Literary Devices & Figures of Speech 101 (+ PDF)

FIGURES OF SPEECH AND OTHER LITERARY TERMS

This post contains hundreds of literary devices, figures of speech and other literary terms.

Are literary devices the same as figures of speech? The simple answer is yes and no. These two terms are similar and different at the same time. Here is a post that explains in detail the differences and similarities between a figure of speech and a literary device.

Figures of Speech or Literary devices refer to the use of language in ways that are unusual or unique.

These expressions are different from the way we ordinarily use language.

Example:

A: Ordinary Usage:

I fell asleep at 10:00 pm.

B: Special/Unusual:

Sleep visited me at 10:00 pm.

‘B’ therefore contains a figure of speech. Can you name it? It is called Personification.

Speakers and writers use figures of speech or literary devices to make the ideas they want to put across more striking and effective.

Definitions and Examples of Literary Devices

Now you can go through a collection of some of the most popular literary devices and figures of speech that you will encounter in most Literature tests for high school students.

For each literary device or figure of speech, you will find a brief definition followed by a few examples.

The list also contains examples and illustrations of less-known literary devices and figures of speech in English Literature. By the time you finish reading this post, you will be able to download your free PDF copy for offline use at any time.

Finally, remember that this collection is a mixture of both literary devices and figures of speech. There is more to learn about these two terms in this tutorial.

1. Metaphor

DEFINITION: A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a direct comparison is made between two unlike things without the use of ‘like’ or ‘as’

EXAMPLES 1: Stony eyes. 2. The memory of my blood

3. The necklaces of laughter 4. Beyond the snow of yesterday

5. Days sparkling with ever-new joys

2. Setting

 Setting is the place, time or atmosphere within which a story or play occurs.

Example: One major setting of Second Class Citizen, a novel by Buchi Emecheta is Lagos in Nigeria.

3. Plot

Plot refers to the sequence of causes and effects of events in a novel or play.

Top 5 Parts of Narrative Structure

4. Irony

IRONY (VERBAL IRONY): An irony occurs when there is a difference between what is said and what is meant. Example: 1. My enemies shall continue to prosper.

5. Ballad

Definition: A ballad is a poem that tells a story of adventure, of romance, or a hero. It is suitable for singing and usually has stanzas of four lines with a rhyme on the second and fourth lines.

Example:

The owl and the cat went to sea

In a beautiful pea-green boat

They took some honey and plenty of money

Wrapped in a five-pound note

The owl looked up to the stars above,

And sang to a small guitar

“O lovely cat! O cat my love

What a beautiful Cat you are

You are You are

What a beautiful Cat you are!”

6. Satire

A satire is a literary work which reveals, ridicules and criticizes bad things in society to reform it for the better.

Examples:

i. A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe

ii. The Beautiful Ones are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah

iii. Animal Farm by George Orwell

iv. Money Galore by Amu Djoleto

v. Anthills of the Savannah by Chinua Achebe

7. Rhythm

RHYTHM: Rhythm is the musical movement of the lines of poetry found in its metre, stress pattern, punctuation and rhyme.

8. Sonnet

SONNET: Sonnet poem of fourteen lines usually with a predetermined rhyme scheme of abab, cdcd, efef, and gg. The first eight lines of a Sonnet are called Octave and the last six lines, Sestet. Where the last two lines rhyme, they are called a Couplet.

9. Didactic Literature

DIDACTIC LITERATURE: Didactic Literature refers to any work of art that teaches a moral lesson.

10. Alliteration

ALLITERATION: Alliteration is the repetition of similar initial consonants in a work of art.

Example:

i. The cane cracked on the caked khaki.

ii. Stand silent

iii. Bitter bile

iv. Drawn drips

11. Epilogue

EPILOGUE: Epilogue is the final statement (coming at the end) in a work of art.

12. Prologue

PROLOGUE: A prologue is an introductory statement (coming at the beginning) in a work of art. In drama, the prologue is usually played by a CHORUS.

