Lit Devices & Terminology
In On the Sidewalk Bleeding, what specific item functions as a symbol that obscures Andy's identity?
Bonus 100: What was the inciting incident...?
His royal purple gang jacket (The Royals jacket)?
Bonus 100: The rain! If the rain didn't wash his blood away, the old man would be seen the blood and known he wasn't "up to no good"
Analyzing the 'shift' within a poem is essential because it highlights...
A change in the speaker's TONE, PERSPECTIVE, or UNDERSTANDING that leads directly to the core theme
Sonnet
In The Name of the End, a child finding an explosive device represents the human confrontation with mortality. Which literary technique uses this literal bomb to convey a deeper universal concept?
Allegory
The Bystander Effect is the tendency for humans to be less likely to intervene within a situation because they assume someone else will act. Reflecting on, "On the Sidewalk Bleeding," generate a theme statement based on the topics of fear and stereotypes
Fear and stereotypes can cause people to ignore an individual's humanity or suffering.
Shawn Smucker's "Please Use AI" is structured in the poetic form of a...
Bonus 100: How does this structural choice connect to the subject of the poem?
Freeeeee Verse!
Bonus 100: Free verse is free if restriction. It is organic, unpolished, and made to sound conversational to emphasize the importance of human connection
What type of characterization is this and what is the trait being revealed: "Both my conscience and my instincts were telling me to make a break for it, just take off and run like hell and never stop."
Indirect
- self-aware
- overwhelmed
- seeking liberation from a fear
In Lena Coakley's "Mirror Image", Alice's hesitation when confronting 'mirrors in unexpected places' serves as key foreshadowing that implies...
Her ongoing internal (psychological) struggle to merge her internal identity with her new and foreign physical body
A narrative poem that tells a dramatic story through short stanzas with a strong, repetitive musical rhythm and rhyme scheme is known as...
Hint: "Every Rose has it's Thorn" by Poison
Ballad
In Shawn Smucker's "Please Use AI," the speaker contrasts the 'sterile words of a machine' with 'clumsy and painful' stories. This literary technique conveys...
Juxtaposition; authenticity of human experiences and emotion (positive and negative) over artificial perfection
In "Indian Boarding School: The Runaways" the poet writes, "The rails, old lacerations that we love" (line 4). Identify the literary device and explain what it means.
METPAHOR: railway tracks to 'lacerations'; The path toward home is permanently tied to painful trauma and historical wounds.
In contrast to an Epic poem, a Lyric poem is defined primarily by its capacity to convey...
Intense personal emotion and thought (or state of mind). It explores deeper and more subjective perceptions
At first, this statement seems contradictory: "constant means something stays the same, while change means something becomes different." However, the contradiction reveals a deeper truth which is that change itself is an unavoidable and consistent part of life.
What is a paradox
In Jenny Joseph's, "Warning". the speaker states: "I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired...And make up for the sobriety of my youth" (lines 5-8). Explain the situational irony of this...
She's contrasting what society expects an elderly person to do VS what she plans to do (rebellious, improper, youthful)
- True personal freedom comes from rejecting expectations that hinder or restrict one's free will
A poet repeats a particular word, phrase, or line throughout a poem. What is the main purpose this technique can serve?
Bonus 200: What is the technique that repeats VOWEL sounds within a poetic phrase?
To create emphasis and reinforce an important idea; it can also help establish pacing and rhythm
Bonus 200: ASSONANCE; "His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy/There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti" (Eminem, Lose Yourself)
- "Loyalty, got loyalty inside my DNA...I got powder, poision, pain, and joy inside my DNA..." (Kendrick, DNA)