Literary Techniques:
Figure: for this course, we’re using the definition of figures as unusual use of sentence structure of
word order. Also called syntactic devices. Classical writers on rhetoric like Aristotle and Cicero
catalogued many different rhetorical figures.
Anaphora: the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive sentences, lines or
clauses. i.e. must it be great. Must it be mighty.
Ephiphora: the opposite of anaphora: repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive
sentences, lines or clauses.
Asyndenton: the omission of conjunctions like ‘and’ e.e she had cereal, pancakes, toast, waffles, hot
chocolate.
Polysyndeton: the opposite of Asyndenton: put more ands in than necessary. She had cereal and
pancakes and toast and waffles and hot chocolate.
Anastophe or Hyberbation: an expression in which there is a reversal of common word order:
Usually it goes subject, verb, object; messing with this makes it stand out. Might emphasise or allow
rhyme. With beating hearts the dire event they wait.
Apostrophe: a direct and explicit address to a person or thing (which may be absent). In cases where
that which is addressed is an object, it is often personified
Parallelism: an expression in which two or more consecutive phrases, lines or sentences have the
same syntactical structure: witness this wretched stump, witness these crimson lines
Antithesis: in general this means an opposition. In terms of rhetorical figures, it’s a particular kind of
parallelism in which the meaning of the corresponding words are in opposition. Love is an ideal thing,
marriage a real thing – Goethe.
Brachylogia Any expression characterized by brevity of expression, some kind of omission of words.
In the second line of the following couplet, the omission of the verb "were": “Sunk in Thalestris' arms
the nymph he found, Her eyes dejected and her hair unbound.” Pope, Rape of the Lock
Metonymy: when you refer to something by one of its features or associations. E.g. calling a credit
card “plastic” or the king “the crown”
Malapropism: the mistaken use of one word when you mean another, often for comedic effect. Ay, or
else twere hard luck, being in so preposterous estate. Preposterous substitutes prosperous.
Irony: when the intented meaning of the words are opposite to their literal meaning
Tropes: rhetorical figures where a word is used to mean something different to its literal meaning.
Includes similies, metaphors, personification, etc
Similie: a type of metaphor, except the comparison is made using like or as
Personification: imagery where non-human things are described with human characteristics or
attributed human actions
Hyperbole a big exaggeration: sorrow wept to take leave of them, for their job waded in tears
Portmanteau: when two words get squashed together e.g. smog = smoke and fog
Oxymoron: when you put two opposite words together e.g. deafening silence or bittersweet
Litotes: use of a negative to express a strong positive, or the opposite e.g. That’s not bad at all =good
Zeugma: use of one word in two different sense simultaneously she broke his car and his heart
Types of metrical feet: (bold is stressed)
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Iamb – one unstressed, one stressed syllable. “I /come/ to/ pluck/…”
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pyrrhic - two unstressed syllables “To/ a /green thought in/ a /green shade.”
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spondee - two stressed syllables “Rough /winds/ do shake the darling buds of May”
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trochee - stressed, unstressed “Start/led at the still/ness”
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anapest - two unstressed, one stressed. Words such as “un/der/stand” and “con/tra/dict”
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dactyl - one stressed, two unstressed. Words such as “typ/i/cal” and “el/e/phant”
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To name the meter, you combine the type of feet (e.g. trochees) with the number of feet, using
the Greek prefixes (e.g. four - tetra, five -penta, six -hexa, etc). Mostly you’ll encounter
iambic pentameter or iambic tetrameter.
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enjambment - a run-on line
I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved?
caesura - a pause or break in the middle of the line (e.g. sing a song of sixpence // a pocket full of
rye)
catalexis - an incomplete foot at the end of the line
free verse – poetry that doesn’t rhyme of have regular meter. Contemporary poetry tends towards free
verse.
anceps – a syllable that can be either stressed or unstressed
Phonetic devices:
Sound symbolism - this is when the sense of a word is partially represented by its sound: e.g. bang,
fizz, slide.
Onomatopoeia - This is a strong type of sound symbolism: when a word sounds like what it means.
E.g. Moo, achoo, etc..
Alliteration - the repetition of consonant sounds.
Assonance - the repetition of vowel sounds (a, e, i, o, u).
Euphony - a harmonious, pleasant combination of sounds. E.g. “lilting lullabies flowed through my
mind”
Cacophony - a harsh, unpleasant combination of sounds. E.g. “She grabbed the mangled bag and
scrunched it up”.
Sibilance - repetition of ‘s’ sounds. E.g. “The snake slithered sneakily”.
Pararhyme - partial rhyme between words with the same pattern of consonants but different vowels.
E.g. Bend and bind, or send and sand.
Grammar:
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Sentence structure: simple or complex?
Voice: passive or active? (e.g. She washed the dishes vs the dishes were washed by her)
Does the speaker use first, third, or second person?
Modality: are there modal verbs that express degrees of probability rather than certainty, like
should or might? Etc.
• Are there many qualifying/modifying words, like adverbs and adjectives?
Tone: urgent, melancholy, exuberant, triumphant? etc.
Register: formal language, colloquial language, ordinary language?
Connotation/denotation: (the associations of a word / actual meaning of a word)
Motifs – recurring ideas or images that contribute to a larger theme.
Types of imagery (obvi there are many but just a few…)
Sensory

Visual imagery (sight)
 Auditory imagery (hearing)
 Olfactory imagery (smell)
 Gustatory imagery (taste)
 Tactile imagery
Emotive imagery
Kinaesthetic imagery (describing movement)
For a reminder of metrical analysis, see the slides from the week on Poets (w. 5 I believe).
For a reminder of how to analyse narrative time, see slides from w.2.
Stand-alone titles (e.g. book titles) should be italicised.
Titles of short stories, poems (works that are part of a collection) should be in inverted commas, no
italics.
Remember to put the year of publication after mentioning primary texts.
Primary texts need to be referenced in works cited list.