Reading Comprehension (Poetry): Devices, Rhyme and Meaning
Poetry comprehension asks about a poem's central idea, its rhyme scheme, its figures of speech and the meaning of particular lines. Whether the poem is from the textbook or unseen, the habit is the same: name the device correctly, then explain what it does.
Devices - get the label right
- Simile: comparison using like or as.
- Metaphor: direct identification, with no like/as.
- Personification: a non-human thing given human action or feeling.
- Alliteration: the same initial consonant sound in nearby words - not the same word repeated.
- Assonance: repeated vowel sound; onomatopoeia: a word echoing its sound.
- Oxymoron: two opposites joined (bitter-sweet); hyperbole: deliberate exaggeration.
Rhyme scheme
Give each new end sound the next letter. aabb = rhyming couplets; abab = alternate rhyme; abcb = only lines 2 and 4 rhyme (the ballad stanza). A whole line repeated is a refrain, not a rhyme.
Worked example. Above the harbour hangs a moon of bone, (a) the boats lie still as sleeping men in bed; (b) a lonely gull repeats its hollow moan, (a) and silence folds the water into lead. (b) Rhyme scheme: abab. One figure of speech: the simile in line 2 (still as sleeping men). Line 4 carries metaphor plus personification (silence folds), and lonely… hollow contributes alliteration.
Traps
- Marking abcb when lines 1 and 3 clearly rhyme.
- Calling any repetition "alliteration".
- Answering "the theme" with a plot summary.
- Misquoting a line from memory - quote only what is printed before you.