# Reading > Poems, Poets, and Poetry >  Poetic/Literary Devices

## OedipusReD

i was trying to compile a list of such devices to use to tear apart poetry for a few classes, if anyone has any to add (or add/modify current ones) that'd be cool (plus it might be useful to have such a list here)

*Alliteration*: repetition of a speech sound in a sequence of nearby words.

*Consonance*: repetition of a sequence of two or more consonants, but with a change in the intervening vowel, hearer to horror

*Assonance*: repetition of identical or similar vowels 

*Allusion*: passing reference, without explicit identification, to a literary person, place, or event.

*Anaphora*: The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs; for example, We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills (Winston S. Churchill).

*Apostrophe*: an address to a person absent or dead or to an abstract identity.

*Archaism*: use of words and expressions that have become obsolete in the common speech of an era.

*Caesura*: A pause in a line of verse dictated by sense or natural speech rhythm rather than by metrics.

*Epistrophe*: repetition of the ends of two or more successive sentences, verses, etc.

*Metaphor*: a comparison not using like or as when one thing is said to be another.

*Metonymy*: A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated.

*Onomatopoeia*: use of word(s) that imitate the sound it denotes.

*Personification*: attribution of human motives or behaviours to impersonal agencies (things).

*Reification*: To regard or treat (an abstraction) as if it had concrete or material existence.

*Simile*: a comparison using like or as

*Symbol*: an object or action that means more than its literally meaning

*Synesthesia*: description of one kind of sense impression by using words that normally describe another.

most courtesy of dictionary.com, but i'm a bit iffy on some of the definitions

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## Taliesin

We remember also (don't know if this is correct spelling) *oxymoron* - a short phrase that appears self-contradictory. i.e wise fool, old child, black light, et cetera. Love them.
Didn't notice *parallelism* either there. We don't know if it's the correct term but it means saying the same thing over and over in different words.
I.e
I watched the stars
saw the night
peeked the sky
looked the moon

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## mono

You have compiled a nice list, Oedipus. Besides *stanza*, which I hope you know, another term to remember resembles a stanza called *strophe* (pronounced: "strow-fee"), which dictionary.com defines as: a stanza containing irregular (and often inconsistent) lines.

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## rangerous

Theres an excellent website of poetic and literary terms here: http://www.poeticbyway.com/glossary.html

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## Sitaram

You may want to add the term "rhyme" to your list. Some poems rhyme while others do not.

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## Monica

asyndeton - lack of conjuctions between phrases

syllepsis - multiple use of a word/phrase which is understood differently each time it's used

aposiopesis - the premature ending of a sentence for effect

pleonasm - use of unnecessary extra words for emphasis

anadiplosis - repetition of a word/phrase that ends one phrase to begin subsequent phrases

catachresis - a metaphor that uses an unsuitable adjective for effect

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