Literary Devices and Poetic Terms: Allusions, Puns, Syntax, and More

Allusions

references to well-known people, places, works of art, etc.

Puns

a word used to suggest two meanings

Double Entendre

a type of pun whose one meaning is generally of a sexual nature

Analogy

implicit comparison that sets up a proportional relationship between two sets of ideas

Fables

short allegorical stories that point out a lesson

Diction

the dictionary definition of a word

Connotation

the associated meanings with a word

Tone

a writer's attitude toward his or her subject matter

Metonymy

something closely related as representative of the whole (to refer to a monarch as 'the crown')

Synecdoche

a part of something is used to represent the whole (to refer to a boat as a 'sail')

Epithets

the use of a single-word adjective or an adjective phrase linked to a person or thing to describe a specific quality associated with it (Alexander the Great)

Understatement

playing down the magnitude of the idea; opposite of hyperbole

Parallel structure

the repetition within a sentence (or several sentences within the same paragraph) of the same type of grammatical forms - either the same part of speech, or the same type of grammatical unit

Antithesis

specific use of parallelism: grammatical forms or parts of speech are repeated in a sentence (or series of sentences in a paragraph) and are used to express opposing or contrary meanings

Syntax

the arrangement of the parts of a sentence

Idiom

is a phrase that has a figurative meaning, which cannot be inferred from the phrase itself; for example, 'it is raining cats and dogs'

Anastrophe

Inversion of the normal syntactic order of words; for example, 'Matter too soft a lasting mark to bear.' Should read: matter too soft to bear a lasting mark.

Isocolon

Phrases of equal length; for example, 'The bigger they are, the harder they fall'.

Zeugma

Word used in more than one way in a sentence; for example, 'He broke her heart, and then he broke the window'.

Apostrophe

Direct address to something not present, or to a personified object or idea.

Conceit

Extended metaphor.

Chiasmus

A reversal in the order of otherwise parallel phrases ('thou art as soon moved to be moody, and as soon moody to be moved').

Anaphora

The repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive sentences or clauses for rhetorical or poetic effect ('a time to be born, and a time to die; / a time to plant, and a time to pluck up.').

Litotes

A figure of speech by which conscious understatement is used to create emphasis by negation ('not bad!' and 'I don't not like her').

Pathetic (or anthropomorphic) Fallacy

Nature mirrors a character's emotions through personification.

Euphemism

A type of understatement used to avoid offending the audience ('That dress looks interesting').

Paradox

The expression of apparent contradiction, where opposing ideas are nevertheless on some level true.

Oxymoron

Linking together two apparently contradictory words into a single phrase or clause.

Alliteration

The repetition at close intervals of the initial consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words (for example, map-moon, kill-code, preach-approve).

Aubade

A poem about dawn; a morning love song; or a poem about the parting of lovers at dawn.

Ballad

A fairly short narrative poem written in a song-like stanza form. Examples: 'Ballad of Birmingham' and 'La Belle Dame sans Merci.'

Blank Verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Consonance

The repetition at close intervals of the final consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words (for example, book-plaque-thicker).

End-stopped line

A line that ends with a natural speech pause, usually marked by punctuation.

English (or Shakespearean) sonnet

A sonnet rhyming ababcdcdefefgg, ideally structured into three coordinate quatrains and a concluding couplet.

Euphony

A smooth, pleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds.

Foot

The basic unit used in the scansion or measurement of metrical verse, usually containing one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables.

Free verse

Non-metrical poetry in which the basic rhythmic unit is the line, developing organically from the requirements of the individual poem.

Iamb

A metrical foot consisting of one unaccented syllable followed by one accented syllable.

Internal rhyme

A rhyme in which one or both of the rhyme words occur within a line.

Meter

The regular patterns of accent that underlie metrical verse; the measurable repetition of accented and unaccented syllables in poetry.

Villanelle

A nineteen-line fixed form consisting of five tercets rhymed aba and a concluding quatrain rhymed abaa, with lines 1 and 3 of the first tercet serving as refrains.