1. Dana Brown-Tsai
English Content
High School (14-18)

2. What are literary devices (terms)?
• Tools and techniques used to understand an
author’s meaning in a work of literature
Simile
Idiom
Onomatopoeia
Metaphor
Irony
Imagery

3. Allegory
• Characters or events symbolizing other ideas

4. Alliteration
• Words used in quick succession that begin
with letters in the same sound group
“While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there
came a tapping...” “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

5. Metaphor
• A figure of speech in which a comparison is made
of two unlike objects
• “Juliet is the sun .” Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

6. Simile
• Comparing two unlike things using “like” or “as
“The late afternoon sky bloomed in the window for
a moment like the blue honey of the
Mediterranean .” The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

7. Symbol
• An object that is repeated throughout a literary work
that swells with meaning
The Fog Represents Insanity
"Right now, she's got the fog machine switched on, and it's
rolling in so fast I can't see a thing but her face, rolling in
thicker and thicker…and the more I think about how nothing
can be helped, the faster the fog rolls in.” One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

8. Imagery
• Author uses words and phrases to help create
mental images
“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” From “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth

9. Irony
• Words used to convey a meaning that is the
opposite of its literal meaning
“One Perfect Rose” by Dorothy Parker

10. Oxymoron
• Figure of speech that combines two
contradictory words or phrases that creates a
rhetorical effect
• Wise fool
• Beautiful villain
• Civil war
• Jumbo shrimp
• Great Depression

11. Foreshadowing
• Words and phrases that give a hint to the
reader of something that is going to happen
First line in the story:
“Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble,
great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the
news of her husband's death.” “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin
Last line in the story:
“When the doctors came they said she had died of heart
disease--of the joy that kills.” “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin

12. Diction
• Tone, mood, attitude, dialect, and style of
writing
The Piano Lesson by August Wilson

13. Personification
• Attaching human traits and characteristics
with inanimate objects and animals
Hey diddle, diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

14. Onomatopoeia
• Refers to words whose very sounds they are
meant to depict

15. Pun
• A word used in a manner to suggest two or more meanings,
usually creating humor
“Wilt Thou forgive that sin where I begun,
Which was my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin, through which I run,
And do run still, though still I do deplore?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,
For I have more.” “A Hymn to God the Father” by
John Donne
John Donne was married to Anne More. The Pun is using “done” and “more."

16. Assonance
• Repetition of sounds produced by vowels
within a sentence or phrase
"Hear the mellow wedding bells" by Edgar Allen Poe

17. Consonance
• Repetition of sounds produced by consonants
within a sentence or phrase
"At midnight, in the month of June,I stand beneath the mystic
moon. An opiate vapor, dewy, dim,Exhales from out her
golden rim,And, softly dripping, drop by drop,Upon the quiet
mountain top,Steals drowsily and musicallyInto the universal
valley. ” by Edgar Allen Poe, The Sleeper

18. Euphemism
• Use of a milder or less abrasive form of a
negative description instead of its original,
unsympathetic form
• Passed away instead of died
• Letting go of someone instead of firing them
• Put to sleep instead of euthanize
• On the streets instead of homeless
• Went away instead of went to prison

19. Metonymy
• When a thing or concept is not called by its
own name but is instead called by a closely
associated name
• “Hands” in Dickens novel means workers
• “Scrooge” is associated with stinginess
• “Hollywood” is associated with the American film
industry
• “The Crown” refers to a King or Queen

20. Rhyme
• The repetition of words or syllables with
similar sounds
“Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the
pleasures prove That valleys, groves, hills, and fields
Woods or steepy mountain yields”
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe