English Quiz - Literary Devices

Literary Devices

A Handlist 

Sounds

Alliteration 

Repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words placed near each other, usually on the same or adjacent lines. 

Hot-hearted Beowulf was bent upon battle Beowulf

Anaphora 

The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines or stanzas.

Through me the way to the city of woe,

Through me the way to everlasting pain, 

Through me the way among the lost. Dante Alighieri, The Inferno

Assonance 

Repeated vowel sounds in words placed near each other, usually on the same or adjacent lines.

His tender heir might bear his memory William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 1”

Consonance 

The close repetition of identical consonant sounds before or after different vowels.  

Out of this house—said rider to reader, 

Yours never will—said farer to fearer W. H. Auden, “O where are you going?”

Cacophony 

A discordant series of harsh, unpleasant sounds to convey disorder. This effect is often furthered by the combination of the meaning and the difficulty of pronunciation.

Against the wreckful siege of batt’ring days William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 65”

Euphony 

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

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 30”

Homophone

Two or more words that possess the same pronunciation yet distinct meanings.

Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes

With nimble soles. I have a soul of lead

So stakes me to the ground I cannot move. William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet, I.iv.14-16

Onomatopoeia 

Words that sound like their meanings. 

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper. T.S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men”

Pun 

Ambiguity generated from the different possible meanings of a word or similar sounding words.

Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this son of York William Shakespeare, Richard III, I.i.1-2

Repetition 

The purposeful re-use of words and phrases for effect (or perhaps emphasis). Sometimes, especially with longer phrases that contain a different key word each time, this device is called parallelism.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day... William Shakespeare, Macbeth, V.v.19-20

Rhyme

The correspondence or echoing of sound between words or the ending of words, especially at the ends of lines of poetry. Words that have different beginning sounds but whose final syllables sound alike rhyme.

One of my wishes is that those dark trees,

So old and firm they scarcely show the breeze,

Were not, as ‘twere, the merest mask of gloom

But stretched away unto the edge of doom. Robert Frost, “Into My Own”

Meaning

Allusion 

An implicit reference to something in history, culture, or literature (especially historical). An allusion adds to the depth of our understanding. If we know the reference, then the poet or writer's comparison helps us to see the poem or prose piece more fully.  

Nor Mars his sword nor… William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 55”

Ambiguity

A word or phrase that can mean more than one thing, even in the same 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.

Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”

Apostrophe 

Speaking directly to a real or imagined listener or inanimate object; addressing that person or thing by name. 

Death be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful… John Donne, “Death be not proud”

Hyperbole 

An outrageous exaggeration used for effect. 

I had to wait in the station ten days--an eternity. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Imagery 

Language that appeals to the senses. Description that makes the reader feel they are in the setting. There are six basic kinds of imagery: visual (sight), auditory (sound), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), tactile (touch), and kinesthetic (movement).

Metaphor 

A direct comparison between two unlike things, stating that one is the other or does the action of the other.

Hope is a thing with feathers

That perches in the soul

And sings the tune without the words

And never stops at all Emily Dickinson, “Hope is a thing with feathers”

Metonymy 

A figure of speech in which an attribute or quality of a thing is substituted for the thing itself. 

As he swung toward them holding up the hand 

Half in appeal, but half as if to keep 

The life from spilling. Robert Frost, “Out, Out—”

Oxymoron

A phrase that contains conflicting or even contradicting meanings

Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,

O anything of nothing first create!

O heavy lightness, serious vanity, William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet, I.i.181-183

Personification 

Attributing human characteristics to an inanimate object, animal, or abstract idea.

Earth felt the wound John Milton, Paradise Lost

Simile 

A direct comparison of two unlike things using “like” or “as.” 

Warm as the joy that children feel

when they see their father’s life dawn again Homer, The Odyssey

Symbolism 

Transforming an ordinary object, event, animal, or person into a symbol by investing in  it a particular significance or meaning.

A light exists in Spring

Not present on the year

At any other period--

When March is scarcely here Emily Dickinson, “A Light Exists in Spring”

Synecdoche  

A figure of speech in which a part of a thing stands for the whole. 

Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,  

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium. Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, V.i.90-91

Arrangement

Caesura 

A pause or break in a line of verse, prompted by either punctuation or meter.

Between my finger and my thumb   

The squat pen rests; snug as a gun. Seamus Heaney, “Digging”

Chiasmus

Repetition of any group of verse elements (including rhyme and syntax) in reverse order.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair William Shakespeare, Macbeth, I.i.12

Enjambment 

The continuation of the logical sense—and therefore the grammatical construction—beyond the end of a line of poetry.

We are not now that strength which in old days

moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; Alfred Lord Tennyson, “Ulysses”

Meter 

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of verse. The four most common metric feet we will encounter this year are:

Stanza

A division of a poem created by arranging the lines into a unit, sometimes repeated in the same pattern of meter and rhyme, throughout a poem; a unit of poetic lines separated by blank lines. The terms for the number of lines in the more common stanzaic units are: couplet (2), tercet (3), quatrain (4), quintet (5), sestet (6), septet (7), and octave (8).