Poetic and Literary Devices

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

Repeated consonants at the beginning of words placed next to one another

Examples:
Snakes slither slowly on the sidewalk.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

A brief reference to a person, place, event from history, literature, geography, the Bible, mythology, or any other area of knowledge

Examples:
“He’s a real Romeo with the ladies”
“Of Clytemnestra, for her lechery, Who caused her husband’s death by treachery” (Chaucer)

Question 3

Assonance

Answer 3

The repetition of similar vowel sounds.

Example:
“Green as a dream and deep as death” (Rupert Brooke)

Question 4

Diction

Answer 4

A writer’s or speaker’s choice of words and way of arranging the words in sentences.

Denotation: dictionary definition of a word
Example:
Dove - a stocky seed- or fruit-eating bird with a small head, short legs, and a cooing voice

Connotation: emotional, cultural, and psychological overtones of a word apart from its literal definition
Example:
Dove - a symbol of peace

Question 5

Foreshadowing

Answer 5

A warning or hint as to what will come next in the text

Examples:
A black cat crosses a character’s path

Question 6

Hyperbole

Answer 6

An exaggeration or overstatement of the truth

Examples:
I knocked on the door a million times.
He nearly died laughing.

Question 7

Imagery

Answer 7

Language that evokes a response from one or more of the five senses

Example:
Sight – a full moon
Sound – the chirp of a cricket
Touch – fresh rain on the grass
Smell – clean smell of pine trees; sweetness of roses

Question 8

Irony

Answer 8

Irony - the contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant
Verbal Irony - words literally state the opposite of the speaker’s true meaning (ex. sarcasm)
Situational Irony - events turn out the opposite of what was expected
Dramatic Irony - facts or events are unknown to a character but known to the reader, audience or other characters in work

Question 9

Juxtaposition

Answer 9

a literary technique that places two unlike ideas/distinctly dissimilar things side by side to bring out their differences

Examples:
light & dark, good & evil

Question 10

Metaphor

Answer 10

A direct comparison between two unlike things, stating that one is the other or does the action of the other

Examples:
I am a china shop and you are a bull.
He is an angel.

Question 11

Mood

Answer 11

The emotions the reader feels from the poem or story.

Examples:
The mood of Macbeth is dark, murky and mysterious, creating a sense of fear and uncertainty.

Question 12

Motif

Answer 12

A motif is a symbolic image or idea that appears frequently in a story.

Examples:
Sophocles uses the motif of the contrast between light and darkness in Oedipus Rex to symbolize…

Question 13

Onomatopoeia

Answer 13

The use of words which imitate sound

Examples:
Bang, Buzz, Thud, Hiss, Woof, Quack

Question 14

Oxymoron

Answer 14

The junction of words which, at first view, seem to be contradictory, but surprisingly these contradictions express a truth or dramatic effect.

Examples:
Big baby, Open secret, Deafening silence, Clearly confused
Romeo describes love using several oxymorons, such as “cold fire,” “feather of lead” and “sick health,” to suggest its contradictory nature (Shakespeare).

Question 15

Personification

Answer 15

Giving inanimate objects or abstract concepts living and animate qualities

Examples:
The days crept by slowly.
The leaves waved hello to us.

Question 16

Point-of-view

Answer 16

the perspective from which a story is told (first person, third person omniscient, or third person limited omniscient)

Question 17

Repetition

Answer 17

Where a specific word, phrase, or structure is repeated several times to emphasize a particular idea.

Example:
The repetition of the words “What if…” at the beginning of each line reinforces the speaker’s confusion and fear.

Question 18

Simile

Answer 18

A comparison between two things using “like” or “as”

Examples:
You’re as cuddly as a cactus, you’re as slimy as an eel, Mr. Gri—inch!”
Her voice was like nails on a chalkboard.
She sings like a nightingale.

Question 19

Speaker

Answer 19

The “voice” of a poem; not to be confused with the poet him/herself (the poet may be writing from a perspective entirely different from his own, even with the voice of another gender, race or species, or even of a material object). Analogous to the narrator in prose fiction.

Question 20

Symbol

Answer 20

An object or action that represents something else

Example:
A nation’s flag

Question 21

Syntax

Answer 21

Syntax refers to the ways words and phrases are arranged to form sentences.

Question 22

Tone

Answer 22

The author’s attitude towards his or her subject. A poem’s tone may be sincere, angry, ironic, sad, etc.

Example:
The poem has a bitter and sardonic tone, revealing the speaker’s anger and resentment