Poetic+Devices



Hyperbole- obvious and intentional exaggeration

ex. He's 900 years old.

Satire- the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.

ex. "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift.

Alliteration- the commencement of two or more stressed syllables of a word group either with the same consonant sound or sound group (consonantal alliteration), as in from stem to stern, or with a vowel sound that may differ from syllable to syllable

ex. She sells sea shells by the sea shore.

Onomatopoeia- the formation of a word, as cuckoo or boom, by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent.

ex. Boom!

Rhythm- identity in sound of some part, esp. the end, of words or lines of verse.

ex. There is a bug on my mug.

Oxymoron- a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect.

ex. Cruel Kindness

Metaphor- a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance

ex. The mighty fortress is our god.

Malapropism- an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, esp. by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.

ex. Thou arte to shine?

Analogy- similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based

ex. A street light is like a star. Both provide light at night, both are in predictable locations, both are overhead, and both serve no function in the daytime.

Euphemism- the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt. ex. “To pass away” is a euphemism for “to die.”

Repetition- the act of repeating; repeated action, performance, production, or presentation.

ex. Leaping higher, higher, higher.

Allusion- passing or casual reference; an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication

ex. I am no Prince Hamelet.

Personification- the attribution of a personal nature or character to inanimate objects or abstract notions, esp. as a rhetorical figure.

ex. The wind is screaming at me.

Allegory- Extending a metaphor through an entire speech or passage so that objects, persons, and actions in the text are equated with meanings that lie outside the text.

ex. "And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: Behold! human beings living in an underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets. . . . And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision." (Plato, "Allegory of the Cave" from Book Seven of // The Republic // )