Stylistic Devices

Stylistic Devices

by Mr Chris England

​As you analyse texts and engage in close reading, it is useful to know and understand many stylistic devices, such as 'alliteration' or 'simile'. You should be able to identify stylistic devices when discussing texts in class or writing about texts on exam papers.

​In both literary and non-literary texts, authors use a variety of techniques (stylistic devices) to give an auxiliary meaning, idea, or feeling to what is literally written.

Open Ended

What stylistic devices are you already familiar with?

​Let's play a game.

​How to play

• ​Match the quotes

• ​Guess the author

• ​Identify the stylistic device

Multiple Choice

Float like a butterfly.

• Fly like a sparrow.

• Sting like a bee.

• Sing like a bee.

• Bing like a see.

Multiple Choice

"Float like a butterfly. Sting like a bee."

This quote is from the great and powerful...

• Robert Korns

• Will Smith

• Mohammed Ali

• Harry Styles

Multiple Choice

"Float like a butterfly. Sting like a bee."

This stylistic device used in this quote is...

• Metaphor

• Simile

• Paradox

• Imagery

​A simile is a comparison of ideas or things, which uses the words ‘like’ or ‘as’.

Multiple Choice

Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow.

• That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

• But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?

• Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

• See you tomorrow!

Multiple Choice

"Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow. That I shall say good night, till it be morrow."

This quote is from the great and powerful...

• Ayman

• will. i. am

• Leonardo Dicaprio

• William Shakespeare

Multiple Choice

"Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow. That I shall say good night, till it be morrow."

The stylistic device used in this quote is...

• Juxtaposition

• Simile

• Anaphora

• Alliteration

​Juxtaposition is the placement of two things, characters or ideas, often of opposite nature, near each other so that the reader will compare them.

Multiple Choice

We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds.

• But we shall not fight with our parents.

• The first rule of Fight Club is...

• We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.

• We will do a lot of fighting.

Multiple Choice

"We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender."

This quote is from the great and powerful...

• Winston Churchill

• Brad Pitt

• Banyu Bening

• Tyler Durden

Multiple Choice

"We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender."

The stylistic device used in this quote is...

• Alliteration

• Anaphora

• Metaphor

• Symbolism

​Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of two or more successive clauses or sentence.

Multiple Choice

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation: Yes, we can.

• It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights: Yes, we can.

• All we have to do is try, try, try.

• But what we really found out that day is no, we can't.

• Not this one.

Multiple Choice

"It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation: Yes, we can. It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights: Yes, we can."

This quote is from the great and powerful...

• Joe Biden

• Donald Trump

• Barack Obama

• Muthia Sasikirana

Multiple Choice

"It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation: Yes, we can. It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights: Yes, we can."

The stylistic device used in this quote is...

• Euphoria

• Anaphora

• Epiphora

• Metaphor

​Epiphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of a phrase.

Multiple Choice

How many roads must a man walk down, before you can call him a man?

• How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

• How many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?

• How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

• 3 roads

Multiple Choice

"How many roads must a man walk down, before you can call him a man? How many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?"

This quote is from the great and powerful...

• Edward Budiman

• Johnny Cash

• Bob Dylan

• Bruno Mars

Multiple Choice

"How many roads must a man walk down, before you can call him a man? How many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?"

The stylistic device used in this quote is...

• Synecdoche

• Rhetorical Question

• Juxtaposition

• Hyperbole

​Rhetorical question is a kind of question to which an answer is not expected.

Multiple Choice

How they clang, and clash, and roar! What a horror they outpour On the bosom of the palpitating air!

• Lightning flash and thunder go Boom!

• While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

• Oh, the bells, bells, bells! What a tale their terror tells Of Despair!

• Yet the ear it fully knows, By the twanging, And the clanging, How the danger ebbs and flows.

Multiple Choice

"How they clang, and clash, and roar! What a horror they outpour On the bosom of the palpitating air! Yet the ear it fully knows, By the twanging, And the clanging, How the danger ebbs and flows."

This quote is from the great and powerful...

• Karina Catleya

• Edgar Allen Poe

• Carol Ann Duffy

• Langston Hughes

Multiple Choice

"How they clang, and clash, and roar! What a horror they outpour On the bosom of the palpitating air! Yet the ear it fully knows, By the twanging, And the clanging, How the danger ebbs and flows."

The stylistic device used in this quote is...

• Personification

• Hyperbole

• Onomatopoeia

• Chiasmus

Onomatopoeia is a word that phonetically mimics the sound of the thing it describes.​

Multiple Choice

I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you

Till China and Africa meet

And the river jumps they over the mountain

And the salmon sing in the street

• I’ll love you till the ocean Is folded and hung up to dry

• I'll love you till the sky falls down

• I'd catch a grenade for ya

• I'd jump in front of a train for ya

Multiple Choice

"I'll love you, dear, I'll love you

Till China and Africa meet

And the river jumps they over the mountain

And the salmon sing in the street

I'll love you till the ocean Is folded and hung up to dry"

This quote is from the great and powerful...

• Mary Shelley

• Mcayla Emmanuelle

• W. H. Auden

• Dash Berlin

Multiple Choice

"I'll love you, dear, I'll love you

Till China and Africa meet

And the river jumps they over the mountain

And the salmon sing in the street

I'll love you till the ocean Is folded and hung up to dry"

The stylistic device used in this quote is...

• Zeugma

• Ballad

• Alliteration

• Hyperbole

​Hyperbole is the use of obvious and deliberate exaggeration.

Multiple Choice

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, the furrow followed free.

• Peter Piper picked a peck

• Water, water, everywhere,

• We were the first that ever burst into that silent sea!

