Poetic Devices in Class 12 English (Elective) Poems

by | May 3, 2025 | General | 0 comments

Class 12 English Elective Poetic Devices

 

List of Poetic Devices used in Class 12 English (Elective) Kaleidoscope Book Poems

 

Poetic Devices in Class 12 English Poems –  Do you find it tough to identify the poetic devices used in poetry? This post is for you. For the convenience of students of class 12 Elective English, we have gathered all poetic devices in the poems of the Kaleidoscope book. Get familiar with the figures of speech and also see the examples where they have been used.

 

 

 

Poem 1 – A Lecture Upon the Shadow

 

  1. Alliteration: In alliteration, consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables are repeated to grasp the reader’s attention, making them focus on a particular line or section. In Donne’s poem ‘A Lecture Upon Shadow’, he has used alliteration like ‘Stand still’, ‘These three’, ‘Disguises did’, ‘Lecture, Love, in loves philosophy’ and ‘Will worke’, to add lyrical effects to the poem.
  1. Antanaclasis: Antanaclasis is a rhetorical device that involves repeating a word in a sentence with different meanings. In John Donne’s “A Lecture Upon the Shadow,” he shifts the word “shadows” to reflect its varied connotations in the seventeenth century. This technique enriches the poem’s meditative structure by transitioning from literal shadows cast by the lovers to allegorical shadows representing their hidden truths and the disguises they wear. These new shadows symbolise potential falsehoods and duplicity that could threaten their relationship. The poet ultimately warns that such disguises may lead to a spiritual downfall, where the lovers fall from truth into darkness.
  1. Assonance: Assonance is a figure of speech that is characterised by the use of words that have similar vowel sounds consecutively. John Donne uses the poetic device assonance throughout his poetry to add rhythm to the lyric poetry. Some of the instances among the many are the repetition of ‘e’ in ‘These three houres that we’, the repetition of ‘i’ in ‘Which is still diligent’ and the repetition of ‘o’ in ‘worke upon our selves’.
  1. Consonance: Consonance is the use of words with similar consonant sounds in a sentence or a particular context. John Donne uses consonance throughout the poem to add rhythm, mood and flow to the lyrical poem. For instance, in the line ‘These three houres that we have spent’ the consonant ‘t’ has been repeated and Walking here, Two shadowes went’
  1. Extended Metaphor or Conceit: An extended metaphor, also known as a conceit or sustained metaphor, is the use of a single metaphor or analogy at length in a work of literature. The whole poem is a conceit as the ‘light’ depicts the different stages of relationship and the shadows represent the problems in their relationship like falsehoods and duplicity, which eventually lead to the end of their relationship.
  1. Imagery: Imagery is a literary device that uses figurative language to evoke a sensory experience or to paint a picture for the reader with words. Imagery through metaphor is persistent throughout the poem. John Donne has used the sun and shadow imagery throughout the poetry to connect the physical movement of the sun to the emotional stages of the poet and his beloved relationship. Some of the instances John Donne has used the imagery are ‘Walking here, Two shadowes went/Along with us’, ‘our loves at this noone stay’, ‘new shadowes make the other way’, ‘Will worke upon our selves, and blind our eyes’, ‘these grow longer all the day’ and ‘Love is a growing, or full constant light’.
  1. Lyrical Poem: Lyrical Poetry is a genre of poetry that describes a person’s feelings and thoughts about love through a first person viewpoint. With figurative language and imagery, John Donne’s poem ‘A Lecture Upon Shadow’ also has musical rhythm that makes it a lyric poetry.
  1. Metaphor: Metaphor is a word or phrase used to describe somebody/something else, in a way that is different from its normal use, to show that the two things have the same qualities and to make the description more powerful. The metaphor ‘infant loves’ means that the poet and his beloved love were at the initial stage. The love at this stage is pure, without any deception. The metaphor ‘brave clearnesse’ means that the poet and his beloved are brave enough to fight against anything as they are clear about each other. The metaphor ‘westwardly decline’ means that the sun sets in the west direction, so will their relationship if their love fades away.
  1. Personification: Personification is a figure of speech that is used to attribute human characteristics to something that is not human. The human qualities are given to love in the phrases ‘Loves faint’ and ‘love decay’ as their love fades away. In the phrase ‘loves day’ the poet gives the day itself the ability to express love, just like a person would. The love is personified as a human in the last lines, as he is growing and in full constant light, ‘his first minute’ after noon is night. The possessive pronoun used for love in ‘his first minute’ shows love is personified as a human. The poet had given human qualities to the shadows’ movement in phrases like ‘shadowes tread’, ‘shadowes went’ and ‘shadowes, flow’.
  1. Poetic Structure: John Donne’s A Lecture upon the Shadow is a loosely formed sonnet. John Donne has followed the Shakespearean sonnet style, which is formed by three quatrains and a couplet in iambic pentameter with ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme, although the traditional sonnet is formed by an octave and a sestet with an ABBAABBA CDDCEE rhyme scheme. A Lecture upon the Shadow is in iambic pentameter with an AABBCDDCEEE rhyme scheme. The varying couplets and their rhyme resemble those of Shakespeare’s poetry. Donne uses the intellectual and philosophical language of ‘noon’ and ‘shadows’ to explore the complexities one goes through in relationships by using complex conceits and comparisons to highlight the psychological aspects of the relationship. 
  1. Symbolism: Symbolism is a literary device that uses one thing to represent another. In ‘A Lecture Upon the Shadow’ poem, John Donne has used ‘Two shadowes’ to symbolise the problems in their relationship, ‘Sunne’, ‘noone’ to symbolises their love, ‘high’st degree’ to their love is at the peak level where they trust each other and ‘night’ to symbolise the death of relationship.

