Literary Devices & Terms 1
_________________ is a figure of speech in which the same sound repeats in a group of words, such as the “b” sound in: “Bob brought the box of bricks to the basement.” The repeating sound must occur either in the first letter of each word, or in the stressed syllables of those words.
Alliteration
Metrical patterns in poetry are called ___________________. Trochees, iambs, anapests, dactyls, and spondees are examples of this.
Metrical patterns in poetry are called feet. A trochee, then, is a type of foot. The other feet are: iambs, anapests, dactyls, and spondees.
Meter is a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that defines the rhythm of some poetry. These stress patterns are defined in groupings, called feet, of two or three syllables. The type and number of repeating feet in each line of poetry define that line's meter. For example, iambic pentameter is a type of meter that contains five iambs per line (thus the prefix “penta,” which means five).
______________ refers to excessive pride or overconfidence, which drives a person to overstep limits in a way that leads to their downfall. In Greek mythology, the legend of Icarus is a classic example: Icarus is given artificial wings made of wax and feathers so that he can fly (a superhuman feat), but he ignores his father's warnings and flies too close to the sun, melting his wings and drowning in the ocean.
Hubris
a ______________________ is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison can be stated explicitly, as in the sentence "Love is a battlefield." Other times, the writer may make this equation between two things implicitly, as in, "He was wounded by love." The comparisons are not meant to be taken literally. They are figurative—they create meaning beyond the literal meanings of their words.
A metaphor
_________________ is a figure of speech in which words repeat at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, or sentences. For example, Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech contains several examples of this: "So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania..."
Anaphora
___________________is a figure of speech in which the same consonant sound repeats within a group of words. An example is: "Traffic figures, on July Fourth, to be tough."It occurs when sounds, not letters, repeat. In the example above, the "f" sound is what matters, not the different letters (such as "ph") used to produce that sound.
Consonance
_______________is a figure of speech in which the same vowel sound repeats within a group of words. An example is: "Who gave Newt and Scooter the blue tuna? It was too soon!" Or "I might like to take a flight to an island in the sky."
It occurs when sounds, not letters, repeat. In the example above, the "oo" sound or "ai" sounds is what matters, not the different letters used to produce that sound. It does not require that words with the same vowel sounds be directly next to each other. Assonance occurs so long as identical vowel-sounds are relatively close together.
Assonance
A _______________is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like" or "as," but can also use other words that indicate an explicit comparison. Eleanor Roosevelt's line, "A woman is like a teabag—you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water," is an example of a __________. Roosevelt compares two unlike things, women and teabags, to describe how women reveal the full extent of their strength in tough situations.
simile
_______________is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given situation, and that of the audience. More specifically, the reader or audience has knowledge of some critical piece of information, while the character or characters to whom the information pertains are "in the dark"—that is, they do not yet themselves have the same knowledge as the audience. A straightforward example of this would be any scene from a horror film in which the audience might shout "Don't go in there!"—since that character doesn't suspect anything, but the audience already knows their fate.
Dramatic irony
_________________is a figure of speech in which two or more elements of a sentence (or series of sentences) have the same grammatical structure. These elements can be used to intensify the rhythm of language, or to draw a comparison, emphasize, or elaborate on an idea. The following well-known adage is an example: "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."
Parallelism
An __________________________ is a saying that concisely expresses a moral principle or an observation about the world, presenting it as a general or universal truth. The Rolling Stones are responsible for penning one of the most catchy examples of all time: "You can't always get what you want." They are often (though not always) witty or humorous, and they're used everywhere, from philosophical texts and great works of literature, to pop songs and everyday conversation.
Aphorism
________________ refers to rhymes that occur in the final words of lines of poetry. For instance, these lines from Dorothy Parker's poem "Interview" : "The ladies men admire, I’ve heard, / Would shudder at a wicked word."
End rhyme refers to rhymes that occur in the final words of lines of poetry.
__________________in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines from Robert Frost's poem "After Apple-Picking" engage the senses of touch, movement, and hearing: "I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend. / And I keep hearing from the cellar bin / The rumbling sound / Of load on load of apples coming in."
It does not only refer to descriptive language that appeals to the sense of sight. It includes language that appeals to all of the human senses, including sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell.
Imagery
___________________along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). It is an argument that appeals to an audience's emotions. When a speaker tells a personal story, presents an audience with a powerful visual image, or appeals to an audience's sense of duty or purpose in order to influence listeners' emotions in favor of adopting the speaker's point of view, he or she is using______________.
Pathos
An __________________ is a two-syllable metrical pattern in poetry in which one unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable. The word "define" is an example, with the unstressed syllable of "de" followed by the stressed syllable, “fine”: De-fine.
An iamb is a two-syllable metrical pattern in poetry in which one unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable.
A ____________ is a pause that occurs within a line of poetry, usually marked by some form of punctuation such as a period, comma, ellipsis, or dash. It doesn't have to be placed in the exact middle of a line of poetry. It can be placed anywhere after the first word and before the last word of a line. In the following line from the prologue of Romeo and Juliet, the comma after "Verona" marks a ____________: "In fair Verona, where we lay our scene."
caesura (sez-yoo-ra)
A ___________________is a figure of speech that seems to contradict itself, but which, upon further examination, contains some kernel of truth or reason. Oscar Wilde's famous declaration that "Life is much too important to be taken seriously" is an example of this. At first it seems contradictory because important things are meant to be taken seriously, but Wilde suggests that the more important something is, the more important it is not to take it seriously.
A paradox
A ___________________ is a two-syllable metrical pattern in poetry in which a stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable. The word "poet" is a ______________, with the stressed syllable of "po" followed by the unstressed syllable, “et”: Po-et.
trochee
A __________________ is a two-syllable metrical pattern in poetry in which both syllables are stressed. The word "downtown" is an example, with the stressed syllable of "down" followed by another stressed syllable, “town”: Down-town.
Spondee
_______________ is a figure of speech in which one or more words repeat at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences. In his Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln urged the American people to ensure that, "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." His repetition of "the people" at the end of each clause is an example of ___________.
Epistrophe (eh-pis-truh-fee)