For English Majors

1. Literary Devices

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Sound Devices
■ Sound devices are resources used by poets
to convey and reinforce the meaning or
experience of poetry through the skillful
use of sound.
■ The words and their order should evoke
images, and the words themselves have
sounds, which can reinforce or otherwise
clarify those images.

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Sound Devices
1. Alliteration
2. Assonance
3. Consonance
4. Onomatopoeia
5. Repetition

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Alliteration
This device involves the
repetition of the initial
consonant sound of a series of
words, often consecutively.

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Alliteration
Betty Botter bought a bit of butter
But, the bit of butter Betty Botter bought was bitter
So Betty Botter bought a better bit of butter

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Assonance
• Similarly to alliteration, assonance
involves the repetition of sounds in
a series of words, often consecutive
words.
• Focuses on the internal vowel
sounds that are repeated.

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Assonance
• How is the brown cow bowing
down?
• The rain in Spain falls mainly on
the plain.
• Hear the mellow wedding bells.

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Consonance
Consonance is the consonant-focused
counterpart to assonance. It involves the
repetition of consonant sounds in the
middle or at the end of words, as
distinguished from alliteration where the
initial sound is repeated.

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Consonance
• The crow struck through the thick
cloud like a rocket.
• All tall mammals have five ways to
live or survive.

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Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia refers to the
process of creating words that
sound like the very thing they
refer to.

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Onomatopoeia
• Bang! Thud! Crash!
• My teeth chattered as I stood in the
snow.
• The leaves crunched under my feet as
I walked through the woods.

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Repetition
The repetition of words or phrases to create rhythm or
to emphasize an idea.
Example:
In every cry of every man,
In every Infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.
(Excerpt from “London” by William Blake)

13. Rhyme in Poetry
(Sound Patterns)

14. Rhyme
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Rhyme is a popular literary device
in which the repetition of the same or
similar sounds occurs in two or more
words, usually at the end of lines in
poems or songs.

15. Two Types of Rhyme
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1. End rhyme – rhyming the final words of lines in a poem.
Example:
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravely ground
2. Internal rhyme – rhyming of two words within the same
line of poetry.
Example:
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

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Alternate rhyme
Ballade
Coupled rhyme
Monorhyme
Enclosed rhyme
Simple four-line rhyme
Triplet
Terza rima
Types of Rhyme Scheme

17. Types of Rhyme Scheme
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1. Alternate rhyme (ABAB)
2. Ballade (ABABBCBC)
3. Coupled rhyme (AA BB CC)
4. Monorhyme (same rhyme in a stanza or entire poem)
5. Enclosed rhyme (ABBA)
6. Simple four-line rhyme (ABCD)
7. Triplet (tercet that share the same end rhyme)
8. Terza rima (ABA BCB CDC DED EE)

18. Conventional Forms
of Poetry

19. What is Conventional Poetry?
■ This type of poetry adheres to a
definite verse structure or set of
characteristics that belongs to the
conventional form of poetry.
■ Fixed rhyme and metrical patterns
all throughout the poem are strictly
observed.

20. Conventional Forms of Poetry
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1. Sonnet
2. Villanelle
3. Sestina
4. Blank Verse
5. Heroic Couplet
6. Haiku
7. Free Verse

21. Conventional Forms of Poetry
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1. Sonnet
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,”
• Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet
• contains an octave (8
lines) and a sestet (6 lines)
• ABBA ABBA CDE CDE
• contains a three quatrains
(4 lines) and a couplet
(2 lines)
• ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

22. Sonnet
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23. Conventional Forms of Poetry
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2. Villanelle
• has an Italian origins but it was popularized by
the French
• consists 19 lines spread across 6 stanzas
• has 5 tercets (a stanza w/ 3 lines) and a final
stanza w/ 4 lines (also known as quatrain)
• follows a rhyme scheme, which is ABA, and
these rhymes are repeated according to the
refrain

24. Conventional Forms of Poetry
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25. Conventional Forms of Poetry
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3. Sestina
A sestina is a fixed form in poetry that has
six stanzas of six lines each followed by a three-
line stanza; each line ends with one of six words
in a standard repetition.
These six words are chosen by the poet,
but must be repeated in a certain order for the
poem to qualify as a sestina.

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27. Conventional Forms of Poetry
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4. Blank Verse
Blank verse is a literary device defined as
un-rhyming verse written in iambic pentameter.
In poetry and prose, it has a consistent meter
with 10 syllables in each line (pentameter);
where, unstressed syllables are followed by
stressed ones, five of which are stressed but do
not rhyme. It is also known as “un-rhymed
iambic pentameter.”

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29. Conventional Forms of Poetry
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5. Heroic Couplet
A heroic couplet is a specific type of
couplet that discusses heroic themes and that
usually uses iambic pentameter. An ordinary
couplet, on the other hand, is simply two
successive lines of poetry—often two lines
that rhyme and that employ the same meter.

30. Conventional Forms of Poetry
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31. Conventional Forms of Poetry
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6. Haiku
• A haiku is a specific type of Japanese poem
which has 17 syllables divided into three lines of
5, 7, and 5 syllables.
• Haikus or haiku are typically written on the
subject of nature.
• The word haiku (pronounced hahy-koo) is
derived from the Japanese word hokku meaning
“starting verse.”

32. Conventional Forms of Poetry
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33. Conventional Forms of Poetry
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7. Free Verse
Free verse poetry is poetry that lacks a
consistent rhyme scheme, metrical pattern, or
musical form. While free verse poems are not
devoid of structure, they allow enormous
leeway for poets, particularly when compared
to more metrically strict forms like blank verse.

34. End
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35. “Therefore encourage one another and
build one another up, just as you are
doing now.”
– 1 Thessalonians 5:11