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Poem 2 – Poems by Milton

 

  1. Alliteration: In alliteration, consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables are repeated to grasp the reader’s attention, making them focus on a particular line or section. Milton, in his poem ‘On Time’ has used alliteration to add rhythm and emphasis to the poem. Some of the instances are ‘Time, till thou’, ‘merely mortal’, ‘lazy leaden’, ‘Plummets pace’ and ‘with what thy womb’. Milton in his poem ‘On Shakespear’ has used alliteration like ‘shame of slow’, ‘weak witness’ and ‘live-long’ to add rhythm.
  1. Allusion: Allusion is a figure of speech that references someone or something by name, without explaining how it relates to the given context, so the audience must realize the connection in their minds. Milton has alluded to ‘envious Time’ to the Greek mythological God of Time, Cronus, who was jealous that his kids would overthrow him, as said in the Delphic oracle. In the end, he swallows each kid, but Zeus, as his mother hid him from Cronos, and wrapped a stone instead of Zeus, to give it to Cronos to eat. In the same way, Milton’s ‘Time’ is envious of humans, and swallows everything it could. 
  1. Anaphora: Anaphora is a rhetorical device that involves repeating words or phrases at the beginning of multiple sentences or clauses. In Milton’s ‘On Time’, the Anaphora of the lines ‘So little is our loss,/So little is thy gain’, emphasises that human loss after Time devours all the negative aspects from earth is less.
  1. Assonance: Assonance is a figure of speech that is characterised by the use of words having similar vowel sounds consecutively. John Donne has used Assonance throughout his poetry to add rhythm to the lyric poetry. In Milton’s poem ‘On Time’, some of the instances of assonance are the repetition vowel ‘e’ in the line ‘the supreme Throne’, the repetition of vowel ‘o’ in the line ‘So little is our loss’, the repetition of vowel ‘i’ in the line ‘So little is thy gain’ and the repetition of vowel ‘i’ in the lines ‘With an individual kiss’. Some of the instances in the Milton’s ‘On Shakespear’ are the repetition of vowel ‘o’ in lines ‘son of memory’, the repetition of the vowel ‘e’ in the line ‘great heir of Fame’ and the repetition of the vowel ‘a’ in the line ‘labour of an age’.
  1. Consonance: Consonance is the use of words with similar consonant sounds in a sentence or a particular context. Milton has used consonance throughout the poem to add rhythm, mood and flow to the lyrical poem. Some of the instances in Milton’s poem ‘On Time’ are the repetition of ‘t’ and ‘h’ in the line ‘glut thy self with what thy womb’, the repetition of the letter ‘h’ in the line ‘For when as each thing bad thou hast’ and repetition of letter ‘t’ in the line ‘thee O Time’. In Milton’s poem ‘On Shakespear’, the instances of consonance are the repetition of letter ‘h’ and ‘s’ in the line ‘What needs my Shakespear for his honour’d Bones’ and the repetition of letter ‘h’ in the lines ‘that his hallow’d reliques should be hid’.
  1. Imagery: Imagery is a literary device that uses figurative language to evoke a sensory experience or to paint a picture for the reader with words. In Milton’s poem ‘On Time’, he has used imagery like ‘till thou run out thy race’, ‘lazy leaden-stepping hours’, ‘glut thy self with what thy womb devours’, ‘With an individual kiss’ and‘Attir’d with Stars, we shall for ever sit’ to describe Time, hours and humans. In Milton’s poem ‘On Shakespear’, he has used imagery like ‘Under a Star-ypointing Pyramid’ and ‘Hath from the leaves of thy unvalu’d Book’.
  1. Metaphor: Metaphor is a word or phrase used to describe somebody/something else, in a way that is different from its normal use, to show that the two things have the same qualities and to make the description more powerful. In Milton’s poem ‘On Time’, ‘Time’ is a metaphor for demonic force, ‘Joy’ is a metaphor for happiness after Time has been consumed and ‘long Eternity’ is a metaphor for living a long life on Earth without any negative aspects around humans. In Milton’s ‘On Shakespear’, ‘live-long Monument’ is a metaphor for the Shakespeare readers where Shakespeare rests. The ‘slow endeavouring art’ means the slow inspiring and forced poetic art of the poets from Shakespeare’s era. The ‘Delphic lines’ means that Shakespeare’s work has been compared to the god of poetry, Apollo, whose oracle gives a glimpse of truth from the god, leaving a deep impression on the reader’s mind and heart.
  1. Personification: Personification is a figure of speech that is used to attribute human characteristics to something that is not human. Milton in his poem ‘On Time’ has personified Time as a monster that swallows everything negative around it. He personified Time with all the negative aspects like ‘envious Time’, ‘glut thy self with what thy womb devours’ and ‘Plummets pace’. The way Milton’s speaker told Time to do things like ‘fly’, ‘call on’ and ‘glut’ also adds to the Personification aspects. Milton has also personified hour as a human being as he quotes it as a ‘lazy leaden-stepping’ and Joy as it overtakes the human race. In his second poem, ‘On Shakespear’, Shakespeare’s works have been personified as humans in the line ‘Dear son of memory, great heir of Fame’, as it lives with them forever.
  1. Symbolism: Symbolism is a literary device that uses one thing to represent another. In Milton’s poem ‘On Time’, he has used ‘Supreme Throne’ to symbolize God, ‘mortal dross’ symbolises negative aspects in humans and ‘heav’nly guided soul’ symbolises humans with positive aspects. In Milton’s ‘On Shakespear’, he has used ‘son of memory, great heir of Fame’ to symbolise Shakespeare’s work, ‘Marbles’ symbolises the readers, ‘easie numbers flow’ symbolises poetic meter and ‘weak witness’ used to symbolise Tomb. 

