underlying and overarching purpose that goes beyond the literal. Poetry is evocative. It typically provokes in the reader an intense emotion: joy, sorrow, anger, catharsis, love, etc. Poetry has the ability to surprise the reader with an "Ah-ha!" experience and to give revelation, insight, and further understanding of elemental truth and beauty. Like Keats said: "Beauty is truth. Truth, beauty. That is all ye know on Earth and all ye need to know."

How's that? Do we have a definition yet? Let's sum it up like this: Poetry is artistically rendering words in such a way as to evoke intense emotion or an "ah-ha!" experience from the reader, being economical with language and often writing in a set form. Boiling it down like that doesn't quite satisfy all the nuances, the rich history, and the work that goes into selecting each word, phrase, metaphor, and punctuation mark to craft a written piece of poetry, but it's a start.

It's difficult to shackle poetry with definitions. Poetry is not old, frail, and cerebral. Poetry is stronger and fresher than you think. Poetry is imagination and will break those chains faster than you can say "Harlem Renaissance."

To borrow a phrase, poetry is a riddle wrapped in an enigma swathed in a cardigan sweater... or something like that. An ever-evolving genre, it will shirk definitions at every turn. That continual evolution keeps it alive. Its inherent challenges to doing it well and its ability to get at the core of emotion or learning keep people writing it. The writers are just the first ones to have the ah-ha moments as they're putting the words on the page (and revising them).

Rhythm and Rhyme

If poetry as a genre defies easy description, we can at least look at labels of different kinds of forms. Writing in form doesn't just mean that you need to pick the right words but that you need to have correct rhythm (prescribed stressed and unstressed syllables), follow a rhyming scheme (alternate lines rhyme or consecutive lines rhyme), or use a refrain or repeated line.

Rhythm. You may have heard about writing in iambic pentameter, but don't be intimidated by the jargon. Iambic just means that there is an unstressed syllable that comes before a stressed one. It has a "clip-clop," horse gallop feel. One stressed and one unstressed syllable makes one "foot," of the rhythm, or meter, and five in a row makes up pentameter. For example, look at this line from Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet," which has the stressed syllables bolded: "But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?" Shakespeare was a master at iambic pentameter.

Rhyme scheme. Many set forms follow a particular pattern to their rhyming. When analyzing a rhyme scheme, lines are labeled with letters to note what ending of each rhymes with which other. Take this stanza from Edgar Allen Poe's ballad "Annabel Lee:"

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

The first and third lines rhyme, and the second, fourth, and sixth lines rhyme, which means it has an a-b-a-b-c-b rhyme scheme, as "thought" does not rhyme with any of the other lines. When lines rhyme and they're next to each other, they're called a rhyming couplet. Three in a row is called a rhyming triplet. This example does not have a rhyming couplet or triplet because the rhymes are on alternating lines.

Poetic Forms

Even young schoolchildren are familiar with poetry such as the ballad form (alternating rhyme scheme), the haiku (three lines made up of five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables), and even the limerick — yes, that's a poetic form in that it has a rhythm and rhyme scheme. It might not be literary, but it is poetry.

Blank verse poems are written in an iambic format, but they don't carry a rhyme scheme. If you want to try your hand at challenging, complex forms, those include the sonnet (Shakespeare's bread and butter), villanelle (such as Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night."), and sestina, which rotates line-ending words in a specific pattern among its six stanzas. For terza rima, check out translations of Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy," which follows this rhyme scheme: aba, bcb, cdc, ded in iambic pentameter.

Free verse doesn't have any rhythm or rhyme scheme, though its words still need to be written economically. Words that start and end lines still have particular weight, even if they don't rhyme or have to follow any particular metering pattern.

The more poetry you read, the better you'll be able to internalize the form and invent within it. When the form seems second nature, then the words will flow from your imagination to fill it more effectively than when you're first learning the form.

Masters in Their Field

The list of masterful poets is long. To find what kinds you like, read a wide variety of poetry, including those already mentioned here. Include poets from around the world and all through time, from the "Tao Te Ching" to Robert Bly and his translations (Pablo Neruda, Rumi, and many others). Read Langston Hughes to Robert Frost. Walt Whitman to Maya Angelou. Sappho to Oscar Wilde. The list goes on and on. With poets of all nationalities and backgrounds putting out work today, your study never really has to end, especially when you find someone's work that sends electricity up your spine.

Source

Flanagan, Mark. "What is Poetry?" Run Spot Run, April 25, 2015.

Grein, Dusty. "How to Write a Sestina (with Examples and Diagrams)." The Society of Classical Poets, December 14, 2016.

Shakespeare, William. "Romeo and Juliet." Paperback, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, June 25, 2015.

Toggle navigation

Your No1 source for Latest Entrance Exams, Admission info

Home >> Learn English >> English Grammer >>

Literary Devices in Poems - Definitions and Examples of Literary Devices

By Ruchika Gupta

Literary Devices in Poems

Literary Devices in Poems - Literary/Poetic device is a technique a writer uses to produce a special effect in their writing.

