Poetic Devices
A device that conforms to several different patterns, all using words that sound similar in some way, and is used to create rhythm
Rhyming
A special type of verbal irony where a serious situation is given less attention than what it deserves for sarcastic effect.
Understatement
A sociologist who explored the idea of a double consciousness. He also founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
W.E.B. DuBois
The representation of a person in a narrative or dramatic work of art
Character
Writers associated with this period put a lot more focus on what a character feels and how he or she thinks than on the character's actions or the plot.
Contemporary Literary Period
Identify the poetic device used below:
The light of first dawn peaked over the edge of clouds, And pinks and oranges swirled with blues and whites, To create the most breathtaking sunrise.
Imagery
The author's word choice. An example is choosing between denotative words that have a literal meaning, or connotative words that can have an indirect, associated meaning.
Diction
This Langston Hughes poem ends by discussing a dream that could explode if unfulfilled. This is likely a reference to the goal of achieving racial equality.
Harlem
Any category of literature, music, or other forms of art or entertainment, whether written or spoken, audio or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria
Genre
A type of poetry that developed in the 1950s among individuals who felt defeated. It often drew on themes associated with drugs, the natural world and different aspects of sexuality.
Beat Poetry
Identify the poetic device used below:
My best friend likes to bring me bagels for breakfast.
Alliteration
Saying the opposite of what you mean for effect. It includes sarcasm, exaggeration, overstatements, and understatements.
Verbal Irony
Langston Hughes wrote this poem about the relationship the black community had with America and how delicate it was. Some think he was inspired by Whitman's I Hear America Singing.
I, Too, Sing America
Mary Ann Evans, known by this, her pen name, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era
George Eliot
This play was created by Arthur Miller to look at the effects of materialism and how this is connected to the idea of the American Dream.
Death of a Salesman
Identify the poetic device used below: I nervously said,
'I can- if you want- Why don't we--
Go to prom together?'
Caesura
A reference within a literary work to another work. It is different than an allusion because it is separate from the text.
Epigraph
A poem by Claude McKay that looks at the good and bad of America. It draws on W.E.B. Du Bois's idea of a dual consciousness, or two-ness, experienced by African Americans.
America
In its broadest sense, a rhetorical device, literary technique, or event in which what appears, on the surface, to be the case, differs radically from what is actually the case
Irony
A fictionalized account of the life of Jack Kerouac. It includes themes that relate to the defiance of social norms.
On the Road
Identify the poetic device used below:
BUFF-a- lo
Dactyl
Identify this literary device: 'I studied so much last week that I think I will sleep for a month straight.'
Hyperbole
Claude McKay wrote this poem to encourage action following the Red Summer of 1919, a time when many hate crimes were committed. He didn't focus on spirituality with this poem.
This concept appears in areas relating to behavior, modern psychological theory, and literary analysis
Archetype
Arthur Miller wrote this play that is set during the Salem Witch Trials. The play treats these trials as an allegory for the McCarthy hearings.
Its first performance was in 1953.
The Crucible