Introduction to poetry for junior students

1. POETIC DEVICES

8. RHYME SCHEME EXAMPLE - AABB
• Ms Liddell’s an English teacher
• She never wanted to be a preacher
• She thought she’d like to be a nurse
• But realised she’d have an empty purse

10. SIMILE
• A comparison which uses the word ‘like’ or ‘as’.
• E.g. She was as graceful as a swan
• Or
• He had ears like open taxi doors

11. METAPHOR
• Goes a step further than a simile and says one thing is
something else it cannot be:
• E.g. my brother is a pig at the dinner table
• Or
• The forest is an army of green soldiers, standing to
attention

12. PERSONIFICATION
• A special kind of metaphor where non-human things are
given human attributes
• E.g. The tree tops kissed in the breeze
• Or
• The forest stood to attention

13. QUICK QUIZ
• Copy down each of the following lines. Beside each, write which poetic device it
is an example of:
1. The moon’s a balloon.
2. Education is your passport to success.
3. The fog crawled up from the sea, on its misty legs
4. On the fine wire he whined.
5. The ships appeared and then, ghost-like, vanished.
6. The razor by her wrist.
7. Spitting and sizzling, sausages in the pan.
8. I live for love said rider to reader.
9. She was whiter than the snow.
10.I wander out into the snow / where I’m headed, I do not know