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Poem 3 – Poems by Blake

  1. Allusion: Allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to someone or something by name without explaining how it relates to the given context so that the audience must realize the connection in their minds. The tree is an allusion to the biblical tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which exists only in the human mind. The fruit of religion is a damned fruit of fraud, which Blake caution not to eat, no matter how tempting it might be.
  1. Alliteration: In alliteration, consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables are repeated to grasp the reader’s attention, making them focus on a particular line or section. In Blake’s poem ‘The Divine Image’, he has used alliteration in phrases like ‘Pity, Peace’, ‘their thankfulness’, ‘human heart’. In William Blake’s ‘The Human Abstract’, he has used alliteration in the phrases like ‘Soon spreads’
  1. Assonance: Assonance is a figure of speech that is characterised by the use of words having similar vowel sounds consecutively. In William Blake’s ‘The Divine Image’, he has used the repetition of the vowel ‘a’ in the line ‘a human face’ and the repetition of vowel ‘e’ in the lines ‘these virtues of delight’, ‘Return their thankfulness’ and ‘Then every man, of every clime’. In William Blake’s ‘The Human Abstract’, he has used the repetition of the vowel ‘e’ in the lines ‘the selfish loves increase’, the repetition of vowels ‘e’ and ‘a’ in the lines ‘the earth and sea’ and the repetition of vowel ‘e’in the line ‘Feed on the Mystery’.
  1. Consonance: Consonance is the use of words with similar consonant sounds in a sentence or a particular context. In William Blake’s ‘The Divine Image’, the repetition of letter ‘t’ in the lines ‘Return their thankfulness’ and ‘to these virtues of delight’ and the repetition of the letter ‘r’ in the line ‘our father dear’. In William Blake’s ‘The Human Abstract’, the repetition of letter ‘t’ in the lines ‘Then Humility takes its root’, the repetition of the letter ‘s’ in the lines ‘Soon spreads the dismal shade’ and the repetition of the letter ‘t’ in the lines ‘Then Humility takes its root’.
  1. Extended Metaphor: In William Blake’s poem ‘The Human Abstract’, he has used the extended metaphor of a tree growing in the human brain to be an embodiment of an organized religion and societal structures. The tree represents religion, which Blake believed was a source of suffering, ignorance, and corruption. Cruelty sits down with holy fears and waters the ground with his tears, only to grow the roots of Humility under his foot. Blake argues that these organized religions would then bring up false religious fears, water the ground with their hypocritical false religions, to sow the seed of a low view regarding humans among humankind. The four virtues give rise to two vices, cruelty of Religion and Humility among the people. As the Humility tree would grow, it would spread sadness and confusion among the people. The ‘mystery’ is the metaphor for the system of myths and rituals that are especially designed to captivate followers. The system of myths and rituals spread sadness among humankind.
  1. Imagery: Imagery is a literary device that uses figurative language to evoke a sensory experience or to paint a picture for the reader with words. In William Blake’s ‘The Human Abstract’, he has used the imagery to describe Cruelty in the lines ‘Then Cruelty knits a snare/And spreads his baits with care’. Cruelty, a vice, then makes the trap and spreads the food with care. It’s only through these four virtues that cruelty arises in humans. Cruelty would then sit down with holy fears and water the ground with his tears, only to grow the roots of Humility under his foot. 
  1. Metaphor: Metaphor is a word or phrase used to describe somebody/something else, in a way that is different from its normal use, to show that the two things have the same qualities and to make the description more powerful. The ‘caterpillar’ and ‘fly’ are metaphors for the clergy and other religious figures, who feed off the system of religion.
    The raven symbolizes death and the destructive nature of organized religion. The raven’s nest is in the “thickest shade”, which suggests the secrecy and obscurity of religion. The “fruit” of religion is “the fruit of Deceit” which is fraudulent. The tree’s fruit is a metaphor for the deceptive illusions of religion. Cruelty is the metaphor for the Cruelty of organized religion. The ‘mystery’ is the metaphor for the system of myths and rituals that are especially designed to captivate followers. The tree’s “caterpillars” and “flies” are metaphors for the clergy who live off the church. The tree’s “raven” is a symbol of death and evil.
  1. Oxymoron: An oxymoron is a figure of speech, usually one or two words, in which seemingly contradictory terms appear side by side. In William Blake’s ‘The Human Abstract’, “selfish love” is an oxymoron because it combines two contradictory terms, “selfish” which implies prioritizing one’s own needs, and “love” which inherently suggests putting another person’s needs first. The ‘holy fears’ is an oxymoron, as ‘holy’ means dedicated to God and ‘fears’ means to be afraid of something. 
  1. Personification: Personification is a figure of speech that is used to attribute human characteristics to something that is not human. Blake’s poem ‘The Divine Images’ has personified Mercy as ‘human heart’ as it resides in one’s heart, compassion towards others, and it takes a good heart to forgive. He has personified pity as ‘human face’ as humans who are concerned and experience sorrow for the misfortunes of others, which could be seen in their disposition. He has compared love to ‘human form divine’ as when humans love every other human, regardless of their vices, they become the embodiment of divinity. Blake has compared peace to ‘human dress’ as every human can choose to wear it if they carry virtues within themselves, no matter what the situation they are in. In William Blake’s ‘The Human Abstract’ cruelty is personified. Cruelty would then sit down with holy fears and water the ground with his tears, only to grow the roots of Humility under his foot. These organized religions would then bring up false religious fears, water the ground with their hypocritical false religions, to sow the seed of a low view of themselves among the humankind. Blake has used personification in The Human Abstract by giving Pity, Poor, Mercy, Cruelty, Humility, Mystery, Caterpillar, fly, Deceit and Raven.
  1. Repetition: Repetition in poetry is the repetition of words, phrases, lines, or stanzas. It is a poetic device that’s used to create rhythm, emphasize ideas or feelings, or create a sense of urgency. In William Blake’s ‘The Divine Image’, the repetition of ‘To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love’, emphasises the need for these four virtues in humankind. The Repetition of ‘human form’ emphasises God in other human beings. The repetition of ‘pray in their distress’ emphasises the need for the virtues of delight in suffering.
  1. Symbolism: Symbolism is a literary device that uses one thing to represent another. The tree symbolizes the abstract qualities of the human mind. The raven symbolizes death and the destructive nature of organized religion. The human brain is symbolized by a tree, which represents the negative abstract characteristics that grow from it. Cruelty is symbolized by a tree that takes root in the human mind and spreads a dark shadow over everything. 

