The Poet’s Toolkit

Common Techniques Every Student Should Know ✍️

Welcome to your poetic toolkit! These are the essential techniques poets use to bring their words to life. Each comes with a brief definition and a quick example so you can start spotting and using them in your own writing. 🎨

🔊 1. Alliteration

Repeating the same starting sound in closely connected words.

• "The wild wind whipped through the willows."

🌟 2. Simile

A comparison using "like" or "as."

• "Her smile was as bright as the sun."

🔥 3. Metaphor

A direct comparison saying something is something else.

• "The classroom was a zoo."

🌀 4. Repetition

Using the same word or phrase more than once for emphasis.

• "Alone, alone, all, all alone. Alone on a wide, wide sea." – Coleridge

💓 5. Personification

Giving human qualities to non-human things.

• "The moon danced across the sky."

🧠 6. Enjambment

When a line of poetry runs over into the next without pause.

• "I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree." – Joyce Kilmer

💥 7. Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate the sounds they describe.

• "Bang! Crash! Buzz!"

🌀 8. Rhyme

Words with the same ending sound, often at the end of lines.

• "The cat sat on the mat."

⏱️ 9. Rhythm / Meter

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

• "Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?" – iambic pentameter

💭 10. Imagery

Using vivid language to appeal to the senses.

• "The scent of pine needles mixed with smoke."

🎯 Challenge Yourself: Try to write a four-line poem using at least three of the techniques above. 🎉