Literary Devices

Repetition Returning to the same word, the same phrase or the same construction, at the start of successive verses or sentences (anaphora) or throughout the text, to give rhythm, emphasis or insistence. Rhetorical Question Question asked without expecting an answer, either because the answer is already implied or because what matters is the doubt it exposes. Antithesis Setting opposing ideas or words side by side, so that one lights up the other through contrast. Foreshadowing A sign, saying or image that anticipates, sometimes only for those who reread, something that will happen later in the work. Metonymy Naming one thing by another that is linked to it: the part for the whole, the object for its owner, the place for its people, the cause for the effect. Metaphor Saying one thing through another, without a word of comparison: instead of saying that something is like another thing, one says that it is. The image transfers to the subject the qualities of the thing it has been identified with. Apostrophe The speaker addresses someone absent or dead, a thing, a place or an idea, as if they could hear. Parallelism Phrases or verses that follow the same construction, so that the reader compares what changes from one to the next. Allusion Brief reference, without explanation, to a person, a text, a myth or a fact known outside the work, which carries with it the meaning of that other story. Personification Giving a thing, an animal or an abstract idea actions, feelings or speech that belong to a person. Irony Saying one thing while meaning another, often the opposite. The true sense is left to the reader or the listener. Dramatic Irony The reader or audience knows something the character does not, so the character's words and actions take on a meaning he does not perceive himself. Sensory Imagery Description that appeals to the senses (what is seen, heard, smelled, tasted or touched) and makes the reader perceive the scene, not only understand it. Euphemism Saying something harsh, ugly or forbidden to name in a gentle, indirect or disguised way.