Literary devices

Poetic Devices & Literary Terms

1.  Allegory: A representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning. Sometimes it can be a single word or phrase, such as the name of a character or place. Often, it is a symbolic narrative that has not only a literal meaning, but a larger one understood only after reading the entire story or poem.

2.  Alliteration: Repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words placed near each other, usually on the same or adjacent lines. A somewhat looser definition is that it is the use of the same consonant in any part of adjacent words.

       Example: fast and furious

       Example: Peter and Andrew patted the pony at Ascot. In the second definition, both P and T in the example are reckoned as alliteration. It is noted that this is a very obvious device and needs to be handled with great restraint, except in specialty forms such as limerick, cinquain, and humorous verse.

       (Form of Consonance) Example: The twisting rout twinkled below.

3.  Allusion: A reference to a mythological, literary, well-known or historical person, place, thing or event.

       Example: To act or not to act, that was Maria's dilemma. (a reference to Hamlet)

       Harriet Tubman was called the Moses of her time.

4.  Ambiguity: A word or phrase that can mean more than one thing, even in its context. Poets often search out such words to add richness to their work. Often, one meaning seems quite readily apparent, but other, deeper and darker meanings, await those who contemplate the poem.

       Example: Robert Frost's 'The Subverted Flower'

5.  Analogy: A comparison, usually something unfamiliar with something familiar.

       Example: The plumbing took a maze of turns where even water got lost.

6.  Anaphora: The repetition of words at consecutive lines of poetry.

       Example: "If ever two were one, then surely we/ If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee" ("To My Dear and Loving Husband" Anne Bradstreet)

7.  Apostrophe: Speaking directly to a real or imagined listener or inanimate object; addressing that person or thing by name. Also a form of personification in which the absent or dead are spoken to as if present and the inanimate, as if animate. These are all addressed directly. Common in odes and elegies.

       Example: O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done...

       Example: "Oh Captain! My Captain!" Walt Whitman

8.  Assonance: Repeated vowel sounds in words placed near each other, usually on the same or adjacent lines. These should be in sounds that are accented, or stressed, rather than in vowel sounds that are unaccented. Also the repetition of accented vowel sounds in a series of words.

       Example: He's a bruisin' loser

       In the second example above, the short A sound in Andrew, patted, and Ascot would be assonant.

       Example: The words “cry” and “side” have the same vowel sound and so are said to be in assonance.

9.  Ballad: A narrative poem that traditionally follows a form of rhymed (abab) quatrains. Often, they recount tragic, comic, or heroic stories that are centered on a dramatic event.

       Example: "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe

10. Blank Verse: A type of poetry written in regular meter that does not contain rhyme. Most commonly found in iambic pentameter.

11. Cacophony: A discordant series of harsh, unpleasant sounds helps to convey disorder. This is often furthered by the combined effect of the meaning and the difficulty of pronunciation.

       Example: My stick fingers click with a snicker

        And, chuckling, they knuckle the keys; Light-footed, my steel feelers flicker And pluck from these keys melodies. -“Player Piano," John Updike

12. Cliché: Any figure of speech that was once clever and original but through overuse has become outdated. If you've heard more than two or three other people say it more than two or three times, chances are the phrase is too timeworn to be useful in your writing.

       Example: busy as a bee

13. Connotation: The emotional, psychological or social overtones of a word; its implications and associations apart from its literal meaning. Often, this is what distinguishes the precisely correct word from one that is merely acceptable.

14. Consonance: Repeated consonant sounds at the ending of words placed near each other, usually on the same or adjacent lines. These should be in sounds that are accented, or stressed, rather than in vowel sounds that are unaccented. This produces a pleasing kind of near-rhyme. Also the repetition on a consonant sound within a series of words to produce a harmonious effect.

       Example: boats into the past. Example: cool soul

       Example: "And each slow dusk a drawing-sown of blinds."

       The "d" sound is in consonance. The "s" sound is also in consonance.

15. Contrast: Closely arranged things with strikingly different characteristics.

       Example: He was dark, sinister, and cruel; she was radiant, pleasant, and kind.

16. Denotation: The dictionary definition of a word; its literal meaning apart from any associations or connotations. Students must exercise caution when beginning to use a thesaurus, since often the words that are clustered together may share a denotative meaning, but not a connotative one, and the substitution of a word can sometimes destroy the mood, and even the meaning, of a poem.

17. Diction: Word choice intended to convey a certain effect. When writing about diction, be sure to qualify it (sarcastic diction, ironic diction, formal diction, etc.).

