EN 102- Literary Terms

1. Onomatopoeia is a figure of speech in which words evoke the actual sound of the thing they refer to or describe. The “boom” of a firework exploding, the “tick tock” of a clock, and the “ding dong” of a doorbell are all examples of onomatopoeia.
2. Alliteration is a figure of speech in which the same sound repeats in a group of words, such as the “b” sound in: “Bob brought the box of bricks to the basement.” The repeating sound must occur either in the first letter of each word, or in the stressed syllables of those words.
3. A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words “like” or “as,” but can also use other words that indicate an explicit comparison. Eleanor Roosevelt’s line, “A woman is like a teabag—you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water,” is an example of simile. Roosevelt compares two unlike things, women and teabags, to describe how women reveal the full extent of their strength in tough situations.
4. A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words. Rhyming is particularly common in many types of poetry, especially at the ends of lines, and is a requirement in formal verse. The most familiar and widely-used form of rhyming is perfect rhyme, in which the stressed syllables of the words, along with all subsequent syllables, share identical sounds, as in “pencil” and “stencil.”
5. Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, “The rain poured down on the wedding guests, indifferent to their plans.”
6. A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as in the sentence “Love is a battlefield.”
7. An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two contradictory terms or ideas are intentionally paired in order to make a point—particularly to reveal a deeper or hidden truth. The most recognizable oxymorons are adjective-noun pairs, as in the phrase “proud humility.” But oxymorons can also occur over the course of a clause or sentence, as in “That silence after your joke was deafening.” In both examples, the oxymoron joins opposite ideas to make a point (such as that an awkward silence can have a presence comparable to a loud sound).
8. Assonance is a figure of speech in which the same vowel sound repeats within a group of words. An example of assonance is: “Who gave Newt and Scooter the blue tuna? It was too soon!”
9. Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines from Robert Frost’s poem “After Apple-Picking” contain imagery that engages the senses of touch, movement, and hearing: “I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend. /And I keep hearing from the cellar bin / The rumbling sound / Of load on load of apples coming in.”
10. Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which a writer or speaker exaggerates for the sake of emphasis. Hyperbolic statements are usually quite obvious exaggerations intended to emphasize a point, rather than be taken literally. For example, in the hyperbolic statement, “My backpack weighs a ton,” the speaker doesn’t actually think the backpack weighs a ton, nor does he or she intend the listener to think so. The backpack-wearer simply wants to communicate, through the use of hyperbole, that he or she is carrying a very heavy load.