Literary Devices/ Figure of Speech

1. Balochistan University
Of Engineering And Technology
Khuzdar
BS English (Language and Literature)
Mahjabeen Sajjad
Classical Poetry

3. WHAT IS A
LITERARY DEVICE?

4.  Literary Devices help to construct the author’s meaning.
Literary devices are found in all types of writing:
Fiction
Non-fiction
Poetry

5. SIMILE
Simile is an expression comparing one to another thing using the words “like” or “as”
Example:
 Blind as a bat
 Sweet as sugar
 Brave like lion
 Busy like a bee
 As boundless as ocean
All those moments will be lost in time, like… tears in rain. (Blade Runner)

6. METAPHOR
Metaphor is a comparison of two unlike things without using “like” or “as”
Example:
 He is lion.
 Life is dream.
 He was a statue, waiting to hear the new.
 Is there a black sheep in your friends?

7. PERSONIFICATION
Personification is when a writer gives human qualities to animals or objects.
Example:
My car drank the gasoline in one gulp.
The cat laughed.
My heart was competing with my head.
Time and tide wait for none.

8. OXYMORON
The use of two opposite words together
Example:
 A peaceful war
 He is wise fool.
 It was a sad joy.
 Tragic comedy

9. Hyperbole
The exaggeration of a statement
Example:
 Go and catch a falling star.
Paradise without you would be incomplete.
 She wept oceans of tears.
 I left no stone unturned to achieve my goal. (struggled hard)
 I slept like a rock last night. (sleep soundly)

10. IMAGERY
The writer evokes the five senses or create a picture with words for a reader.
Example:
 The autumn leaves are a blanket on the ground.
 His words felt like a dagger in my heart.
 The houses look like frosted cakes in winter.

11. ALLITERATION
Repetition of the first sound or letter in a number of words or repetition of
the same consonant in the sentence.
Example:
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.
Do not weep, babe, for war
is kind.
Because your father
tumbles in yellow trenches,
Raged at his breast, gulped
and died,
Do not weep
War is kind

12. Assonance
Assonance (pronounced as–uh-nuh ns) is the repetition of the same or similar
vowel sounds within words, phrases, or sentences.
Example:
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…
 She seems to beam rays of
sunshine with her eyes of green.
I wish there was a way to make
her state similar feelings to those
of my soul.

13. Paradox
Reveals something true which at first seems contradictory.
Example:
 less is more
 do the thing you think you cannot do
 the beginning of the end
 if you don’t risk anything, you risk everything
 earn money by spending it
 nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent