Literary Devices

Except Rhythm and Meter

Theme

A main idea or point of a literary work.

Thematic Statement

A sentence that expresses the thematic subject in its fullest form, often containing universal truths.

Motif

A repeated element in a text, such as an object, image, word, or phrase that helps develop the theme.

Tone

The speaker's attitude or author's attitude toward a subject.

Mood

The situation's atmosphere or the reader's feelings.

Connotation

The associations or ideas evoked by a word.

Diction

The choice of words that establish a tone, register, purpose, and relationship.

Syntax

The order in which words appear to form phrases, clauses, or sentences.

Characterization

The ways that an author develops a character's personality, traits, and significance.

Direct Characterization

When the author or narrator states a character trait directly.

Indirect Characterization

Allows the reader to infer character traits through what a character says, thinks, or does.

Metaphor

An implied comparison between two unlike things.

Simile

An explicit comparison between two unlike things, often using 'like' or 'as'.

Personification

Giving abstractions or inanimate objects human qualities.

Pathetic Fallacy

Giving inanimate objects human emotions.

Metonymy

Metaphorical language in which an associated thing stands in for another thing.

Synecdoche

Metaphorical language in which a part of something stands in for the whole thing.

Lexical Ambiguity

A word that has more than one meaning, such as a pun, double entendre, or layered connotation.

Antithesis

Opposition or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction.

Apostrophe

A direct address to some absent or nonexistent person or thing as if present and capable of understanding.

Juxtaposition

Putting two ideas, characters, or actions side by side to make a point.

Imagery

Vivid pictures that can be seen with the mind's eye.

Symbol

A tangible object an author uses to represent an abstract concept, theme, or motif.

Paradox

A statement or situation that uses the impossible to make a point.

Oxymoron

A statement or phrase that uses words of opposite meanings to offer a complex or deeper understanding.

Understatement

Phrases or statements that purposefully make a situation seem less important or serious than it is.

Allusion

A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance.

Irony

Incongruity or discordance between what is said or done and what is meant or understood.

Verbal Irony

When a speaker's words are an intentional twist on what is meant or represent an inversion of meaning.

Authorial Verbal Irony

When a character is not entirely aware of the disconnect between their words and meaning, used by the author to express a satirical point.

Sarcasm

A form of verbal irony intended to actively hurt another person.

Dramatic Irony

A tension that arises when the audience knows something a character does not.

Situational Irony

A deeper meaning that emerges when the reality of a situation contrasts or distorts expectation.

Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds or sounds in words.

Assonance

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.

Consonance

The repetition of consonant sounds, often at the end of words.

Sibilance

The repetition of a hissing sound, as in s-sounds.

Onomatopoeia

The use of words which sound like the sound of the thing they represent.

Repetition

The use, more than once, of any element of language such as a sound, word, phrase, or clause.

Parallelism

Agreement in direction, tendency, or character in grammar or structure.

Chiasmus

The repetition of words or ideas in inverted order.

Anaphora

The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of every clause.

Epistrophe

The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of every clause.

Polysyndeton

The abundant use of conjunctions, often to convey an extensive list for rhetorical effect.

Asyndeton

A list or sequence of words without conjunctions like 'and'.

Isocolon

Parallelism through the use of the same grammatical structure.

Tricolon

A series of three items, usually ending with a conjunction.

Stanza

A grouping of two or more lines within a poem, comparable to a paragraph.

Enjambment

The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.

Rhyme

The repetition of similar sounds in two or more lines.

Rhyme Scheme

The patterning of the rhyme denoted with different letters when scanning lines.

Simple Rhyme

Rhyme patterns such as AABB CCDD or ABCB DEFE.

Alternate Rhyme

Rhyme patterns such as ABAB CDCD EFEF.

Enclosed Line

Rhyme patterns such as ABBA CDDC EFFE.

End Rhyme

Rhyme that occurs at the end of lines, being the most common type.

True Rhyme

Rhyme where the sounds are essentially identical.

Single Rhyme

When the rhyme is in the last syllable of the rhyming words.

Double Rhyme

When the rhyme is in the second to last syllable and the last syllable.

Slant Rhyme

Rhyme involving consonance and assonance in the final syllables without an exact match.

Eye Rhyme

Occurs when words look alike in spelling but do not sound alike.

Internal Rhyme

A rhyme that occurs in the middle of a line.