A lesson for Grade 10 students.

1. LITERARY DEVICES
ENGLISH 10

2. What is a literary device?
It is a technique a writer uses to produce
a special effect in their writing.
An identifiable rule of thumb, convention,
or structure that is employed
in literature and storytelling.
(https://www.yourdictionary.com/literary-device)

3. Literary devices are tools writers use to express
their ideas with artistic depth. These devices can
clarify and emphasize concepts, create resonance
within a narrative, and invite readers to dig a little
deeper into the story’s themes.
What are literary devices?
https://blog.reedsy.com/literary-devices/

4. Why should I understand literary devices?
 It improves one’s writing.
 It helps students to comprehend the
work of others.

5. 1. Allegory
What is It: A work that symbolizes or represents an
idea or event.
Example: The novel Animal Farm by George Orwell
is an allegory for the Russian Revolution, with
characters representing key figures in the
movement.

6. 2. Alliteration
What is It: The repetition of the same or
similar consonant sounds in succession.
Example: She sells seashells by the
seashore.

7. 3. Allusion
What is it: An indirect reference to a person, place, thing,
event, or idea .
Example: The song “American Pie” by Don McLean is full
of allusions to events that occurred in the 1950s and 60s.
For instance, “February made me shiver” is an allusion to
the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly on February 3,
1959.

8. 4. Analogy
What is it: A parallel between disparate ideas, people, things, or
events that is more elaborate than a metaphor or simile.
Example: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other
word would smell as sweet.” —William Shakespeare, Romeo and
Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2
In this instance, Romeo is drawing an analogy between Juliet and a
rose.

9. 5. Foreshadowing
What is it: Hinting at future or subsequent
events to come to build tension in a narrative.
Example: In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth,
the witches portend evil, chanting, “Something
wicked this way comes.”

10. 6. Imagery
What is it: A compilation of sensory details that enable the
reader to visualize the event.
Example: “Now small fowls flew screaming over the yet
yawning gulf; a sullen white surf beat against its steep
sides; then all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea
rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.” —Herman
Melville, Moby-Dick

11. 7. Irony
What is it: An instance of language conveying the opposite
of its literal meaning:
•Verbal irony: speech that conveys the opposite of its literal
meaning
•Situational irony: An event that occurs that is the opposite
of what is expected
•Dramatic irony: Usually applied to theater or literature, an
instance in which the audience knows something the
characters involved do not

12. 7. Irony
Examples:
Verbal Irony: “That’s nice” as a response to an insulting statement is an instance of verbal
irony.
Situational irony: In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus’s parents abandon him to prevent the
prophecy of him killing his father and marrying his mother from coming true. The
abandonment itself leads him to fulfill the prophecy.
Dramatic irony: In Psycho, the audience knows a killer approaching, but Marion does not.

13. 8. Metaphor
What is it: A comparison of two ideas, events,
objects, or people that does not use “like” or “as.”
An extended metaphor is a lengthy metaphor that
continues the comparison for several sentences,
paragraphs, or even pages.

14. 9. Mood
What is it: The general feeling the speaker evokes in the reader through
the atmosphere, descriptions, and other features.
Example:
“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before”
—Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven
Poe evokes an air of mystery in the opening lines of his poem, setting a
dark mood.

15. 10. Onomatopoeia
What is it: A word the is closely associated or
identical to the sound it describes.
Example: Buzz

16. 11. Oxymoron
What is it: A pairing of seemingly contradictory terms used
to convey emphasis or tension.
Example:
“A fine mess”: this is an oxymoronic characterization
because “fine” is typically associated with beauty and order,
while “mess” is the opposite.

17. 12. Synecdoche
What is it: An instance of a part representing
a whole or vice versa.
Example: When someone refers to looking
out at a “sea of faces,” the faces represent
whole people.

18. 13. Tone
What is it: The speaker or narrator’s attitude toward the subject of the
piece, distinct from mood in that it is not used to evoke a particular
feeling in the reader.
Example:
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
—Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
The speaker is evoking a tone of
unhappiness and possible regret
with the words “with a sigh.”

19. 14. Epithet
What is it: is a word, generally an adjective
used NOT to qualify or give information, but to
point out and impart strength or ornament to
diction.
Example: Everything is fair for Justin, the
Just.

20. 15. Simile
What is it: comparison between unlike things
that have one quality in common on which the
comparison is based
Example: The ship is like a plough, plowing
the sea.

21. 16. Personification
What is it: is a figure of speech that ascribes
intelligence or feelings to abstract ideas or
inanimate objects.
Example: The sun smiles sweetly on me.

22. 17. Apostrophe
What is it: the dead are addressed as if they
are living; the absent as if present, and
inanimate objects and abstract ideas as if
they are persons.
Example: Rizal! See the fair hope of
fatherland.

23. 18. Metonymy
What is it: one object may recall another
which it closely suggests
Example: Have you read Shakespeare?

24. 19. Hyperbole
What is it: An exaggerated statement
made for effect
Example: The star player of our basketball
team is taller the hills.

25. 20. Climax
What is it: the intensity of the thought and
emotion gradually increases with each
successive group of words or phrase.
Example: He sacrificed his business, his
home and his honor for political gain.

26. Answer This Activity:
Directions: Identify the literary device/ figure of speech used in the following
sentences.
1. Miser! Such generosity as yours overwhelms me!
2. But thy eternal summer shall not fade.
3. Her eyes were mute and their naked depths reposed an unspoken pain
4. How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon the bank!
5. Poignant memories are bittersweet.
6. O Death! Where is thy sting!
7. I came. I saw. I conquered!
8. There is no “Open Sesame” to the treasures of learning.
9. After the mile run, Harry felt like a wet cornflake.
10.Down swept the chill wind from the mountain peak.

27. Directions: Identify the literary device/ figure of speech used in the following
sentences.
11. The aspiring starlet traded her honor, her family and her friends for full
stardom.
12. The matron is wearing a Givenchy.
13. Deeds show what we are; thoughts what we should be.
14. And Famine walks the land, worms falling from his hands.
15. Men still sigh for the fleshpots of Egypt.
16. It was a painful pleasure to see her go.
17. Alexander, the Great, conquered Europe at thirty-three.
18. How good of you to refuse to help us.
19. The pen is mightier than the sword.
20. Life is like an empty cup, an uncarpeted stairs.

28. References
https://blog.collegevine.com/30-literary-devices-every-high-
schooler-needs-to-know-with-examples/
Workbook in English III (With Interactive and Integrative
Learning Activities) by Pearl Ann Morato

29. THANK YOU!