Literary Devices in Poems, SEE THE VIDEO

List of different poetic devices used in poetry is as follows -

Alliteration

Metaphor

Allusion

Onomatopoeia

Anaphora

Oxymoron

Antithesis

personification

Assonance

Refrain

Asyndeton

Rhyme

Consonance

Repetition

Enjambment

Simile

Hyperbole

Synecdoche

Imagery

Transferred Epithet

Inversion

The definitions and examples of literary devices which are used in poetry are as follows:

1) Alliteration: The repetition of a consonant sound at the start of 2 or more consecutive words is known as anaphora.
Examples of Alliteration are as follows -

1. Class 10 poem- Snake
“And flickered his two-forked tongue
From his lips, and mused a moment,
And stopped and drank a little more,
From the burning bowels of the earth.
Use of ‘b’ sound in burning bowels.
2. Class 9 poem- Lord Ullin’s daughter
“His horsemen hard behind us ride;
Should they our steps discover,
Then who will cheer my bonny bride
When they have slain her lover/”

Use of ‘h’ sound in His horsemen hard

Use of ‘b’ sound in bonny bride

Top

2) Allusion: A reference or suggestion to a historical or well known person, place or thing.
Examples of Allusion are as follows -

Class 10 poem- Not Marble Nor The Gilded Monuments (William Shakespeare)

“Nor Mars his sword nor war’s quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.”
Mars is the Greek god of war. (Reference of well known person, here god)

Class 10 poem- Not Marble Nor The Gilded Monuments (William Shakespeare)

“So till the judgement that yourself arise, You live in this, and dwell in lover’s eyes.”
Judgement is referred to the judgement day which is an important day in the Christian religion. They believe that god will judge the deeds of all dead people on this day.

Top

3) Anaphora: The repeated use of word at the start of two or more consecutive lines.
Examples of Anaphora are as follows -
1. Class 10 poem- The Frog and the nightingale
Said the frog:” I tried to teach her, But she was a stupid creature-
Far too nervous, far too tense.
Far too prone to influence.

The word ‘Far’ is used in the beginning of two consecutive lines.
2. Class 9 poem- The Brook
“I wind about, and in and out,
With here a blossom sailing,
And here and there a lusty trout,
And here and there a grayling
Use of ‘And’ in the beginning of two consecutive lines

Top

4) Antithesis: Use of opposite words in close placement
Examples of Antithesis are as follows -
1. Class 10 poem- The Frog and the nightingale
“Every night from dusk to dawn”

Meaning of dusk is sunrise and dawn is sunset. So the two opposite words are in close placement.

2. Class 9 poem- Song of the Rain

“The voice of thunder declares my arrival;
The rainbow announces my departure.”

Meaning of arrival is to come and departure means to go. So the two opposite words are in close placement.

Top

5) Assonance: The repetition of a vowel sound within a sentence.
Examples of Assonance are as follows -

Class 9 poem- Seven Ages

“All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and entrances”

Use of sound ‘e’ (men, women, merely, players, exits and entrances)

Class 9 poem- The duck and the Kangaroo

“Good gracious! How you hop!
Over the fields and the water too:

Use of sound ‘o’ (Good, you, hop, too)

Top

6) Asyndeton: A writing style in which conjunctions are omitted between words, phrases or clauses.
Examples of Asyndeton are as follows -

Class 9 poem- The Brook

I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance

There are no conjunctions used between the four words.

Top

7) Consonance: The repetition of a consonant sound in a sentence. It can be at the beginning, middle or end of the word.

Examples of Consonance are as follows -

Class 10 poem - Not Marble Nor The Gilded Monuments

Than unswept stone, besmear’d with sluttish time
The use of consonant sound ‘s’ and ‘t’ in the beginning, middle and end of the words.

Poem- Rime of the ancient mariner

“Still treads the shadow of his foe”
The use of consonant sound ‘s’ and ‘t’ in the beginning, middle and end of the words.

Poem- Ozymandias

“I met a traveler from and antique land who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone”

Use of sound ‘t’, ‘l’, ‘d’ in the beginning, middle and end of the words.

Top

8) Enjambment: When a sentence continues into two or more lines in a poem
Examples of Enjambment are as follows -

Poem- ‘A legend of the Northland’

“They tell them a curious story
I don’t believe ‘tis true;
And yet you may learn a lesson
If I tell the tale to you.”
The sentence continues in the last two lines (And yet…… tale to you)

Class 10 poem- The Frog and the nightingale

“Once upon a time a frog
Croaked away in Bingle Bog
Every night from dusk to dawn
He croaked awn and awn and awn

The sentence continues from first to last line

Top

9) Hyperbole: It is a Greek word meaning “overcasting”. The use of exaggeration to lay emphasis.
Examples of Hyperbole are as follows -
Class 10 poem- Ozymandias
“My name is Ozymandias, King of kings”
Here they have used hyperbole because Ozymandias refers himself as king of the kings.