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Poem 4 – Kubla Khan Or A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment

 

  1. Alliteration: In alliteration, consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables are repeated to grasp the reader’s attention, making them focus on a particular line or section. Some of the instances Coleridge has alliteration in the poem are ‘Kubla Khan’, ‘dome decree’, ‘river, ran’, ‘sunless sea’, ‘sunny spots’, ‘measureless to man’, ‘With walls’, ‘cedarn cover’, ‘miles meandering’, ‘mazy motion’, ‘he on honeydew hath’, ‘deep delight’, ‘symphony and song’, ‘loud and long’, ‘woman wailing’ and ‘mingled measure’.
  1. Allusion: Allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to someone or something by name without explaining how it relates to the given context so that the audience must realise the connection in their minds. Ancestral voices is an allusion to the violent history of the Mongols, specifically Kubla Khan’s conquests, which led to the establishment of his empire. It represents the collective memory of past wars and bloodshed, which even a powerful ruler like Kubla Khan cannot fully escape. The honeydew and the milk of paradise are similar to ambrosia and the nectar of the gods in Greek mythology. 
  1. Assonance: Assonance is a figure of speech that is characterised by the use of words with similar vowel sounds. Some of the instances Coleridge has used Assonance are ‘stately pleasure-dome decree’, ‘sunless sea’, ‘twice five miles of fertile’, ‘incense-bearing tree’, ‘caverns measureless’, ‘bright with sinuous rills’, ‘there were gardens’, ‘an Abyssinian maid’,
    ‘her dulcimer she played’, ‘I revive within’, ‘His flashing eyes, his floating hair!’, ‘miracle of rare device’, ‘Five miles meandering’, ‘momently the sacred river’, ‘Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding’, ‘like rebounding hail’, ‘A savage place!’, ‘beneath the thresher’s’.
  1. Consonance: Consonance is the poetic device that uses words with similar consonant sounds in a sentence or a particular context. Coleridge has used Consonance in the instances like ‘sunless sea’, ‘towers were girdled round’, ‘sacred river, ran’, ‘he on honey-dew hath’, ‘who heard should see them there’, ‘sacred river ran’, ‘beneath the thresher’s’, ‘mighty fountain momently’, ‘this earth in fast thick pants were breathing’, ‘for her demon-lover!’ and ‘athwart a cedarn cover’.
  1. Extended Metaphor: An extended metaphor compares a subject to another thing using multiple points of contact. In Kubla Khan, the pleasure dome and the flowing river Alph serve as extended metaphors. They represent the poet’s creative imagination. The river’s course shows how inspiration comes and goes, emphasising the strengths and possible weaknesses of creative vision. Overall, the poem acts as a metaphor for the creative process itself. The ‘fountain’ represents the beautiful, serene aspect, while the ‘caves’ symbolise the more mysterious and potentially destructive forces. The ‘mingled measure’ suggests opposing forces are not entirely separate. It is a metaphor for the creative process, where inspiration (fountain) is combined with the subconscious or darker elements (caves) to produce a unique artistic vision. 
  1. Hyperbole: The hyperbole is the poetic device that gives a dream-like quality to the poem, where the boundaries of reality are blurred and the imagination takes precedence. In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem Kubla Khan, the author uses hyperbole to describe the ‘caverns measureless to man’ and the ‘sunless sea’. This exaggeration highlights the immense size and darkness of these features, emphasising the vast and mysterious nature of Xanadu, the palace of Kubla Khan. The description creates an image of an incredibly grand and daunting landscape.
  1. Imagery: Imagery is a literary device that uses figurative language to evoke a sensory experience or to paint a picture for the reader with words. The imagery of the chasm and the earth’s pantings creates a powerful emotional experience typical of Romantic poetry. The chasm’s aliveness is unsettling and closely linked to dark supernatural forces. The speaker’s pleasure dome is a powerful, almost supernatural figure with an intense gaze and wild hair, suggesting a mystical or dangerous presence that should be cautiously approached by creating a protective circle around him, possibly to ward off his otherworldly power. The flashing eyes and floating hair have an otherworldly quality to this figure. The weaving a circle round him thrice is a ritualistic attempt to protect oneself from this powerful being. This supernatural figure represents the speaker’s creative power, which is both awe-inspiring and potentially overwhelming. 
