English Literary Terms

a rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect, emphasizes the idea of contrast by parallel structures of the contrasted phrases or clauses

• metaphor

• antithesis

• simile

• analogy

repetition of vowel sounds within a line of poetry.

• assonance

• 
  onomatopoeia

• diction

• 
  alliteration

the difference between what is expected to happen and the way events actually work out.

• Dramatic Irony

• Verbal Irony

• Imagery

• 
  Situational Irony

the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words (tongue twisters)

• personification

• 
  consonance

• repetition

• alliteration

describes literary texts which are overloaded with informative or realistic matter and are marked by the omission of graceful and pleasing details

• didactic

• diction

• consonance

• 
  allegory

a literary technique in which the whole is represented by naming one of its parts

• synecdoche

• metaphor

• simile

• 
  imagery

repetition in literature of one or more lines at regular intervals; sometimes called the chorus

• refrain

• onomatopoeia

• repetition

• 
  alliteration

a technique in which a sound, word, phrase, or line is repeated for effect or emphasis

• repetition

• 
  enjambment

• personification

• 
  alliteration

the use of words whose sound suggest their meaning

• Metonymy

• 
  Metaphor

• Simile

• 
  Onomatopoeia

a figure of speech where animals, ideas or inanimate objects are given human characteristics.

• Repetition

• Personification

• Alliteration

• 
  Metaphor