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❏Commonly Used Literary Devices

1. Metaphors, also known as direct comparisons, are one of the most common literary devices. A
metaphor is a statement in which two objects, often unrelated, are compared to each other.

- The English assignment was a breeze.

2. Similes, also known as indirect comparisons, are similar in construction to metaphors, but they
imply a different meaning. Like metaphors, two unrelated objects are being compared to each
other. Unlike a metaphor, the comparison relies on the words “like” or “as.”

*Below is a lullaby that contains a simile. Underline the part which contains the simile and
circle the object to which it is being compared to.

“Twinkle twinkle little star, / How I wonder what you are, /

Up above the world so high, / Like a diamond in the sky”

3. An analogy is an argumentative comparison: it argues that two things have equal weight,
whether that weight be emotional, philosophical, or even literal. Because analogical literary
devices operate on comparison, it can be considered a form of metaphor.

- Making pasta is as easy as one, two, three.

- You have to be as busy as a bee to get good grades in high school.
- Finding that lost dog will be like finding a needle in a haystack.

* common analogy structure = “A is as B” or “A is to B”

= “A is to B as C is to D”

4. Alliteration is a phonetic structure and repeated usage of sound or letter used in the first
syllable of a word. It is considered the oldest poetic tool that is generally used for two or more
words in a poem.

- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

- Syed sat in the center of the circle.

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5. Allusions is abrief, intentional reference to a historical, mythic, or literary person, place, event,
or movement. Most allusions, including these examples, refer to people, concepts, or events,
often coming from an external piece of media like a book, movie, or artwork. For example, you
might hear someone say they went “down a rabbit hole” when researching a topic. This
doesn’t mean they literally found a burrow. Instead, this phrase is an allusion to Lewis
Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland that communicates the speaker spent more time than they
planned reading about an interesting or unusual idea. Similarly, you may have called someone
a “Scrooge” when they were being greedy, alluding to Dickens’A Christmas Carol.
However, internal allusions in a piece of writing can also make reference to something that
occurred earlier within a text.

*Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” contains allusions to

We were both young when I first saw you

I close my eyes and the flashback starts
I'm standing there
On a balcony in summer air
See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns
See you make your way through the crowd
And say, "Hello"
Little did I know

That You were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles,

And my daddy said, “Stay away from Juliet.”

*To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

“Are we poor, Atticus?”
Atticus nodded. “We are indeed.”
Jem’s nose wrinkled. “Are we as poor as the Cunninghams”?
“Not exactly. The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers, and the crash hit them hardest.”

6. Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses,
or sentences. It adds emphasis and emotion to words, and also makes them more memorable.

We went to the beach. We went into the ocean. We went to the beachside bar for drinks. We
returned to the hotel and took a nap. We went out later and had a fun night.

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“We Shall Fight on the Beaches” -Winston Churchill

“We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on
the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we
shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight
on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills.
We shall never surrender.”

7. Symbolism combines a lot of the ideas presented in metaphor and imagery. Essentially, a
symbol is the use of an object to represent a concept—it’s kind of like a metaphor, except
more concise! Symbols are everywhere in the English language, and we often use these
common literary devices in speech and design without realizing it. The following are very
common examples of symbolism:
- white dove =
- red rose =
- sheep =
- light bulb switching on =
- green =

8. Personification is exactly what it sounds like: giving human attributes to nonhuman objects. Also
known as anthropomorphism, personification is a powerful way to foster empathy in your
readers. Think about personification as if it’s a specific type of imagery. You can describe a
nonhuman object through the five senses, and do so by giving it human descriptions.

*(using sight): The car ran a marathon down the highway.

(using sound): The car coughed, hacked, and spluttered.
(using touch): The car was smooth as a baby’s bottom.
(using taste): The car tasted the bitter asphalt.
(using smell): The car needed a cold shower.
(using mental events): The car remembered its first owner fondly.

9. Hyperbole is just a dramatic word for being over-dramatic. Basically, hyperbole refers to any sort
of exaggerated description or statement.
- I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.
- That movie was an eternity long.
- It was a brutally hot 75 degrees Fahrenheit. The April spring sun boiled blood and sent
birds exploding. I’m sorry that I’m mowing my lawn on THE SURFACE OF THE SUN. (…)
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10. Irony is when the writer describes something by using opposite language. As a popular English
poetic device, it is actually a figure of speech that helps us understand the difference between
reality and appearance. In other words, irony highlights the difference between “what seems to
be” and“what is.” In literature, irony can describe dialogue, but it also describes ironic
situations: situations that proceed in ways that are elaborately contrary to what one would
expect.

- You laughed at a person who slipped stepping on a banana peel and the next thing you
know, you slipped too.
- A fire station burning down.
- Someone posting on Instragram that social media is a waste of time.
- a pilot having a fear of heights
- “Not Waving But Drowning”-Stevie Smith
“Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still, he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.”

11. An onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like the noise it describes. Some onomatopoeias can
be found in the dictionary, such as “Flash!”, “Bang!”, “Wham!”, and etc. However,
writers make up onomatopoeia words all the time, so while the word “ptoo” definitely
sounds like a person spitting, you won’t find it in Merriam Webster’s Dictionary.

*Below is a poem “Honky Tonk in Cleveland, Ohio” by Carl Sandburg. Circle all of the
onomatopoeias in the poem.

It’s a jazz affair, drum crashes and cornet razzes.

The trombone pony neighs and the tuba jackass snorts.
The banjo tickles and titters too awful.
The chippies talk about the funnies in the papers.
The cartoonists weep in their beer.

12. Rhyme is widely used while framing poems. They play a decisive role in adding more charm
and mood in the poem. It is a tool that brings music to the poem in a proper rhythmic
structure. Internal rhyme is just what it sounds like: two rhyming words juxtaposed inside of
the line, rather than at the end of the line.

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“The Raven”- Edgar Allan Poe

13. Assonance is when two or more words that are close to each other repeat the same vowel
sounds. However, they commence with different consonant sounds.
“The crumbling thunder of seas” (Robert Louis Stevenson)
“Strips of tinfoil winking like people” (Sylvia Plath)

14. Consonance is used in both prose and poetry. It can be understood as the repetition of sounds
that are produced by the consonants in a phrase or a sentence.

Toss the glass, boss / Dawn goes down /

Don’t creep and beep while grandpa falls asleep

Exercise: Find examples of literary devices used in poems, prose, or other text types and list three
examples below to share with your partner.

1. __________________

2. _________________

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3. __________________

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References

Allusion. (2024). In: Glossary of Poetic Terms. [online] Poetry Foundation. Available at:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/education/glossary/allusion [Accessed 8 Nov. 2024].
‌
Frost, R. and Edward Connery Lathem (1972). The poetry of Robert Frost. London: Cape.
‌
Glatch, S. (2020). 12 Literary Devices in Poetry: Identifying Poetic Devices. [online] Writers.com. Available at:
https://writers.com/literary-devices-in-poetry.

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