Literary Devices Flashcards
Anaphora
Repetition of introductory words or phrases for effect/repetition at the beginning of successive clauses, words, or phrases
Ex: LET FREEDOM RING from the snow capped mountains of Colorado. LET FREEDOM RING from the curvaceous….
Alliteration
Repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning is words
Ex: Sally sold seashells by the seashore
Antithesis
Opposition or contrast of ideas; the direct opposite
Ex: Speech is silver, but silence is gold.
Easy on the eyes, hard on the heart.
Brutus: “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.”
Aphorism
A tense (concise) statement of known authorship that expresses a general truth or moral principle; virtue
Ex: Lost time is never found again.
Conceit
Extended metaphor
Ex: Romeo comparing Juliet to a boat in a storm
Epistrophe
Repetition of words/ word groups at the end of successive clauses
Ex: … government of the people, for he people, by the people
Euphemism
A less offensive way of saying something
Ex: Sanitation engineer (trash man)
Passed away (died)
Stretched the truth (lied)
Hyperbole
Deliberate exaggeration or overstatement
Ex: If you talker any louder people could hear you from miles away.
Idiom
Form of expression not meant to be taken literally.
Ex: Break a leg!
It’s raining cats and dogs!
Imperative sentence
Gives a command, ends with a period.
Ex: Write your name at the top of the paper.
Inversion/ inverted word order
Reversing the normal word order of a sentence
Ex: Yoda
Litotes
Opposite of a hyperbole; understatement; double negatives
Ex: Not too bad (very good)
Not a beauty queen (ugly)
Parallelism
Grammatical pattern; equal importance
Ex: We will come when we are ready, and when we choose.
Pun
Play on words
Ex: A horse is a very stable animal.
An elephants opinion carries a lot of weight.
Ethos
Moral appeal
