1. LITERARY DEVICES
2nd nine weeks/ English 2

2. EXTENDED
METAPHOR
Definition: A metaphor that continues
over multiple sentences, and that is
sometimes extended throughout an
entire work.

3. EXAMPLE
But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief…—Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet
What is being compared throughout the above lines?

4. EXAMPLE 2
Hope by Emily Dickinson
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune–without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
What is hope compared to throughout
the poem?

5. IRONY
The result of a circumstance is the opposite of what might be
expected.
Verbal Irony: the meaning intended by a speaker differs from
the meaning understood by one or more characters.
Situational Irony: actions often have an effect exactly
opposite of what is intended.
Dramatic Irony: the reader or audience knows what is
happening while one or more characters do not know.
http://www.slideshare.net/larchmeany1/4-
ironyverbalsituationaldramatic

6. IMAGERY
Any description meant to appeal to the senses. Used to
create tone in writing.
"And then I see her, the blood drained from her face, hands
clenched in fists at her sides, walking with stiff, small steps
up toward the stage, passing me, and I see the back of her
blouse has become untucked and hangs out over her skirt.‖
-Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
Can you picture it? Then it is imagery. What tone is created in
the sentences used above?

7. EXAMPLES

8. SATIRE
A literary work that seeks to criticize and correct the behavior
of human beings and their institutions (religious,
government) by means of humor, wit, and ridicule.
South Park and The Simpsons heavily use satire in their
episodes to criticize or make fun of what is happening in
society, government, and religion.

9. EXAMPLES
In “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt
Vonnegut uses satire to criticize
governments that promote
equality like communism.

10. SYMBOLISM
Expressing the invisible or intangible like love with tangible
objects.
Symbolism in The Hunger Games:
The mockingjay represents defiance in the novel, with the
bird’s symbolism deriving initially from its origins. The
mockingjay, we learn, came about as a result of a failed
project by the Capitol to spy on the rebellious districts, and
since then the bird has served as a reminder of this failure
and the districts’ recalcitrance—Katniss describes them as
―something of a slap in the face to the Capitol.‖

11. EXAMPLES
What does this symbolize?

12. PUN
A play on words that sound the
same (or at least similar) but
have different meanings.

13. I told the board of
EXAMPLES
education, I was
bored of education
(Chino XL)
Energizer Bunny
arrested -- charged
with battery.

14. TONE
Attitude toward the audience and/or subject matter by the
author. Your tone of voice lets people know how you feel. In
the same way, an author uses words to convey how he or she
feels about a subject.
"Here's much to do with hate, but more with love," – Romeo
and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Set at the beginning of
the play, this sentence indicates that the story will be a love
story but it will be one with a somber or sad note, rather than
a happy ending.

15. EXAMPLE
The Road Not Taken In leaves no step had trodden black.
By Robert Frost Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
And sorry I could not travel both I doubted if I should ever come back.
And be one traveler, long I stood
I shall be telling this with a sigh
And looked down one as far as I could
Somewhere ages and ages hence*:
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
Then took the other, as just as fair, I took the one less traveled by,
And having perhaps the better claim, And that has made all the difference.
Because it was grassy and wanted
wear;
*in the future
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay

16. POETIC DEVICES
Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds in words that don’t rhyme
Example: We could find the end of a road, meet the sky on out Seventeenth…
Consonance: the repetition of consonant sounds within and at the end of words
Example: Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me; Taking me back down the vista of years,
till I see
Repetition: a sound, word, phrase, or line that is repeated
I loved her and sometimes she loved me too. She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
Line breaks in poetry
End-stopped: lines of poetry end at a normal speech pause, as in these lines form ―Tonight I Can
Write…‖
The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.
This emphasizes the line endings and makes a reader view each line as a complete unit of
meaning.
Enjambed: lines of poetry that run on without a natural pause, as in ―Fifteen‖
South of the bridge on Seventeenth
I found back of the willows one summer
day a motorcycle with engine running
Iambic pentameter: five units of iambs. 1 iamb= one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable.