Literary devices and their definitions

POETRY

10/7/15 VOCABULARY (LIT.

NOTEBOOK)

Stanza
2. Line
3. Analysis
4. Inference
5. Theme
6. Structure
7. Style
8. Rhythm
9. Tone
10. Mood
11. Rhyme
12. Rhyme Scheme
13. Metaphor
14. Simile
15. Alliteration
16. Assonance
17. Consonance
18. Hyperbole
19. Personification
20. Idiom
21. Repetition
22. Imagery
1.

DEFINITIONS
1.

2.

3.

Stanza - a group of lines forming the basic

recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse.
Line - a unit of language into which a poem
is divided, which operates on principles
which are distinct from and not necessarily
coincident with grammatical structures,
such as sentences or clauses.
Analysis - the process of investigating a
poem's form, content, and history in an
informed way, with the aim of heightening
one's own and others' understanding and
appreciation of the work.

DEFINITIONS CONTINUED
4. Inference - a conclusion reached on the
basis of evidence and reasoning.
5. Theme - the subject of a piece of
writing, a person's thoughts, or an
exhibition; stated in a complete sentence.
6. Structure - characterized by regularity
and consistency in such elements as
rhyme, line length, and metrical pattern.
7. Style - Musical devices such as rhythm,
rhyme, and words are often chosen for
sound as well as for meaning.

DEFINITIONS CONTINUED
8. Rhythm - is expressed through
stressed and unstressed syllables.
9. Tone - the general character or
attitude of a piece of writing.
10. Mood - mood is the emotional
feeling or atmosphere that a work of
literature (poem) produces in a reader.
11. Rhyme - correspondence of sound
between words or the endings of
words, especially when these are used
at the ends of lines of poetry.

DEFINITIONS CONTINUED
12. Rhyme Scheme - the ordered
pattern of rhymes at the ends of the
lines of a poem or verse.
13. Metaphor - a figure of speech in
which a word or phrase is applied to an
object or action to which it is not
literally applicable.
14. Simile - a figure of speech
involving the comparison of one thing
with another thing of a different kind,
used to make a description more

DEFINITIONS CONTINUED
15. Alliteration the occurrence of the same letter or
sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected
words.
16. Assonance in poetry, the repetition of the sound of
a vowel in non-rhyming stressed syllables near enough
to each other for the echo to be discernible
17. Hyperbole exaggerated statements or claims not
meant to be taken literally.
18. Personification - the attribution of a personal nature
or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or
the representation of an abstract quality in human form.
19. Idiom a group of words established by usage as
having a meaning not deducible from those of the
individual words.