If you have the words, there’s always a chance that you’ll find the way.
Seamus Heaney
Poetry is all about emotion, imagery, and complex ideas represented with few words. Unlike prose, which builds scenes and arguments across pages, poetry employs precision, rhythm, and a range of literary techniques to create an impact. Understanding how poetry works is essential for students preparing for exams and aspiring writers. Here, we'll look at effective poetry techniques you can use to enhance your writing.
Why Poetic Techniques Matter
If you have studied poetry in any capacity, you have likely found yourself wondering how so much can be said with such few words. Most authors have the luxury of telling their stories for hundreds of pages, but poets are often confined to a few sentences.
Poems have the ability to transport us right inside the poet's mind, allowing us to see and feel exactly as they do. This is because poetry appeals to the senses, often accompanied by an underlying meaning that can be fully comprehended only after multiple readings and some study.
This storytelling is facilitated through a range of poetic techniques that, if employed correctly, can engage the reader in the poem, conjuring vivid images in their minds with carefully crafted sentences. There are various techniques used in poetry, and the role they play in storytelling. Hopefully, by the time you finish this article, you’ll have the confidence to employ some of these techniques in your own work and be capable of analysing unseen pieces on a deeper level!
Key Poetic Devices Every Student Should Know
To write a poem with charm and fluidity that is, most importantly, truly impactful on a reader, you’ll need to familiarise yourself with and subsequently hone your craft using a range of literary devices. While it might take some time and may even be a frustrating process to get a handle on at first, you’ll soon notice their impact on your work.
| Technique | Definition | Purpose / Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Metaphor | A direct comparison between two unrelated things (no “like” or “as”) | Creates depth and symbolic meaning; encourages interpretation |
| Simile | A comparison using “like” or “as” | Makes descriptions more vivid and accessible |
| Personification | Giving human traits to non-human things or abstract ideas | Adds emotion, relatability, and personality to inanimate or abstract concepts |
| Alliteration | Repetition of initial consonant sounds | Enhances musicality and draws attention to specific phrases |
| Assonance | Repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words | Builds rhythm and atmosphere; softens or sharpens tone depending on usage |
| Consonance | Repetition of consonant sounds in the middle or at the end of words | Adds texture and cohesion to lines |
| Onomatopoeia | Words that imitate real-life sounds (buzz, splash, bang) | Brings the poem to life by appealing to the reader’s sense of hearing |
| Imagery | Descriptive language that appeals to the five senses | Helps the reader visualise, hear, smell, taste, or feel the poem’s world |
| Symbolism | Using objects, colours, or actions to represent larger ideas or themes | Adds layers of meaning and encourages deeper analysis beyond the literal |
| Enjambment | A sentence or phrase that continues beyond the end of a line or stanza | Affects pacing, tension, and surprise; creates a flowing structure |
| Rhyme | Similar-sounding words placed at line endings | Adds musicality, memorability, and structure |
| Rhythm | The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables | Guides the flow of reading and sets the tone or emotional pace |
| Hyperbole | Exaggeration used for dramatic or comedic effect | Emphasises emotion or scale; adds humour or intensity |
| Repetition | Deliberately repeating words or phrases | Reinforces ideas or themes; establishes rhythm and emphasis |
As such, a variety of factors come into play when utilising poetic techniques, and poets need to think about the overall impact a poem may have.
Whether you decide to use rhyme, personification, or a particular mood or setting for your poem, poetic devices can help make your poem come alive and can even help inform how you structure your poem. For example, you could decide to structure your poem with stanzas, although there’s no obligation to if you would rather not.
A stanza helps to divide a poem by grouping together two or more lines that usually have a similar metrical form or rhyme, although they don’t have to share this feature. Just as paragraphs are used in literature to group ideas together, stanzas perform a similar function in the world of poetry.
One of the things about poetry that resonates with readers and takes them right to the scene you are describing is the musical element that makes a poem sound so alluring when read aloud. We’ll talk more about this in the next section!
Next, we have figurative language, which serves as another instrument in a poet's toolbox. This is something you will likely be familiar with if you have studied English at Junior Cert level, and it can go a long way in elevating the quality of your poems.
Keep in mind that these methods are a few of the many for poets. By exploring devices and experimenting with them, you'll learn how to enhance your writing and craft poetry that connects with your readers on a deeper level.
Ultimately, the decision of which poetic techniques are best to use is very personal and will likely change on a poem-by-poem basis. With that in mind, some common poetic devices have been defined and highlighted below to give you some inspiration on which poetic devices and literary terms to include in your next piece of work.
As an aspiring poet, you should read a lot of poetry and try to become versed with as many poetic devices as possible, and know when to use each device to their advantage.
