Literary devices - Prose and Poems

Oxymoron

a combination of words or terms that appear contradictory [Example: working holiday]

Iambic Pentameter

a common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable.

Analogy

a comparison based upon a similarity between two things. It can function as an extended simile or metaphor.

Simile

a comparison, using the words "like" or "as", between two things which may be dissimilar to create a clearer image through this comparison.

Lineation

about lines and how they flow or are divided. A line in a poem is not necessarily a sentence. Poems sometimes use sentences, but the looking at the lines is more important in terms of flow, shape and content.

Paradox

an apparent contradiction that asserts the truth [Example: the last shall be first]

Free Verse

an open form of poetry. It does not necessarily use consistent meter, patterns, rhyme or any other musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. (T.S. Eliot wrote, "No verse is free for the man (or woman!) who wants to do a good job.")

Repetition

can be repetition of words, phrases, images etc. used as a function of emphasis

Hyperbole

deliberate and absurd exaggeration for effect

Analepsis

more commonly known as a "flashback."

Theme

the central point about which the text is composed - not a topic but the extension or thinking/considerations of a topic.

Imagery

the images evoked by the author's descriptions to enhance the readers' understanding; images may involve all of the five senses or may be figurative - visual imagery - tactile imagery - auditory imagery - olfactory imagery - gustatory imagery

Dramatic Irony

the irony occurring when the implications of a situation,speech, etc, are understood by the reader/audience but not by the characters in a text.

Denotation

the literal meaning of a word.

Style

the literary devices used by an author in constructing text to create effect and for specific purposes.

Irony

the meaning the speaker or writer intends to convey is different from the literal meaning

Atmosphere

the mood or tone created by describing the characters and the setting in a piece of writing.

Setting

the place, time, and culture in which the action of a poem or story takes place

Alliteration

the repetition of initial consonant sounds in two or more words of a phrase, line, or sentence; it is meant to appeal to one's sense of hearing

Consonance

the repetition of two or more consonants using different vowels; it repeats the consonant sounds but not the vowel sounds (e.g. "pitter patter")

Assonance

the repetition or pattern of similar vowel sounds, but with different end consonants.

Internal Rhyme

the rhyming of two or more words in a single line [Example: The mate, that fate had me created for

Meter

the rhythm established in a poem; usually dependent not only on the number of syllables in a line but also on the way those syllables are accented. This rhythm is often described as a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. (See iambic pentameter).

Enjambment

the running on of thought in poetry, from one line or couplet or stanza to the next without punctuated stops at the end of the line or stanza.

Satire

the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing,denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. A literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule.. A literary genre comprising such compositions.

Symbolism

the use of some images and symbols to represent complex ideas.

Speaker

the voice behind the poem - the person we imagine to be speaking. It's important to note that the speaker is not necessarily the poet. Even if the poem is biographical, you should treat the speaker as a fictional creation, because the writer is choosing what to say about herself or himself.

Diction

the writer's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression; in other words, the vocabulary with which a writer expresses herself.

Suspense

a build up of events to capture the attention of the audience until the outcome is revealed.

Allegory

An allegory is a kind of extended metaphor (a metaphor that weaves throughout the poem) in which objects, persons, and actions stand for another meaning.

Relationship Between Tone and Mood

The writer of a poem creates tone using particular syntax, setting and structure, and the mood is the feeling that is established largely from the setting. Though tone and mood are closely related, the tone is associated with the poem's voice. The narrator/speaker of the poem creates the voice of the poem, and voice is associated with the writer's attitude toward the poem. In other words, the tone relays something about the writer's attitude toward the subject of the poem.

Anaphora

a figure of speech in which a word or words are repeated, usually at the beginning of successive sentences or lines of verse. Example: In every cry of every man In every infant's cry of fear In every vice, in every ban The mind-forg'd manacles I hear. William Blake, London

Synecdoche

a figure of speech in which the part stands for the whole or the whole for the part. [Example: in "brave hearts and steady hands," hearts and hands stand for people. In "the police are investigating the case," the police stands for some police.]

Metaphor

a figure of speech that says that one thing is another different thing to show or suggest they are similar, creating a more specific image for the reader.

Figure of Speech

a form of expression (as a simile or metaphor) used to convey meaning or heighten effect often by comparing or identifying one thing with another that has a meaning or connotation familiar to the reader or listener.

Blank Verse

a form of poetry which does not rhyme, usually of iambic pentameter.

Stanza

a group of lines in a poem (significant in terms of poet's use of structure); similar to a paragraph in prose.

Foreshadowing

a hint of significant events to come or later developments - creates anticipation and sometimes tension.

Parody

a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing:

Sonnet

a traditional sonnet has fourteen lines in iambic pentameter and a regular rhyme scheme. Sonnets also feature a "turn" somewhere in the middle, where the poem takes a new direction or changes its argument in some way (usually 3 x 4 lines plus rhyming couplet or 8 + 6 lines = 14 lines).

Rhyming Couplet

a pair of lines that rhyme

Caesura

a pause that occurs in the middle of a line of verse, the most obvious being to use punctuation like a period, comma, or semicolon. Note that a pause at the end of a line is not a caesura.

Elegy

a poem about a dead person or thing or something lost.

Ode

a poem written in praise or celebration of a person, thing, or event.

Motif

a recurring theme, idea, image throughout a literary work.

Allusion

a reference within a literary text to some person, place, or event outside the text (often from other literature, history or myth).

Refrain

a refrain is a regularly recurring phrase or verse especially at the end of each stanza or division of a poem or song.

Rhythm

a regular pattern or flow of language, associated with syllable endings and their matching sounds

Quatrain

a stanza with four lines; (the most common stanza form) with a range of rhyme schemes.

Persona

from the Latin for mask, is a character taken on by a poet to speak in a first-person poem.

Pathetic Fallacy

giving human feelings to objects in nature; when aspects of the landscape or setting match the mood or events in a story or poem.

Personification

giving human qualities to inanimate objects, ideas, or animals.

Dramatic Monologue

in poetry, also known as a persona poem, shares many characteristics with a theatrical monologue: an audience is implied; there is no dialogue (like a one sided phone conversation); and the poet speaks through an assumed voice—a character, a fictional identity, or a persona.

Ellipsis

involves leaving out or suppressing words, usually in the form of "..."

Mood

refers to the atmosphere that is prevalent in the poem or story associated largely with setting. Different elements of a poem such as its setting, tone, voice and theme help establish this atmosphere. As a result, the mood evokes certain feelings and emotions in the reader. A poem generally has one overall mood, but the types of mood that poetry may exhibit vary greatly.

Sibilance

repetition of the 's' sound at the beginning/middle/end of words.

Onomatopoeia

sound word - word itself represents a sound [Example: buzz].

Connotation

the attitudes and feelings associated with a word - word emphasis or loading.

Tone

voice, persona, narrator, or speaker's attitude toward the subject.

Apostrophe

when an idea, person, object, or absent being is addressed as if it or they were present

Rhyme

words with the same terminal sounds; often used at the end of lines of poetry