Definitions
Simile
Comparison using 'like' or 'as'
A dream where the dreamer sees themselves dead.
Foreshadowing
Imagery
Uses descriptive language to create mental images.
Allusion
Reference to something else outside of the subject of the story/poem.
Blank Verse
Personification
Attributing human traits to non-living objects
"It seems to be raining a little," in the middle of a hurricane.
Understatement
Anagram
Word play where letters are rearranged to form a new word or phrase.
Alliteration
Words begin with the same letter.
Antithesis
A figure of speech in which an opposition or contrast is expressed by parallelism of words that are opposites or strongly contrast each other
Parallelism
Corresponding in structure or meaning
'Ben Bonett got some new kicks!'
Synecdoche
Symbol
Represents an object, function, or process.
Anaphora
Repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of two or more lines of poetry done deliberately to make the writers pointer more coherent.
Ballad
A short narrative poem with stanzas of two or four lines and possibly a refrain that most frequently deals with folklore or popular legends and is suitable for signing.
Paradox
Seemingly contradictory statement that may reveal truth
Walter White using the name Heisenberg in 'Breaking Bad'.
Allusion
Enjambment
The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.
Caesura
A break in the flow of sound usually in the middle of a line of verse.
Epic
A long narrative poem that usually unfolds a history or mythology of a nation or race. The epic details the adventures and deeds of a hero. It's also the oldest form of poetry.
Metonymy
Substituting a related term for the actual thing
'Can birds fly? Is the sky blue?'
Rhetorical Question
Metaphor
Applies a word or phrase to something it isn't literally applicable to.
Chiasmus
A rhetorical device in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated, in reverse order, in the same or a modified form.
Ode
Often written in praise of a person, object, or event. Odes tend to be longer in form and generally serious in nature.