  1. Metaphor: A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two things by saying one thing is the other. The metaphor ‘measureless to man’ emphasises the vastness and unquantifiable nature of the creative potential within the mind.  The deep romantic chasm is a metaphor for the poet’s creative imagination or subconscious mind.
  1. Oxymoron: An oxymoron is a figure of speech, usually one or two words, in which seemingly contradictory terms appear side by side.
    The ‘sunless sea’ and ‘lifeless ocean’ symbolise the contrast between the earthly and sacred realms to emphasise the Romantic theme of the inadequacy of mortal life and the dangerous pursuit of immortality through creativity. The ‘holy dread’ is a feeling of great fear or awe of those who have heard his creations in the presence of something sacred or holy. The Demon lover is an oxymoron where Demon represents darkness, evil, and destruction, while lover signifies affection, tenderness, and connection. The demon lover symbolises the destructive power of passionate love.
  1. Personification: Personification is a figure of speech that is used to attribute human characteristics to something that is not human. In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem Kubla Khan, personification is used to give human-like qualities to nature. For example, the sacred river is described as ‘runs’ and ‘meanders with a mazy motion’. This gives the river a powerful and mystical presence as it flows through the landscape. The line ‘the dancing rocks’ also personifies the rocks by suggesting they can dance, creating an image of movement and energy in the scene. Additionally, the ‘pleasure-dome’ is personified with phrases like ‘His flashing eyes, his floating hair’. This gives the dome an almost supernatural life and presence, suggesting it is a powerful, visionary entity.
  1. Repetition: Repetition in poetry is the repetition of words, phrases, lines, or stanzas. It is a poetic device that’s used to create rhythm, emphasize ideas or feelings, or create a sense of urgency. Coleridge has repeated the line, ‘caverns measureless to man’ to represent the subconscious mind, the creative potential and the vastness of nature are beyond human capacity to fully quantify. 
  1. Symbolism: Symbolism is a literary device that uses one thing to represent another. The pleasure-dome symbolises imaginative creation. Xanadu can symbolise a luxurious, exotic, or idyllic place. The River Alph symbolises the creative flow that originates from the subconscious. Cavern symbolises the subconscious mind, where primal thoughts and emotions reside. The garden symbolises a harmonious blend between nature and human creativity, representing an idealised space where the power of imagination can flourish. The walls and towers symbolise the boundaries and protective barriers to protect artistic imagination against the outside world. The chasm symbolises a deep, mysterious, and untamed aspect of nature. It also represents the unconscious mind or the raw, powerful forces of creativity that are beyond human control. The mighty fountain erupts from a chasm, symbolising a chaotic, creative force. The fragments of rock thrown by a fountain symbolise the energy of creation and birth of the poem ‘Kubla Khan’, which is also in fragments. The sacred river represents the source of inspiration that flows through the creative process. The lifeless ocean symbolises the contrast between the earthly and sacred realms, which emphasises the Romantic theme of the inadequacy of mortal life and the dangerous pursuit of immortality through creativity. The prophecy of war that Kubla Khan receives symbolises the problems of humanity and how those problems interrupt artists as they aim to create. The demon lover symbolises the destructive power of passionate love. The shadow of the dome of pleasure symbolises the elusive, almost unattainable nature of creative inspiration and the potential for beauty and darkness within the creative process, essentially representing the fleeting, mysterious quality of artistic vision that the speaker is trying to capture in his dream-like poem. The damsel is a muse-like figure who inspires the speaker to create a dome in the air. 

