Literary devices Flashcards
Dictation
Choice of words
Alliteration
The series of words beginning with the same letter
Assonance
Repetition of vowel sounds
“And the gulls scream over the beach”
Consonance
Repetition of consonant sounds
“The mistress of the Mississippi”
Euphony
Pleasant flowing sounds
“Softly as a cloud we go”
Cacophony
Harsh unpleasant sounds
“A grotesque mask of death, with hands like claws about his begging bowl”
Onomatopoeia
The suggesting or reproduction of the meaning of a word through
“Hiss, moan, gurgle”
Figurative language
The imaginative use of words to imply more than their literal meaning
Simile
A stated comparison using “like” or “as”
“My love is like a red, red rose”
Metaphor
An implied or suggested comparison, not using “like” or “as”
The road was a ribbon of moonlight
Personification
Giving inanimate object human qualities
“Night arrived”
Symbol
An object which stands for another
Oxymoron
Apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction
Techniques
Method of presentation
Irony
Saying one thing but meaning the opposite
“You’re a bright boy!”
Satire
Blending criticism and humour
“All handsome hunting men
Fire your little gun…
… Oh what fun!”
Pun
A play on words based on the similarity of sounds between two words with different meaning
“Would you like some cheese for your whine (wine)?”
Hyperbole
Extreme exaggeration (usually clichés) "Rolling in money"
Cliché
An expression that has been used so often that it has become meaningless
“Better late than never”
Rhyme
Repetition of similar or identical sounds in the end-stressed syllables of words
“Ah, distinctly remember, it was in the bleak December”
Rhythm
The pattern produced by accented and unaccented syllables
Mood
The emotional tone or feeling of the poem
Form
Narrative - tells a story
Lyric - tells of the poet’s personal feelings
Free verse - no regular rhyme or rhythm
Sonnet - fourteen-line poem
Theme
- The truth about life in a piece of writing
- The central idea of the poem
- The poet’s message to his readers
Audience
Seen/ Unseen, Familiar/ Unfamiliar, Informed/ Uninformed, Formal/ Informal, Historical/ Modern, Objective/ Subjective, Supportive/ Unsupportive, Personal/ Impersonal, Private/ Public
Age: self, peers, adults
Purpose
- to establish and maintain contact
- to record - fact, opinion, emotion
- to order, inform, instruct
- to explain a process
- to describe: objects, scenes, feelings
- to entertain, present an idea, persuade
- to explore, hypothesize
- to express, create
- to celebrate, reflect
- to narrate
- to mislead
Allusion
Is a reference in a written work to something from history, religion, myth, or another work of literature
Juxtaposition
The placing together of two things for comparison or contrast
