Imagery uses sensory details to paint a mental picture. Anything depicting what a reader can see, hear, or feel is part of imagery, and helps the reader to understand the poet's meaning. Willam Carlos Williams creates stellar imagery in his short poem entitled "The Red Wheelbarrow." He writes, "So much depends upon/a red wheel barrow/glazed with rain water/beside the white chickens." The author creates the picture of a poor family who must work hard with a wheelbarrow to survive. By using imagery, Williams uses only a few words to elicit empathy from the reader about the family's plight.
A symbol is a concrete object that has a deeper meaning and represents another idea or truth. For instance, the American flag is just a sewn piece of colored cloth, but it represents freedom and bravery. In poetry, one word can stand for much more. In "The Red Wheelbarrow," the wheelbarrow is a tool for doing farm work and hauling items. But in this poem, it takes on a much deeper meaning because the reader understands that the family relies so heavily on it.
A metaphor compares one item to something else through direct association; a simile compares two items using the words "like" or "as." Poets use comparisons to explain a lot in a few words. For instance, in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," Romeo says "Juliet is the sun." Although sun is only one word, it conveys the deep meaning that Juliet is Romeo's light, she gives him life and is at the center of his universe. Likewise, Juliet says of Romeo, "My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep." Her love for Romeo is unmeasured, as a sea is. Because of the use of "as," this comparison is a simile.
Poets place words carefully to create a musicality for the reader. Alliteration is the repeated use of initial consonants. Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" uses alliteration to build rhythm and suspense: "Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,/Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before." Another technique, assonance, uses repeated vowel sounds. In another line, "Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,/And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor," Poe repeats the short "e" sound in remember, December, separate, and ember to create a pleasing sound and help the flow in poetry.