A Lecture Upon The Shadow Literary Devices – Flashcards

Also called head rhyme or initial rhyme, the repetition of the initial sounds (usually consonants) of stressed syllables in neighboring words or at short intervals within a line or passage, usually at word beginnings, as in "wild and woolly," or the line from Examples: Shelley's "The Cloud": I bear light shade for the leaves when laid o Li-Young Lee's "Out of Hiding": Someone said my name in the garden,

An implied or indirect reference to something assumed to be known, such as a historical event or personage, a well-known quotation from literature, or a famous work of art. Example: Keats' allusion to Titian's painting of Bacchus in "Ode to a Nightingale." o Vikram Seth's allusion to the Golden Gatein "From Golden Gate." o Carol Ann Duffy's allusion to Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's wife, in "Anne Hathaway."

The relatively close juxtaposition of the same or similar vowel sounds, but with different end consonants in a line or passage, thus a vowel rhyme. Examples: date and fade. o In Daniel Hall's "Love-Letter Burning": "The archivist in us shudders at such ..."

The close repetition of the same end consonants of stressed syllables with differing vowel sounds. Examples: boat and night, or the words drunk and milk in the final line of Coleridge's "Kubla Khan." o Louise Erdrich's "The Butcher's Wife": The braids tapped deep and flourished

The choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language in a literary work; the manner or mode of verbal expression, particularly with regard to clarity and accuracy. The diction of a poem can range from colloquial to formal, from literal to figurative, or from concrete or abstract. This can suit your tone.

The repetition of particular sounds, syllables, words or lines in poetry. Examples: Robert Burns' "A Red Red Rose"

Denoting a line of verse in which a logical or rhetorical pause occurs at the end of the line, usually marked with a period, comma, or semicolon. Examples: Lavinia Greenlaw in "Skin Full": I laugh till my jaw unhinges, we hold me in with ribboning fingers

The continuation of the sense and therefore the grammatical construction beyond the end of a line of verse or the end of a couplet. Examples: Jorie Graham's "At Luca Signorelli's Resurrection of the Body" From above the green-winged angels blare down trumpets and light. But they don't care,

A metaphor which is drawn-out beyond the usual word or phrase to extend throughout a stanza or an entire poem, usually by using multiple comparisons between the unlike objects or ideas. Examples: Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar," demonstrates the effectiveness of this device: metaphorically, he compares a sandbar in the Thames River over which ships cannot pass until high tide, with the natural time for completion of his own life's journey from birth to death.

The use of words, phrases, symbols, and ideas in such as way as to evoke mental images and sense impressions. Figurative language is often characterized by the use of figures of speech, elaborate expressions, sound devices, and syntactic departures from the usual order of literal language.

A form which conforms to no set rules of traditional verse. The free in free verse refers to the freedom from fixed patterns of meter and rhyme, but writers of free verse employ familiar poetic devices such as assonance, alliteration, imagery, caesura, figures of speech etc. The term is often used in its French language form, vers libre. Also, in the 20th century, it was the chosen medium of the Imagists and was widely adopted by American and English poets. Example: Walt Whitman's "By the Bivouac's Fitful Flame" Side note: Poorly written free verse can be viewed simply as prose with arbitrary line breaks. Well-written free verse can provide eloquent and beautiful insights into the human experience.

A bold, deliberate overstatement. Not intended to be taken literally, it is used as a means of emphasizing the truth of a statement. Examples: "I'd give my right arm for a piece of pizza." o Sylvia Plath's "The Colossus": I crawl like an ant in mourning o Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn": Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world.

The elements in a literary work used to evoke mental images, not only of the visual sense, but of sensation and emotion as well. While most commonly used in reference to figurative language, imagery is a variable term which can apply to any and all components of a poem that evoke sensory experience and emotional response, whether figurative or literal, and also applies to the concrete things so imaged.

A 20th century movement in poetry advocating free verse, new rhythmic effects, colloquial language, and the expression of ideas and emotions, with clear, well-defined images, rather than through romanticism or symbolism. Examples: William Carlos Williams "The Red Wheelbarrow" and Ezra Pounds "In a Station of the Metro"

Strictly speaking, the formation or use of words which imitate sounds, but the term is generally expanded to refer to any word whose sound is suggestive of its meaning whether by imitation or through cultural inference. Examples: like whispering, clang, and sizzle

A basic artistic device, fundamental to any conception of poetry. It is a highly effective unifying force; the repetition of sound, syllables, words, syntactic elements, lines, stanzaic forms, and metrical patterns establishes cycles of expectation which are reinforced with each successive fulfillment. Examples: H.D. (Hilda Doolittle's) "Wine Bowl" o W.H. Auden's "Spain 1937"

The poet's or persona's attitude in style or expression toward the subject, e.g., loving, ironic, bitter, pitying, fanciful, solemn, etc. Tone can also refer to the overall mood of the poem itself, in the sense of a pervading atmosphere intended to influence the readers' emotional response and foster expectations of the conclusion. Examples: Poe's "The Raven" or "Annabel Lee" both reflect a very morose tone

Comparing two unlikely things without using like or as Example- a friendship is a ring

Comparison using like or as His eyes sparkled like crystals on display.

To give qualities to inanimate objects. The clock shimmed on the table.