Literary Devices to Know
Term
Allusion
Definition
a reference in a literary work to a person, place, or thing
in history or another work of literature.
Allusions are often indirect or brief references to wellknown characters or events.
Example
“Every intersection can become Virginia Tech.”
Anaphora
repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of
two or more sentences in a row. This device is a
deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer's
point more coherent.
"It rained on his lousy tombstone, and it rained on the
grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place."
(Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the
Rye, 1951)
Alliteration
a specific kind of consonance; a series of words in a row
(or close to a row) have the same first consonant sound.
“She sells sea-shells down by the sea-shore”
Assonance
the repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words. It is used
to reinforce the meanings of words or to set the mood.
Consonance
repetition of the same consonant two or more times in
short succession
Caesura
a strong pause within a line (marked with || ), and is often
found alongside enjambment. If all the pauses in the sense
of the poem were to occur at the line breaks, this could
become dull; moving the pauses so they occur within the
line creates a musical interest.
“Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far. It is among the
oldest of living things. So old it is that no man knows
how and why the first poems came.”
"And all is seared with trade; bleared smeared with
toil; And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell:
the soil."
“Once upon a midnight dreary, || while I pondered
weak and weary”
Cliché
an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which
has become overused to the point of losing its original
meaning or effect
“Opposites attract,” “What goes around comes around,”
“Fall head over heels”
Conceit
an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs
a poetic passage or entire poem.
Connotation
an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its
literal or primary meaning.
Denotation
the literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to
the feelings or ideas that the word suggests.
“Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art
more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do
shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease
hath all too short a date.”
“gaunt” versus “slender”
Both mean “thin,” but one is meant as a positive and
one is negative.
denotation of a dove is a “type of pigeon,” whereas the
connotation is a “symbol of peace”
Enjambment
occurs when a phrase carries over a line-break without a
major pause.
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness
End-stop
a line of poetry ends with a period or definite punctuation
mark
Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—
Hyperbole
conscious exaggeration used to heighten effect; not
intended literally.
"And fired the shot heard round the world."
Imagery
specific language to appeal to our sensory experiences
“full-grown lambs loudly bleat from hilly bourn.”
Irony
verbal implies the opposite.
dramatic known by the reader but not by the characters.
situational contrary to the expectations
Alanis Morrissette’s song “Ironic” is ironic in that none
of the examples she lists of irony are actually ironic.
Metaphor
compares two unlike things to develop an specific image
“She is a night owl.”
Paradox
A rhetorical figure embodying a seeming contradiction
that is nonetheless true.
"I can resist anything but temptation."-Oscar Wilde
Term
Persona
Definition
the narrator, or the storyteller, of a literary work created
by the author. The persona is not the author, but the
author’s creation--the voice “through which the author
speaks.” It could be a character in the work, or a
fabricated onlooker, relaying the sequence of events in a
narrative.
Example
the “shooter” is a persona Lamar Jorden creates in his
slam poem “Shooter.”
Personification
animals, ideas or objects are given human characteristics.
“The wind stood up and gave a shout.”
Puns / word
play
A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the
same word
“It’s nice to have an old friend for dinner,” said
Hannibal Lecter.
Rhyme scheme
the pattern of rhyme between lines of a poem or song.
Rhythm /
meter
rhythm is the pattern of stresses in a line of verse. When
you speak, you stress some syllables and leave others
unstressed. When you string a lot of words together, you
start seeing patterns.
Bid me to weep, and I will weep,
A
While I have eyes to see;
B
And having none, yet I will keep
A
A heart to weep for thee.
B
iambic pentameter is the term for a rhythm made of a
consistent unstressed-stressed beat with five of these
beats in one line.
meter describes these rhythmic patterns
Simile
a metaphor that uses “like” or “as”
“My love is like a red, red rose.”
Slant rhyme
refers to words that almost rhyme or appear to the eye to
do so
“little song” - a poem that had 14 lines which has an
iambic pentameter meter
farm, yard
said, paid
Sonnet
Stanza
A group of poetic lines corresponding to paragraphs in
prose; the meters and rhymes are usually repeating or
systematic.
Symbol
a symbol is a word or object that stands for another word
or object, usually to make it more concrete.
a dove stands for Peace – Peace is an abstract,
intangible thing, while a dove concrete.
Syntax
word order, and the way in which it works with
grammatical structures. The effect of breaking with
normal syntax is to draw attention to what is being said
and the way it is said.
“Go out I cannot”