English Grade 10 – 10 Poetry Devices

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Match the poetic devices to the quote.

1. Simile
2. Synecdoche
3. Meiosis
4. Hyperbole
5. Personification
6. Diction
7. Oxymoron
8. Synaesthesia
9. Paradox
10. Metaphor
An apparently impossible statement, as in the phrase “read about themselves . . . with their eyelids shut” –
An illogical combination of different senses, as in the phrase “everyone's pain has a different smell” –
An illogical combination of two words, such as "excessive moderation". –
For example, overly formal language like “whereupon my wife appeared” or “with commendable savior faire”. –
For example, the description of a spider’s web as “continents of light”. –
For example, the line “I should have been a pair of ragged claws, scuttling across the floors of silent seas” where the claw stands in for the whole crab. –
The kind of intentionally understated language displayed in the line “I tore open my shirt with bared breast and a minimum of boredom”. –
The kind of strong, over-stated language used in the lines “my wife appeared from the bathroom where she’d been brooding for days”. –
The poetic device used in the line “the startled little waves that leap” –
The type of comparison displayed in: “My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”. –