LITERARY DEVICES

ONOMATOPOEIA • Literary device where the word’s sound is reflective of its definition.

• Example: pop, bang, whoosh, swish

HYPERBOLE • Exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis • Example: his hose were a world too wide.

SIMILE • Comparison using “like” or “as” (sometimes “than”) • Example: “the schoolboy…moving like snail”

PERSONIFICATION • Giving human qualities to inhuman things • Example: “[The eagle] grasps the crag with his hands”

REPETITION • The repeating of a word or phrase for emphasis or rhythm.

• Example: “The bells, bells, bells/bells, bells, bells, bells.”

ALLITERATION • Repetition of initial vowel or consonant sound • Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

METAPHOR • An implied comparison • Example: That boy is a tiger on the football field.

IAMBIC PENTAMETER • Metrical form characterized as having five feet per line with the iamb (~/) being the dominant foot.

• Example: “My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun”

Assonance • Repetition of a vowel noise in a series of words • Example: The loose noose on the goose’s caboose

Allusion • A reference to another piece of literature, a place, myth, popular culture, or another person.

• Example: “Tell me what they lordly name is on this night’s Plutonian shore”

Consonance • Repetition of a consonant noise in a series of words (not necessarily at the beginning).

• The u GL y GL ove lay an GL ed and man GL ed