AP English
Lit. Terms 1
Metaphorical
Devices &
Imagery
Hilltop High School
Mrs. Demangos
Metaphor
A
figure of speech in which an implicit
comparison is made between two things
essentially unlike. It may take one of four
forms:
1. That in which the literal term and the
figurative term are both named
2. That in which the literal term is named
and the figurative term implied
3. That in which the literal term is implied
and the figurative named
4. That in which both the literal and the
figurative terms are implied.
Metaphor
That
in which the literal term and the
figurative term are both named:
“Life’s but a walking
shadow”
Figurative=Literal
shadow=life
yard=sorrow
“Sorrow is my own yard…”
1
Metaphor
That
in which the literal term is named
and the figurative term implied:
“Out in the porch’s sagging
floor,
Leaves got up in a coil and
hissed…”
2
Literal=Figurative
Leaves=Snake “hissed”
Metaphor
That
in which the literal term is implied
and the figurative named
“It sifts from Leaden Sieves—
It powders all the Wood.
It fills with Alabaster Wool
The Wrinkles of the Road—”
3
Literal=Figurative
It(snow)=wool
Metaphor
That
in which both the literal and
the figurative terms are implied.
“It sifts from Leaden Sieves—
It powders all the Wood.
It fills with Alabaster Wool
The Wrinkles of the Road—”
4
Literal=Figurative
It(snow)=(flour)sifts
Simile
Simile
and metaphor are both used
as a means of comparing things
that are essentially unlike.
In a simile the comparison is
expressed by the use of some word
or phrase, such as like, as, than,
similar to, resembles, seems.
“Harlem” by Langston Hughes
What happens to a
dream deferred?
Does it stink like rotten
meat?
Or crust and sugar
over—
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun? like a syrupy sweet?
Or fester like a sore— Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
And then run?
Or does it explode?
What happens to a
dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Simile:
Deferred
dream
shrivels like
a raisin
Simile: Deferred
dream
becomes
diseased,
infected like a
sore
Personification
Personification
consists in giving
the attributes of a human
being to an animal, an object,
or a concept.
It is a subtype of metaphor.
Personification
When autumn is described as
a harvester “sitting careless on
a granary floor” or “on a halfreaped furrow sound asleep”,
Keats is personifying a season.

“To Autumn” by John Keats
Personification
When
Sylvia Plath makes a mirror
speak and think, she is
personifying an object.
Though
the mirror speaks and
thinks, we continue to visualize it
as a mirror.
Mirror by Sylvia Plath
Archetype
 From
the Greek arkhetupos, meaning
“first molded as a pattern.”
 It is often used to refer to characters,
plots, themes, and images that recur
throughout the history of literature,
both oral and written.
 Archetypes are recognized as
designs or patterns.
Archetype
A
pattern or model of an action (such
as lamenting the dead), a character
type (rebellious youth), or an image
(paradise as a garden) that recurs
consistently enough in life and literature
to be considered universal.
Archetype
 Although
the term archetype has long
been used in its most general sense, the
psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, gave it new
meaning.
 Jung theorized that certain ideas, actions,
and images—rivalry between brothers, for
example—arose out of early experiences
of the human race, passed along through
the “collective subconscious of mankind”,
and are present in the subconscious of
every individual.
Archetype
 According
to Jung, these
archetypes emerge in the imagery
of dreams and also in myths and
other literature.
 Some archetypes are used so often
in certain literary genres that they
become conventions, or
distinguishing features of the genre.
Allusion
A
figure of speech that makes
a brief reference to a historical
or literary figure, event, or
object. Biblical allusions are
frequent in English literature.
Ex. In Shakespeare’s The
Merchant of Venice, “A Daniel
come to judgment.”
Allusion
 Strictly
speaking, allusion is always
indirect. It seeks, by tapping the
knowledge and memory of the reader,
to secure a resonant emotional effect
from the associations already existing in
the reader’s mind.
 Ex. Herman Melville names a ship the
Pequod in Moby-Dick. The reader,
knowing the Pequod tribe to be extinct,
will suspect the vessel to be fated for
extinction.
Allusion
The
effectiveness of allusion
depends on a body of knowledge
shared by writer and reader.
Complex literary allusion is
characteristic of much modern
writing, and discovering the
meaning and value of the allusions is
frequently essential to
understanding the work.
Metonymy
 Greek
for “a change of name”. Substitution
of associated word for word itself.
 metonymy is a figure of speech. It
substitutes the name of a related object,
person, or idea for the subject at hand.
 Example:
 Crown-
substituted for monarchy
 The White House- for the President of the U.S.
 Shakespeare- for the works of Shakespeare
 the Turf- for horse racing.
Synecdoche
 Greek
for “taking together”. A figure of
speech in which a part of something
stands for the whole thing.
 Synecdoche is a form of metonymy.
 Example:
 wheels
in “I’ve got wheels.” Stands for car.
 hands in “All hands on deck!” Stands for
sailors.
 threads as in “Nice threads!” Stand for
clothes.
Motif

