Literary/Poetic Devices Flashcards
Allusion
A reference to a place, event, literary work, myth, or work of art outside of the text, either directly or by implication (feels like an inside joke)
Aside
Words spoken aside or in an undertone, so as to be inaudible to some person present; words spoken by an actor, which the other performers, on the stage are supposed not to hear
Blank Verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter
Couplet
Two lines of verse-the second line immediately following the first-of the same metrical length that end in a rhyme to form a complete unit
Foreshadowing
Suggesting, hinting, indicating, or showing what will occur later in a narrative. Foreshadowing often provides hints about what will happen next
Iambic Pentameter
The metrical pattern Shakespeare employs; five iambs (unstressed, stressed) per line
Imagery
A series of words that evokes one or more of the senses (visual-sight, auditory-sound, tactile-touch, olfactory-smell, gustatory-taste); also an imagery pattern is a series of “mental pictures” that connect because of a common idea (like light and dark or religious imagery)
Irony
The contrast between the apparent situation and the real situation (or if you prefer, the discrepancy between expectation and fulfillment).
VERBAL: a contrast between what someone says and what he/she means
SITUATIONAL: a contrast between what seems like will happen and what really does happen
DRAMATIC: a contrast between what the audience or characters know and what another character doesn’t know
Hyperbole
Exaggeration or overstatement; exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally (e.g. He ate everything in the house.)
Oxymoron
A figure of speech in which a pair of opposed or markedly contradictory terms are placed in conjunction for emphasis; a contradiction
Personification
Giving human qualities to non-human things
Soliloquy
A monologue spoken by an actor at a point in the play when the character believes himself to be alone. The technique frequently reveals a character’s innermost thoughts, including his feelings, state of mind, motives, or intentions. The soliloquy often provides necessary but otherwise inaccessible information to the audience. The dramatic convention is that whatever a character says in a soliloquy to the audience must be true, or at least true in the eyes of the character speaking (i.e. the character may tell lies to mislead other characters in the play, but whatever he states in a soliloquy is a true reflection of what the speaker believes or feels)
Sonnet
A lyric poem of fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to certain definite patterns
Subtext
The underling or implicit meaning that is communicated indirectly
Theme
A central idea or statement that unifies and controls an entire literary work; the insight gained by the reader into some nuance of the human personality or general human condition
Metaphor
A figure of speech in which two unlike things are compared to suggest a similarity (e.g. “All the world’s a stage.”-William Shakespeare)
Metonymy
A figure of speech substituting the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself (e.g. ‘they counted heads,’ where heads is substituted for people in attendance); thing equals concept (kind of like words themselves)
Simile
A figure of speech in which two unlike things are compared using “like” or “as” to suggest a similarity (e.g. “An hour crawled by like a sick cockroach.”-Raymond Chandler)
Alliteration
The repetition of consonants at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each other, or at short intervals (e.g. “Fly o’er waste fens and windy fields.”-Alfred Tennyson)
Assonance
The repetition of similar vowels in the stressed syllables of successive words (e.g. Tilting at windmills)
Onomatopoeia
The formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g. cuckoo, sizzle)
Enjambment
The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet or stanza (in verse)
Free Verse
Poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter
Climax
Turning point of a narrative work; its point of highest tension or drama or when the action starts in which the solution is given
Falling Action
The conflict is resolved
Resolution
Basically the “conclusion” of the plot
Rising Action
Conflicts are introduced and characters are introduced and developed
Plot Structure
Structure of a plot
Pun
A play on words
Mood
The way a speaker uses words and descriptions to create certain feelings
Tone
The narrator’s “voice”
Conflict
A clash between opposing forces
Verbal Irony
The use of words to mean something different from what the character is actually saying
