Poetic Devices/Literary Devices

Flashcards for English Final

Imagery

Creating vivid mental pictures through descriptive language.

Symbolism

Using objects or ideas to represent deeper meanings.

Alliteration

Repeating opening sounds at the start of a series of successive words

Allusion

Allusion is where the poet makes an indirect reference to something outside of the poem/story

Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is contrast—comparing dark with light, heroes with villains, night with day, beauty with cruelty.

Metaphor

• One of the most-used poetic devices, both in literature and in day-to-day speech.

• It presents one thing as another, a completely different thing, to draw a powerful comparison of images without using like or as..

Personification

Personification is a poetic device that gives a non-human entity human characteristics, actions, and feelings.

Simile

Comparing two unlike things, using “like” or “as”

Siloquy

A character's speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other characters on stage; often discusses internal conflict and emotion

Dramatic Irony

The audience's or reader's understanding of events or individuals in a work surpasses that of its characters.

• When the audience is aware of something the characters are not