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'Metre' is the organised rhythm of beats in poetry.

Poetic Techniques

Poetic techniques shape sound and meaning. Learn how rhythm, rhyme, and imagery work together so you can explain effects clearly in your GCSE reading and writing.

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Fascinating Fact:

Assonance, echoes vowel sounds. “Do not go gentle into that good night.” Dylan Thomas

In GCSE English, poetic techniques are the tools that create a poem’s effects. You’ll identify sound patterns, imagery, and structure, then explain how they shape meaning and influence a reader’s response.

Key Terms

Alliteration: Repetition of consonant sounds at the start of words to create emphasis or rhythm.
Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds within words to produce echo and musicality.
Enjambment: A line running on without punctuation, speeding pace or linking ideas across lines.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

What are poetic techniques in GCSE English?

Poetic techniques are language and structural choices like imagery, rhyme, rhythm, and line breaks. They create effects that shape mood, meaning, and the reader’s response.

How do I analyse poetic techniques in an exam answer?

Select a key quotation, name the technique, explain its effect on meaning or mood, and link it to the question. Compare across the poem where helpful.

What is the difference between structure and language in poetry?

Language covers words and images, such as metaphor or assonance. Structure is how the poem is built, including stanza form, line length, and enjambment.

Try These Related Quizzes

1 .

Choose the correct poetic device.
A form of poetry without metre, pattern, or rhyme.

Sonnet

Free verse

Ballad

Sestina

2 .

Choose the correct poetic device.
The collections of lines into which a poem is divided.

Sonnets

Stanzas

Metres

Metrical feet

Lines in a stanza are usually of a similar length and may demonstrate a metrical pattern

3 .

Choose the correct poetic device.
The technique which describes a clause or phrase which runs on between lines or verses without a pause.

Caesura

Enjambment

Iambic pentameter

Metre

4 .

Choose the correct poetic device.
The repetition of a consonant sound, especially at the beginning of a word or stressed syllable.

Alliteration

Simile

Metaphor

Hyperbole

5 .

Choose the correct poetic device.
A stanza consisting of a pair of lines.

Quatrain

Terza Rima

Couplet

Sonnet

Pairs of lines which rhyme are called 'rhyming couplets'

6 .

Choose the correct poetic device.
The style and tone of a poem's narrator, speaker, or persona.

Subject

Mood

Voice

Form

It is important to recognise that the person speaking in a poem is not necessarily the poet - sometimes 'voice' is described as the 'speaker' or 'narrator'. If the voice is rather different to that of the poet, it might be referred to as a 'persona'

7 .

Choose the correct poetic device.
A phrase or line which recurs throughout a poem.

Stanza

Assonance

Ballad

Refrain

A refrain can also be a group of lines which are repeated

8 .

Choose the correct poetic device.
A type of figurative language in which the poet writes about one thing as if it were another.

Theme

Metaphor

Homophone

Oxymoron

9 .

Choose the correct poetic device.
The organised rhythm of beats in poetry.

Rhyme

Stanza

Free verse

Metre

Every English word has one or more stresses (or beats). When a poet writes so that the stresses fall in a particular pattern, we refer to it as 'metre'. Here is an example from Romeo and Juliet: 'But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?' This particular example of metre is called 'iambic pentameter'

10 .

Choose the correct poetic device.
A long pause or break within a line, usually (but not always) created by punctuation such as a full stop, semi-colon, colon or, occasionally, an em (long) dash.

Caesura

Enjambment

Falling rhythm

Voice

Author: Sheri Smith (PhD English Literature, English Teacher & Quiz Writer)