Literary Techniques Poetry Analysis Essay Example

Repetition Rhythm and Rhyme are some of the most important structural elements in poetry.

Repetition actually is the basis of many poetic devices. Rhythm refers to the beat, or the pattern of stresses, which occur in poetry. It is a vital part of a poet's craft for rhythm can be used to give a great variety of effects in poetry. It can evoke the rhythm of a train or of a bulldozer, the lay movement of a river, or the urgent rush Of a sprinter. Rhyme is usually accepted as the repetition of an accented vowel sound (usually, although not always, followed by an identical consonant sound), and preceded by a letter or letters which are unlike in sound.

Thus, true rhyme has the following features: unlike sounds preceding a rhymed vowel sound identical vowel sounds when consonant sounds follow the rhymed vowel sound, these also must be identical usually, we can feel the rhythm best when we read aloud.

We can mark the beats, or stresses and thus, see the pattern built-in by the poet. Usually, we mark the stresses in a line of poetry with a small sloping dash above the accented syllable. Examples of true rhyme: fight/night, cat/mat, slow/toe, eat/feet; Examples which are not true rhyme: fight/hide, cat/can, threw/through rhyme is used to bind lines together into larger units, stanzas, or even to set up relationships within an individual line (internal rhyme).

End rhyme the most common rhyme pattern used by poets is called end rhyme. This simply means that the end words of lines rhyme. Two consecutive lines may rhyme, or alternate lines ay rhyme, or even more distant lines. Many variations are

possible within a single poem. The consistent feature is that the rhyme occurs only at the end of the lines.

In the following examples, each new rhyme is given a new letter of the alphabet, following the end of the line.

He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. From the "Eagle" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, When put out to sea From "Crossing the Bar" by Alfred, Lord Internal Rhyme When the rhyme pattern involves rhyming a word halfway through a single line of poetry with the end word of the same line, it is called internal rhyme. It is used fairly frequently in ballads, and occasionally in other kinds of poetry.

And had done a hellish thing And it would work 'me woe: For all averred, I had killed the bird That made the breeze to blow. Ah, wretch! Said they, the bird to slay, From "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by S. T. Coleridge Paragraph; A paragraph is a poetic convention used to create dissonance in a poem. The basic paragraph has beginning and end sounds that sound the same, with the vowel sound in the word being altered. Examples of paragraph are "night/naught", "block/black/bleak" and "laughed/loft".

Half Rhyme; a Half rhyme is a technique similar to a paragraph, but in which either the beginning or end sound is different, in addition to the different vowel sound.

Examples of half-rhyme are "mouth/truth" and "come/fame". The effect of paragraph and half-rhyme is to

create a sense of rhyme, with a slightly discordant feel. Two examples are provided. The first is from "Sir Patrick Spends" and is, in fact, assonance. The second is part of a poem by the British poet, Wilfred Owen who, perhaps more than most poets, refined the art of deliberately using paragraph and half rhyme, often interspersed in alternate lines.

The anchor broke, the topmast split, Twats such a deadly storm The waves came over the broken ship Till all her sides were torn.

From "Sir Patrick Spends", Anonymous it seemed that out of battle I escaped Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped Through granites which titanic wars had groined. Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned, Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred. Then, as probed them, one sprang up, and stared With piteous recognition in fixed eyes, lifting distressful hands as if to bless.

And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall By his dead smile knew we stood in Hell. Repetition of a sound, syllable, word, phrase, line, stanza or metrical pattern is a basic unifying device in all poetry.

Many poetic devices are essentially forms of repetition; Rhyme is created by the repetition of word endings or even of identical syllables (rime richer). Alliteration is created by the repetition of initial sounds of accented syllables. Assonance repeats similar vowel sounds with identical consonant clusters.