Literary Terms I
A figure of speech in which a non-human thing is given human characteristics.
Personification
Extreme exaggeration for the purpose of added meaning.
Hyperbole
When one thing is used to represent something else.
Symbol/Symbolism
Use of words that sound like their meaning.
Onomatopoeia
Language that appeals to the five senses.
Imagery
A writer's conscious reuse of a sound, word, sentence, phrase, or other element.
Repetition
The voice or person telling the story.
Speaker
A rhetorical technique in which reference is made to a person, event, object, or work from history or literature.
Allusion
The perspective from which a literary work is told.
Point of View
The underlying main idea of a literary work that involves a statement or idea about the subject.
Theme
Repetition of sounds or letters in a sentence.
Alliteration
A direct comparison of dissimilar objects, usually using like or as.
Simile
The writer's intended purpose and or audience.
Aim
Avoids the use of regular rhyme, meter, or division into stanzas.
Free Verse
An implied comparison between objects that are different from each other.
Metaphor
The ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse.
Rhyme Scheme
Something the reader or audience knows but the character(s) do not.
Dramatic Irony
A narrator who knows all of the characters thoughts, feelings, and motivations.
Third Person Omniscient
The rhythmical pattern of a poem. Pattern is determined by the number of beats.
Meter
A seemingly contradictory statement, idea, or event.
Paradox