The Music of Language: Sound Devices in Poetry
How many poems have you read and been left feeling like you had escaped into a whole other world? Often, as readers, we draw on our senses to experience what the poet portrays in their writing.
A helpful tip to improve at writing poetry is to flip the scenario throughout the creative process and ask yourself what the reader feels when they read your work. To captivate the reader with your poems, consider incorporating some of the acoustic elements we discussed earlier to help paint the scene.
Sound elements serve as instruments that enrich your poetry with its quality and cadence. By improving your command of these methods, you’ll not only have an easier time communicating your ideas but also captivate the readers with sound-like sensations.
Alliteration and Assonance
One way to make your poems sound more soothing when read aloud is to add a pinch of alliteration. This will go a long way in shaping the flow of your lines by repeating sounds at the start of words.
For instance, the phrase that you’ve likely sung to death during your younger years, "She sells seashells by the seashore" is a textbook example of alliteration.
So, to incorporate this technique in the poems that you write or recognise across any unseen pieces that you analyse, you just need to look for words that share the same consonant sound and position them closely together.
If you want to add some variety to the devices you use in your work, you could consider incorporating some assonance. This focuses on echoing vowel sounds within words, such as in "I tried to fly the kite, but it didn't take flight."
This will make your poems stand out by adding some rhythm that can enrich their musical quality. It’s the repetition of vowel sounds in your words, with them repeating in neighbouring words. Not so difficult, right?
Onomatopoeia and Consonance
There is nothing more alluring than reading a poem from a poet who is a master of onomatopoeia. When used effectively, it makes you feel as though you are right there in the scene of the poem, affecting how you perceive sounds. It involves any action words that describe or mimic a sound, such as "boom," "splash," or "buzz".
Whether you are studying a piece of poetry for the Leaving Cert or writing your own, try adding an acoustic quality to your writing that immerses the reader in the experience! Then, we have consonance, which involves repeating sounds within or at the end of words to achieve the same effect.
If you take the phrase "all's well that ends well", for example, you can see the consonance through the recurrence of the "l" sound. This little gem will enhance the flow of your poetry and create cohesion between the lines!
achieved an H1 in Higher-Level English, a notable increase from just 3% in 2019.
Rhythm and Rhyme
One sound device that is a little easier to wrap your head around is the use of rhythm and rhyme, as whether you realise it or not, you’ve been exposed to these techniques from the time you were an infant. Of course, when it comes to poetry, you’ll be expected to use them in a more advanced and intricate way than your school nursery rhymes, but the same principles hold.
When crafting poetry, it's important to focus on the number of syllables and the stress patterns in each line to establish a flow. A great habit to develop is reciting the poem aloud to yourself, allowing you to pinpoint where the rhythm is smooth and where adjustments are needed. After a few failed attempts, you should find that you can maintain a beat with your words that guide the reader through your poems.
Rhyme is a technique that should require less practice than others mentioned throughout this article; nonetheless, it is extremely effective in enriching the sound quality of your poems.
Reading a poem aloud isn’t just for performance; it’s one of the best ways to detect rhythm, sound devices, and natural flow. It can help you spot awkward phrasing, enhance your understanding of the poem’s structure, and uncover hidden musicality in your own writing.
Figurative Language: Painting with Words
Now that you have a blueprint on how to employ sound devices in your poetry to give it that richness that resonates with those who read it, let's look at some of the key components of figurative language.
Figurative language impacts how readers interpret and engage with your poetry and is what will help you in crafting visuals and evoke intense feelings, something that most aspiring poets and Leaving Cert students alike struggle with.
Sound Devices
- Focus on how a poem sounds when read aloud
- Includes techniques like alliteration, rhyme, onomatopoeia, assonance, and consonance
- Enhances rhythm, musicality, and flow
- Example: “Buzzing bees bounced by” (uses alliteration and onomatopoeia)
- Helps engage the ear and support the tone
Figurative Language
- Focus on how a poem conveys meaning, emotion, or symbolism
- Includes techniques like simile, metaphor, personification, symbolism, and imagery
- Builds visuals, emotion, and abstract depth
- Example: “Hope is the thing with feathers” (metaphor by Emily Dickinson)
- Helps engage the imagination and create an emotional response
Metaphors and Similes
Metaphors and similes are the salt and pepper to your poems, seasoning an otherwise bland depiction of a story that the reader has no real attachment to.
By using similes and metaphors, you can draw comparisons that animate your descriptions. A simile employs "like" or "as" to liken two entities, like " brave as a lion." Metaphors are a little bit harder to grasp at first, but basically compare in a more abstract sense, without using “like” or “as”, an example would be "the curtain of night."