13. Romance

ROMANCE: A romance is a work of art filled with intense feelings of excitement, intrigue and suspense.

Example: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

14. Comic Relief

COMIC RELIEF: Comic relief refers to a point of humour in a tragedy.

15. Conflict

CONFLICT: Conflict in Literature refers to the struggle between opposing forces in a work of art. Conflict is an important ingredient in any piece of good literature.

16. Poetic Justice

POETIC JUSTICE: In Literature, poetic justice occurs when bad or evil is punished and good triumphs (is rewarded).

17. Oxymoron

OXYMORON: Oxymoron refers to the use of two usually opposite terms, close to each other in a brief expression.

Examples:

i. Most foul, most fair

ii. Pure impiety

iii. Impious purity

iv. Friendly enemy

v. Bittersweet

vi. Harmless lion

vii. Pregnant virgin

33 Examples of Oxymoron in Literature

18. Kinesthetic Imagery

KINESTHETIC IMAGERY: Imagery depicting movement or action.

Example: i. The water crawled feebly into the next hole

ii. She grabbed it with the speed of lightning.

19. Auditory Imagery

AUDITORY IMAGERY: Imagery associated with hearing.

Example: i. They booed us every time we performed

ii. There was a loud silence in the room.

20. Visual Imagery

VISUAL IMAGERY: Imagery appealing to the reader’s or listener’s sense of sight.

21. Tactile Imagery

TACTILE IMAGERY: Tactile imagery is the type of imagery that appeals to our sense of touch.

Example:

i. This kind of news can only pierce a man’s heart like a spear.

ii. A loaf of bread can turn into hardwood if not preserved properly.

22. Olfactory Imagery

OLFACTORY IMAGERY: Imagery evoking the reader’s sense of smell.

Example:

i. Her beauty filled the room like the fragrance of French lavender.

ii. An offensive stench punched him in the face when he opened the second door.

Top 6 Types of Imagery in Literature

23. Epic

EPIC: An epic is a long narrative poem recounting the great deeds of heroic or supernatural figures from history.

24. Tragic Flaw

TRAGIC FLAW (HARMATIA): The weakness or failing in an otherwise great character which causes their downfall.

25. Reversal

REVERSAL: A reversal in Literature refers to a change in the fortunes of a tragic hero from happiness to sadness.

26. Hyperbole

HYPERBOLE: A hyperbole is an exaggerated statement or an overstatement.

Example:

1. At his birth, the earth stood still.

2. Everyone in the country watched the national team play Brazil in the finals.

27. Litotes

LITOTES: Litotes is a literary device in which a point is made in the affirmative by using two negative terms. Another term for Litotes is an understatement

Examples:

i. It is not uncommon for people to consider facts strange.

ii. I am a member of no unimportant family

28. Euphemism

EUPHEMISM: Euphemism refers to the use of a polite, milder or less direct word or expression to refer to something unpleasant, painful or taboo.

Examples:

i. Senior citizen FOR Very Old Person

ii. Pass away FOR: Die

29. Synecdoche

SYNECDOCHE: Speaking of a whole by using just a part of it to represent it. (Part to represent a whole). Synecdoche is mostly used with parts of the human body.

Example: i. All hands on deck (Everybody must work).

ii. She has many mouths to feed (many people)

30. Metonymy

METONYMY: Speaking of something by using the name of something closely associated with it. (Usually objects)

Examples:

i. The crown = The king/queen or monarch

ii. The bottle = Alcoholic beverages

ii. The rod = Punishment or discipline

iv. The law = Police or Justice system

31. Farce

FARCE: A farce in Literature is an extremely funny, hilarious play with elements of absurdity or abnormality

32. Burlesque

BURLESQUE is another term used to describe such farcical plays especially when they are intended to satirize or ridicule other more serious literary works.

33. Revellers

REVELLERS: Revellers in Literature refers to a group of unruly, usually drunk characters engaged in acts of immorality and extreme joy.