Top

10) Imagery: The creation of any sensory effect like visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, kinesthetic, organic.( to create scenes in the poem)
Examples of imagery are as follows -

Class 10 poem- The Frog and the nightingale

“But one night a nightingale
In the moonlight cold and pale
Perched upon the sumac tree
Casting forth her melody”
Here we can imagine a scene of night that is cold and nightingale is singing melodiously on a branch of sumac tree

Class 10 poem- The Frog and the nightingale

“Ducks had swum and herons waded
To her as she serenaded
And a solitary loon
Wept, beneath the summer moon

Here the poet has presented a kinesthetic imagery; this means he has described certain movements by ducks and herons that are trying to reach to the sumac tree to hear nightingale’s voice.

Top

11) Inversion: It is also known as “anastrophe” the normal order of words is reversed, in order to achieve a particular effect of emphasis. (Generally the form is changed from active to passive)
Examples of inversion are as follows -

Poem- Lord Ullin’s daughter

“His horsemen hard behind us ride”
The correct form of sentence was (his horsemen riding behind us hard)

Poem- Rime of the ancient mariner

“The sun came up upon the left, out of the sea came he!”
The correct form of sentence was (he came out of the sea)

Poem- Snake

“On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat, To drink there.”
The correct form of sentence is (I had gone to drink there in my pyjamas because of heat)

Top

12) Metaphor: It is indirect comparison by highlighting a particular quality of two things.
Examples of metaphor are as follows -

Poem- The Frog and the nightingale

“You are Mozart in disguise”
Here the nightingale compares frog’s singing ability with that of great musician Mozart

Poem- The song of the rain

“The field and cloud are lovers”
Here the poet is comparing field and cloud with lovers.

Poem- Seven Ages

“All the world’s a stage”
Here the poet has compared world with stage.

Top

13) Onomatopoeia: It is the usage of sound words to create a dramatic effect.

Examples of onomatopoeia are as follows -

Poem- The frog and the nightingale

“Once upon a time a frog
Croaked away in Bingle bog”
So, here the poet used the word ‘croaked’ which is a sound made by the frog

Poem- The Brook

“I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles,
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.
The words ‘chatter’, ‘trebles’, ‘bubble’ and ‘babble’ are used to show flowing water of a spring

Top

14) Oxymoron: It is when apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction. (here the words are not opposite to each other like it is in antithesis but their meaning is opposite)
Examples of oxymoron are as follows -

Poem- Romeo and Juliet

“Why, then, o brawling love! O loving hate!

Here the word brawling and love are used together. Meaning of brawl is to fight and love is to have affection for other person.

“O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!

Here also both heavy and lightness are written together though they are opposite of each other. Heavy means which has more weight and light means which has less weight.

Top

15) Personification: It means to give human quality to an object or a non living thing.
Examples of personification are as follows -

Poem- Mirror

“I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately”

Here the poet has personified a mirror because the mirror is describing itself.

Poem- The song of the rain

“I am dotted silver threads dropped from heaven
By the gods. Nature then takes me, to adorn
Her fields and valleys.”

The poet has personified rain that describes itself as dotted silver threads from heaven

Top

16) Refrain: A verse, a line, a set, or a group of lines that repeats, at regular intervals, in different stanzas.
Examples of refrain are as follows -
Poem- The duck and the Kangaroo
“Said the duck to the Kangaroo”
In this poem the sentence “Said the duck to the Kangaroo” was repeated a regular intervals. It is different from repetition because here the repetition is being done at regular intervals.

Top

17) Rhyme: The usage of words in a way to create musical effect. It can be internal rhyme or end rhyme.

Examples of rhyme are as follows -

Poem- The rime of the ancient mariner

“The guests are met, the feast is set:
May’st hear the merry din
Here the rhyming words are met and set

“The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,
Merrily did we drop
Below the Kirk, below the hill,
Below the lighthouse top

Here the rhyming words are cheered-cleared and drop-top

Top

18) Repetition: It is the repeated use of a word of line to lay emphasis
Examples of repetition are as follows -

Poem- No men are foreign

“Remember” word is repeated 5 times.

Poem -On killing a tree

“Pulled out” word is used or repeated 3 times.

Top

19) Simile: It is the comparison between two things or persons by using like or as.
Examples of simile are as follows -

Poem- Rime of the ancient mariner

“The bride hath paced into the hall,
Red as a rose is she”

Here the bride is compared with rose by using ‘as’

Poem- Snake

“He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do”

Here the snake is compared with cattle by using ‘as’

Top

20) Synecdoche: It is a word or phrase in which a part of something is used to refer to the whole of it.

Examples of synecdoche are as follows -

Poem- Ozymandias

“The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed”
Here the word hand is used to refer to the sculptor who made the statue of Ozymandias and heart is used to refer to King Ozymandias who gave the right expression for the statue.

Top

21) Transferred epithet: It is an adjective used with a noun refers to another noun.

Poem- The snake trying

“Pursuing stick”

Here it is not the stick that pursues, rather the person who carries it is pursuing

Poem- snake

“Strange- scented shade”

Here ‘scented’ is used with shade but it is the tree that has the fragrance or the scent and not the shade.