• Sally sold seashells by the seashore

Multiple Choice

"The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free:

We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea."

This quote is from the great and powerful...

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge

• William Wordsworth

• Aaron Halim

• Robert Frost

Multiple Choice

"The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free:

We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea."

The stylistic device used in this quote is...

• Alliteration

• Consonance

• Assonance

• All of the above

​

Multiple Choice

You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it.

• You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes.

• The vending machine ate my dollar.

• The gentle breeze caressed my face.

• No one's gonna save your from the beast about to strike.

Multiple Choice

"You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it. You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes."

This quote is from the great and powerful...

• Michael Suteja

• Michael Jackson

• Michael Jordan

• Weird Al Yankovic

Multiple Choice

"You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it. You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes."

The stylistic device used in this quote is...

• Onomatopoeia

• Anaphora

• Hyperbole

• Personification

Personification is the projection of human characteristics onto inanimate objects or abstract ideas.​

Multiple Choice

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.

• Ask not what your country can do for you,

• But what you can do for your country.

• Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.

• We's gonna kill each other if somebody don't do something quick.

Multiple Choice

"Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate."

This quote is from the great and powerful...

• John F. Kennedy

• Steven Sutioso

• Kevin Costner

• Lee Harvey Oswald

Multiple Choice

"Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate."

The stylistic device used in this quote is...

• Chiasmus

• Zeugma

• Rhetorical Question

• Hyperbole

​Chiasmus is the inversion of two words or phrases across two phrases or sentences.

Multiple Choice

He had slyly inviegled her up to his flat, To view his collection of stamps; And he said as he hastened to put out the cat, The wine, his cigar, and the lamps:

• I'm running out of creativity to add possible matches to these quotes.

• Not this one

• Have some madeira, m'dear, I've got a small cask of it here,

• Unaware of the wiles of the snake in the grass, Of the fate of the maiden who topes, She lowered her standards by raising her glass, Her courage, her eyes, and his hopes.

Multiple Choice

"He had slyly inviegled her up to his flat, To view his collection of stamps; And he said as he hastened to put out the cat, The wine, his cigar, and the lamps:

Unaware of the wiles of the snake in the grass, Of the fate of the maiden who topes, She lowered her standards by raising her glass, Her courage, her eyes, and his hopes."

This quote is from the great and powerful...

• Chandra and Elua

• Flanders and Swann

• Ravindra and Elvermann

• Key and Peele

Multiple Choice

"He had slyly inviegled her up to his flat, To view his collection of stamps; And he said as he hastened to put out the cat, The wine, his cigar, and the lamps:

Unaware of the wiles of the snake in the grass, Of the fate of the maiden who topes, She lowered her standards by raising her glass, Her courage, her eyes, and his hopes."

The stylistic device used in this quote is...

• Chiasmus

• Zeugma

• Juxtaposition

• Anaphora

​Zeugma is figure of speech where one verb connects multiple objects.

Multiple Choice

We should treat all the trivial things of life very seriously,

• but not too seriously.

• for they are what matter the most.

• and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality.

• stop and smell the roses.

Multiple Choice

“We should treat all the trivial things of life very seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality.”

This quote is from the great and powerful...

• Oscar Wilde

• Keegan Yo

• F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Hunter S. Thompson

Multiple Choice

“We should treat all the trivial things of life very seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality.”

The stylistic device used in this quote is...

• Hyperbole

• Paradox

• Synecdoche

• Assonance

A paradox is the juxtaposition of seemingly contradictory concepts, which reveals a hidden or unexpected truth.​

Multiple Choice

Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.

• Virtue signallers unite!

• Yes, we can!

• I have a dream!

• Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

Multiple Choice

"Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood."

This quote is from the great and powerful...

• Martin Luther King Jr.

• Martin Luther

• Barack Obama

• Ken Ary Putri

Multiple Choice

"Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood."

The stylistic device used in this quote is...

• Anticlimax

• Antithesis

• Antagonist

• Anaphora

​Antithesis is the use of contrasting concepts or words within parallel grammatical structures.

Multiple Choice

Hear my words that I might teach you.

• Take my arms that I might reach you.

• See my eyes that I might see you.

• Taste my french fries as they're quite salty.

• Did you hear that?

Multiple Choice

"Hear my words that I might teach you. Take my arms that I might reach you."

This quote is from the great and powerful...

• Simon and Garfunkel

• Erika

• Smith and Lawrence

• Tango and Cash

Multiple Choice

"Hear my words that I might teach you." (Words stand for speech.) "Take my arms that I might reach you." (Arms stand for embrace or help.)

The stylistic device used in this quote is...

• Zeugma

• Synecdoche

• Antithesis

• Paradox

Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a word for a part of something stands for the whole thing or concept.​

Multiple Choice

I put my hat upon my head

and walked into the strand.

• I like hats, too.

• My hat looked cool and so I felt

  until I got hit by a van.

• What's a strand?

• And there I met another man

  whose hat was in his hand.

Multiple Choice

"I put my hat upon my head

and walked into the strand. 

And there I met another man

whose hat was in his hand."

This quote is from the great and powerful...

• Samuel Johnson

• Mr. Chris

• Kelly Tay Chin

• Samuel Adams

Multiple Choice

I put my hat upon my head (4 iambs)

and walked into the strand. (3 iambs)

And there I met another man (4 iambs)

whose hat was in his hand. (3 iambs)

The stylistic device used in this quote is...

• Limerick

• ABAB Rhyme Scheme

• Ballad

• Sonnet

A ballad is a type of poem that uses iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, with an ABCB rhyming scheme.​