Poetic Devices
and the Five Senses

Week One - Tuesday

Use of language

Poets often try to use language to make the reader see images. Poets also use language to try and reach the other senses.

Poetic language can make a feel all five of the human senses: sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing.

Sight

Trying to evoke images is the most common appeal to the senses.

The hillside lush green grass waved silently in the soft evening breeze.

Smell

Poetic language can make smells seem real

Grandmother's warm kitchen smelled of sweet cookies, set to cool.

Taste

We can taste food though poetry

I licked the sticky sweet strawberry frosting from my fingers.

Touch

We can feel the world though poetry

My cat's sandpaper tongue licked my forehead.

Hearing

Poetry can make you hear sound

The heavy door suddenly slammed, the windows shook.