Literary devices

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

What literary devices can you name?

Some repetition

Simile: Comparison using 'like' or 'as'. 

                My love is like a red, red rose.

                His roar is as loud as a lion's

Metaphor: Comparison without 'like' or 'as'

                Time is money.

                We are a billion beatiful hearts

cont'd

Metonymy: Metonymy is a figure of speech in which an object or idea is                                    referred to by the name of something closely associated with it,                            as opposed to by its own name. Metonymy involves a word or                                  phrase substituting or standing in for another word or phrase.

    John works in Silicon Valley.

     I  am loyal to the Crown.

Personification: giving inanimate objects or abstract ideas human                                         characteristics.

 The flower dances in the rain

Cont'd

Irony:

Verbal irony: occurs when a speaker or narrator says one things while meaning the opposite.

“It is easy to stop smoking. I’ve done it many times.”

Situational irony: occurs when a situation turns out differently from what one would normally expect—though often the twist is oddly appropriate

A deep sea diver’s drowning in a bathtub is ironic.

Cont'd

Tautology: expressing the same thing, an idea, or saying, two or more times.

“In my opinion, I think he is wrong”

“Bits and pieces”

Pleonasm: unneccesary repetition of a quality that is inseparable from the idea mentioned. Sometimes this is a mistake, in poetry, this is often on purpose

“White snow”

“They offered free gifts to us”

Cont'd

Euphemism: when an expression loses its literal meaning and refers to something else, often in order to hide its unpleasantness

“Kick the bucket”

“Please sit on your hind-quarters”

Hyperbole: a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration. It may be used for either serious or comic effect.

“It was so cold, I saw polar bears wearing jackets.”

These high heels are killing me.

My uncle made it to Wall Street.

1. Personification
2. Pleonasm
3. Metonymy
4. Hyperbole

It’s déjà vu all over again!

1. Pleonasm
2. Tautology
3. Simile
4. Metaphor

I wandered lonely as a cloud.

1. Pleonams
2. Tautology
3. Simile
4. Metaphor

Whither wilt thou wander wayfarer.

The teenager’s stomach was a bottomless pit.

Let me tell you ‘bout the birds and the bees.

And it seems to me you lived your life, like a candle in the wind.

The man who used to live next door is a single bachelor.

1. Pleonasm
2. Hyperbole
3. Metaphor
4. Tautology

I’m so sad I’m drowning in tears.

1. Pleonasm
2. Hyperbole
3. Metaphor
4. Tautology