Understanding Literary Devices in Writing

Posted on Feb 1, 2025 in Pedagogy

Literary Devices: Definitions and Examples

Phonetic Level

NAME

EXAMPLE

EXPLANATION

ROLE

Alliteration

It remains an open question how stammering…

Repetition of a single vowel or consonant phoneme.

Onomatopoeia

Uco, uco, uco, uco

Bee-eater.

Imitation of real sounds through the use of certain phonemes.

Rhyme

1. Assonant

2. Consonant

Filled with water lilies (Assonant)

He hit the back (Consonant)

Repetition of sounds from the last accented vowel.

Assonant: Vowels and consonants

Consonant: Only vowels

Morphosyntactic Level

  • Paronomasia: Here people live because they drink. Using words with a similar sound and different meaning.
  • Anadiplosis: I would give anything / Anything throw. One verse begins with the same word ending earlier.
  • Anaphora: Why this restless, burning desire / / Why this strange feeling and vague / /. Repeating the same word at the beginning of several lines or periods creates rhythmic musicality.
  • Epanadiplosis: Green, green that I love you. Repeating the same word at the beginning and end of the verse.
  • Reduplication: Rio Duero, Río Duero / No one to go with low. Repeating a term.
  • Polypote:
    • I have to give because you want / For though I hope not wait, just like you I love you.
    • Caminante, no road, but wakes in the sea.
    Using the same word in different grammatical forms or words in the same lexical family creates expressive emphasis.
  • Ellipsis: I have two children, one of four years, another three. Suppression of words without altering the understanding of the phrase creates speed and agility.
  • Hyperbaton: Requested the keys to the niece of the room. Changing the order of words produces a surprise impact on the reader.
  • Asyndeton: Come, run, fly… Suppression of conjunctions creates agility, speed, and resiliency.
  • Polysyndeton: And the Holy One of Israel opened his hand / / and the left and fell into the cliff / / the cart and horse and rider. Unnecessary repetition of conjunctions creates solemnity and slowness.

Lexical-Semantic Level

NAME

EXAMPLE

EXPLANATION

OBJECTIVES

Periphrasis

What did you do that log arch.

As you tend the powerful arms (cross)

Circumlocution or Extension.

Delay, slowness.

Irony

They ate a meal eternal without beginning or end (no food)

Meaning the opposite of what is said.

Achieve the purposes of criticism with intelligent humor.

Hyperbole

There was a man with a nose attached.

Exaggeration

Personification

I hear the birds when they sing

With a different voice grieved

Attributing human characteristics to inanimate or animated beings.

Antithesis

When I mourn, I do not cry

And sometimes I cry without wanting

Opposition of two opposing ideas or thoughts.

Association by contrast.

Emphasizes the contrast of light and shadows, like in paint.

Paradox

Living without living in me

And I hope life so high

I die because I do not die

Juxtaposition of seemingly contradictory ideas.

Synesthesia

That the soul that can speak with your eyes / / We can also kiss with their eyes.

How sad scent of jasmine!

Mixing or exchange of sensations (visual, auditory, olfactory) apart and between them and feelings.

Comparison

I pressed my voice

As a belt around

Verse.

Relationship of similarity between two elements or ideas. Comparative words are used, such as “as” or “like.”

Metaphor

Her parchment moon

Preciosa comes playing

The pearls of your mouth.

Comparison of one real and one imagined element without comparative links.

Metonymy

Respect their gray hair (his age)

Greco has purchased a

Replacing the whole with the part, the effect with the cause.

Attempts to highlight the quality or appearance that matters most.

Pleonasm

He saw with his own eyes

I screamed with all my voice

Inclusion of an unnecessary, redundant element.

Expressive value.

Graduation

Lofty wall, oh, oh, towers topped / /

of honor, majesty, and bravery.

Series of thoughts or words presented in ascending or descending order.

Ascending: enthusiasm

Descending: sadness.

Rhetorical Question

What did that trovar,

harping agreed musics?

Will you love,

a long goodbye that never ends?

Question for which no response is expected.