Literary Devices and Poetry Terms: Definitions and Examples

Speaker

the person/type of person speaking in the poem (not necessarily the poet)

Allusion

a reference to a statement, person, place, event, or thing well known from literature, history, religion, pop culture, etc.

Hyperbole

an overstatement; an exaggeration

Litote

an understatement

Simile (standard)

a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, using a term such as like, as, resembles, or than

Metaphor

a figure of speech that compares two unlike things in which one thing becomes another thing (or is another thing) without the use of the words like, as, than, or resembles

Oxymoron

two words, which ordinarily contrast with each other, that are joined together

Paradox

a statement that appears contradictory but which may be shown to contain a truth

Personification

a metaphor in which a non-human thing or quality is talked about as if it were human

Symbol

a person, place, thing or event that stands for itself and for something beyond itself

Motif

a recurring image, feeling, or idea

Tone

the author's attitude/feeling toward his or her subject, character, or audience

Mood

the feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage

Theme

the central idea of a literary work

Alliteration

the repetition of the same initial consonant sounds in words that are close together, or the repetition of consonant sounds that are very similar

Assonance

the repetition of similar vowel sounds enclosed in different consonant sounds

Consonance

the repetition of the same final consonant sounds before and after changing vowel sounds

Onomatopoeia

the use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning

Rhyme Scheme

the pattern of rhymes in a poem. To indicate the rhyme scheme of a poem, we use a separate letter of the alphabet for each rhyme

Rhythm

a musical quality produced by the repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables or by the repetition of other sound patterns

Sonnet

a fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in iambic pentameter, with a set rhyme scheme

Shakespearean (English)

three quatrains and one couplet. Rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg

Petrarchan (Italian)

an octave and a sestet. Rhyme scheme varies

Couplet

two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

Iambic Pentameter

a line of poetry that contains five iambs (units which consist of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, as in the word arise)

Meter

a basically regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry

Blank Verse

poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

Stanza

in a poem, a group of consecutive lines which form a single unit

Continuous

no breaks between lines of verse

Free Verse

no rhyming

Narrative

tells a story

Imagery-

language that appeals to any of the senses

-Visual (Sight)

-Auditory (Sound)

-Tactile (Touch)

-Gustatory (Taste)

-Olfactory (Smell)

Irony

a contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality

-Verbal-words imply the opposite of what they literally mean (sarcasm)

-Situational-the outcome of events or the state of affairs is the opposite of what one would expect

Rhyme

generally, sounds repeated through stressed syllables (exception: see eye rhyme)

-Exact-repetition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following them in words that are close together in a poem

-Slant/Half/Approximate-words that do repeat some sounds but do not have exact chiming sounds ("find" and "sign")

-Internal-rhyme inside (within) a line of poetry, rather than at the end of the line

-Eye-words creating visual alikeness without sounding at all alike ("cough" and "though")