This week we will be rounding off this
poetry session and I hope it has inspired and instructed you all well enough to
create your own masterpieces, unlike the villanelle I shared with you all a few
weeks back, which even after all this time needs deconstructing and fixing. I
thought this week I could give you all a quick intro to poetic devices and
concepts, for more advanced poets out there, looking for a challenge. So I will
give a quick mention to anaphora, epiphora, assonance, caesura, metre, enjambment,
heroic couplets, imagery, juxtaposition, internal rhyme and generally the
rhyme.
Most
of these are fairly basic poetical devices that you would use all the time
without knowing what you were doing, but no doubt some out there will ask, why
should we know about these and are they really going to help? Well I will point
out now, that after you have read this, any poem that you have written to date
will no doubt contain one or two of these features; those who can use not only
one but several, and integrate them well into a poem is a poet well on their
way to being worth their salt.
So, starting on
what feels like will be, but certainly is not even a fraction of what I know,
my non-exhaustive list of poetic devices and their use or function in poetry.
1. Anaphora,
the repletion of words at the start of a line/sentence/clause, this is a good
pace setter and good to draw emphasis to or away from a topic, you can see this
in villanelles to a certain extent, but this is not anaphora.
2. Epiphora,
this is repetition at the end of your line/sentence/clause. This is better at
slowing your pace, at least in my eyes, or at least regulating it. Poetry with
plenty of end rhymes could contain this.
3. Assonance,
the repetition of vowel sounds in words which are in close proximity, too much
assonance is annoying to read, if you’re going to do this, keep it classy and
purposeful.
4. Caesura,
a pause in the middle of a line, this could range from a comma to a full stop.
It is an effective device to stop your metre suddenly, change topic or
direction, this is a powerful and difficulty device to manage well so do your
reading before usage!
5. Metre,
possibly your most important device, this is the pace of your poem, you must
remember to keep your pace pretty regular, unless there is purpose for breaking
it. A regular pace usually works in iambs but will contain other devices such
as dactyls, spondees, apapest and trochees, all of which you can look up and
master in your own time, when out of practice I have to practice these. With metre
remember, keep it regular, or be purposeful.
6. Enjambment,
this device is where you run your sentence on to the next line, it is good for
repairing your metre and is used a lot in sound poetry, very often you can get
away with it in sonnets, as I have done more than once.
7. Heroic
couplets, one of Shakespeare’s favourite devices, putting two lines that rhyme
side by side, even if the poem has no regular rhyme scheme these two lines will
stand out for this feature.
8. Imagery,
this is more advanced than it sounds, an image requires that you construct it,
and in which way you portray it, then you need to consider if you will develop
the image you have painstakingly pieced together or if you will tear it down or
compare it against another. Remember, no one will pull a punch if your imagery
is poor.
9. Juxtaposition,
the device of putting two contradicting words side-by-side, such as ‘a raucous
silence’, perhaps a more advanced device to add to a beginner’s arsenal.
10. Internal
rhyme, where you make rhymes within a line, rather than only at the end. This
creates an unusual rhythm that defines a lot of poems with a special metre.
11. The
general rhyme, which can have many branches again. This is a device that many
poets prefer to omit because it is seen as ‘the standard’ of a poem. Many
starting poets believe that all poetry must rhyme, whereas in fact countless
poems do not rhyme at all. I personally love poems to rhyme as it gives me a
sense of the poem’s direction, but I’m not averse to writing without them.
So this ends the
whirlwind tour of devices, hopefully I’ve imparted some good advice to you all
from my own experiences, and I look forward to reading you all later.
Until next time, read, write, live.
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