American Literature Literary Devices

Flashcards of literary devices with definitions.

Allegory

Work with multiple layers of meaning; both literal and figurative.

Alliteration

Words are used in quick succession and begin with letters belonging to the same sound group; a repetition of similar sounds.

Allusion

A reference to a person, event, or literary work outside the poem.

Anaphora

A technique in which successive phrases or lines begin with the same words, often resembling a litany.

Caesura

A pause for a beat in the rhythm of a verse, often indicated by a line break or by punctuation.

Characterization

The step-by-step process wherein an author introduces and then describes a character through their thoughts, actions, etc. either directly or indirectly.

Connotation

The implied or suggested meaning associated with a word or phrase.

Denotation

The dictionary meaning of a word.

Diction

The author’s choice of words.

Dramatic Irony

Occurs when the audience knows more than the characters do.

Enjambment

The continuation of a phrase or sentence from one line to another without an end-stop.

Extended Metaphor

When an author exploits a single metaphor at length throughout a poem or story.

Hyperbole

Extreme exaggeration for effect.

Imagery

Descriptive sensory language to create “mental pictures” for the reader

Imagery

Language in a poem representing a sensory experience, including visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and gustatory.

Irony

A rhetorical device involving contradictions of expectation or knowledge and divided into three primary types: verbal, situational, and dramatic.

Juxtaposition

A device where the author places two unlike things side by side to highlight the contrast between the two and compare them.

Metaphor

A comparison between essentially unlike things, or the application of a name or description to something to which it is not literally applicable.

Mood

The atmosphere created by the author that is felt by the reader.

Motif

Can be seen as an image, sound, action, or other figure that has a symbolic significance, and contributes toward the development of a theme

Onomatopoeia

The use of language that sounds like the thing or action it describes.

Oxymoron

A combination of two words that appear to contradict each other.

Paradox

A seemingly absurd or contradictory statement that proves to be true.

Personification

Giving human-like qualities to non-human objects.

Rhyme Scheme

The pattern of rhymes falling at the ends of a poem’s lines.

Satire

A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked or ridiculed.

Simile

A comparison between two essentially unlike things using words such as like and as.

Speaker

The narrator in a poem (NOT the author).

Stanza

A grouping of lines that forms the main unit in a poem.

Symbol

Something that stands for something else.

Synecdoche

When the author uses part of something to refer to the whole.

Theme

A main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work, which may be stated directly or indirectly.

Tone

The author’s attitude toward a subject.