9 Accessible Poetic Devices for Enhancing Poems

9 Accessible Poetic Devices for Enhancing Poems

Summary
Being a poet or aspiring to be one, what challenges most is the use of poetic devices. And if you wonder how it works, Some easy elements can help to adorn your lyric arrangement.

Introduction
The verse which begins as a form of an oral tradition to convey the message or gain attention using rhyme and rhythm has touched the souls over years. Stories, fables, morals were passed to groups and communities when learning literature was restricted to the elite class only. But with the change of time this verbal art is comprehended more, it’s learnt, recited over and over it has touched the heart and solaced soul and if you feel the same inclination then the following basic poetic devices can help you in the beautification of your poetry.

1.Alliteration
Defined as a series of words occurring together in lines of poetry having the same first consonant sound as a strong example are tongue twisters,
“While I nodded nearly napping suddenly there came a tapping”
2.Assonance
It is a repetition of the vowel sound across the words within the lines of the poem for example hopscotch, Great-flakes, the kind-knight
“She seems beams to rays of sunshine with getting eyes of green”

3.Imagery
It’s used by the poet in the description, depending on the reader’s understanding of the work by appealing to senses. There are different types of imagery: Visual imagery refers to the sights, allows visualising the object, subject or events.
Auditory imagery refers to sound and reminds the reader of common or specific sounds.
Kinaesthetic imagery is a way to the movement and reminds the body movement or position that is imagined as the feeling of flying. Tactile imagery refers to the texture of feeling whereas smells and tastes can be referred example of imagery is a famous poem by sir William Wordsworth

The Daffodil

A host, of golden daffodils; 

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze

4.Metaphor
The most common poetic device where an object in, or the subject of the poem is described as other unrelated objects for example:-
“The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon a cloudy sea”

5.Personification
Is the device where the  animal, plant or even inanimate objects are given human qualities resulting in a poem full of imagery and description example:
“way down below in the streets of Paris
I spy the small lonely boy
I was his beautiful red balloon
from the morning through the moon”

Poet as balloon shares the feeling of walk through the Paris streets.

6.Onomatopoeia

Is the formation of a word that describes its sound. Examples of these words include sizzle, clap, moo, roar etc. Most of the children poem features onomatopoeic words to provide much fun and structure. Experts from the bell poem

Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows;
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling,
And the wrangling.”

7.Simile

It is the most popular device, the subject of the poem is characterized by comparing it to another object using as or like example :

“creeping as quietly as a mouse”

“rain dropping like soldiers March”

8.Rhyme
Most Loved element of poets and one of the first tools that we became familiar with. Basic childhood poems are rhymes, it is the repetition of syllables at the end of a verse line. The most common example is the:
“Twinkle Twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are“

                     Or

“The shadows that fall
On the floor and the wall”
It can be tricky to work with the matching subject to a rhyming pattern as it takes a lot of skill and vocabulary

9.Stanzas
It can be defined as a group of lines, poems can be broken up into lines and stanzas which usually share common features structure, length, rhyme or rhythm. They can be irregular or have no regular rhyming letters or syllables to speak of. Stanzas of 5, 6,7 and 8 lines are referred to as sestet, septet, octave octet.

Pro tip
You can form an unusual style of poetry. The most common is free verse. These free-verse poems don’t have any rhyming structure, rhythm or syllable pattern. They work as abstract art. It is the most common form that contemporary poetry is written As a poet, I try to learn more styles but at the same time, I have my own manner to convey myself. Reading others work helps in the development of the thought system.

Do write your style and poets you love to read in the comment section. I will be waiting for your comments and queries related to verse and its tools.
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