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Poem 5 – Trees

 

  1. Alliteration: In alliteration, consonant sounds in two or more neighbouring words or syllables are repeated to grasp the reader’s attention, making them focus on a particular line or section. Emily Dickinson poem ‘Trees’ has alliteration in line with ‘The Trees like Tassels’.
  1. Assonance: Assonance is a figure of speech that is characterised by the use of words with similar vowel sounds. Some instances where Emily Dickinson uses Assonance are ‘The Trees like Tassels’, ‘Enamoring the Ear’, and ‘Silver matters charmed a Snake’.
  1. Consonance:  Consonance is the poetic device that uses words with similar consonant sounds in a sentence or a particular context. Some of the instances where Emily Dickinson uses Consonance are ‘From Miniature Creatures’, ‘Psalteries of Summer’, ‘Orchards Grow’, ‘Silver matters charmed’, ‘Then Half – then utter hid’, ‘Winding Round a Stone’ and ‘Flags – Sweet Hoisted’.
  1. Imagery: Imagery is a literary device that uses figurative language to evoke a sensory experience or to paint a picture for the reader with words. The imagery used in Emily Dickinson’s poem ‘Trees’ are ‘The Trees like Tassels hit – and – swung’, ‘The Sun shone whole at intervals –/Then Half – then utter hid’, ‘Sufficient to enfold Him’, ‘Bright Flowers slit a Calyx/And soared upon a Stem’ and ‘A Bird sat careless on the fence’.
  1. Personification: Personification is a figure of speech used to attribute human characteristics to something that is not human. The sun is personified as eternal and has the agency to appear or hide, unlike other natural elements. The other natural elements are also personified, like flowers, birds, snakes, clouds, miniature creatures and trees.
  1. Simile: A simile is a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind. The instances of simile in the poem ‘Trees’ are ‘Trees like Tassels’ and ‘Like Hindered Flags’.

 

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Poem 6 – The Wild Swans at Coole

 

  1. Alliteration: In alliteration, consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables are repeated to grasp the reader’s attention, making them focus on a particular line or section. Some of the instances where Yeats has used alliteration are ‘bell-beat’, ‘still sky’, ‘lover by lover’, ‘cold Companionable’, ‘wander where’
  1. Allegory: An allegory is a story that has a deeper meaning, often related to morals, spirituality, or politics. The Wild Swans at Coole includes hidden themes and represents Yeats’ quest for understanding the mystical. Occultism involves studying the secrets of the universe and the connections among all things. Mastering these ideas is thought to give people special, magical abilities. Yeats uses reflections and symbols, like the sky mirroring the lake and the swans flying in broken circles, to show mystical theories. These theories suggest that life consists of interlinked circles and cycles, from birth to death.
  1. Assonance: Assonance is a figure of speech that is characterised by the use of words with similar vowel sounds. Yeats uses Assonance in instances like ‘autumn beauty’, ‘Delight men’s eyes’ and ‘Passion or conquest’.
  1. Consonance: Consonance is the poetic device that uses words with similar consonant sounds in a sentence or a particular context. W.B. Yeats uses Consonance in instances like ‘The trees are in their autumn beauty’, ‘the October twilight the water’, ‘Mirrors a still sky’, ‘great broken rings’, ‘the brimming water among the stones’, ‘Trod with a lighter tread’, ‘Attend upon them still’, ‘But now they drift on the still water,/Mysterious, beautiful’ and ‘The first time on this shore’.
  1. Imagery: Imagery is a literary device that uses figurative language to evoke a sensory experience or to paint a picture for the reader with words. Some of the instances where Yeats has used imagery are the description of autumn beauty, where the ‘woodland paths are dry’, the lake ‘Under the October twilight the water’ ‘Mirrors a still sky’ and its ‘brimming water among the stones’. The swan’s flight imagery is ‘All suddenly mount’ and ‘scatter wheeling in great broken rings/ Upon their clamorous wings’.
  1. Metaphor: A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not applicable. Yeats uses the swans as a metaphor for the eternal beauty he sees in nature, love, and imagination. While everything else around him seems to be dying and aging, the swans remain the same, unchanged in time and always full of life.
  1. Oxymoron: An oxymoron is a literary device that combines two seemingly contradictory words to form an often thought-provoking concept or idea. Yeats has used oxymoron in ‘Mysterious Beautiful’. ‘Mysterious’ suggests a sense of secrecy or obscurity, while ‘beautiful’ implies something openly appealing and clear to perceive. He also used an oxymoron in ‘cold Companionable’ where cold means coldness or distance while companionable, which suggests warmth and closeness, highlighting the contrast between the swans’ seemingly unchanging, loving companionship despite the cold water that they inhabit. 
  1. Onomatopoeia: Onomatopoeia is the poetic device of creating or using words that include sounds that are similar to the noises the words refer to. Yeats has used onomatopoeia in ‘clamorous wings’ and ‘bell-beat’ as it imitates the sound of the swans’ wings flapping, giving a rhythmic quality to the poem.
  1. Personification: Personification is a poetic device that gives human qualities to animals, objects, or ideas. It is a type of metaphor that helps readers relate to abstract ideas. Yeats personified the heart in lines like ‘my heart is sore’ and ‘Their hearts have not grown old’. He has given the swans human-like emotions and movements. Their hearts are filled with feelings of love and ambition, which are human traits. It often feels like the swans represent people the narrator has lost but remembers with fondness.
  1. Symbolism: Symbolism is a literary device where characters, objects, actions, or ideas are ingrained or associated with a deeper meaning beyond the literal sense. The swans symbolise the passing of time and the poet’s aging. The poem is set in autumn, which symbolizes the middle age of the poet’s life.
    The poet’s love for the swan represents Yeats’ love for Maud Gonne, but she rejected him. As he got older, Yeats was able to move on from this love, but he still cherished her memory. Similarly, the speaker values the sight of swans on the water, even though it brings him sadness. The fifty-ninth swan is Yeats, who is lonely without love. The dry paths, the autumn season, and twilight symbolize that he is no longer in his youth, though he is still not in the darkness of death quite yet. The dry paths symbolise the passage through time and life of humans where everything changes and dies, while in the swans’ universe, everything seems to remain unchanged, and life is eternal and always full of mystery and beauty.

