POETIC DEVICES IN IGBO POEMS

Abstract

Poetry is a piece of compressed creative writing that contains emotions, resulting from nature or imagination which in measurement, often in verse. The language that is employed in poetry is always rich and dense. lt is the art of using imageries to express ideas. A poet turns words into pictures in order to express himself/herself better and clearer. Poetic devices are those literary techniques used in making a poem very interesting and messages clearly conveyed. Many times, students do not get the correct meaning of words used in a poem. This is because they are unaware of poetic devices and its uses in poetry. This make poetry difficult for them to understand. This is a survey research. The theory adopted is formalism. Findings revealed that poetic devices are alliteration, simile, metaphor, personification, repetition et cetera. Poets use poetic device to achieve effects beyond the power of ordinary languages, and this more in poetry than any other kind of writing.