LITERARY DEVICES

ANAPHORA describes a poem that repeats the same phrase at the beginning of each line.

Consider “The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee” by N. Scott Momaday.

I am a feather on the bright sky

I am the blue horse that runs in the plain
I am the fish that rolls, shining, in the water
I am the shadow that follows a child
I am the evening light, the lustre of meadows
I am an eagle playing with the wind
I am a cluster of bright beads
I am the farthest star
I am the cold of dawn
I am the roaring of the rain
I am the glitter on the crust of the snow
I am the long track of the moon in a lake
I am a flame of four colors
I am a deer standing away in the dusk
I am a field of sumac and the pomme blanche
I am an angle of geese in the winter sky
I am the hunger of a young wolf
I am the whole dream of these things
A METAPHOR is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two non-similar things. As a literary device, metaphor
creates implicit comparisons without the express use of “like” or “as.” Metaphor is a means of asserting that two things are
identical in comparison rather than just similar. This is useful in literature for using specific images or concepts to state
abstract truths.

Difference Between Metaphor and Simile

It can be difficult in some instances to distinguish between metaphor and simile as literary devices. Both are figures of
speech designed to create comparisons. In fact, simile is a subset of metaphor. However, they are distinguished by the
presence of one of two words: “like” and “as.” Metaphors create direct comparisons without using either of these words.
Similes feature either like or as in making a comparison.

“All the world is a stage

All men and women merely players” As you like it

 “The sun was a toddler insistently refusing to go to bed: It was past eight thirty and still light.”—Fault in Our Stars, John
Green

A CONCEIT is, essentially, an extended metaphor. A conceit must run through the entire poem as the poem’s central device.

APOSTROPHE : Apostrophe describes any instance when the speaker talks to a person or object that is absent from the
poem. Poets employ apostrophe when they speak to the dead or to a long lost lover. Apostrophe is often employed in
admiration or longing, as we often talk about things far away in wistfulness or praise.

REPETITION : Last but not least among the top literary devices in poetry, repetition is key. We’ve already seen repetition in
some of the aforementioned poetic devices, like anaphora and conceit. Still, repetition deserves its own special mention.

 And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting (The Raven)

 Ashes To Ashes, dust to dust (English Book of Common Prayer)

  PARALLELISM is the repetition of grammatical elements in writing and speaking. Parallelism influences the
grammatical structure of sentences but can also impact the meaning of thoughts and ideas being presented. When
writers utilize parallelism as a figure of speech, this literary device extends beyond just a technique of
grammatical sentence structure. It may feature repetition of a word or phrase for emphasis, or it can be used as a
literary device to create a parallel position between opposite ideas through grammatical elements as a means of
emphasizing contrast.
 TO ERR IS HUMAN, TO FORGIVE, DIVINE.( Alexander Pope )
 “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” (Neil Armstrong)

ALLITERATION is a literary device that reflects repetition in two or more nearby words of initial consonant sounds.
Alliteration does not refer to the repetition of consonant letters that begin words, but rather the repetition of the consonant
sound at the beginning of words.

Alliteration, consonance, and assonance are all literary devices that are utilized as a means of creating emphasis, attention,
significance, and importance to words in poetry, prose, or speech. These literary devices can be used for both artistic and
rhetorical effects. Alliteration almost exclusively refers to the repetition of initial consonant sounds across the start of several
words in a line of text.

The repetition of vowel sounds is generally excluded from alliteration and categorized instead as assonance. Assonance
refers to the repetition of vowel sounds, whether at the beginning, middle, or end, of words in close proximity to each other
in a line of text. Consonance, of which alliteration is considered a subcategory, is the repetition of consonant sounds in
successive words. Like assonance, consonance refers to the repetition of these sounds at the beginning, middle, or end of
words. However, alliteration is limited to consonant sounds repeated at the beginning of words.

Although alliteration and consonance have the same consonant repetitions, the repetition in alliteration occurs as mentioned
above. On the other hand, a consonance does not necessarily have the same initial sounds as the neighboring words. The
sounds in a consonance could occur even in the words used in the same verse but at different ends. For example, a babbling
baby is an alliteration as well as a consonance.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”

RHYME is the use of corresponding sounds in lines of writing. This can occur at the end of lines or in the middle. The most
commonly resigned type of rhyme is full-end rhymes. These appear at the end of lines and rhyme perfectly with one another.

 Alternate rhyme the first and third lines of a stanza rhyme, and the second and fourth lines rhyme, ABAB. This is
used in poems with four or eight-line stanzas—for example, the first lines of ‘Neither Out Far not in Deep‘ by Robert
Frost.
 Triplet: uses a rhyme scheme of AAA in sets of three. For example, ‘Upon Julia’s Clothes‘ by Robert Herrick.
 Couplet: uses a rhyme scheme of AA in sets of two. For example, ‘A Poison Tree‘ by William Blake.
 Ballad: contains three stanzas and uses the rhyme scheme ABABBCBC.
 Shakespearean Sonnet: uses iambic pentameter and rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG. For example, ‘Sonnet 18: Shall I
compare thee to a summer’s day‘ by William Shakespeare.
BLANK VERSE is a literary term that refers to poetry written in unrhymed but metered lines, almost always iambic
pentameter. “Iambic pentameter” refers to the meter of the poetic line: a line of poetry written this way is composed of five
“iambs,” groups of two syllables that fall into an “unstressed-stressed” pattern: famously, like a heartbeat: buh-BUM, buh-
BUM.

Of Man’s first disobedience and the fruit

Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste

Brought death into the world and all our woe

With loss of Eden till one greater Man

Restore us and regain the blissful seat

Sing Heav’nly Muse, that on the secret top

Of Oreb or of Sinai didst inspire

That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed,

In the beginning, how the heav’ns and earth

Rose out of Chaos. (1-10)

METER is the pattern of beats in a line of poetry. It is a combination of the number of beats and arrangement of stresses.

In literature, a FOOT refers to a unit of meter in poetry. It is a grouping of stressed and/or unstressed syllables.

Below are the most common types of meter. Depending on the selected meter, it may be easier or hard to consistently use it
throughout a poem. These patterns all have a specific number of syllables.

 Iamb: contains one unstressed and one stressed syllable.

 Trochee: contains one stressed and one unstressed syllable.
 Spondee: contains two stressed syllables.
 Anapest: consists of three beats, two unstressed and one stressed.
 Dactyl: consists of three beats, one stressed and two unstressed.
The above patterns refer to the arrangement of stresses. Below, readers can find a few of the most common number of feet.

 Trimeter: three beats per line

 Tetrameter: four beats per line
 Pentameter: five beats per line (one of the most popular in the English language)