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Poem 7 – Time and Time Again

  1. Alliteration: In alliteration, consonant sounds in two or more neighbouring words or syllables are repeated to grasp the reader’s attention, making them focus on a particular line or section. The poet has used alliteration in the phrases ‘bronze, beating’ and ‘half-hour’.
  1. Assonance: Assonance is a figure of speech that is characterised by the use of words with similar vowel sounds. The poet uses Assonance in the lines ‘gongs round the clock’, ‘alloy, a maker’s shaking hand’ and ‘between the pieces of a backstreet quarrel’.
  1. Consonance: Consonance is the poetic device that uses words with similar consonant sounds in a sentence or a particular context. Some of the instances the poet has used consonance are ‘listen to the clocktowers’, ‘deeper or lighter’, ‘slightly off the others’ time’, ‘Switzerland, or the mutual distances’, ‘change of mind, or a siren’ and “nature in a night of lightnings’.
  1. Imagery: Imagery is a literary device that uses figurative language to evoke a sensory experience or to paint a picture for the reader with words. The poet has used imagery in the instances like ‘beating their gongs round the clock, each slightly/off the others’ time, deeper or lighter’ and ‘eyeless, silent, a zigzag sky showing/through the knocked-out clockwork’.
  1. Juxtaposition: Juxtaposition is an act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side, often to compare or contrast or to create an interesting effect. The juxtaposition of ‘perennial feuds’ and ‘seasonal alliance’ refers to the long-standing conflicts and temporary partnerships, respectively, that repeat over time, like the chimes of clock towers that vary and change with time. 
  1. Oxymoron: An oxymoron is a rhetorical device that uses two opposite or contradictory terms one after the other to project an effect. ‘Mutual distances’ is an oxymoron, where ‘mutual’ means are held in common by two or more parties and ‘distances’ means the state of being apart in space.
  1. Personification: Personification is a figure of speech used to attribute human characteristics to something that is not human. The sky is personified as an entity which is ‘eyeless’ and ‘silent’. Its form is ‘zigzag’. The image of the ‘eyeless’ clock tower represents nature’s superior power, capable of diminishing the significance of human creations.

