Poetic Devices

Below is an incomplete, but fairly comprehensive list of poetic device. Look for them as you read:

Anaphora: the repetition of a word or phrase, usually at the beginning of a line.

Alliteration: the repetition of sounds in a sequence of words. Generally used to help create a certain tone in the poem. (See also consonance and assonance.) 

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…”
Poe uses alliteration with the "wh" sound, which mimics the wind.

Allegory: narrative with two levels of meaning, one stated and one unstated.

Assonance: the repetition of vowel-sounds.

"Brazen bells!/ What tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!"
The repetition of long "e" sounds, makes it sound like screaming.

Caesura: an audible pause internal to a line, usually in the middle; some think of it as any break in a poem (stanza, line, idea, etc.)

Consonance: the repetition of consonant-sounds. 

“Tyger Tyger, burning bright,"
The repeated "r" sound here sounds like a tiger growling.

Couplet: two lines of verse, usually rhymed.

Diction: word choice, specifically the "class" or "kind" of words chosen.

End-stopped line: a line that ends with a punctuation mark and whose meaning is complete.

Enjambed line: a "run-on" line that carries over into the next to complete its meaning.

Imagery: the visual (or other sensory) pictures used to render a description more vivid and immediate.

Irony: the use of tone or exaggeration to convey a meaning opposite to what's being literally said.

Metaphor: comparing one thing to another.

Meter: a regularly repeating rhythm, divided for convenience into feet.

Metonymy: a figure of speech in which something is represented by another thing that is commonly and often physically associated with it.

"White House" for "the President."

Rhyme: the repetition of syllables at the end, often at the end of a line of poetry.

Rhythm: the patterns of stresses, unstressed syllables, and pauses in language. Regularly repeating rhythm is called meter.

Simile: a figure of speech that compares two distinct things by using a connective word such as "like" or "as."

Symbol: an image that stands for something larger and more complex, often something abstract, such as an idea or a set of attitudes. (See imagery.)

Synecdoche: a tool in which a part of something is used to represent the whole.

“wheels” for “car.”

Tone: the speaker’s or author’s attitude toward the reader, addressee, or subject matter. The tone of a poem immediately impresses itself upon the reader, yet it can be quite difficult to describe and analyze.