“Literary Lenses”

1. “Literary Lenses” The Literary Devices

2. Alliteration the repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables (as wild and woolly, threatening throngs) —called also head rhyme, initial rhyme

3. Allusion • an implied or indirect reference especially in literature; also: the use of such references • the act of alluding to or hinting at something Ex: The lyrics contain biblical allusions.

4. Apostrophe • the addressing of a usually absent person or a usually personified thing rhetorically <Carlyle's • Ex:“O Liberty, what things are done in thy name!” is an example of apostrophe>

5. Aside • an utterance meant to be inaudible to someone; especially: an actor's speech heard by the audience but supposedly not by other characters

6. Assonance • repetition of vowels without repetition of consonants Ex: (as in stony and holy)

7. Blank Verse • unrhymed verse; specifically: unrhymed iambic pentameter verse

8. Catalogue A list

9. Consonance • recurrence or repetition of consonants especially at the end of stressed syllables without the similar correspondence of vowels Ex: (as in the final sounds of “stroke” and “luck”)

10. Dramatic Irony • in literature, a plot device in which the audience’s or reader’s knowledge of events or individuals surpasses that of the characters. The words and actions of the characters therefore take on a different meaning for the audience or reader than they have for the play’s characters. This may happen when, for example, a character reacts in an inappropriate or foolish way or when a character lacks self-awareness and thus acts under false assumptions.

11. Foreshadowing • to represent, indicate, or typify beforehand; a hint of what is to come in the story

12. Imagery • Word or phrases that appeal to the five senses

13. Metaphor • a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them; does not use like or as Ex:“He was drowning in paperwork” is a metaphor in which having to deal with a lot of paperwork is being compared to drowning in an ocean of water.

14. Onomatopoeia • the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it Ex: buzz, hiss

15. Oxymoron • a combination of contradictory or incongruous words • Ex: cruel kindness

16. Personification representation of a thing or abstraction as a person or by the human form Ex: The curtains batted their eyelashes.

17. Simile A figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by like or as Ex: She was as white as snow

18. Sonnet • A 14-line verse form usually having one of several conventional rhyme schemes, ends with a couplet • Ex: The Prologue in Romeo and Juliet

19. Verbal Irony • A contradiction of expectation between what is said and what is meant Verbal irony is implied and refers to spoken words only EX: Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare"Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;And Brutus is an honourable man". Mark Antony really means that Brutus is dishonourable