Understanding Literary Devices: Definitions and Examples
Hyperbaton
Alteration of the normal order of the sentence, by inserting an element (hyperbaton) or making an inversion (anastrophe). Example: “From living in the dark corner of his own, perhaps forgotten, dusty, and silent room, the harp could be seen.”
Ellipsis
Deletion of any component without affecting comprehension. Example: “For a glance, a world; for a smile, a sky; for a kiss… I do not know what I would give you for a kiss!”
Asyndeton
Suppression of coordinating links between two or more members that should have them. Example: “The moon comes to us: big, round, pure.”
Polysyndeton
Repetition of conjunctions that syntax does not require. Example: “And two plus four can be more, and more, and more they have, and what else is there to choose?”
Zeugma
Deletion in two or more sentences of an element that is present in one of them. Example: “His complexion was strong, his meat dry, lean-faced, an early riser, and a great gamer.”
Bimembration
A structure that divides the verse. Examples: “To mourn without reward, and sigh in vain,” “The poor lack much, and the miser, everything.”
Comparison
Value, via a link, a real object and an imaginary object. Example: “The sun shone like a loaf of fire.”
Periphrasis
Rodeo expression that avoids the direct term. Example: “Scarcely had Apollo lent to the ruddy face of the broad, spacious earth the golden strands of her beautiful hair…”
Metaphor
Transfer of meaning between two words (image and real) by relations of similarity that can be established between certain properties of the entities denoted by such terms. Therefore, it is a replacement related to resemblance. Example: “Say, his face full of colors, pearls became its emerald […]”
Metonymy
Transfer of meaning between lexical units linked by relations of contiguity (immediacy of something else). Example: “This is how religion spotted six candles.”
Synesthesia
Crossing of two sensory images coming from different directions. Example: “The sea breeze. The red sea breeze.”
Allegory
A sequence of metaphors. Example: “Poor little boat of mine (life) among broken rocks (difficulties) without an unveiled sail (helpless) and alone with the waves (hazards).”
Personification
Attributing human qualities to animals or inanimate objects, or qualities of living beings to people. Example: “In the moonlight, she will not look at them.”
Hyperbole
Unlikely exaggeration. Example: “So much pain is grouped on my side that it hurts to breathe.”
Pleonasm
Inserting redundant constituent elements of nature in sentence construction; the justification can be an ornament or relevance. Example: “Everything that I see with these sad eyes, not seeing you, offends my desire […]”
Antithesis
Opposition of meanings of two words in one sentence. Example: “He turned off the streetlights and lit the crickets.”
Irony
Affirmation of an idea (which is understood from context) by expressing the opposite. Example: “With respect, I carried the houses; in truth, the council, and respect him, let down a pair of shackles and a chain.”
Paradox
Union of two apparently contradictory terms in a statement. Example: “I am different when I am; my acts are more mine if they are also of all.”
Oxymoron
Union of opposites, two words next to each other that have opposite meanings. Example: “It is blazing ice; it is frozen fire.”
Understatement
Denial of what one wants to admit. Example: “…And the chair and he fell to the ground, not without embarrassment to him.”
Apostrophe
Appeal to a being, animate or inanimate, present or absent. Example: “O death, death! To deprive them of so many pleasant company!”