literary devices

• Literary Device

  Style: writing style – Figurative Language / Figures of Speech
• Simile : a direct comparison of two things that are essentially different,


  Example • “My love is like a red, red rose."
• Metaphor: Standard, Implied, Visual, Extended


  A subtle/ indirect comparison

  Example:

  • All the world’s a stage
  • And all the men and women merely player
• Personification

  • Figurative language in which non human things or abstractions are represented as having human qualities


  Example:

  • Lightning danced across the sky
  • My plants are begging for water.
• Onomatopoeia

  • a word that sounds like the noise it describes


  E.g. bang, buzz, clang, clash, beep, cuckoo, giggle, murmur, meow, etc.
• Repetition

  • action of repeating something that has already been said or written


  E.g.

  • Time after time.
  • Heart to heart.
  • Sorry, not sorry.
  • Bond, James Bond
• Alliteration

  • the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words


  E.g.

  • Mickey Mouse. Peter Parker.
  • Sweet birds sang.
  • She sells the seashells on the seashore
• Hyperbole

  • exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally


  E.g.

  • The car was faster than the speed of light.
  • I can’t live without you.
  • I died of embarrassment.
• Imagery / Sensory Language

  (Types: Visual, auditory, Olfactory, Gustatory, Tactile, kinesthetic, organic)

  • the use of language to create mental images and sensory impressions for emotional effect and intensity

  Example:

  • He could hear his world crashing down when he heard the news about her.
  • A host of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
• Imagery

  • Visual: The dark, blue sea sparkled in the sun. (sight)
  • Auditory: The tinkle of sweet bells filled the air. (sound)
  • Olfactory: We perceived orchids and roses in the air. (smell)
  • Gustatory: The jam was flavored strawberry and cherry. (taste)
  • Tactile: The wet, sticky mud clings to my hand. (touch)
• Oxymoron

  • contradictory words with opposite meaning


  e.g.

  • Old news
  • Deafening noise
  • Organized chaos
  • Silent nois
• Litotes

  • negation to create an affirmative understatement to provide emphasis or avoid a subject


  e.g.

  • I wouldn’t say no. (You would say yes.)
  • it’s not bad. (It’s good.)
  • It’s not rocket science. (It’s easy.)
• Chiasmus

  • concepts are repeated in reverse order


  e.g.

  • Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you.
  • One should eat to live, not live to eat.
  • Home is where the great are small, and the small are great
• Patho

  • appeals to emotion; to persuade an audience by purposely evoking certain emotions to make them feel way the author wants them to feel

  e.g. The play of

  • Romeo and Juliet
  • The Great Gatsby
• Antithesis

  • a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else


  e.g.

  • Love is the antithesis of selfishness.
  • Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
  • Speech is silver, but silence is gold.
• Apostrophe

  • a speech or address to a person who is not present or to a personified object


  e.g. Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
• Euphemism

  • indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing


  e.g. She’s not a liar – she’s just creative with the truth. Let go instead of fire
• Synecdoche

  • part is made to represent the whole, or vice versa

  e.g.

  Hired hands – workers

  Head – counting cattle or people

  Bread – food
• Metonymy

  • substitution of the name or thing


  e.g.

  Crown ( the power of a king)

  The White House (the American administration)

  Dish (plate of food)

  Pen (the written word)