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
