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Poetic Devices 10

Allegory: a story or visual image with a second meaning


partially hidden. It involves a continuous parallel between two
or more levels of meaning. Characters and events have
counterparts outside the story.
Ex. Lord of the Flies

Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sounds
Ex. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Allusion: Passing reference to a literary or historical person,
place or event.

Analogy: illustration of an idea using an example that is similar
or parallel to it in some significant features.

Apostrophe: a figure of speech in which an absent person or
abstract concept is addressed.
Ex. Death, be not proud, though some have called thee mighty
and dreadful

Assonance: repetition of similar or identical vowel sounds
usually in stressed syllables
Ex. Twinkle, twinkle, little star

Hyperbole: a deliberate exaggeration for effect.
Ex. Ive told you a thousand times to walk the dog.

Imagery: language that evokes sensory impressions.
Not just visuals.
Metaphor: a comparison of two unlike objects; saying one is
the other.
Ex. Life is a highway

Onomatopoeia: words that seem to imitate the sounds to
which they refer.
Ex. Buzz, Murmur, Babble

Oxymoron: putting two contradictory words together.
Ex. That girl is pretty ugly.

Paradox: a statement that seems contradictory, yet contains
a basis of truth which reconciles the seeming opposites.
Ex. Art is a form of lying in order to tell the truth.

Parallelism: the arrangement of similarly constructed clauses,
verses or sentences, suggesting some correspondence
between them.

Personification: the giving of human attributes to inanimate
objects.

Pun: a humourous expression that depends on a double
meaning, either between different senses of the same word
or between similar sounding words.
Ex. The ink, like our pig, keeps running out of the pen.

Rhetorical Questions: a question to which a reply is not
required or even wanted. The question is asked for effect;
often a rhetorical question is a way of making a statement.

Satire: exposes the failings of individuals, institutions, or
societies to ridicule or scorn in order to correct or expose
some evil or wrong doing.
Ex. The Daily Show

Simile: comparison of two unlike objects using like or as

Symbol: anything that stands for or represents something
other than itself. An object, scene or action that has some
further significance associated with it.

Tone: a particular way of speaking or writing. Tone may also
describe the general feeling of a piece of work.

Understatement (Litotes): saying something is less than what
it is
Ex. I cut off my arm, but I say its just a scratch.

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