Poetic devices in Margaret Menamin’s poem “Virtuality” include rhyme, allusion, satire, apostrophe, alliteration, consonance, personification, and metaphor.

The poem is a sonnet, having fourteen lines; it uses an abba scheme, ending with two final lines in a rhyming couplet. For example, “space” and “face” end lines one and four, while “species” and “PCs” end lines two and three.

The poem combines allusion and satire by referring to the Christian “Lord’s Prayer” and treating it in a humorous way for purposes of social commentary. In directly addressing Our Father, who is presumably God as in the original, the author is using the device of apostrophe.

Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds. This device is utilized twice in these lines:

a virtual version with a screen star’s face

Discusses only subjects you select.

Alliteration occurs in the initial v of “virtual” and “version” as well as in the s sound of “screen,” “star,” “subjects,” and “select.” Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds anywhere else in a word. The author uses this with the s sound as well, which occurs in “version,” “face,” and “subjects,” and with the r sound within “virtual,” “version,” “screen,” and “star.”

Personification is the assignment of human attributes to animals, inanimate objects, or ideas. Metaphor is the direct comparison of unlike things for effect. The author features both devices in “this bright vision is your faithful muse,” which compares the abstract concept “vision” to a person or goddess who inspires, or a “muse.”