Claire Chen
English 11
Dr. Hunter
March 13, 2019
Literary Devices
1. Onomatopoeia: a word which imitates the natural sound of a thing
a. e.g. boom, crash, bang, splat, meow
2. Caesura: rhythmic pause in a poetic line or sentence; can occur with or without punctuation; medial, initial,
terminal // two types: feminine (occurs after a un-stressed syllable) and masculine (occurs after a stressed syllable)
a. “I hear lake water lapping || with low sounds by the shore…”
3. Symbol/symbolism: the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities, by giving them symbolic meanings that are
different from their literal sense.
a. dove = symbol of peace
4. Metonymy: a figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it is
closely associated
a. “England decides to keep check on immigration.” (England refers to the government.)
b. “The life from spilling” refers to the spilling of blood
5. Apostrophe: a rhetorical device used by playwrights and authors whenever their characters address
a character that isn’t present in the scene; also used to address ideas
a. “Oh God, oh God! How weary. stable, flat, unprofitable...”
6.
Imagery: to use language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical
senses.
a. dark and dim, aroma of coffee, screamed
7. Alliteration: a number of words, having the same first consonant sound, occur close together in a series.
a. Betty Botter bought a batch of bitter butter.
8. Assonance: when two or more words, close to one another repeat the same vowel sound, but start with different
consonant sounds.
a. Men sell the wedding bells.
9. Personification: attributing human characteristics to a non-human being or object
a. The sun smiled down upon her.
10. Simile: a comparison using like or as
a. Her smile was as comforting as a big bowl of mac and cheese.
11. Metaphor: a comparison without like or as
a. Her smile was a ray of light.
12. Enjambment: moving over from one line to another without a terminating punctuation mark
a. “The holy time is as quiet as a Nun // Breathless with adoration”
13. Anaphora: the deliberate repetition of the first part of the sentence
a. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of
foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was
the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
14. Meter: a stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse, or within the lines of a poem.
a. “If music be the food of love, play on” (iambic pentameter)
15. Negative Capability: denying humanity’s ability to fully understand any kind of phenomena
a. “Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget, //What thou among the leaves hast never known”