Literary Devices
Repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words placed near each other, usually on the same or adjacent lines.
Alliteration
A contradictory statement or situation to reveal a reality different from what appears to be true.
Irony
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
"We Wear the Mask"
The emotional, psychological or social overtones of a word; its implications and associations apart from its literal meaning.
Connotation
A direct comparison between two unlike things, stating that one is the other or does the action of the other
Metaphor
What happens to a dream deferred?
"Harlem"
I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—
I know what the caged bird feels!
A brief reference to some person, historical event, work of art, or Biblical or mythological situation or character.
Allusion
A comparison using "like" or "as"
Simile
The instructor said,
Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you—
Then, it will be true.
Theme for English B
Out in the sky the great dark clouds are massing;
I look far out into the pregnant night,
Where I can hear a solemn booming gun
And catch the gleaming of a random light,
That tells me that the ship I seek is passing, passing.
"Ships That Pass in the Night"
Speaking directly to a real or imagined listener or inanimate object; addressing that person or thing by name
Apostrophe
Attributing human characteristics to an inanimate object, animal, or abstract idea.
Personification
A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth.
"America"
An outrageous exaggeration used for effect.
Hyperbole
The use of vivid language to generate ideas and/or evoke mental images, not only of the visual sense, but of sensation and emotion as well.
Imagery
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
"Still I Rise"
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.