34. Alternate Rhyme

ALTERNATE RHYME is a rhyming pattern (scheme) with the first line rhyming with the third, the second with the fourth etc. i.e. abab, cdcd and so on.

Example:

Those who live through pain

      And have their blood shed

     Shall have so much gain

     When their victories are read.

35. Secondary Text

SECONDARY TEXT: The part of a play usually written in italics or parentheses and directing the actions of characters or describing the setting.

36. Fiction

FICTION is an imaginary long narrative story. It is also called PROSE or NOVEL.

Examples:

i. Faceless

ii. The Lord of the Rings

iii. The Great Gatsby

iv. Second Class Citizen

v. Invisible Man

vi. Native Son

37. Autobiography

AUTOBIOGRAPHY: A life story written by the person himself and usually in the first-person narrative voice.

38. Biography

BIOGRAPHY: The life story of a person written by another person.

39. Tragic Hero

TRAGIC HERO:  The main character in a tragedy. He is usually a person of a high social status who uses lofty, poetic language but has a human failing (tragic flaw).

40. Syllable

SYLLABLE: A syllable is a linguistic unit on which stress is placed (or not placed) in poetry and other forms of expression.

Example: today(2 syllables) “to” is unstressed and “day” is stressed.

• FOOT: A metrical unit in poetry. It may consist of one stressed and one unstressed syllable, two stressed and one unstressed syllable etc

Example: I vow\ to thee\ my country = 3 feet

• PARODY: An exaggerated imitation, which ridicules another work in a harsh manner.
• PERSONA: The speaking voice in a poem. Usually, the persona is considered as distinct from the poet\writer.
• ROUND CHARACTER: A character who changes and develops as the story progresses. He or she is also called a multi-dimensional character.
• FLAT CHARACTER: A character who does not change or develop much in a story. – a mono-dimensional character. Such a character may also be referred to a stereotype. 
• SIMILE: It is comparison between two things or persons that are similar in one point and otherwise dissimilar. It is usually introduced by such words as ‘like’, ‘as’, ‘so’, e.g.
• “A room without books is like a body without a soul”
• “Great men stand like a solitary tower
• “Baaba ran as fast as a horse in the race.
• MIXED METAPHOR/CONFUSED METAPHOR: Two or more different metaphors used in the same sentence with reference to the same subject. e.g. He was fishing for his heart and a long search reached his goal.
• ANTITHESIS: This results when opposites or contrasts are employed in the same sentence usually to emphasize a point.

Example

• Man proposes, God disposes
• Speech is silver but silence is Gold
• They speak like saints and act like devils.
• PARADOX: It is a statement, which seems absurd at first sight and yet proves to be true on second thought. Example
• The child is the father of the man
• Cowards die many times before their death
• The greeter the fool, the better the dancer.
• ANTI-CLIMAX OR BATHOS: It is the opposite of climax consisting in a descent from a higher level to lesser heights, the intensity or importance weakening instead of increasing toward the end e.g. He lost his wife, his child, his household, goods and his dog at one swoop of fate”
• TRANSFERRED EPITHET: An epithet sometimes transferred from its proper words, to another that is closely associated with it. In the sentence the qualifying adjective is transferred from a person to things e.g.
• The ploughman homeward ploughs his weary way
• He lay all night on a sleepless pillow
• PUN OR PARONOMASIA: The use of words of the same sound with different meaning for the sake of humour.

Sample WASSCE English Summary Answers

Nov/Dec WASSCE Registration Fees and Facts

Example:

Dreamers often lie

Yes, they lie in bed as they dream

ECHOISM/ONOMATOPOEIA: It is the use of words whose sounds naturally suggest their meaning. e.g.

I bring fresh showers for the thirsty flowers

The arrow whizzed through the air

ALLITERATION/CONSONANCE: It is the repetition of the same initial consonant in several words near one another e.g.