Top

Learn English

Get Latest Entrance Exam Alerts

Delivered by www.SuccessCDs.net

English Grammar Lessons

Present Continuous Tense - Definition - Learn English Grammar Online

Past perfect continuous Tense - Definition, Exercises - Learn English Grammar Online

Past Perfect Tense – Definition, Formula, Examples, Exercises

Conjunction – Definition, Types, Examples, Exercises – in Hindi

Simple Past Tense - Definition, Exercises - Learn English Grammar Online

Future Continuous Tense – Definition, Exercise – Learn English Grammar Online

Future Perfect Tense– Definition, Examples, Types, Exercise

Simple Future Tense - Definition, Exercise - Learn English Grammar Online

Future Perfect Continuous Tense– Definition, Examples, Types, Exercise

Adjectives – Definition, Examples, Degrees, Exercises

Countable and Uncountable Nouns – Difference, Examples, Exercises – in Hindi

Articles – Definition, Examples, Types, Exercises

Direct and Indirect speech – Definition, Rules, Examples, Exercises

Present Perfect Tense – Structure, Examples, Exercises

Present perfect continuous tense – Structure, Examples, Exercises

Prepositions of Time – Definition, Examples, Exercises – in Hindi

Prepositions of Place – Definition, Examples, Exercises – in Hindi

Prepositions of Motion – Definition, Examples, Exercises – in Hindi

Singular and Plural nouns – Definition, List, Examples, Exercises

Pronouns – Definition, Examples, Types, Exercises

Verbs – Definition, Examples, Transitive and intransitive, Exercises

English Writting Skills

Application letter to Bank Manager - Format, Types, Tips, Samples

Leave Application - Format, Types, Tips, Samples

Story Writing for Class 9 and 10, Format, Topics, Examples

Job application and Biodata for Class 12, Form, Examples, Format, Tips, Topics, Samples

Tips to score 95% in class 10 Science paper

Invitation Letter Format Class 12, Examples (Formal, Informal)

Resignation Letter Format, Samples, Tips - Simple Resignation Letter

Complaint Letter Format for CBSE Class 10, 12, Topics, Samples

Informal letter Format, Examples, Topics

Report Writing Format, Topics, Samples

Article Writing format for Class 12, Tips, Examples

Speech Writing for Class 12, Examples, Format, Tips, Topics, Samples

Poster Making for Class 12, Format, Tips , Tricks

Debate Writing for Class 12, Tips, Samples

Notice Writing Format, Examples and Topics

Letter Writing Format - Formal Letter, Informal Letter Samples, Topics

Order Letter Format – English Letter Writing Skills– Class X & XII

Enquiry Letter Format – English Letter Writing Skills– Class X & XII

Writing Skills - Advertisement writing

Writing Skills - Classified advertisement writing examples

E-mail Writing - Formal, Informal Email Writing Format

Letter to the Editor Format

CBSE School Lessons

CBSE CLASS 8 Hindi Lessons

CBSE CLASS 8 Science Lessons

CBSE Class 6 English Lessons

CBSE Class 9 English Lessons

CBSE Class 9 ScienceLessons

CBSE Class 10 English Lessons

CBSE CLASS 10 Sanskrit Lessons

CBSE CLASS 10 Science Lessons

CBSE CLASS 10 History Lessons

CBSE CLASS 10 Hindi Lessons

CBSE CLASS 11 English Lessons

CBSE Class 12 English Lessons

Essay Writing in English

Essay Writing in Hindi

Entrance Exams in India

Top Entrance Exams after Class 12List of Entrance Exams after GraduationEntrance Exams for Jobs after GraduationEntrance Exams for Bank RecruitmentEntrance Exams for Arts students after GraduationIndian Army Entrance Exams 2020B Pharma Entrance Exam 2020

List of Entrance Exams conducted by IGNOUList of Entrance Exams conducted by IITsTop UPSC entrance exams for recruitmentList of all AIIMS Entrance ExamsEntrance Exams for Commerce StudentsTop Architecture Entrance Exams

Top Law Entrance ExamsTop Engineering Entrance Exams in IndiaTop Phd Entrance Exams in IndiaList of Popular MCA entrance ExamsEntrance Tests for Marine EngineeringNational Level MBA Entrance Exams

Top Entrance Exams

JEE Main 2020JEE AdvancedCLATMATNEET 2020GATE 2020NEET PGEntrance Exam SyllabusTest Preparation CDsCA CPTCOMEDKCAT ExamFashion TechnologyBiotechnology EntranceSSC-CGLCDS 2020 (1) Exam

Education India

Top CollegesEducation NewsScholarshipsDistance LearningEducation LoanUniversities In IndiaLatest GK & Current AffairsIGNOU Admission 2020CareerCBSE CCELatest Job OpeningsMSc Admissions 2020MA Admissions 2020MPhil Admissions 2020MSW Admissions 2020MCom Admissions 2020

Popular Pages

NET ExamCSIR UGC NETNDAUGC NETBBA AdmissionAFCATSSC Exam DatesPHD AdmissionIGNOUUPSC Exam DatesIBPS Exam Dates CUCETTop Engg. CollegesPondicherry UniversityNEST 2020B.Ed Entrance ExamBSc Nursing Entrance ExamB.Sc Admission 2020Full FormsNIOS Admission 2020NTA Entrance Exam Dates 2020

About

Disclaimer

Sitemap

BOOKS

Shakespeare's most memorable quotes

Posted byStylist TeamPublished01 Nov 2017

Despite the fact that his plays were written 400 years ago, there’s still a lot we can learn from William Shakespeare. From affairs of the heart to the meaning of life, The Bard covered it all in his body of work. This, coupled with his influence on the English language (if you’ve ever used the phrases “it’s all Greek to me”, “wild goose chase” or “the game is up”, you have Shakespeare to thank), makes the playwrite as relevant today as ever.

