List of Literary Devices. (literature students).

1. Alliteration
2. Alliteration is the repetition of similar sounds, generally at the beginning of words and usually by means of consonants or consonant
3. sound clusters in a group of words. (“The willfull waterbeds help me thrall, / the laving laurel turned my tide.”)
4. Allusion
5. In literature, this is a reference to another work. (In the Police song “Wrapped Around Your Finger”, Sting writes, “trapped between
6. the Scylla and Charybdis” in reference to Homer’s Oddyssey .)
7. Anecdote
8. A very short story that is told to make a point.
9. Assonance
10. Is the repetition of vowel sounds in non-rhyming words.
11. ( Hear the mellow wedding bells . — Edgar Allan Poe, "The Bells" or And murmuring of innumerable bees - Alfred Lord Tennyson,
12. The Princess VII.203)
13. Consonance
14. is the repetition, at close intervals, of the final consonants of accented syllables or important words especially at the ends of words
15. (as in blank and think or strong and string or Lady lounges lazily and Dark deep dread .)
16. Flashback
17. A scene in a short story, a novel, a narrative poem, or a play that interrupts the action to show an event that happened earlier.
18. Foreshadowing
19. The use of hints or clues in a narrative to suggest what action is to come. Writers use foreshadowing to create interest and build
20. suspense.
21. Hyperbole
22. Hyperbole is an exaggeration of fact used either for serious or comic effect. (“Her eyes opened wide as saucers.”)
23. Imagery
24. Imagery refers to the way words create or suggest pictures in the reader’s mind – what we see, hear, smell, feel, or taste. (“The
25. pungent fragrance of orange blossoms sweetly drifted through the air.” / ‘The stunning blue waters sparkled with brilliant clarity.’)
26. Irony
27. A contrast or an incongruity between what is stated and what is meant or between what is expected to happen and what actually
28. happens. The three kinds of irony are verbal irony, in which a writer or speakers says one thing and means something entirely
29. different, dramatic irony, in which a reader or an audience knows something that a character in the story or play does not know,
30. and irony of situation, in which the writer shows a discrepancy between the expected result of some action or situation and its
31. actual result. (“It was ironic when the marriage counselor himself got a divorce.”)
32. Metaphor
33. A metaphor is a comparison that is only suggested or implied, with no clear indication of a relation between the two items. (“Her
34. face is a wrinkled leaf.”)
35. Motif
36. A reoccurring feature, such as a name, an image, or a phrase, in a work of literature. A motif generally contributes in some way to
37. the theme of a short story, novel, poem, or play.
38. Onomatopoeia
39. Onomatopoeia is the use of a word in which the sound imitates or suggests its meaning. (Hiss, clang, snap buzz.)
40. Oxymoron
41. A phrase where two or more words are diametrically opposed. (Sweet sorrow, wise fool, honest thief, short eternity)
42. Paradox
43. A statement that reveals a kind of truth, although it seems at first to be self-contradictory and untrue.
44. Personification
45. A figure of speech in which something nonhuman is given human qualities.(“Grey mist on the sea’s face”)
46. Satire
47. A kind of writing that holds up to ridicule or contempt the weaknesses and wrongdoings of individuals, groups, institutions, or
48. humanity in general. The aim of satirists is to set a moral standard for society, and they attempt to persuade the reader to set their
49. point of view through the force of laughter.
50. Simile
51. A figure of speech comparing two essentially unlike things through the use of words “like” or “as”. (My love is like a rose)
52. Symbol
53. Any object, person, place, or action that has a meaning in itself and that also stands for something larger than itself, such as a
54. quality, an attitude, a belief, or a value. Such as a rose if often a symbol of love.