The document outlines various poetic devices including simile, metaphor, personification, and others, providing definitions and examples for each. It explains concepts such as transferred epithet, pathetic fallacy, apostrophe, symbol, allegory, and types of irony (verbal, situational, and dramatic). Each device illustrates the use of language in poetry to convey deeper meanings and emotional resonance.

1. POETIC DEVICES
(FIGURES OF POETRY)

2. SIMILE
 Comparison between two things, which are
not similar, by using the words “Like” or “As”.
 For Example
He is as brave as a lion.
AND
He fought like a lion in the battlefield.

3. METAPHOR
 Comparison between two non-identical
things without using of such words. OR
 Direct comparison between two non-identical
things.
 For example
He was a lion in the battlefield.
AND
She is a flower.

4. PERSONIFICATION
 The poetic device in which human qualities
are attributed to animals, objects or ideas.
 For Example
Death lays his icy hands on kings.
AND
The sun smiled at us.

5. TRANSFERRED EPITHET
 The figure of poetry in which the quality of
one thing is transferred to the other thing.
 For Example
Scented Breeze
AND
Angry Sea

6. PATHETIC FALLACY
 The phrase pathetic fallacy is a literary term for
the attributing of human emotion and conduct to
things found in nature that are not human.
 It is a kind of personification that occurs in
poetic descriptions,
 For example
clouds seem sullen
leaves dance
rocks seem indifferent

7. APOSTROPHE
 A sort of personification in which there is an
address to an absent person, an abstract
idea, or a thing.
 For Example
Sweet Thames! Run swiftly till I end my song.
AND
Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour.

8. SYMBOL
 Something that means more than is
suggested from the outlook.
 The words which have one surface meaning
but in depth stand for something else.
 For example
Darkness − symbol of Death
Lion − symbol of Strength and Courage
Dove − symbol of Peace
Raised arms − symbol of Surrender

9. ALLEGORY
 A text which has two-layered meaning
o Surface Meaning Deep Meaning
o Superficial Meaning Underlying Meaning
 For Example
Edmund Spencer’s “Faerie Queene”
Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”
George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”

10.  Literally the word means ‘hiding under a false
appearance’. As a term, it means saying that
opposite of what one means.
Irony
Verbal Situational
Dramatic
IRONY

11. IRONY (CONTINUES…)
 Verbal Irony:
It implies the opposite of what is said. In it the
discrepancy is in between what is said and what is meant.
Calling a fool wise is a verbal irony.
 Dramatic Irony:
In this irony, the discrepancy is between what
the character says and what the reader or listener
understands. (between appearance and reality)
 Situational Irony:
It occurs when a discrepancy exists between
what one anticipates and what actually comes to pass,
between expectation and fulfillment.