When a writer wants to portray a more accurate depiction of something, he may employ one of several poetic techniques. A metaphor is a common device where a writer refers to one thing as something else, taking an idea out of context and comparing it to something else. A simile is a similar construction that makes the comparison more explicit by using the terms "like" or "as." Many of these techniques fall under the broader category of figurative language where words have a different meaning other than the literal definitions of the words.
Writers often use poetic techniques that play on the sound of different words in a text. One of the most common poetic techniques is a rhyme, where different words in a phrase share a common end sound. Alliteration is a term used for when many words in a text share similar consonants, usually at the beginning of a word. A similar technique where consonants are repeated is referred to as consonance. Alternatively, assonance refers to words that share vowel sounds.
A number of poetic techniques play off the contrasting rhythms inherent in English pronunciation. Writers often employ different meters, the stresses in English words, to give their work a different sound. Iambs are words with unstressed syllables followed by stressed ones, and the term foot is used to refer to a stressed syllable followed by a weaker one. There are also more complicated rhythms, such as a trochee or anapest. where two unstressed syllables are followed by a stressed syllable.
Some poetic techniques play off of the feeling or emotion in a text. Tension describes the balance of opposing forces in a text that can be expressed by the characters in a poem, displayed by symbols, such as weather, or exist in the structure of the poem itself through opposing words. Many writers play with the tone of a piece of writing. Some techniques are conceptual, such as enjambment, where sentences are broken up into seemingly logical verses. Another technique is personification, which gives animals and objects human characteristics.