CBSE Class 9 English Communicative Poetic Devices

 

List of Poetic Devices used in Class 9 English Communicative Poems

Poetic Devices in Class 9 English Communicative Poems – A “poetic device” refers to anything a poet uses to enhance the literal meaning of their poem. Poetic devices are an essential part of English poetry. It is therefore a tool that significantly enhances a poem’s substance, heightens its feel, or provides the essential rhythm. Let’s have a look at the literary devices which have been used in Class 9 English Communicative Poems.

 

 
 

Poem – The Brook

Literary Devices
1. Alliteration: Repetition of a consonant sound in the beginning of two or more consecutive words. Like sudden sally, men may, with willow weed.
2. Anaphora: The same word is repeated at the start of consecutive sentences. Like I bubble into….. I babble on…….
3. Antithesis: Words which contrast or have opposite meanings are used. Like come go, in out.
4. Asyndeton: It is a style of writing in which conjunctions are not used in the sentence.
Like I slip, I slide, I gloom…….
5. Inversion: The structure of a sentence is reversed. The object is placed before the subject to lay emphasis and create distinction.
By thirty hills I hurry down
6. Onomatopoeia: Use of sound words to create dramatic effect. Like chatter, babble, murmur.
7. Personification: A non human object or an animal is given abilities to behave like a human. Like they speak, feel, see, hear. Here the brook has been personified. It is present throughout the poem.
8. Repetition: Any word or sentence may be repeated in the same stanza or in the poem to emphasize or create rhyming effect.
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.
9. Rhyme Scheme: abab
 

 
 

Poem – The Road Not Taken

Literary Devices
1. Alliteration: wanted wear
2. Anaphora:
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
3. Metaphor: yellow wood symbolises autumn season
Visual imagery: We can imagine a scene where a person is standing on a road. In front of the person, the road is splitting into two parts. The person is standing in a forest-like place and the ground was covered with fallen autumn leaves.
We can imagine a path looking grassy, new, and pleasant-looking.
We can imagine a landscape with the sun shining bright and two paths being illuminated by that light.
4. Onomatopoeia: ‘Oh’ in the third line
5. Personification: In the third line of the stanza, the road is personified as a human because it ‘wanted’ wear.
6. Repetition: “Two roads diverged in a wood” is repeated in Stanza 1 and 4
7. Rhyme Scheme: abaab
8. Simile: as just as fair
9. Symbolism: ‘Two roads’ symbolise the different choices in our life
 

 
 

Poem – The Solitary Reaper

Literary devices
1. Alliteration – the repeated use of a consonant sound at the start of two or more consecutive words
Stanza 7: “the theme,” in “Whate’er the theme, the maiden sang”
More welcome notes to weary bands (line 10)
Breaking the silence of the seas (line 15)
Whate’er the theme, the maiden sang (line 25)
I saw her singing at her work (line 27)
The Music in my heart I bore (line 31)
2. Apostrophe
It is the literary device which is used when a poet or poetess addresses an absent, dead or non-human as if the human were present.
Stanza 1: “O listen! For the vane profound”
3. Assonance – The repeated use of a consonant sound
Stanza 1: “Behold her, single in the field,” – the sound of the vowel “i” is repeated.
Stanza 2: “And sings a melancholy strain:” – the sound of the vowel “a” is repeated. “O listen! for the vale profound” – the sound of the vowel “o” is repeated.
Stanza 3: “No nightingale did ever chant” – the vowels ‘a’, ‘e’. ‘I’ are repeated. “More welcome notes to weary bands” – the sound of the vowel ‘o’ is repeated. “Among Arabian Sands” – the sound of the vowel ‘a’ is repeated.
Stanza 4: “In spring-time from the cuckoo-bird.” – the sound of the vowel ‘i’ is repeated. “Breaking the silence of the seas” – the sound of the vowel ‘e’ is repeated.
Stanza 6: “Same natural sorrow, loss, or pain,” – the sound of the vowels ‘a’ and ‘o’ are repeated. “that has been, and may be again ?” – the sound of the vowel ‘a’ is repeated.
Stanza 7: “Whate’er the theme, the maiden sang” – the sound of the vowel ‘e’ is repeated. “And o’er the sickle bending;” – the sound of the vowel ‘e’ is repeated.
4. Consonance – The repeated use of a consonant sound
Stanza 2: “Alone she cuts, and binds the grain, And sings a melancholy strain:” The sound of the consonant ‘n’ is repeated in these two lines.
Stanza 3: “No nightingale did ever chant, the sound of ‘n’ is repeated.
Stanza 4: “Breaking the silence of the seas”, the sound of ‘s’ is repeated.
Stanza 7: “Whate’er the theme, the maiden sang”, the sound of ‘t’ is repeated.
Stanza 8: “I listen’d, motionless and still”, the sound of ‘s’ is repeated.
5. Enjambment – the continuance of the sentence to the next line without punctuation marks at the end of a line
Stanza 2: O listen! for the vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.
Stanza 3: No nightingale did ever chant
More welcome notes to weary bands
Stanza 4: A voice so thrilling ne’ er was heard
In spring-time from the cuckoo-bird.
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.
Stanza 5: Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
Stanza 7: Whate’er the theme, the maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
Stanza 8: I listen’d, motionless and still
And, as I mounted up the hill,
6. Imagery – the creation of an image by using any way like imagery, sound, motion, etc.
In Stanza 1 – “Behold her, single in the field, Yon solitary Highland lass! Reaping and singing by herself; ”
and 2 – “Alone she cuts, and binds the grain, And sings a melancholy strain:”
7. Rhyme Scheme
This can be found in all the stanzas.
Stanza 1: field, lass, herself, pass – abcb
Stanza 2: grain, strain, profound, sound – aabb
Stanza 3: chant, bands, haunt, sands – abcb
Stanza 4: heard, bird, seas, Hebrides – aabb
Stanza 5: sings, flow, things, go – abab
Stanza 6: lay, day, pain, again – aabb
Stanza 7: sang, ending, work, bending – abcb
Stanza 8: still, hill, bore, more – aabb
 

