Your Name:____________________________________________________ Date:_______________________

POETIC DEVICES WORKSHEET

Identify the poetic devices (alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, or

enjambment) used in each of the following and explain how you know.
1. A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings. from The Piano by D.H.
Lawrence

2. We heard the sea sound sing, we saw the salt sheet tell. from Lie Still, Be Calmed by Dylan
Thomas

3. O! Wonderful for weight and whiteness! from Ode to Blizzard by Tom Disch

4. We passed old farmer Boothby in the field.

Rugged and straight he stood; his body steeled from Magic by Louis Untermeyer

5. Hear the mellow wedding bells golden bells! from The Bells by Edgar Allan Poe

6. drying and fading but flowers

that wilt as soon as their stems
are cut. from Marigold by Vicki Feaver

Copyright 2013 Dianne Mason

7. Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor. from The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes

8. Miss J. Hunter Dunn, Miss J. Hunter Dunn,

Furnished and burnished by Aldershot sun, from A Subalterns Love Song by John Betjeman.

9. Nail the rose

to your mind's door
like a rat, a thwarted chickenhawk. from To One Steeped in Bitterness by Denise Levertov

10. We real cool. We / left school. We from We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks

B. Try your hand at writing a sentence or two for each of the following poetic devices:
1. Alliteration:

2. Assonance:

3. Consonance:

Copyright 2013 Dianne Mason

4. Onomatopoeia:

5. Enjambment:

Copyright 2013 Dianne Mason

Answer Key for Poetic Devices Worksheet Part A

1. Onomatopoeia - Tingling strings sounds like a piano.
2. Alliteration Sea, sound, sing, saw, salt, sheet all begin with the same sound.
3. Alliteration Wonderful, weight, whiteness all begin with the same sound.
4. Consonance The d sound is repeated in passed, field, rugged, stood, body,
and steeled.
5. Assonance The e sound is repeated in mellow, wedding, bells, golden, and
bells.
6. Enjambment There is no punctuation after flowers and stems to create a stop
before the following line.
7. Onomatopoeia Thump, thump, thump sounds like a foot hitting the floor.
8. Assonance The u sound is repeated in Hunter, Dunn, furnished, burnished,
and sun.
9. Enjambment There is no end-stop punctuation after rose and door.
10.Consonance The l sound is repeated in real, cool, and school.

Answers for Part B will vary.

Copyright 2013 Dianne Mason