Full fathom five their father lies

After life, fitful fever he sleeps well

Peter piper picked a peck of pickle pepper

INVERSION: It is a change in the natural or usual order of words for the sake of effect or emphasis. Compare the two statements below:

“I will go to Akatsi tomorrow”

To Akatsi tomorrow will I go (inversion)

• SETTING: It refers to the place (location) where an actions and events in the story come. It is the sequence of events in a play or Novel.
• IAMBUS (LIMBIC METRE): One unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one in poetry.

Example: – / – / – / –

1. I vow to thee my country
2. To you we owe the sea
3. THEME: The underlying message in a work of art.  Love, hate, materialism, corruption, politics, etc

Example: Chume: Forgive us all

Congregation: Amen

Chume: Forgive us all

(And the, punctuated regularly with Amens)

Yes Father, make you forgive us all. Make you save us from palaver.

Save us from trouble at home. Tell our wives not to give us trouble …..

(The penitent has become placid. She is stretched out flat on the ground)

… Give us money to satisfy our daily necessities. Make you no forget those of

us who dey struggle daily.  Those who be clerk today, make them chief clerk  tomorrow. Those who are messengers today, make them senior service tomorrow …….

(The Amens grew more and more ecstatic)

Those who are petty trader today, make them big contractor tomorrow. Those who dey sweep street today, give them their own big office tomorrow. It we de walka today, give us our own bicycle tomorrow. I say those who dey walka today, give them their own bicycle tomorrow. Those who have bicycle today, they will ride their own car tomorrow.

(The enthusiasm of the response becomes, at this point quite overpowering) I say those who day push bicycle; give them big car big car tomorrow. Give them big car tomorrow. Give them big car tomorrow, give them big car tomorrow.

One theme of this extract is materialism.

“My people, I have been somewhere

If I turn here, the rain beats me

If I turn there the sun burns me

The firewood of this world

Is for only those who can take heart

That is why not all can gather it ……”

The theme of this extract is suffering

• SOLILOQUY: A character’s speech to himself, which reveals his motives, and state of mind.
• PERSONIFICATION (PROSOPOPEIA): giving human attributes or characteristics to inanimate, lifeless objects or animals or abstract ideas.

Example:

1. Cruel wishes entered him, departed and entered again
2. The sun rose from his bed
3. The engine coughed twice
4. PASTORAL POETRY: It is about simple, rural life (life in the countryside) especially of shepherds.

Example: “Michael” by William Wordsworth

• SUSPENSE: When a reader is kept in a state of high expectancy, eager to know what will happen next.

Example: In English, my name means hope. In Spanish, it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when his shaving, songs like sobbing.

By delaying the disclosure of the narrator’s name, the writer has used the literary technique known as suspense  

• ALLUSION: The reference to issues that re outside the literary work being studied.

Example: A Daniel has come into judgment i.e. Biblical Allusion by Shylock in The MERCHANT OF VENICE by William Shakespeare.

• CLIMAX: The crisis stage in a series of events in a story or play.
• APOSTROPHE: An address to an imaginary person or object as if they were present, usually in poetry.

Example: You my ancestors, come to my aid

• ELEGY: Poetry meant to praise somebody or something.
• DIRGE: A song meant for mourning the dead.
• TRAGEDY: A play in which there occurs a sudden change (reversal) in the hero’s fortunes from  happiness to disaster. It ends sadly

Example: Shakespeare’s Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet, The Gods Are Not To Blame By Ola Rotimi.

• COMEDY: A play whose characters are usually low or middle class citizens, bringing out their follies and weaknesses in an amusing but educative manner.

Example: Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again by Ola Rotimi And The Trials Of Brother Jero.

• MIME: acting without speech but demonstrating with gesture, bodily movement and facial expression.
• MIMICRY: imitating gestures, speech of others especially in drama.
• ASSONANCE: A type of rhyme pattern in which there is repetition of similar middle vowels.

Example: i. Your name remains in frames of gold

ii. Tall walls fall mightily

• RHYME:  sameness of sounds especially in the last syllable of words in line endings of poetry Example:  time/clime keep/reap
• STANZA: A division of a poem of song.
• CHAPTER: major division of prose.
• PARAGRAPH: A sub-division of chapter.
• FREE VERSE: A poem of irregular and unpredictable line – lengths.