We’ve put together the most memorable, iconic and quoted lines from his plays and poetry below, from classics such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet through to lesser known plays such as Love’s Labours Lost and Measure For Measure.

What’s your all-time favourite Shakespeare quote? Perhaps it didn’t make our list? Either way, share your thoughts in the comments section below or on Twitter @StylistMagazine.

Hamlet

“Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for loan oft loses both itself and friend.”

Act 1, Scene 3

“The play ‘s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king”

Act 2, Scene 2

“To be, or not to be; that is the question; Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer; The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles”

Act 3, Scene 1

“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorr’d in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it..”

Act 5, Scene 1

A Midsummer Night's Dream

“The course of true love never did run smooth.”

Act 1, Scene 1

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind”

Act 1, Scene 1

“My Oberon! What visions have I seen! Methought I was enamoured of an ass.”

Act 4, Scene 1

Twelfth Night

“If music be the food of love, play on.”

Act 1, Scene 1

“Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

Act 2, Scene 5

“Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.”

Act 3 Scene 1

As You Like It

“All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.”

Act 2, Scene 7

“Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?“

Act 3, Scene 5

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

Act 5, Scene 1

The Merchant of Venice

“Love is blind, and lovers cannot see, The pretty follies that themselves commit.”

Act 2, Scene 6

“All that glisters is not gold.”

Act 2, Scene 7

Much Ado About Nothing

“When you depart from me sorrow abides, and happiness takes his leave.”

Act 1, Scene 1

“Everyone can master a grief but he that has it”

Act 3, Scene 2

Romeo and Juliet

“But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”

Act 2, Scene 1

“Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say good night till it be morrow.”

Act 2, Scene 1

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet”

Act 2, Scene 2

Henry V

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, Or close the wall up with our English dead!"

Act 3, Scene 1

Macbeth

“By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.”

Act 4, Scene 1

“Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Act 5, Scene 5

Sonnet 18

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date"

Richard II

"This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war"

Act 2 , Scene 1

Richard III

“Now is the winter of our discontent, Made glorious summer by this sun of York”

Act 1, Scene 1

“A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!”

Act 5, Scene 4

Love's Labour's Lost

"They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps."

Act 5, Scene 1

The Tempest

“Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade ; But doth suffer a sea-change; Into something rich and strange.”

Act 1, Scene 2

“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”

Act 2, Scene 2

Measure for Measure

“Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall”

Act 2, Scene 1

“The miserable have no other medicine but only hope”

Act 3, Scene 1

“What’s mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.”

Act 5, Scene 1

The Merry Wives of Windsor

"Why, then the world's mine oyster, Which I with sword will open."

Act 2, Scene 2

Othello

"I will wear my heart upon my sleeve; For daws to peck at."

Act 1, Scene 1

Julius Caesar

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him”

Act 2, Scene 2

“When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff”

Act 3, Scene 2

Anthony and Cleopatra

"My salad days, When I was green in judgment: cold in blood, To say as I said then! But, come, away; Get me ink and paper: He shall have every day a several greeting, Or I'll unpeople Egypt."

Act 1, Scene 5

Henry IV, Part II

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown"

Act 3, Scene 1

King Lear

"The worst is not, So long as we can say, 'This is the worst.'"

Act 4, Scene 1

Covers: Penguin

Main Image: Unsplash

TOPICS

BOOKS

SHAKESPEARE

QUOTES

ROMANTIC QUOTES

SHARE THIS ARTICLE

Author

Stylist Team

MORE ABOUT BOOKS

More like this:

Comments

38 Easy Things You Need If You Want To Look More Stylish But Don't Know How

The Celebrities You Love And Hate Will Determine Your Exact Age

If You've Done 29/42 Of These Things, Sorry But You're Pretty Self-Absorbed

27 Things Writers Get Wrong About Teenagers In Books, According To Teens

Your Random Decision Will Reveal What Your Moral Alignment Is

We Can Guess Your Birthday Month Based On A Few Random Questions

It Will Take A Lot Of Brain Power To Score 11/13 On These Celebrity Word Puzzles

We Know If You Prefer Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Or Disney+ Based On This A-Z TV Show Quiz

Everyone's Personality Matches A Disney Sidekick — Your Disney Character Opinions Will Reveal Which One You Are

Are Your Evening Habits Normal...Or Are They Super Weird?

Plan An Epic Beach Day And I'll Tell You The Aesthetic You Embody

This Quiz May Seem Random, But It Will Actually Reveal The First Letter Of Your Future Spouse's Name

What Adult "SpongeBob" Jokes Did You Totally Miss As A Kid?

