Stanzas and couplets are poetic techniques. Poets have many, many tricks up their sleeves. We analyse and categorise these tricks as poetic 'techniques' or 'devices'. Looking very closely at a poem and analysing the techniques the poet has used can help you appreciate exactly how a poem has an effect on its reader. Always remember when writing about poetry that it is not enough to name the technique or device: you must also describe how the technique creates an effect.
Test your knowledge of a poet's 'tricks of the trade' with this quiz.
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Lines in a stanza are usually of a similar length and may demonstrate a metrical pattern
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A refrain can also be a group of lines which are repeated
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Pairs of lines which rhyme are called 'rhyming couplets'
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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'
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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'
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