LITERARY DEVICES PowerPoint made by Molly Manafo
METAPHOR implicit comparison of two unlike things or using the connective phrase "to be Common examples: lion heart, apple of my eye, feeling blue Example: John Donne s The Sun Rising She is all states, and all princes, I.
ALLITERATION repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of neighboring words Example: Maya Angelou s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Up the aisle, the moans and screams merged with the sickening smell of woolen black clothes worn in summer weather and green leaves wilting over yellow flowers.
HYPERBOLE extreme exaggeration to make a point Example: W.H Auden s As I Walked One Evening I ll love you, dear, I ll love you Till China and Africa meet, And the river jumps over the mountain And the salmon sing in the street, I ll love you till the ocean Is folded up and hung to dry
PERSONIFICATION attaching human characteristics to an animal, inanimate object, or idea Example: Act I, Scene II of William Shakespeare s Romeo and Juliet When well apparelled April on the heel / Of limping winter treads.
ALLUSION a reference Example: Marlowe s Doctor Faustus (allusions to Greek mythology) Learnéd Faustus, to find the secrets of astronomy Graven in the book of Jove s high firmament, Did mount him up to scale Olympus top, Where, sitting in a chariot burning bright, Drawn by the strength of yokéd dragons necks, He views the clouds, the planets, and the stars.
EUPHEMISM a nice way of saying something unpleasant; a milk do indirect Word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarassing Example: George Orwell s Animal Farm For the time being, [Squealer] explains, it has been found necessary to make a readjustment of rations. Readjustment is a euphemism for what is really a reduction of the food supply.
PARADOX a contradictory statement or image that is nevertheless true Example: William Shakespeare s Romeo and Juliet The earth that s nature s mother is her tomb; / What is her burying grave, that is Rainbow in her womb; Here, the earth is both a birthplace and a graveyard.
OXYMORON a form of paradox where two contradictory words are used together Common examples: big shrimp, open secret, seriously funny Example: William Shakespeare s Romeo and Juliet (emphasis added) Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate! O anything, of nothing first create! O heavy lightness! Serious vanity! Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! This love feel I, that feel no love in this. Dost thou not laugh?
ONOMATOPOEIA when the pronunciation of a word imitates its meaning Example: Tom Paxton s The Marvelous Toy (emphasis added) It went zip when it moved and bop when it stopped, / And whirr when it stood still. / I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will.
SYMBOL the use of one thing to represent something else Example: William Shakespeare s As You Like It All the world s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.
IMAGERY any language that evokes one of the five senses Example: William Shakespeare s Romeo and Juliet O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! / It seems she hangs upon the cheek of the night / Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope s ear;
TONE the mood of a piece or the attitude of the writer toward her subject Example: Donald Barthelme s The School (emphasis added) And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don t know why they died, they just died. Something wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn t the best. We complained about it. So we ve got thirty kids there, each kid had his or her own little tree to plant and we ve got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little brown sticks, it was depressing. The tone is gloomy, unhappy, and pessimistic.
METER Refers to the number of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of verse; relates to rhythm Iambic pentameter example: William Shakespeare s Twelfth Night (stressed syllables underlined by literarydevices.net) If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. That strain again! it had a dying fall: O, it came o er my ear like the sweet sound, That breathes upon a bank of violets,
EXAMPLES FOUND ON: Literary Devices and Literary Terms The Complete List. Literary Devices. literarydevices.net. Accessed 9 March 2017. Picture found at: Onomatopoeia. Native English Spain. http://nativeenglishspain.blogspot.com/2013/11/wisewednesday-grammar-onomatopoeia.html