Literary Devices
An implicit comparison between 2 unlike items WITHOUT using 'like' or 'as'.
Metaphor
Obvious, extravagant exaggeration for effect.
Hyperbole
A "paragraph" in poetry; lines that are grouped together and set aside from the rest.
Stanza
Presents characters in a sequence of actions and events; a story
Narrative
a statement that represents something as better or worse than it really is.
Exaggeration
Type of metaphor where an inanimate object is given human qualities or characteristics.
Using double meanings or similar sounding words for playful or humorous effect like punning.
Word Play
Two lines that have the same end rhyme.
Couplet
Unrhymed iambic pentameter
Blank verse
an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.
Allusion
A pair or set of contradictory words or phrases.
Oxymoron
Where a part stands for a whole.
Synecdoche
A set of eight lines.
Octave
Poetry with some regular or specific structure such as a haiku, limerick or sonnet.
Closed form
the quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness.
Ambiguity
Arranging your sentence structure or lines to repeat the same grammatical structure.
Parallelism
Where something closely associated with a person or item is used to stand for that person or idea.
Metonymy
A turning point in the mood or matter of a poem
Volta
A type of poem where a character is speaking and reveals information about their character in the process
Dramatic monologue
a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought.
Cliché
An understatement or downplay (substituting offensive language with inoffensive language) for effect.
Euphemism
Addressing an absent, imaginary, or dead person; or addressing an inanimate object; or a place, thing, personified idea.
Apostrophe
Where the line breaks before the grammatical structure or phrase is completed
Enjambment
A type of poem written with melancholy and solemnity lamenting something or someone’s passing.
Elegy
A poem set in the countryside that paints a rosy, romantic view of life in the country
Pastoral