Literary Devices: Metaphor, Stanza Forms, and Poetic Techniques
Figurative Language
Metaphor compares two different things. An allegory is a continuous or extended metaphor in a story or poem with two levels of meaning: the symbolic level, or the deeper meaning. Personification is a kind of metaphor that attributes human qualities to inanimate objects. Metonymy is a type of metaphor where an object describes something closely related. Synecdoche is a figure of speech where a part represents the whole. Amplification enriches a sentence for clarity. Apostrophe addresses a thing, place, idea, or absent person as if present. Synaesthesia (Synesthesia) mixes sensations, appealing to multiple senses.
Blazon Poetry
A literary blazon catalogues physical attributes, comparing body parts to jewels or natural objects. It glorifies the lover’s body. Gradation describes physical attributes in a logical order, ascending or descending. Contre-blason inverts this, describing the body negatively.
Traditional Stanza Forms
- Terza Rima: Three-line stanzas chained a-b-a, b-c-b, c-d-c, etc.
- Ballad Stanza: A quatrain.
- Venus and Adonis Stanza: Six lines with a a-b-a-b-c-c rhyme scheme.
- Rhyme Royal: Seven-line stanza in iambic pentameter: a-b-a-b-b-c-c.
- Ottava Rima: Eight-line stanza with an a-b-a-b-a-b-c-c rhyme scheme.
- Spenserian Stanza
- Other Sonnet Forms: Extended sonnet.
- Eighth-Line Stanza: Ballade with three eight-line stanzas and a four-line envoy.
- Ten-Line Stanza: Ballade in iambic pentameter with a-b-a-b-b-c-c-d-c-D repeated three times and an envoy of c-c-d-c-D.
- Ballade Royal: A rhyme royal, a seven-line stanza with an a-b-a-b-b-c-C.
Caesura
A caesura is a break in the flow of sound within a line, caused by a break in meaning. It adds variety to the poem’s music.
Kinds of Rhyme
Masculine rhyme is considered strong, while feminine rhyme is weak. In trochaic or dactylic meter, a masculine rhyme may require omitting weak syllables, resulting in a truncated foot.
The Line
An end-stopped line expresses a complete thought without continuing into the next line.
Predominantly Humorous Forms
The Limerick
A limerick is a five-line verse rhymed a-a-b-b-a, with three feet in the first, second, and fifth lines.
English Sonnet Writers
The Petrarchan sonnet was introduced to England in the 16th century by Sir Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard, Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Shakespeare, John Donne, and John Milton.
Meter
- Iambic meter: Two syllables, the second accented: u-/.
- Trochaic meter: Two syllables, the first accented: /-u.
- Anapestic meter: Three syllables, the third accented: uu-/.
- Dactylic meter: Three syllables, the first accented: /-uu.