We'll Give You An Album To Listen To Based On The Fanfic You Write

Answer Some Questions And We'll Guess Which Emoji You Use The Most

23 Kids Whose Questions Legitimately — And Hilariously — Stumped Their Parents

19 People Who Got Messages They Had No Idea How To Respond To

Everyone Has A Marvel Hero That Matches Their Personality — Choose Your Favorite Actors To Find Out Which One

29 Of The Best Spring Dresses You Can Get On Amazon

Tell Us What You Think The Most Heartbreaking Marvel Movie Moments Are

The Emojis You Use Most Will Reveal Which "The Office" Character You Are

We'll Tell You Which Iconic Celebrity You Are Based On Your Favorite Things

If You Pass This Quiz, You're A Good Chef And A Gifted Logophile

Which "I Am Not Okay With This" Character Are You?

You Should Be Watching A Disney Princess Movie Right Now, But Which One?

Yeah, We All Love "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," But What % Of A Boyle Freak Are You?

Hairdressers: Tell Us About Times Movies/TV Lied To Us About Doing Hair

This Woman's Viral Tweet About Sharing Cake Pops Sparked A Debate About Dating Etiquette

If You Ace This Random Knowledge Quiz, You Have A Bigger Brain Capacity Than Most

BuzzFeed Home

Sitemap

Open site search

Open site navigation

BOOKS

50 of the most poignant lines from poetry to read today

Posted byStylist TeamPublished10 months ago

Just one beautiful line of poetry can stay with you forever. So feel inspired with these quotes from poets including Rupi Kaur, Sylvia Plath and Audre Lorde.

“Poetry begins with a lump in the throat.” So said the late, great Robert Frost. While Frost was referring to the poet’s writing process, the same can be said of poetry’s ability to strike a chord. Just a few beautifully composed lines can have more power and pull than whole reams of prose.

Below, we’ve rounded up 50 of the very best and most moving lines of poetry ever written – the ones that, once read, will stay with you for days, months and even years to come. Prepare to be inspired by wise words for 2020.

Hope Is The Thing With Feathers

Hope is the thing with feathers —
That perches in the soul —
And sings the tune without the words —
And never stops at all —

From Hope Is The Thing With Feathers by Emily Dickinson

my mother sacrificed her dreams

my mother sacrificed her dreams
so i could dream

By Rupi Kaur

Lionmouth Door Knocker

At any given moment in the middle of a city
there’s a million epiphanies occurring,
in the blurring of the world beyond the curtain

From Let Them Eat Chaos by Kate Tempest

Wolf and Woman

Some days
I am more wolf
than woman
and I am still learning
how to stop apologising
for my wild.

Wolf and Woman by Nikita Gill

Courage is a Muscle

Courage is the muscle we work night and day
To get equal rights, to get equal pay

From Courage is a Muscle by Salena Godden

Mother

At home, by the kitchen table
I watch my mother’s hands spin the yarn
of meals and housework
of duty and obligation.

From Mother by Nadine Aisha Jassat

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.

From I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Lene Gammelgaard

Now you’re a woman and that’s all
they’ll know, no matter
what you carry or how far
you go, alone, in rationed light.

From Lene Gammelgaard by Helen Mort

The Unbearable Weight of Staying

I think of lovers as trees, growing to and
from one another, searching for the same light.

From The Unbearable Weight of Staying by Warsan Shire

coordinates

Every time I travel
I meet myself a little more.

From coordinates by Yrsa Daley-Ward

Mirror

I am not cruel, just truthful —
The eye of a little god, four cornered.

From Mirror by Sylvia Plath

Stank

Each morning I stitch a scowl
over my smile. Let my eyes sass
every person standing between me
& the bus stop.

From Stank by Fatimah Asghar

A Woman Speaks

Audre Lorde

I have been woman
for a long time
beware my smile
I am treacherous with old magic
and the noon’s new fury
with all your wide futures
promised
I am
woman
and not white.

From A Woman Speaks by Audre Lorde

To My Wife

And when wind and winter harden
All the loveless land,
It will whisper of the garden,
You will understand.

From To My Wife by Oscar Wilde

Stop All the Clocks

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

From Stop All The Clocks by WH Auden

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils

From I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth

Nancy Meyers and My Dream of Whiteness

I can’t be sorry
enough. I have learned
everything is urgent.

From Nancy Meyers and My Dream of Whiteness by Morgan Parker

Mrs Midas

And who, when it comes to the crunch, can live
with a heart of gold?

From Mrs Midas by Carol Ann Duffy

Phenomenal Woman

The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

From Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!

From If by Rudyard Kipling

Howl

Allen Ginsberg

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night

From Howl by Allan Ginsberg

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

From The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

i carry your heart with me

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

From i carry your heart with me by EE Cummings

Warning

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.

From Warning by Jenny Joseph

How Do I Love Thee?

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.

From How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

homage to my hips

these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.

From homage to my hips by Lucille Clifton

You Are Hope In A Human Being

Take every single person who lessened your shine and bury their memory,
without mercy under glow of everything that makes you who you are.

From You Are Hope In A Human Being by Nikita Gill

For the young who want to

Talent is what they say
you have after the novel
is published and favorably
reviewed. Beforehand what
you have is a tedious
delusion, a hobby like knitting.

