Following poetic devices/literary devices have been used in the poem The House on Elm Street:

1. Personification: representation of a thing or abstraction as a person or by the human form Example: “It sat alone”, “At night the house seems to be alive”, “It plays with your mind.”, “Beside the house sits a tree”
2. Metaphor/ Synecdoche: a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else. Example: “But at the same time, it is bare to the bone”
3. Hyperbole: exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. Example: “And inside you can tell it has a ton of space”
4. Onomatopoeia: a word that sounds like the common sound of the object it is describing. Example: “Lights Flicker on and off”
5. Paradox: a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true. Example: “It just sits there, never getting small or ever-growing tall.”
6. Rhetorical Questions: a question asked to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer. Example: “How could this be?” “What happened inside that house?”
7. Alliteration: Alliteration is when two or more words that start with the same sound are used repeatedly in a phrase or a sentence. e.g. “bare to the bone”, “be a bit brighter”, “spring, summer”.

The House on Elm Street Poem by Nadia Bush Summary in English