Recurrent image, idea, word, phrase, action, object,
situation, or theme in specific piece of literature. It can
appear in various works or throughout the same work.

When applied to several different works, motif refers to
a recurrent theme, such as the CARPE DIEM motif—the
idea that life is short, time is fleeting, and one must
make the most of the present moment.

Example: Robert Herrick’s poem “To the Virgins, to
Make Much of Time.”
Motif
 When
applied to a single work, motif refers
to a repetition that tends to unify the work
by bringing to mind its earlier occurrences
and the impressions that surround them.
 Example:
the periodic striking of clocks in
Virginia Wolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway
 Example: the repetition of patterns—of a
garden, a dress, a fan, and of life itself in
Amy Lowell’s poem “Patterns.”
Symbol
 An
object, character, figure, or color
that is used to represent an abstract
idea or concept.
 For example: the two roads in Robert
Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken”
symbolize the choice between two
paths in life.
 Unlike an emblem, a symbol may have
different meanings in different contexts.
Symbol
 Some
symbols come into a story from a
shared language or symbols.
 Traditional
symbolic associations:
Dawn of hope
Dark forest of evil
Clay with death
Water with fertility
Light for knowledge or enlightenment.
Symbol
 Some
symbols have a special personal
meaning for the writer.
 Example:
Seamus Heaney—imaginative
power staked in the image of the pump:
the pump, like his poetry, taps hidden
springs to conduct what is sustaining and
life-giving; it is a symbol of nourishment.
Symbol
 Literary
 An
symbols are rich in associations.
ancient symbol in Western culture is
the garden: the Garden of Eden was a
scene of innocence and happiness,
before the fall of Adam.
 It is a symbol of nature seen as fruitful and
life-sustaining. It may suggest the oasis in
the desert.
Symbol
 Symbols
may be ambiguous.
 Example:
in Melville’s Moby Dick the
mythic white whale stands for everything
that is destructive in nature—the whale
destroys the ship. At other times, it stands
for everything that is serenely beautiful in
nature.
Symbol
 Symbols
acquire their full meaning in the
context of the story.
 Example:
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s
novel, The Scarlet Letter, the letter A for
adultery becomes a symbol of the
consciousness of guilt, of our doubts
about who is truly guilty.
Image
Sensory
A
detail
word, phrase, or figure of
speech that addresses the
senses, suggesting mental
pictures of sights, sounds, smells,
tastes, feelings, or actions.
Image
 Images
offer sensory impressions to the
reader and also convey emotions and
moods through their verbal pictures.
 Sight=visual imagery
 Sound=auditory imagery
 Taste=gustatory imagery
 Touch=tactile imagery
 Smell=olfactory imagery
Abstract/Concrete
Classifications
of imagery.
For
instance, calling a fruit "pleasant"
or "good" is abstract, while calling a
fruit "cool" or "sweet" is concrete.
The
preference for abstract or
concrete imagery varies from century
to century.
Abstract/Concrete
Philip
Sidney praised concrete
imagery in poetry in his 1595 treatise,
Apologie for Poetrie.
A century later, Neoclassical thought
tended to value the generality of
abstract thought.
In the early 1800s, the Romantic poets
like Wordsworth, Coleridge, and
Shelley once again preferred
concreteness.