18. Dramatic Monologue: A poetic form that presents the speech or conversation of a person as self-conversation where the speaker reveals her/ his character. There is an internal audience that does not speak.

       Example: "My Last Duchess" Robert Browning

       "The Long Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" T.S. Eliot

19. Elegy: A type of poem that expresses sadness or melancholy about death, but ends in consolation.

       Example: "My First Snowfall" James Russell Lowell

       "O Captain! My Captain!" Walt Whitman

20. Enjambment: The continuation of a line of poetry without a pause or use of punctuation.

21. Euphemism: An understatement, used to lessen the effect of a statement; substituting something innocuous for something that might be offensive or hurtful.

       Example: She is at rest. (meaning, she's dead)

22. Euphony: A series of musically pleasant sounds, conveying a sense of harmony and beauty to the language.

       Example: Than Oars divide the Ocean, Too silver for a seam Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon Leap, plashless as they swim. -- "A Bird Came Down the Waik," Emily Dickenson (last stanza)

23. Free Verse: Unrhymed, nonmeterical lines of verse. A regular pattern of sound may emerge, but it is inconsistent. Most contemporary poems are written in free verse.

       Example: "Theme from English B" Langston Hughes

       "Leaves of Grass" Walt Whitman

24. Hyperbole: An outrageous exaggeration used for effect. Also a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration.

       Example: He weighs a ton.

       Examples: My dad had a cow when he saw my report card.

       "My love is such that Rivers cannot quench," (Bradstreet)

25. Imagery: Consists of the words or phrases a writer uses to represent persons, objects, actions, feelings, and ideas descriptively by appealing to the senses. There are five typical types of imagery: olfactory, visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or gustatory.

26. Inversion: The rearranging of sentence structure for impact - typical structure Subject, Verb, Object.

       Example: "In silent night when rest I took," ("Upon the Burning of Our House" Bradstreet)

27. Irony: A contradictory statement or situation to reveal a reality different from what appears to be true.

       Verbal Irony: Occurs when a speaker or narrator says one thing while meaning the opposite.

           Example: "It is easy to stop smoking. I've done it many times."

       Situational Irony: Occurs when a situation turns out differently from what one would normally expect - though often the twist is oddly appropriate.

           Example: a deep-sea diver drowning in a bathtub is ironic.

       Dramatic Irony: Occurs when a character or speaker says or does something that has different meanings from what he or she thinks it means, though the audience and other characters understand the full implications of the speech or action.

           Example: Oedipus curses the murderer of Laius, not realizing that he is himself the murderer and so is cursing himself.

28. Juxtaposition: Arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side-by-side or in similar narrative moments for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect, suspense, or character development.

29. Metaphor: A direct comparison between two unlike things, stating that one is the other or does the action of the other. Also an implied comparison of two unlike things not using “like” or “as.” Often metaphors use these helping verbs: is, are, was, were.

       Example: He's a zero. Example: Her fingers danced across the keyboard.

       Example: Time is money. The road was a ribbon of moonlight.

       Wolfing your lunch. His ships were the hawks of the sea.

       Mom's a bear today. Monkeying around.

       Extended Metaphor (or Conceit): A metaphor that is continued through several sentences or even paragraphs or stanzas.

           Examples: "Thou hast an house on high erect/ Fram'd by that mighty Architect/ With glory richly furnished,/ Stands permanent tho' this bee fled" ("Upon the Burning of Our House" Anne Bradstreet)

30. Metonymy: A figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing is referred to by something closely associated with it.

       Example: The White House stated today that...

       Example: The Crown reported today that...

31. Onomatopoeia: Words that sound like their meanings. Also (imitative harmony in poetry) is the use of words that mimic the sounds they describe and make you think of its meaning. In Hear the steady tick of the old hall clock, the word tick sounds like the action of the clock, If assonance or alliteration can be onomatopoeic, as the sound 'ck' is repeated in tick and clock, so much the better. At least sounds should suit the tone - heavy sounds for weightiness, light for the delicate. Tick is a light word, but transpose the light T to its heavier counterpart, D; and transpose the light CK to its heavier counterpart G, and tick becomes the much more solid and down to earth dig.

       Example: boom, buzz, crackle, gurgle, hiss, pop, sizzle, snap, swoosh, whir, zip

       Examples: "hiss,” “buzz,” and “bang."

       How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, in the icy air of night.

32. Oxymoron: A combination of two words that appear to contradict each other. Also a form of paradox that combines a pair of opposites terms into a single unusual expression.

