Name: ___________________________
Identifying Poetic Devices
Directions: Write which technique is being used on the line. There may be more than one correct answer; you
may write more than one answer. Then, explain how you know your answer. Slashes represent line breaks.
Answers: idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche,
allusion, oxymoron,
Example 1. This falling spray of snow-flakes is / a handful of dead Februaries
What technique is being used? _____Personification and Alliteration____________________________
idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron
Explain how you figured it out:
Februaries can’t die like humans. Repeating “F” or “S”, so alliteration.
1. His eye met hers as she sat there paler and whiter than anyone in the vast ocean of anxious faces
about her.”
synecdoche, hyperbole
What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron
Explain how you figured it out:
faces- a part of a whole, hyperbole- not really an ocean of faces.
2. Time is a green orchard.
metaphor
What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron
Explain how you figured it out:
comparing an orchard to time.
3. They chained themselves to subways for the endless ride from Battery Park to the Bronx
hyperbole, alliteration
What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron
Explain how you figured it out:
endless ride- hyperbole alliteration is the Battery and Bronx
4. Life is a bowl of cherries
metaphor
What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron
Explain how you figured it out:
comparing life to a bowl of cherries
5. “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”
synecdoche
What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron
Explain how you figured it out:
"ears" represents listening and is part of a body
6. The press is pursuing Justin Beiber to get their gossip story.
metonymy
What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron
Explain how you figured it out:
The press- represents the tabloids, newspapers, news, etc.
7. The sunshine threw his hat away.
personification
What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron
Explain how you figured it out:
A sunshine cannot literally "throw his hat" as it does not have a hat nor an arm.
8. This test will be a piece of cake.
metaphor, idiom
What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron
Explain how you figured it out:
comparing a test to a piece of cake and an idiom because it is a cultural expression
9. All hands on deck!
synecdoche
What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron
Explain how you figured it out:
The hands represent the sailors and their hands are a part of the whole
10. I could stare into your eyes as / a thousand years come and go
hyperbole
What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron
Explain how you figured it out:
gross exaggeration- can't stare for a thousand years
11. Don’t act like a Romeo in front of her and swoon all over her feet.
allusion , simile, synecdoche
What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron
Explain how you figured it out:
alluding to Romeo (a famous Shakespearean figure who was a romantic). A simile in that "like a Romeo" and synecdoche is her "feet"
12. “Twinkle, twinkle, little star,/How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,/Like a diamond in the sky.”
apostrophe, simile, oxymoron, (assonance)
What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron
Explain how you figured it out:
apostrophe is referring to the stars, Simile is comparing a star to a diamond, little/star is an oxymoron
13. His new car cost him an arm and a leg.
idiom
What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron
Explain how you figured it out:
cultural expression
14 I must be cruel, only to be kind
oxymoron
What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron
Explain how you figured it out:
cruel and kind
15. I find no peace, and all my war is done/I fear and hope, I burn and freeze like ice,
oxymoron
What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron
Explain how you figured it out:
burn and freeze like ice
16. That’ll be the day when pigs fly.
idiom,
What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
idiom, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron
Explain how you figured it out:
cultural expression