Recap Literary devices

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Lesson goals

What are the literary devices in poems/novels/plays? 

Alliteration - FIRST CONSONANTS of stressed meaningful words are the same 

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers 

 busy as bee

 leave in the lurch 

Repetition - using the same words or sentence more than once

A metaphor - a comparison WITHOUT as or like  

He is the black sheep in the family

She is England's rose

A simile - a comparison WITH as or like 

My love is like a red, red rose; She sings like a nightingale.

Personification - to attribute personal nature or human characteristics to something non-human; or the representation of an abstract quality in human form .

A stanza - a unified group of lines in poetry. Such a group may consist of any number of lines. 

Most common are: couplet (two lines); tercet (three lines); quatrain (4 lines), sestet (6 lines, usually two tercets or three couplets) and octave (8 lines, usually two quatrains) 

Hyperbole - an exaggerated statement that's not meant to be taken literally by the reader. It is often used for comedic effect and/or emphasis. 

"I’m so hungry I could eat a horse." The speaker will not literally eat an entire horse but it emphasizes how starved the speaker feels. 

A symbol - something in a story or poem that literally is what it is and stands for something else 

a rose often symbolizes love;

 a dove often symbolizes peace 

Onomatopoeia - a word that sounds like its meaning 

cuckoo, sizzle, buzz, zip

Oxymoron

combining words with opposite meanings (creates dramatic effect and makes readers wonder how the two could be combined)

Awfully good examples of oxymoron :) 

• eloquent silence
• Loving hate
  

Imagery

author provokes sensory details through the use of descriptive language

• The sunset was the most gorgeous they’d ever seen; the clouds were edged with pink and gold.
• The familiar tang of his grandmother’s cranberry sauce reminded him of his youth.

consonance

a series of words (or close together) that have the same consonant sound

Toss the glass, boss.

It will creep and beep while you sleep.

assonance

a series of words (or close together) that have the same vowel sound

Do good have good (Repetition of the /oo/ vowel sound)

No pain, no gain (Repetition of the /ai/ vowel sound)

Note that these are sound techniques and therefore may not be reflected in spelling, i.e. “do you like blue” is also considered assonance

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;

1. repetition
2. assonance
3. alliteration
4. personification

You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes

1. enjambments
2. personification
3. hyperbole
4. simile

How cruel is the story of Eve,
What responsibility it has
In history
For misery.

1. consonance
2. metaphor
3. personification
4. sonnet

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”

1. alliteration
2. hyperbole
3. enjambments
4. irony

you couldn’t catch a chipmunk if all its legs were
broken and it was glued to the palm of your hand.

1. repetition
2. consonance
3. irony
4. hyperbole

When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

1. assonance
2. consonance
3. hyperbole
4. irony

A library is like an island in the middle of a vast sea of ignorance, particularly if the library is very tall and the surrounding area has been flooded.

1. simile
2. metaphor
3. hyperbole
4. oxymoron

we are for eachother: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life’s not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis

1. simile
2. metaphor
3. irony
4. hyperbole

And so today, my world it smiles
Your hand in mine, we walk the miles,

1. personification
2. repetition
3. simile
4. consonance

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”

1. simile
2. metaphor
3. enjambement
4. hyperbole

Love is a song that never ends
One simple theme repeating
Like the voice of a heavenly choir
Love’s sweet music flows on

1. metaphor
2. simile
3. hyperboly
4. irony

Explain what this metaphor means:
"He’s buried in a sea of paperwork."

Explain the simile in your own words:
"Time was passing like a hand waving from a train I wanted to be on."

Lesson goals

• What are the literary devices in poems/novels/plays?
• Can you name one? Can you give an example? 

• Which literary devices can you find in these two poems? 

1- Vegetarians - R. McGough An example? 

2- Incident - Norman MacCraig An example?