Pun:The pun is a device of word game in which a word with two meanings is playfully used in a context. The pun usually gives rise to ironic or humorous gap between the two meanings of the word. The punning on a word or expression may be due to same spelling and/or same pronunciation of two words. For example, it is possible to pun with stable (house-shed/constant), service (job/funeral), hole/whole, sun/son, etc, because of the same spelling or pronunciation of two words.
            The pun is usually considered as a "low" form of wit and unfit for serious poetry. In fact, we find it mostly in humorous or satiric poetry, and it does sound a bit too playful in serious poetry. However, if used properly, the pun can also have serious effects in serious contexts. For instance, Shakespeare is a master of punning, and he does often use the pun in very serious contexts with profound meanings. For example, in his play "Hamlet", Hamlet comments on his uncle's remark about his being very much a son as: "Not so, my Lord, I am too much in the sun". He seems to agree with his uncle who calls him a "son" in two ways. But in fact, he uses the idiom "in the sun" to mean that he is exposed to danger, unprotected and out of shelter.        The pun can create serious ironical gaps of meaning even with somber subjects like death, as in Thomas Hood's lines:
And even the stable boy will find / This life no stable thing . . .
All, all shall have another sort / Of service after this – in short
The one the pastor reads . . .

Allegory: Allegory is a parallel story. If a single word or expression has an abstract and general meaning, it is called a symbol; but if the whole ‘story’ of a drama, story or poem has a symbolic meaning throughout, it is called an allegory. Read More...

Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds. The repeated consonants normally occur at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables. Read More...

Allusion: An allusion in a literary text is a reference to a personal place or event or to another literary work or passage. It does not have clear identification, that is, it does not tell directly what it stands for. Read More...

Animation: Animation is giving life to non-living objects. If a poet treats a lifeless concrete thing as having life, awareness, will-power, thought, emotion, etc, that is called animation. For example, if a poet says, "The moon is ‘smiling’ at me", he animates the moon. Read More...

Classical Poetry:The classical or neo-classical poets of the eighteenth century had had made poetry more social than personal, more intellectual than emotional and imaginative, more rule-based than spontaneous. Read More...

Conceit: The conceit is a striking metaphor. It is so original and unconventional that it not only strikes the reader into attention, but sometimes shocks them, being even objectionable or absurd at first. Read More...

Elegy: The elegy was originally the form of poetry on the subject of sadness, especially ‘complaints about love’. Read More...

Epic: One the oldest of the poetic forms, the epic is a long narrative poem, majestic both in theme and style, dealing with legendary or historical events of national or universal significance, involving action of broad sweep and grandeur. Read More...

Epic Simile: The epic simile is a figurative device first popularized by Homer in his epics. It is a comparison that may be as long as a dozen lines. Read More...

Heroic couplet: Heroic couplet is a pair of lines with iambic pentameter; the lines must also rhyme together. Read More...

Iambic pentameter: Iambic pentameter means ‘five iambic feet in a line’. ‘Iambic’ means a unit of rhythm with two syllables where the first is not stressed (U) and the second is stressed (S). Read More...

Image: An image is considered to be a picture created in the mind by words. Generally images are divided as visual images and abstract images. Read More...

Imagery: Imagery is the general term for the use of ‘images’ in poetry. The use of all kinds of concrete, metaphoric and more abstract is called imagery. Read More...

Irony: Irony is an indirect way of criticizing things, and it can be done in several ways. The word ‘Irony’ comes from its Greek root ‘Eiron’, a dramatic character who spoke in ‘understatement’, pretending to be less intelligent. Read More...

Lyric: A lyric is a fairly short poem which is the expression of strong feelings (thoughts, or perceptions) of a single speaker in a meditative manner. Read More...

Metaphor:The term metaphor has two meanings. In its broad sense, it means any type of poetic comparison (also known as metaphorical language). Read More...

Ode: Most simply, the Ode is known as a poem addressed to somebody or something. But, besides that one simple feature, the ode is characterized by a number of features of a special classical form of poetry, or poetic expression. Read More...