Literary Terms Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards on literary devices to improve your essays

Alliteration

Repetition of the same consonant sounds, usually at the start of words (e.g., 'Deep into that darkness peering').

Anaphora

The deliberate repetition of the first part of the sentence in order to achieve an artistic effect (e.g., 'It was the best of times. It was the worst of times').

Assonance

Repetition of a pattern of the same vowel sounds (e.g., 'From folk that sat on the terrace').

Anthropomorphism

The attribution of human characteristics to a god, animal, or object (not abstract concepts).

Antithesis

A rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence for contrasting effect (e.g., 'Good we must love, and must hate ill').

Antimetabole

When a phrase or sentence is repeated in reverse order for effect, without changing the meaning (e.g., 'Fair is foul and foul is fair').

Caesura

A pause in a line of poetry, often signified through punctuation (e.g., 'Dead! One of them shot by the sea in the east…' ).

Chiasmic structure

The reversing of the order of words in the second of two parallel phrases, maintaining the grammatical structure (e.g., 'Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country').

Connotations

An associated meaning of a word/image/object (e.g., 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?').

Consonance

The repetition of a consonant sound in consecutive or nearby words (e.g., 'And fit the bright seelded sock').

Enjambment

A line ending in which the sense continues (with no punctuation) into the following line or stanza (e.g., 'April is the cruellest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land').

Epieuxis

The repetition of a word or phrase in immediate succession for effect (e.g., 'Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow').

Hyperbaton

When the normal order of words is inverted for effect (e.g., 'Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall').

Hyperbole

Exaggeration for effect (e.g., 'Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?').

Half-rhyme

Two lines that end with words that nearly rhyme (e.g., 'If love is like a bridge / Or maybe like a grudge').

Iambic pentameter

A poetic meter where each line has ten syllables with alternating stress (e.g., 'If music be the food of love, play on').

Imagery

Using figurative language to represent objects, ideas, and actions in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses (e.g., 'Hedge-crickets sing').

Onomatopoeia

A figure of speech in which words are used to imitate sounds (e.g. 'the buzzing of the bees').

Oxymoron

A figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect (e.g., 'loving hate').

Personification

A literary device that attributes human qualities and emotions to inanimate objects or nature (e.g., 'The wind has been ravishing all night').

Pathetic fallacy

A figure of speech in which non-human things or abstract ideas are given human attributes (e.g., 'When well-apparelled April on the heel of limping winter treads').

Parallelism

The use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same or similar in their construction (e.g., 'To err is human; to forgive divine').

Sibilance

The repetition of the 'sh' or 's' sounds (e.g., 'Sweet dreams, form a shade').

Simile

When a writer draws comparisons with the use of 'like' or 'as' (e.g., 'Tormenting myself in its invincible ignorance like a small bird beating about the cruel wires of a cage').

Synaesthesia

A technique to present ideas, characters, or places in such a manner that they appeal to more than one sense at a given time (e.g., 'Tasting of Flora and the country green').

Synecdoche

A phrase where a part of something is substituted for the whole (e.g., 'The western wave was all a-flame' where the sea is substituted for 'western wave').

Triadic structure

Words or phrases grouped in threes for emphasis or rhythm (e.g., 'The parachute flopped and banged and pulled').

Zoomorphism

The attribution of animal characteristics to humans or objects (e.g., 'Lennie dabbled his big paw in the water').