Terms and Conventions
(the fun way)
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Introduction to Literary Devices
 Watch the following video and see how many of the terms you remember or have heard of previously.
http://blog.flocabulary.com/metonym y/

Alliteration and Consonance
 The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words, to intensify the beat of the accents.
 The relation between words in which the final consonants in the stressed syllables agree but the vowels that precede them differs.
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Alliteration and Consonance
Dead in the middle of Little Italy little did we know that we riddled some middleman who didn't do diddily
-Big Pun “Twins (Deep Cover ’98)”
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Personification
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Boy you got my heartbeat running away. Beating like a drum and its coming your way. -Nicki Minaj
“Superbass”
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Internal Rhyme
His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy,
There’s vomit on his sweater already, mom’s spaghetti
He’s nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready to drop bombs
But he keeps forgetting what he wrote down.
-Eminem “Lose Yourself”
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Simile
Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box they tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe
“Across the Universe” The Beatles

 Invokes an implied comparison between two things
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Metaphor l I am a mountain
I am a tall tree
Ohhh, I am a swift wind
Sweepin' the country
I am a river
Down in the valley
Ohhh, I am a vision
And I can see clearly
If anybody asks you who I am
Just stand up tall look 'em in the Face and say...
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Onomatopoeia
Bang bang there goes your heart
Wait a minute let me take you there (ah)
-Jessie J “Bang, Bang”
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 A statement that although seemingly contradicotry or absurd may actually be well founded or true.
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Paradox
Cause you're a sky, 'cause you're a sky full of stars
I wanna die in your arms
'Cause you get lighter the more it gets dark

 substitution of the name of an object closely associated with a word for the word itself.
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Metonymy
If you liked it, then you shoulda put a ring on it
Don't be mad once you see that he want it
If you liked it, then you shoulda put a ring on it.
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-Beyonce “Single Ladies”

 An overstatement for effect, an exaggeration.
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It's like I'm paranoid lookin' over my back
It's like a whirlwind inside of my head
It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within
It's like the face inside is right beneath my skin

 A visual, aural, or tactile description much like a painting or melody
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Imagery
So much on my mind that I can't recline
Blasting holes in the night till she bled sunshine
Breathe in, inhale vapors from bright stars that shine
Breathe out,watch smoke retrace the skyline
- Black Star “Respiration”
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 a reference to an outside body of work, event or person
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Allusion
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
TIF F ( Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.
 I'm boss to all employees - and I'm here to teach the principal / Cause I've been saved by mo' bells than Lark Vorhees
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 a play on words that usually depends on words having several meanings or sounding like another word with a different meaning.
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Pun
Why do we still have troops in Germany? To keep the Russians in Czech.
•A horse is a very stable animal.
•Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
•An elephant’s opinion carries a lot of weight.
•What is the difference between a conductor and a teacher? The conductor minds the train and a teacher trains the mind.

 a comparison made between two objects, situations, or ideas that are somewhat alike but unlike in most respects.
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Analogy
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“The white mares of the moon rush along the sky
Beating their golden hoofs upon the glass Heavens.”
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The given lines are from Amy Lowell’s poem “Night
Clouds ”.
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow uses analogy in the below lines taken from his poem “The Day Is Done”.
“Read from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start.”

 a narrative either in verse or prose, in which characters, action, and sometimes setting represent abstract concepts apart from the literal meaning of the story.
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I took ya outta Jacob's in clusters
Allegory
Busters they wanted to rush us
Love the way you sparkle when the sun touch ya
When you blush you turn blue if your grade is right
You can light up the whole room, turning day from night
When the summertime is in and the tops are down
With you around my neck we lock the whole block down (that's right)
It took short sleeves and lounging to understand
The reason they call you ice, everybody freeze
Ain't a pendant in the sun who can shine like you
And that platinum in the charm who can blind like you
The direct reason why dudes do they crimes they do I used to snatch the necklace right off them reckless fools
Guess I was jealous that they was so next to you
So I devoted half my time to invest in you. The other half was spent on protecting you
Cause you belong to me, now sing ya song for me
JayZ “Girls Best Friend”