4. LIST DOWN THE THINGS USED BY THE PEOPLE BEING REFERRED TO IN THE POEM
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4. LIST DOWN THE THINGS USED BY THE PEOPLE BEING REFERRED TO IN THE POEM
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Alliteration is a fun sound device to play around with. When used well, you can create a standout phrase in poetry. It is a simple yet effective repetition of initial consonant sounds. An example might be "the cerulean sky" or "the flighty fox."
2. Allusion
An allusion is a reference to a person, place, thing, or event. Typically, writers allude to something they suppose the audience will already know about. The concept may be real or imaginary, referring to anything from fiction, to folklore, to historical events.
For example, Seamus Heaney wrote an autobiographical poem titled "Singing School." The title itself alludes to a line from fellow Irish poet William Butler Yeats. In "Sailing to Byzantium," Yeats writes:
Not is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence
3. Anaphora
An anaphora is the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of each line. This is done for emphasis and typically adds rhythm to a passage. In Joanna Klink's poem "Some Feel Rain" the phrase "some feel" is repeated throughout, creating a nice rhythm.
Some feel rain. Some feel the beetle startle
in its ghost-part when the bark
Slips. Some feel musk. Asleep against
each other in the whiskey dark, scarcely there.
4. Anapest
Anapest is a metrical foot containing two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable. It is the reverse of dactyl meter. Lord Byron provided us with a great example of anapestic tetrameter in his poem "The Destruction of Sennacherib." Here's a sample:
Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
5. Assonance
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within a tight group of words. This, too, is done for emphasis and can reinforce a central message. Here's a short example from Carl Sandburg's "Early Moon." Notice the repetition of the vowels O and A.