APLIT: Sound and Sense

Simile

A comparison between two unlike things using 'like' or 'as'. Example: 'The warrior fought like a lion.'

Metaphor

An implied comparison between two unlike things without using 'like' or 'as'. Example: 'The world is a stage.'

Personification

Giving human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas. Example: 'The wind whispered secrets through the trees.'

Metonymy

Substituting the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant. Example: 'The pen is mightier than the sword' (pen stands for written word, sword for military).

Synecdoche

A part is used to represent the whole or vice versa. Example: 'Wheels' to refer to a car, or 'the world' to refer to everyone on it.

Apostrophe

Addressing someone or something, usually not present, as though present. Example: 'O, Death, where is thy sting?'

Allusion

A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance. Example: 'Don't act like a Romeo in front of her.'

Paradox

A statement that appears self-contradictory but contains a deeper truth. Example: 'Less is more.'

Overstatement

An exaggerated statement that isn't meant to be taken literally. Example: 'I've told you a million times to clean your room.'

Understatement

A figure of speech in which a writer or speaker deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is. Example: 'It's just a scratch' when there's a large dent in the car.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction. Example: 'living dead', 'open secret'.

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds in neighboring words. Example: 'Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.'

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words. Example: 'The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.'

Consonance

Repetition of consonant sounds at the end of words or within words in a sentence. Example: 'Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door'.

Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate or suggest their meaning through their sound. Example: 'The bee buzzed.'

Rhythm

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.

Meter

The rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in poetry, determined by the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Iambic

An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Example: 'beHOLD'.

Anapestic

Two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable. Example: 'in ter VENE'.

Dactylic

A stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. Example: 'MERrily'.

Spondaic

Two stressed syllables. Example: 'TRUE BLUE'.

Sonnet

A 14-line poem using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, typically having 10 syllables per line.

Shakespearean Sonnet

Three quatrains and a couplet, with a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

Petrarchan Sonnet

An octave with a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA, followed by a sestet.

Pentameter

A line of verse consisting of five metrical feet.

Prose

Ordinary written or spoken language, without metrical structure.

Rhyme

The correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, especially in poetry.

Rhyme Scheme

The ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem.

Sarcasm

Sharp, bitter, or cutting expression or remark.

Satire

Uses humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's ignorance or vices.

Symbol

Visual representation that stands for something else, often an idea, concept, or object.

Stanza

A group of lines in a poem that function like a paragraph in prose.

Theme

Universal and recurring ideas, topics, or messages that explore human experiences.

Extended Metaphor

A comparison between two unlike things that is developed throughout a piece of writing.

Figurative Language

Uses words in a non-literal way to create a more vivid, interesting, or expressive effect.

Iambic Pentameter

A line of poetry composed of ten syllables, arranged in five iambs.

Irony

A literary device where there's a contrast between what is expected and what actually happens.

Verbal Irony

Saying one thing but meaning the opposite. Example: 'What a beautiful day!' when it's raining.

Allegory

A literary device where abstract ideas and principles are represented by characters, objects, or events in a story.

Volta

A rhetorical shift or turn of thought, argument, or tone in a poem.