Example: A plea for Mercy by Kwesi Brew.

• BLANK VERSE: Unrhymed five-foot iambic poetry
• HEROIC COUPLETS: Successive five –foot iambic lines rhyming in pairs
• ASIDE: A statement made by an actor on stage but not meant to be heard by the other actors but which may be heard by the audience.
• EPITAPH: An inscription on a tombstone

Example: Your Life Was A blessing To Us

• POLY-SYLLABIC WORD: A word containing only one syllable.

Example: argument, examination.

• MONO-SYLLABIC WORD: A word containing only one syllable.

go, bed, sun

• POINT OF VIEW: The angle from which the narrator sees and narrates events.
• FIRST PERSON NARRATOR: A person who narrates a story in which he takes an active part. He uses the pronoun, “I” a lot. He may be biased and subjective.
• THIRD PERSON (OMNISCIENT) NARRATOR: A narrator who is not part of the story but narrates as an outsider. He uses the third person pronouns – He, She, It, They.
• SECOND PERSON NARRATOR: The narrator who uses the second person pronouns and appears to be addressing the reader directly i.e. “You”.
• EPISODE: An important event or incident in a literary work.

Example: The Outbreak of an epidemic in the Gods Are Not To Blame.

• ORAL LITERATURE: unwritten literature (i) involving the active participation of the performance and the audient (ii) which is communally owned (iii) which tells much about the history and culture of the people (iv) influenced by the environment of the people.

Example: Myth, proverbs, praise songs, dirge, riddles, war songs, folktales, fables.

• PRIMAL MYTH: A piece of oral literature which tells a story about how the world was created.
• DRAMA: A piece of literature meant to be performed. Its key elements include (i) imitation or impersonation (ii) disguise (iii) dance (iv) mime (v) dialogue

Example: The Gods Are Not To Blame, As You Like It, THE TRIALS OF BROTHER JERO, ROMEO AND JULIET, THE MARRIAGE OF ANANSEWA.

• ATTITUDE: The feeling of a writer or one character towards a character. Words used to describe attitude include;
• Positive Attitude: Admiration, like, approval, sympathy
• Negative Attitude: disgust, contempt, disapproval, unsympathetic, dislike

Example:

Attitude

Msimangu opened the book, and read to them first from the book. And Kumalo had not known that his friend had such a voice. For the voice was of gold, and the voice had such love for the words it was reading. The voice shook and beat and trembled, not as the voice of an old man shakes and beats and trembles, or as a leaf shakes and eats and trembles but as a deep bell when it is struck. For it was not only a voice of gold but it was the voice of a man whose heart was golden, reading from a book of golden words.

(Alan Patton –Cry The Beloved Country P 78)

Kumalo’s attitude towards Msimagu is one of admiration.

• CONTRAST: Presenting two opposing sides of an issues in order to emphasize a point about one side.
• FABLE: A story involving animal characters.  Example: The Tortoise and the Birds.
• LANGUAGE OR DICTION: The kind of words and sentence construction (syntax) used in a work of art. It could be: formal or pedantic, archaic or old fashioned, humorous or funny, simple, complex, informal.
• ONOMATOPOEIA: Use of words whose sounds echo their meaning.

Example: i. The bomb boomed

ii. Tooting of horns.

iii. The bells are tolling

iv. Bells are chiming

• ELEMENTS IN THE PLOT OF TRAGEDY: Conflict, reversal, denouement.
• ELEMENTS OF COMEDY: Caricature, humour, wit, parody, absurdity
• NEGRITUDE: Literature, especially poetry meant to celebrate Africa and its black people. Its main proponent is Leopold Sedar Senghor. Example: i) Long long have you held (ii) Black woman (iii) I will pronounce your name, Naett.
• EPITHET: The use of descriptive words especially when added to names, titles etc.

Example: i. Sango, the thunder lion

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