       Example: a pointless point of view; bittersweet

       Example: "sweet sorrow” or “cold fire”

33. Paradox: A statement in which a seeming contradiction may reveal an unexpected truth. Also occurs when the elements of a statement contradict each other. Although the statement may appear illogical, impossible, or absurd, it turns out to have coherent meaning that reveals a hidden truth.

       Example: The hurrier I go the behinder I get.

       Example: "Much madness is divinest sense."

34. Pastoral: A type of poem that idealizes rural life or the natural world.

       Example: "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” Wordsworth

35. Personification: Attributing human characteristics to an inanimate object, animal, or abstract idea. Also a kind of metaphor that gives inanimate (lifeless) objects or abstract ideas human characteristics and/or action.

       Example: The days crept by slowly, sorrowfully.

       Example: The wind cried in the dark.

       Love smiled warmly and filled his heart with her soft voice.

36. Pun: Word play in which words with totally different meanings have similar or identical sounds.

       Example: Like a firefly in the rain, I'm de-lighted.

37. Repetition: The deliberate use of any element of language more than once.

       Repetition of: Sounds, Words, Phrases, Sentences, Grammatical Patterns, or Rhythmical Patterns.

38. Rhyme: The repetition of sounds in two or more words or phrases that appear close to each other in a poem.

       End rhyme: Occurs at the ends of lines.

       Internal rhyme: Occurs within a line.

       Slant rhyme: Is approximate rhyme (time and tame).

       Rhyme scheme: Is the pattern of end rhymes.

39. Sarcasm: The use of verbal irony in which a person appears to be praising something but is actually insulting it.

       Example: As I fell down the stairs headfirst, I heard her say, “Look at that coordination."

40. Satire: A mode of writing that exposes the failings of individuals, institutions, or societies to ridicule and scorn.

41. Setting: The time and place in which events in a short story, novel, play or narrative poem take place.

42. Shift (or Volta): Or turn refers to a change or movement in a piece resulting from an epiphany, realization, or insight gained by the speaker, a character, or the reader.

43. Simile: A direct comparison of two unlike things using "like" or "as." Also a comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of the words “like” or “as.” It is a definitely stated comparison in which the poet / author says one thing is like another.

       Example: He's as dumb as an ox. Example: Her eyes are like comets.

       Examples: The warrior fought like a lion.

       The Cyclops's eye looked like a huge red lantern, coming closer.

       Her dress was as blue as the summer sky.

44. Sonnet: A 14-line poem that traditionally uses a rigid scheme. Contemporary sonnets do not have to employ a rhyme scheme.

       Italian (Petrarchan) sonnet: Breaks into two parts: the octave (8) and sestet (6). The octave is ABBAABBA; whereas, the sestet can vary.

           Example: "I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed" Edna St. Millay or "Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem" Helene Johnson

       English (Shakespearean) sonnet: Employs a ABABCDCDEFEFGG rhyme scheme.

           Example: "Yet Do I Marvel" Countee Cullen or "If We Must Die" Claude McKay

       Modern sonnets: Use the 14-line structure, but do not adhere to the rhyme scheme.

           Example: "Sonnet XVII" Pablo Neruda

45. Symbol: An ordinary object, event, animal, or person to which we have attached extraordinary meaning and significance - a flag to represent a country, a lion to represent courage, a wall to symbolize separation. Also any object, person, place, or action that has both a meaning in itself and that stands for something larger than itself, such as a quality, attitude, believe or value.

       Example: A small cross by the dangerous curve on the road reminded all of Johnny's death.

       Example: the land turtle in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath suggests or reflect the toughness and resilience of the migrant workers.

46. Synecdoche: Indicating a person, object, etc. by letting only a certain part represent the whole.

       Example: All hands on deck.

47. Syntax: Means the arrangement of words and the order of grammatical elements in a sentence.

48. Onomatopoeia: Words that sound like their meanings. In Hear the steady tick of the old hall clock, the word tick sounds like the action of the clock, If assonance or alliteration can be onomatopoeic, as the sound 'ck' is repeated in tick and clock, so much the better. At least sounds should suit the tone - heavy sounds for weightiness, light for the delicate. Tick is a light word, but transpose the light T to its heavier counterpart, D; and transpose the light CK to its heavier counterpart G, and tick becomes the much more solid and down to earth dig.

       Example: boom, buzz, crackle, gurgle, hiss, pop, sizzle, snap, swoosh, whir, zip