Effects of Some Poetic Devices

Pun

appeals to audiences's sense of humor, encourages depth of thought about a topic, draws attention to words or points, clever word play which makes the reader think.

Imagery

appeals to the 5 human senses, creates a vivid word picture in the mind of the reader, evokes emotions, encourages audience response, develops theme.

Onomatopoeia

appeals to the audience's sense of hearing, enhances imagery of poem, develops an image by creating a sound word.

Oxymoron

conveys the poet or protagonist's mixed emotions, develops theme, enhances the poem's mood, catches reader's attention.

Hyperbole

conveys the poet or protagonist's strength of feeling, enhances the poem's mood.

Meter

creates a set of rhythm for the poem, enhances flow of poem and its appeal to audiences eg. iambic pentameter creates a steady rhythm which has been noted as being similar natural speech.

Symbolism

develops imagery, encourages audience response, evokes emotions, presents messages related to themes, creative use of language or objects instead of literal language.

Irony

draws attention to a point, conveys the poet's tone, enhances the poet's development of theme.

Assonance

draws attention to particular words or lines through repetition of a vowel sound, appeals to the sense of hearing, enhances the development of the image created by words.

Paradox

draws reader's attention to an important truth, emphasizes theme.

Alliteration

gains reader's attention through repetition of a consonant sound, appeals to the sense of hearing, emphasizes words, links lines, unifies stanzas (or the poem as a whole), enhances flow of poem.

Rhyme

links and unifies lines, emphasizes words, adds fluency to the poem.

Personification

makes a strong comparison by giving human qualities to an inanimate thing, emphasizes themes.

Metaphors/similes

present an image by making a comparison, develop themes, highlight similarities between one thing and another, influence the audience's view by presenting an image, enhances imagery, creative to use figurative language instead of just literal language.

Mood

the atmosphere conveyed in the poem, builds tension, evokes emotions in the reader.

Couplet

Emphasizes two lines, enables the poet to develop a theme or mood more clearly, can serve like the punchline to a riddle or the answer to a problem.