Once you manage to apply these techniques to your poems, they will convey more with less, evoking imagery and painting scenes in the reader's mind that transcend literal portrayals.
Personification
Using personification in your writing is a tool that you will need not only to understand but also to have confidence in wielding yourself if you want to succeed in poetry.
You’ll be glad to hear that it’s a technique that most students and poets have little difficulty getting the hang of. It essentially involves attributing characteristics to objects or ideas, making them more relatable and engaging for your audience.
To drive home its importance and use cases, let’s take a look at a poet who is featured on the Leaving Cert’s prescribed list of poets. Emily Dickinson is a master of this technique, and you can see it in her sentence, "Because I Could Not Stop for Death". Here she depicts Death as a gentleman who pauses to offer the speaker a ride in a carriage.
By personifying Death in this way, the concept becomes more understandable and less frightening; it can also add a little bit of humour if that’s where you want your poem to go!
Symbolism and Imagery
While it might take a little bit of work at first, once you get comfortable with symbolism and imagery, you will be able to answer many exam questions that appear across the Leaving Cert English past papers.
Symbolism allows you to convey concepts through objects, so while a port could seemingly be talking about a simple as a rose or a storm, it could be symbolising affection or turmoil. When incorporating symbolism in your writing, select items that align with the themes of your poem and use them to convey messages.
Imagery is a rather self-explanatory technique, but if used effectively, one could argue it is the most powerful of all. It enables poets to craft experiences for their audience, evoking all five senses.
A task as simple as cooking bacon could be described as "I could hear the sizzling and crackling as my mother placed the bacon in the skillet, filling the air with its savoury oily aroma." When we read this sentence, we all have a vivid image of the scene in our minds, which speaks to its effectiveness in poetry.
Symbolism isn’t always universal. A red rose may signify love in Western cultures, but in other contexts, it could represent revolution, war, or martyrdom. When analysing poetry, especially from different periods or regions, always consider the cultural and historical background.
Applying Poetic Techniques for Leaving Cert Success
So, how can you use this newfound knowledge to your advantage and get the grade you deserve in the Leaving Cert English exam?
received an H1 via the Accredited Grades system, nearly double the 5.9% in 2019.
The first thing that will help you to pick up marks in your English paper is being able to recognise the techniques that feature in any of the unseen poems on your paper, as well as those you have studied throughout the two-year course.
Being able to spot the poet’s use of metaphors, similes, personification, assonance, consonance, alliteration and onomatopoeia and going a step further by explaining their effect on the reading experience or underlying message is a great way of exercising your knowledge.
In the Leaving Cert, it’s not enough to identify a technique. You must explain its effect on the reader or the poem’s meaning. Always ask yourself: "Why did the poet use this device here?" Link your answers to emotion, tone, theme, or rhythm for higher grades.
Of course, you can’t just make a series of points on their own; there’s an inherent need to back up your claims with relevant quotes that support your arguments if you are going to attain a high grade in each of your answers.
During the Leaving Cert exams, candidates are asked to compare two pieces written by different poets who deal with similar subjects or themes. Although they may be written 100 years apart, or more in some cases, comparing the two and considering the different poetic techniques and devices used can help unlock and discover much more than simply reading them separately.
This video should help you with poetry during the Leaving Cert English Paper 2.
As such, take the time to plan your poem in advance before you start writing so you can decide which poetry techniques would work best. Advance planning can help to prevent excessive rewrites at a later date, so it can pay to get on top of your poem early, long before the pen hits the paper.
Thinking about potential techniques in advance can help your writing and publishing, as you can help figure out whether you'd like to use figurative language, hyperbole, or stressed vowel sounds to help convey the true meaning of your poem to the reader.
Now, with these actionable steps and a heightened knowledge of the various poetic techniques and their use cases, you should be all set for success in the exams!
Study Poetic Techniques with a Superprof Tutor
If you want to take your poetry to the next level or are still struggling with the various poetic techniques you'll need to know for your Leaving Cert, don't worry! On Superprof, you can find private tutors for Leaving Cert exam prep, poetry, or just English in general.
All you have to do is search for the subject or skill you need help with, and you can start browsing tutor profiles. There, you'll see what each tutor offers, how much they charge, and how their other students rated them. With most offering the first session for free, you can even try a few before choosing the one that's right for you, your objectives, your budget, and your preferred learning style.
Even if you can't find any suitable local tutors, there are online tutors from all over Ireland and around the world. Most charge less than their face-to-face counterparts since they don't have to travel, and scheduling is often more convenient for both the tutor and the student. Just search for "poetry" on the Superprof website today and start your search for your perfect poetry prof!
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