English Poetic Devices Flashcards
Simile
A library is like an island in the middle of a vast sea of ignorance.
She’s strong as an ox.
My pulse, like a drum / beats
Metaphor
Figure of speech that compares two things without using like or as.
The moon was a ghostly galleon.
Imagery
Imagery refers to the use of figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in a way that appeals to our physical senses. Although we often think of imagery as visual, it often evokes a variety of senses and can evoke multiple senses at once
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him. The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats.
Allusion
Brief reference to a person, event, or place (real or fictitious) or to another work of art or literature.
Her smile is like kryptonite to me.
AND
Be careful not to open Pandora’s box!
Repetition
Intentionally using a word, phrase, or sentence structure two or more times in close proximity.
And that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Personification
Attribution of a lifelike quality to an inanimate object or an idea.
The tired old car coughed and wheezed and crawled down the street.
AND
Science-fiction novels were his constant companions.
Assonance
Consonance
Alliteration
Repetition of the same sound beginning several words or syllables in sequence.
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed.
AND
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes / A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.
Mood
End Rhyme
Stanza
Juxtaposition
Enjambment
Caesura
