Poetic Devices - KangZhe

1) Rhyme

The Life Of A Cupcake

by Shelby Greer

They put me in the oven to bake.
Me a deprived and miserable cake.
Feeling the heat I started to bubble.
Watching the others I knew I was in trouble.

They opened the door and I started my life.
Frosting me with a silver knife.
Decorating me with candy jewels.
The rest of my batch looked like fools.

Lifting me up, she took off my wrapper.
Feeling the breeze, I wanted to slap her.
Opening her mouth with shiny teeth inside.
This was the day this cupcake had died.

2) Alliteration

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
-Traditional

3) Simile

Your teeth are like stars;
They come out at night.
They come back at dawn
When they’re ready to bite.
by Dennis Rogers

4) Metaphor and Hyperbole

Truth Untold

by Shianne

My pain and misery fall from the sky
So hard I try to ignore it, but it still gets by
Surrounds with memories of what could have been
The hatred screams under my skin
Pulsing through my veins is the anger I feel
Wounds break open as soon as they seal (hyperbole)
Darkness surrounds me with every step I take
I manage a smile, but do you know it's a fake?
I laugh when people talk to me
But inside I'm dying, wishing they could see
I'm as different inside as I am the same
Wish they could see they're not to blame
I know the truth, but it's locked in my heart
And now more than ever, it's tearing me apart.


5) Personification

Dinnertime Chorus

by Sharon Hendricks

The teapot sang as the water boiled
The ice cubes cackled in their glass
the teacups chattered to one another.
While the chairs were passing gas
The gravy gurgled merrily
As the oil danced in a pan.
Oh my dinnertime chorus
What a lovely, lovely clan!

6) Free Verse

After the Sea-Ship

by Walt Whitman

After the Sea-Ship—after the whistling winds;

After the white-gray sails, taut to their spars and ropes,

Below, a myriad, myriad waves, hastening, lifting up their necks, 

Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship: 

Waves of the ocean, bubbling and gurgling, blithely prying,

Waves, undulating waves—liquid, uneven, emulous waves,

Toward that whirling current, laughing and buoyant, with curves, 

Where the great Vessel, sailing and tacking, displaced the surface;

7) Imagery

Preludes

by T. S. Eliot

The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o'clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;
The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimney-pots,
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.

9) Onomatopoeia

Mom & Dad Are Home

Slam! Slam!
Go the car doors.  
Jangle! Jangle!
Go the house keys.
Jiggle! Jiggle!
Go the keys in the door.
Squeak!
Goes the front door! 
Thump! Thump!
That is me running down the stairs.
Guess what?
Mom and Dad are home!!

10) Symbolism

His Confession

by The Archpoet

I am of one element,
Levity my matter,
Like enough a withered leaf
For the winds to scatter.