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Literary Devices Notes

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150 views6 pages

Literary Devices Notes

Uploaded by

mouliksingla786
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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ENGLISH

POETIC DEVICES (NOTES)

LEARNING OUTCOMES:-

The students will be able to


- tell the definitions of poetic devices.
- identify the poetic devices in different poems
mentioned in their syllabus.

What are poetic devices?


Poetic devices are tools that a poet can use to create rhythm,
enhance a poem's meaning, or intensify a mood or feeling. They
are used to produce a greater, more pleasant and distinctive
effect.

1. Alliteration
Alliteration can be defined as the noticeable repetition of same
first consonant sounds in a closely connected group of words. For
instance,

 Fast and Furious,


 Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
 Andrew patted the pony

2. Assonance
It is a repeated vowel sound in words that are together or near
each other in a sentence. For instance:

 That solitude which suits abstruser musings


 on a proud round cloud in white high night

3. Consonance
Consonance is also like Assonance, but here consonants are near
or together and repetitive. For instance:

 Cool Soul
 He struck a streak of bad luck.
 When Billie looked at the trailer, she smiled and laughed.

4. Onomatopoeia (sound words)


pronounced as on-uh-mat-uh–pee–uh ; is defined as a word
which imitates the natural sounds of a thing. It creates a sound
effect that mimics the thing described, making the description
more expressive and interesting. For instance:

 The buzzing bee flew away.


 The sack fell into the river with a splash.
5. Anaphora
The deliberate repetition of the first part of the sentence in order
to achieve an artistic effect is known as Anaphora. For instance:

“Every day, every night, in every way,

I am getting better and better.”

“Five years have passed;


Five summers, with the length of
Five long winters! and again I hear these waters…”
6. Allusion
An allusion is an indirect reference to a place, person or an idea of
political, historical or cultural significance. It is usually a brief
reference which does not describe the person or thing in a
detailed manner. It is more like a passing comment. Examples:-

 Don’t act like a Romeo in front of her.”


 This place is like a Garden of Eden.
7. Imagery

Imagery is language used by poets, novelists and other writers to


create images in the mind of the reader. Imagery includes
figurative and metaphorical language to improve the reader's
experience through their senses. (appeals to five senses)
Examples:-

 It was dark and dim in the forest.


The words “dark” and “dim” are visual images.
 The children were screaming and shouting in the fields.
“Screaming” and “shouting” appeal to our sense of hearing,
or auditory sense.
 He whiffed the aroma of brewed coffee.
“Whiff” and “aroma” evoke our sense of smell.
 The girl ran her hands on a soft satin fabric.
The idea of “soft” in this example appeals to our sense of
touch.
 The fresh and juicy orange is very cold and sweet.
“Juicy” and “sweet” – when associated with oranges – have
an effect on our sense of taste.

Imagery needs the help of figures of speech


like simile, metaphor, personification, and onomatopoeia, in
order to appeal to the bodily senses.

8. Irony
Irony is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way
that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning
of the words. It may also be a situation that ends up in quite a
different way than what is generally expected. Examples:-
“Oh great ! Now you have broken my new camera.”
Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.

9. Metaphor
It is a comparison between two, unlike things; shows the
resemblance between two completely different things. Here, the
comparison is direct and not hidden. Unlike a simile, here we do
not use words such as ‘Like’ or ‘as’ for the comparison. Examples:
My brother is the black sheep of the family
War is the mother of all battles

10. Oxymoron
In oxymoron, two contradictory ideas are put together side by
side to for the sake of emphasis. The common
oxymoron phrase is a combination of an adjective proceeded by
a noun with contrasting meanings, such as “cruel kindness”or
“living death”
Eg:- The channel was repeating the old news again and again.

11. Personification
It is a poetic device in which an animal, idea or thing is given
human characteristics. The Non-human object is depicted like
humans. Examples:
Time and tide wait for none.
The fire swallowed the entire forest.
12. Transferred Epithet
A transferred epithet is a figure of speech in which a modifier
(usually an adjective) qualifies a noun other than the person or
thing it is actually describing. In other words, the modifier
or epithet is transferred from the noun it is meant to describe to
another noun in the sentence.
“I had a wonderful day." The day is not in itself wonderful.
The speaker had a wonderful day.
"Seema had an unhappy marriage."

13. Simile
A simile is a way of making a comparison. It shows the similarity
between two opposite things. Simile uses words such as like or as
to draw a comparison. Examples

 “O my Luve’s like a red, red rose


 At exam time, the high school student was as busy as a bee.
14. Enjambment

Moving over from one line to another without a


terminating punctuation mark. It can be defined as a thought or
sense, phrase or clause, in a line of poetry that does not come
to an end at the line break, but moves over to the next
line. Example:

I think I had never seen


A verse as beautiful as a flower.

15. Repetition
A literary device that repeats the same words or phrases a few
times to make an idea clearer and more memorable. Example:-

When they came out of the cinema hall they all agreed, the film
was a
waste of money, it was a waste of time and energy.

16. Refrain
A refrain is a line or group of lines that is regularly repeated,
usually at the end of a stanza in a poem. A poem may have more
than one refrain. Example:

Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening – Robert Frost

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,


But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

17. Symbolism

It is an object representing another, to give an entirely different


meaning that is much deeper and more significant. Symbols do
shift their meanings depending on the context they are used in.
“A chain,” for example, may stand for “union” as well as
“imprisonment”. Example:

 Black is a symbol that represents evil or death.


 A ladder may stand as a symbol for a connection between
heaven and earth.

18. Synecdoche
a figure of speech which allows a part to stand for a whole or
for a whole to stand for a part. When using synecdoche, you
refer to your car as your “wheels”

The word "sails" is often used to refer to a whole ship.


The word "bread" can be used to represent food in general or
money (e.g. he is the breadwinner; music is my bread and
butter).
If "the world" is not treating you well, that would not be the
entire world but just a part of it that you've encountered.

If someone says "the restaurant" was lovely, they either mean


the wait staff, the food, or the environment.

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