 
 

Poem – Oh, I Wish I’d Looked After Me Teeth

Literary devices
1. Alliteration – repetition of a consonant sound at the start of two or more consecutive words
Stanza 1 – ‘sweet sticky’
Stanza 2 – ‘much more’ and ‘there than’
Stanza 3 – ‘lollies I licked,’
Stanza 4 – ‘them the’
Stanza 5 – ‘cavities, caps’
Stanza 6 – ‘drill it do’ and ‘molars of mine.’
Stanza 7 – ‘my mother’s’
2. Anaphora – when two consecutive lines start with the same word
Stanza 6: And I gaze up his nose in despair,
And his drill it do whine,
3. Assonance – repeated use of a vowel sound
Stanza 1 – “And spotted the perils beneath.” and “All the toffees I chewed,”
Stanza 3 – “When I think of the lollies I licked,” and “All that hard peanut brittle,”
Stanza 4 – “Oh I showed them the toothpaste all right,”
Stanza 5 – “To cavities, caps and decay,” and “Injections and drillin’s,”
Stanza 6 – “And his drill it do whine,”
Stanza 7 – “How I laughed at my mother’s false teeth,As they foamed in the waters beneath.”
4. Consonance – repeated use of a consonant sound
Stanza 2 – “To pass up gobstoppers.”
Stanza 4 – “Oh I showed them the toothpaste all right,”
Stanza 5 – “To cavities, caps and decay,”
5. Enjambment – when a sentence continues to the next line and the punctuation mark at the end is missing
Stanza 2: I wish I’d been that much more willin’
When I had more tooth there than fillin’
Stanza 4: But up-and-down brushin’
And pokin’ and fussin’
Stanza 5: If I’d known, I was paving the way
Stanza 7: But now comes the reckonin’
It’s me they are beckonin’
6. Imagery – the creation of an image in the reader’s mind
Stanza 5: If I’d known, I was paving the way
To cavities, caps and decay,
The murder of fillin’s
Injections and drillin’s,
7. Onomatopoeia – the use of sound words
Stanza 6: And his drill it do whine,
8. Personification – when an inanimate object or an animal is given a human attribute
Stanza 6: And his drill it do whine,
9. Rhyme Scheme
In all Stanzas – aabba
 

 
 

Poem – Song of the Rain

Literary devices
1. Alliteration – In stanzas 2, 4 and 7. Stanza 2 – “daughter of Dawn”. Stanza 4 – “messenger of mercy.” and “the thirst”. Stanza 7 – “windows with”
2. Allusion – In Stanza 2 – “plucked from the Crown of Ishtar by the daughter of Dawn”
3. Anaphora – In stanzas 3, 4, 5 and 8. Stanza 3 – The word ‘when’. Stanza 4 – ‘I’. Stanza 5 – ‘the’. Stanza 8 – ‘the’
4. Antithesis – In stanzas 4 and 5. In Stanza 4 – “I cure the ailment of the other.” Stanza 5 – “arrival…departure” and “which begins at…ends”
5. Metaphor – In stanzas 1, 2, 4 and 8. Stanza 1 – “I am dotted silver threads”. Stanza 2 – “I am beautiful pearls,”. Stanza 4 – “I am a messenger of mercy.”. Stanza 8 – “I am the sigh of the sea, the laughter of the fields, the tears of heaven.”
6. Personification – Rain is personified and has a voice. This literary device is present in all stanzas except Stanza 9.
7. Rhyme scheme – The poem is in Free Verse
8. Simile – In Stanza 5 – “I am like earthly life”
9. Symbolism – In stanza 1 – “Nature then takes me, to adorn Her fields and valleys.”
 

 
 

Poem – The Seven Ages

Literary devices
1. Alliteration – “shrunk shank”
2. Free verse – the poem does not follow any rhyme.
3. Hyperbole – “Even in the cannon’s mouth”
4. Metaphor – “All the world’s a stage”, “And all the men and women merely players: ” and “Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”
5. Repetition- “They have their exits and their entrances” and “Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”
6. Simile – “creeping like snail”
 

 

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