Literary techniques Flashcards
Alliteration
The repetition of identical consonant sounds, most often the sounds beginning words, in close proximity. e.g nattering nabobs of negativity.
Allusion
Unacknowledged reference and quotations that authors assume their readers will recognise to gain a deeper understanding of their work.
Anaphora
Repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of a line throughout a work or the section of a work.
Assonance
The repetition of identical vowel sounds in different words in close proximity. e.g. Deep green sea.
Blank verse
unrhymed iambic pentameter e.g. Shakespeare’s plays.
Free verse.
unrhymed, unstructured poetry, no obvious meter.
Caesura
A short but definite pause used for effect within a line of poetry.
Chiasmus
A crossing of two elements in writing e.g Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
Couplet
Two successive rhyming lines.
Diction
The level of formality that a speaker uses.
Dramatic monologue
When the speaker addresses an internal listener or the reader, often used to reveal the speaker’s personality.
Enjambment
A line having no end punctuation but running over into the next line.
Hyperbole
Exaggeration for effect.
Metaphor
A comparison between two unlike things, this describes one thing as if it were something else.
Personification
Attributing human characteristics to non human things or abstractions.