From For the young who want to by Marge Piercy

To Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run

From To Autumn by John Keats

Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate

From Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare

Departure

I wish I could walk for a day and a night,
And find me at dawn in a desolate place,
With never the rut of a road in sight,
Or the roof of a house, or the eyes of a face.

From Departure by Edna St. Vincent Millay

A Daughter of Eve

A fool I was to sleep at noon,
And wake when night is chilly
Beneath the comfortless cold moon;
A fool to pluck my rose too soon,
A fool to snap my lily.

From A Daughter of Eve by Christina Rossetti

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

From Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

If You Forget Me

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated

From If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda

Let America Be America Again

Langston Hughes

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

From Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes

Heart, we will forget him!

Heart, we will forget him!
You and I, to-night!
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.

From Heart, we will forget him! by Emily Dickinson

If You Think You are Beaten

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!”

From If You Think You are Beaten by Walter D. Wintle

immigrant

they have no idea what it’s like
to lose home at the risk of
never finding home again

From immigrant by Rupi Kaur

Trees

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

From Trees by Joyce Kilmer

When You are Old

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep

From When You are Old by WB Yeats

An Evening

Scarcely a tear to shed;
Hardly a word to say;
The end of a summer day;
Sweet Love dead.

From An Evening by Gwendolyn Brooks

Moments

There are moments that cry out to be fulfilled.
Like, telling someone you love them.
Or giving your money away, all of it.

From Moments by Mary Oliver

Dear, Though the Night Is Gone

Our whisper woke no clocks,
We kissed and I was glad
At everything you did,
Indifferent to those
Who sat with hostile eyes
In pairs on every bed,
Arms round each other’s neck,
Inert and vaguely sad.

From Dear, Though the Night Is Gone by WH Auden

Do not go gentle into that good night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

From Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas

A Girl

Tree you are,
Moss you are,
You are violets with wind above them.
A child - so high - you are,
And all this is folly to the world.

From A Girl by Ezra Pound

Happiness

Happiness. It comes on
unexpectedly. And goes beyond, really,
any early morning talk about it.

From Happiness by Raymond Carver

The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls

Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

From The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A Red, Red Rose

O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.

From A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns

The Children's Hour

Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day’s occupations,
That is known as the Children’s Hour.

From The Children’s Hour by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

When We Two Parted

When we two parted
In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted
To sever for years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
Colder thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold
Sorrow to this.

From When We Two Parted by George (Lord) Byron

Want must-binge culture tips and chic interiors hacks? Sign up for the Stylist Loves Staying In email

ENTER YOUR EMAIL ADDRESSLET’S GO!

Images: Unsplash, Getty

TOPICS

BOOKS

POETRY

READING

RUPI KAUR

NIKITA GILL

EMILY DICKINSON

MAYA ANGELOU

US NEWS

LOVE

SHARE THIS ARTICLE

Author

Stylist Team

RECOMMENDED BY STYLIST TEAM

BOOKS

Top 50 romantic quotes from literature

BOOKS

20 of the most powerful quotes on heartbreak in literature

BOOKS

Incredible quotes about mothers in literature

BOOKS

10 books that look as good as they actually are

LIFE

The most heated, passionate and intense letters ever written

STYLIST DAILY

HOME

FASHION

BEAUTY

BOOKS

PODCASTS

PEOPLE

LIFE

ENTERTAINMENT

REMARKABLE WOMEN

OPINION

CAREERS

STRONG WOMEN

MONEY

STYLIST LOVES

WIN

EMAIL SIGN-UP

VIDEO

COOKIE POLICY

COOKIE PREFERENCES

SUBSCRIPTIONS

WEBSITE TERMS & CONDITIONS

COMPETITION TERMS & CONDITIONS

CONTACT

WHERE TO FIND STYLIST

Visit us on facebook

Visit us on twitter

Visit us on instagram

Visit us on youtube

Advertise with us

Jobs at The Stylist Group

Home

Humanities › Literature

What Is a Sonnet?

Shakespeare breathed life into this centuries-old poetic form

Flipboard

Illustration by Brianna Gilmartin. ThoughtCo.

Lee Jamieson

Updated January 24, 2020

A sonnet is a one-stanza, 14-line poem, written in iambic pentameter. The sonnet, which derived from the Italian word sonetto, meaning “a little sound or song," is "a popular classical form that has compelled poets for centuries," says Poets.org. The most common—and simplest—type is known as the English or Shakespearean sonnet, but there are several other types.

Sonnet Characteristics

Before William Shakespeare’s day, the word sonnet could be applied to any short lyric poem. In Renaissance Italy and then in Elizabethan England, the sonnet became a fixed poetic form, consisting of 14 lines, usually iambic pentameter in English.

Different types of sonnets evolved in the different languages of the poets writing them, with variations in rhyme scheme and metrical pattern. But all sonnets have a two-part thematic structure, containing a problem and solution, question and answer, or proposition and reinterpretation within their 14 lines and a volta, or turn, between the two parts.