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Poem 8 – Blood 

 

  1. Alliteration: In alliteration, consonant sounds in two or more closely-placed words or syllables are repeated to grasp the reader’s attention, making them focus on a particular line or section. Some of the instances the poetess uses alliteration in the poem ‘Blood’ are ‘When we were’, ‘windows whine’, ‘Siva shrine’ and ‘woman wearied’ and ‘mother’s mother’s mother’.
  1. Anaphora: Anaphora is a specific type of repetition where the same word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, or sentences. The repetition of “And” at the beginning of each line of the listicle of great-grandmother’s grandeur emphasises the richness and abundance of the memories and experiences associated with her family’s heritage. The repetition of “Call me” in the line ‘Call me callous/ Call me selfish’ emphasises the poet’s willingness to accept blame for her actions, but she insists that her blood is not to blame for her shortcomings.
  1. Assonance: Assonance is a figure of speech that is characterised by the use of words with similar vowel sounds. The poetess uses Assonance in instances like ‘When we were children’, ‘It’s falling to little bits’, ‘walls are cracked and’, ‘The tiles have fallen here and there’, ‘windows whine’, ‘come out of the holes’, ‘she rode her elephant’, ‘the rest mere condiments’, ‘When she was ten or eleven’, ‘loved her deeply’, ‘oldest blood in the world’, ‘quilted with arthritis’, ‘looked deep into her eyes’, ‘much about the house’, and ‘plucked your soul’.
  1. Consonance: Consonance is the poetic device that uses words with similar consonant sounds in a sentence or a particular context. Kamala Das uses Consonance in instances like ‘three hundred years’, ‘It’s falling to little bits’, ‘Before our very’, ‘scamper past our doors’, ‘snake-gods in the shrine’, ‘Have lichen on their hoods’, ‘To watch it die’, ‘shall rebuild the fallen walls’, ‘brocade from the north’, ‘sandal for her breasts’, ‘her marriage to a prince’, ‘fever, in her arms’, ‘And muddy as a ditch’, ‘Finally she lay dying’, ‘hard cough For comfort’, ‘Her poor bleary’, ‘the house with the shrine’, ‘burnt my great grandmother’, ‘quilted with arthritis’, ‘the white ants have reached my home’, ‘At night, in stillness’, ‘the rattle of its death’ and ‘oldest blood in the world’.
  1. Imagery: Imagery is a literary device that uses figurative language to evoke a sensory experience or to paint a picture for the reader with words. The poetess portrayed a safe and peaceful childhood through the imagery in the lines ‘And always playing on the sands/ Drawing birds and animals’. The decaying imagery of the house through the images of walls being ‘cracked and torn’ and ‘tiles have fallen here and there’. The rats ‘scamper past our doors’ and ‘the snake-gods in the shrine Have lichen on their hoods’. The imagery used to describe the house as a person ‘crouching on its elbows’, looked ‘grotesque’ and ‘alive’. With the ‘windows close Like the closing of the eyes’ and ‘pillars groan And the dark rooms heave a sigh’ on the death of her great-grandmother. 
  1. Metaphor: A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not applicable. The ‘Fed on God for years’ is a metaphor for the person’s spiritual sustenance, where their primary nourishment comes from their relationship or connection with God.
  1. Onomatopoeia: Onomatopoeia is the poetic device of creating or using words that include sounds similar to the noises the words refer to. Kamala Das has used many instances of onomatopoeia, some of them are ‘windows whine and groan’, ‘pillars groan’, ‘dark rooms heave a sigh’, ‘the rattle of its death’ and ‘rafters creaking’.
  1. Personification: Personification is a poetic device that gives human qualities to animals, objects, or ideas. It is a type of metaphor that helps readers relate to abstract ideas. The poetess has personified windows crying on the decaying of the old house in the line ‘windows whine and groan’. The house is personified as ‘crouching on its elbows’, looked ‘grotesque’ and ‘alive’. The poetess saw ‘the windows close Like the closing of the eyes’ on the death of her great-grandmother. She even heard the ‘pillars groan And the dark rooms heave a sigh’. The poetess has also personified the sea near her great-grandmother’s house as ‘the wide rabid mouth of the Arabian Sea’.
  1. Repetition: Repetition means the act of repeating something, whether it’s a word, phrase, idea, or sound. The poetess uses repetition in the lines like ‘very very rich’ and ‘mother’s mother’s mother’. The repetition of “so”  in the line ‘So thin, so clear, so fine’ emphasises the unique and enduring nature of the blood that flows through her veins, connecting her to her ancestors and heritage. The repetition and alliteration in ‘mother’s mother’s mother’ serve to emphasise the concept of lineage and the extended family, making the phrase more memorable and impactful. 
  1. Simile: A simile is a figure of speech that compares two dissimilar things using “like” or “as”, creating vivid imagery and deeper meaning. The poetess has used similes in instances like ‘a blood thick as gruel/And muddy as a ditch’, ‘the windows close Like the closing of the eyes’ and ‘plucked your soul Like a pip from a fruit’.
  1. Symbolism: Symbolism is a literary device where characters, objects, actions, or ideas are ingrained or associated with a deeper meaning beyond the literal sense. The ‘condiments’ symbolises the other religious practices and beliefs. The ‘thick blood’ symbolises the blood of the new rich men, i.e. impure and unrefined in emotions and ‘thin blood’ symbolises pure and genuine emotions of the poor and the poetess’s lineage. The poetess’s great-grandmother and her old house are symbols of the past and become totemic figures, representing the cultural heritage and family history that are slowly disappearing. 

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Conclusion

This post covers all important poetic devices that have been used by poets in poems for class 12 English elective Kaleidoscope book. Students can use this information and prepare the poems well.

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