Literary DevicesPoetry Unit: 2014-2015

Definition: spoken or written language that is not cast in poetical measure or rhythm

Example: Any poem that does not rhyme.

Prose

Definition: An autobiographical account of a personal experience recalled from memory, usually written in an informal style; differs from autobiography in scope.

Example: Six word memoirs

Memoir

Definition: An account of a person’s life written, composed, or produced by another person.

Example:

Biography

Definition: An account of a person’s life written, composed, or produced by that same person.

Example:

Autobiography

Definition: The organizational pattern of a text; structure may be apparent in either content or form or both.

Example: abba / abab / or repeition

Structure

Definition: A genre of literature in which individual works are generally recognizable in terms of form and/or structure and figurative use of language

Example:

Poetry

Definition: Precise word choice; selection of words for specific denotative, connotative, or figurative purposes

Example: High Diction with teacher / Lower diction with friends

Diction

Definition: Vivid or figurative language used to represent those things that can be perceived by the five senses: sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures

Example: The sun is red, red joy.

Imagery

Definition: The practice of representing things or ideas by means of other objects or ideas; attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or relationships.

Example: American Flag / White Dove.

Symbolism

Definition: Speech or writing that departs from literal meaning in order to achieve a special effect or meaning; speech or writing employing figures of speech such as similes or metaphors.

Example:

Figurative Language

Definition: The vantage point from which an author tells a story.

Example: 1st person / 2nd person / 3rd person limited / 3rd person Omniscient

Point of View

The reactions a reader has to the form, content, and or beauty of a work and that engender enjoyment or an emotional reaction in that reader.

Aesthetic Effects

Definition: The repetition of initial identical consonant sounds or any vowel sounds in successive or closely associated syllables

Examples: She sells sea-shells down by the sea-shore

Alliteration

Definition: Words whose sounds suggest their meaning.

Example: Buzz / Clang / drip

Onomatopoeia

Definition: The pattern in which rhyme sounds occur in a stanza or an entire poem

Example: AABA / AABA / AABA

Rhyme Scheme

Definition: Off rhyme where the ending consonants rhyme but the initial sounds do not

Example: sown/clown; after/brother

Slant Rhyme

Definition: Giving non-human things (animals,ideas,objects) human like qualities.

Example: The stars danced playfully in the moonlit

sky.

Personification

Definition: A figure of speech in which one thing is compared to another

Example: A sea of troubles

Metaphor

Definition: A figure of speech in which two unlike things are compared using like or as.

Example: My love is like a red rose

Simile

Definition: An exaggeration

Example: I walked A MILLION miles to school

Hyperbole

Definition: Poems that conform to predetermined lines and stanzas

Example: Haiku / Sonnet / Ballad

Fixed Form Poems

Definition: Poems that do not follow any pattern

Example: Any other poem that doesn’t have a specific rhyme pattern or structure

Free Form Poems

Definition: Poems that tell a story

Example: Tears on Santa’s Cheek

Narrative Poem

Definition: A poem, generally brief, that creates a single, unified impression, usually dealing with emotion.

Lyric Poem