Sonnets share these characteristics:

Fourteen lines: All sonnets have 14 lines, which can be broken down into four sections called quatrains.

A strict rhyme scheme: The rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet, for example, is ABAB / CDCD / EFEF / GG (note the four distinct sections in the rhyme scheme).

Written in iambic pentameter: Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter, a poetic meter with 10 beats per line made up of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables.

A sonnet can be broken into four sections called quatrains. The first three quatrains contain four lines each and use an alternating rhyme scheme. The final quatrain consists of just two lines, which both rhyme. Each quatrain should progress the poem as follows:

First quatrain: This should establish the subject of the sonnet.Number of lines: four; rhyme scheme: ABAB

Second quatrain: This should develop the sonnet’s theme.Number of lines: four; rhyme scheme: CDCD

Third quatrain: This should round off the sonnet’s theme.Number of lines: four; rhyme scheme: EFEF

Fourth quatrain: This should act as a conclusion to the sonnet.
Number of lines: two; rhyme scheme: GG

Sonnet Form

The original form of the sonnet was the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet, in which 14 lines are arranged in an octet (eight lines) rhyming ABBA ABBA and a sestet (six lines) rhyming either CDECDE or CDCDCD.

The English or Shakespearean sonnet came later, and, as noted, is made of three quatrains rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF and a closing rhymed heroic couplet, GG. The Spenserian sonnet is a variation developed by Edmund Spenser in which the quatrains are linked by their rhyme scheme: ABAB BCBC CDCD EE.

Since its introduction into English in the 16th century, the 14-line sonnet form has remained relatively stable, proving itself a flexible container for all kinds of poetry, long enough that its images and symbols can carry detail rather than becoming cryptic or abstract, and short enough to require a distillation of poetic thought.

For more extended poetic treatment of a single theme, some poets have written sonnet cycles, a series of sonnets on related issues often addressed to a single person. Another form is the sonnet crown, a sonnet series linked by repeating the last line of one sonnet in the first line of the next until the circle is closed by using the first line of the first sonnet as the last line of the last sonnet.

The Shakespearean Sonnet

The most well-known and important sonnets in the English language were written by Shakespeare. These sonnets cover such themes as love, jealousy, beauty, infidelity, the passage of time, and death. The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man while the last 28 are addressed to a woman.

The sonnets are constructed with three quatrains (four-line stanzas) and one couplet (two lines) in the meter of iambic pentameter (like his plays). By the third couplet, the sonnets usually take a turn, and the poet comes to some kind of epiphany or teaches the reader a lesson of some sort. Of the 154 sonnets Shakespeare wrote, a few stand out.

A Summer's Day

Sonnet 18 is probably the most well known of all of Shakespeare's sonnets:

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

This sonnet best exemplifies the three-quatrain-and-one-couplet model, as well as the iambic pentameter meter. While many people assumed Shakespeare was addressing a woman, he is, in fact, addressing the Fair Youth.

He compares the young man to the beauty of a summer's day, and just as the day and seasons change, so to do humans, and while the Fair Youth will eventually age and die, his beauty will be remembered forever in this sonnet.

Dark Lady

Sonnet 151 is about the Dark Lady, the object of the poet's desire, and is more overtly sexual:

"Love is too young to know what conscience is;
Yet who knows not, conscience is born of love?
Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,
Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove.
For thou betraying me, I do betray
My nobler part to my gross body's treason;
My soul doth tell my body that he may
Triumph in love; flesh stays no farther reason,
But rising at thy name, doth point out thee
As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride,
He is contented thy poor drudge to be,
To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side.
No want of conscience hold it that I call
Her 'love,' for whose dear love I rise and fall."

In this sonnet, Shakespeare first asks the Dark Lady to not admonish him for his sin, as she is also "sinning" with him and the Fair Youth. He then speaks to how he feels betrayed by his own body because he is merely following his base instincts, which have enslaved him to Dark Lady.

Cite this Article

The Sonnet: A Poem in 14 Lines

How to Analyze a Sonnet

Brief Introduction to Shakespearean Sonnets

Robert Frost's 'Acquainted With the Night'

Find the Right Words With Classic Love Poetry for Your Sweetheart

What Is the Meaning of Shakespeare's Sonnet 1?

What Does Sonnet 3 by Shakespeare Mean?

Petrarca Was so in Love, He Wrote More Than 300 Poems to His Lady

Lyric Poetry: Expressing Emotion Through Verse

Analyzing Poetry: A Rhetorical Analysis of Claude McKay's 'Africa'

An Introduction to Blank Verse

The Stanza: The Poem Within The Poem

Home

Grammar Tip of the Day

Discover grammar tips, writing help, and fun English language facts.

ONE-TAP SIGN UP

Facebook

Flipboard

Science, Tech, Math

Humanities

Languages

Resources

About Us

Advertise

Cookie Policy

Careers

Editorial Guidelines

Contact

California Privacy Notice

ThoughtCo is part of the Dotdash publishing family.

Whispers Of Soul

Popular Posts

Monday, March 2, 2020

Poetic techniques

No comments:

Latest Post

کہاتھا نا

Search Wikipedia

Blog Archive

Contact Us

About Us