1. Imagery: Poets paint vivid pictures with words, using sensory details to evoke specific feelings and emotions.
* Visual imagery: Describing colors, shapes, and sizes.
* Auditory imagery: Describing sounds, like the rustling of leaves or a child's laughter.
* Tactile imagery: Describing textures, like the feel of velvet or the roughness of bark.
* Olfactory imagery: Describing smells, like the scent of baking bread or the salt air of the ocean.
* Gustatory imagery: Describing tastes, like the sweetness of honey or the bitterness of coffee.
2. Figurative Language: Poets use metaphors, similes, personification, and other literary devices to create a deeper meaning and evoke a specific impression.
* Metaphors: Comparing two unlike things without using "like" or "as." (Example: "My love is a red, red rose.")
* Similes: Comparing two unlike things using "like" or "as." (Example: "The moon was like a silver coin.")
* Personification: Giving human qualities to inanimate objects or animals. (Example: "The wind whispered secrets to the trees.")
3. Diction: Poets carefully choose words to create a specific tone and feeling.
* Formal diction: Using elevated, sophisticated language.
* Informal diction: Using everyday language, slang, and colloquialisms.
* Connotative language: Words with strong emotional associations. (Example: "home" evokes feelings of comfort and security)
4. Sound Devices: Poets use sound devices to create rhythm, musicality, and emphasis.
* Alliteration: Repetition of consonant sounds. (Example: "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.")
* Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds. (Example: "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.")
* Consonance: Repetition of consonant sounds, not just at the beginning of words. (Example: "The cat sat on the mat.")
5. Structure and Form: The way a poem is organized can influence the dominant impression.
* Free verse: Poems without a regular rhyme scheme or meter.
* Sonnets: Poems with 14 lines, often with a specific rhyme scheme.
* Haiku: Poems with a strict structure of 5, 7, and 5 syllables per line.
6. Tone and Mood: The poet's attitude toward the subject matter and the overall feeling the poem evokes.
* Tone: The poet's voice, which can be serious, playful, angry, or ironic.
* Mood: The emotional atmosphere of the poem.
By using these techniques in combination, a poet can create a powerful, memorable, and multi-layered experience for the reader. The dominant impression might be one of joy, sadness, fear, wonder, or even a complex combination of emotions.