1. Alliteration
Used for poetic effect, a repetition of the initial sounds of several words in a group. The following line from Robert Frost's poem "Acquainted with the Night" provides us with an example of alliteration, "I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet." The repetition of the "s" sound creates a sense of quiet, reinforcing the meaning of the line.
2. Antagonist
A person or force which opposes the protagonist in a literary work. In Stephen Vincent Benet's "the Devil and Daniel Webster", Mr. Scratch is Daniel Webster's antagonist at the trial of Jabez stone. The cold, in Jack London's "To Build a Fire" is the antagonist which defeats the man on the trail.
3. Assonance
The repetition of vowel sounds in a literary work, especially in a poem. Edgar Allen Poe's "The Bells" contains numerous examples. Consider these from stanza 2:
Hear the mellow wedding bells-
and
From the molten-golden notes,
the repetition of the short "e" and the long "o" sounds denotes a heavier, more serious bell than the bell encountered in the first stanza where the assonance included the "i" sound in examples such as tinkle, sprinkle, and twinkle
4. Characterization
The method a writer uses to reveal the personality of a character in a literary work: Methods may include (1) by what the character says about himself of herself; (2) by what others reveal about the character; and (3) by the character's own actions.
5. Consonance
The repetition of consonant sounds with differing vowel sounds in words near each other in a line of lines of poetry. Consider the following example from Theodore Roethke's "Night Journey":
We rush into a rain
That rattles double glass.
The repetition of the "r" sound in rush, rain and rattles, occurring so close to each other in these two lines, would be considered consonance
6. Euphemism
A mild word of phrase which substitutes for another which would be undesirable because it is too direct, unpleasant, or offensive. The word "joint" is a euphemism for the word prison. "W.C." is a euphemism for bathroom.
7. Figurative Language
In literature, a way of saying one thing and meaning something else. Take, for example, this line of Robert Burns, My love is a red, red rose. Clearly Mr. Burns does not really mean that he has fallen in love with a red, aromatic, many-pedaled, long, thorny-stemmed plant. He means that his love is a sweet and as delicate as a rose. While, figurative language provides a writer with the opportunity to write imaginatively, it also tests the imagination of the reader, forcing the reader to go below the surface of a literary work into deep, hidden meanings.
8. Flashback
A reference to an event which took place prior to the beginning of a story or play. In Ernest Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", the protagonist, Harry Street, has been injured on a hunt in Africa. Dying, his mind becomes preoccupied with incidents in his past. In a flashback Street remembers one of his wartime comrades dying painfully on barbed wire on a battlefield in Spain.
9. Foreshadowing
In a drama, a method used to build suspense by providing hints of what is to come.
10. Hyperbole
A figure of speech in which a overstatement or exaggeration occurs
11. Imagery
A word or group of words in a literary work which appeal to one or more of the senses: sight, taste, hearing, and smell. The use of images serves to intensify the impact of the work. The following example of imagery in T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock",
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table.
uses images of pain and sickness to describe the evening, which as an image itself represents society and the psychology of Prufrock, himself
12. Irony
Irony takes many forms. In irony of situation, result of an action is the reverse of what the actor expected. Macbeth murders his king hoping that in becoming king he will achieve great happiness. Actually, Macbeth never knows another moment of peace, and finally is beheaded for his murderous act. In dramatic irony, the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not. For example, the identity of the murderer in a crime thriller may be known to the audience long before the mystery is solved. In verbal irony, the contrast is between the literal meaning of what is said and what is meant. A character may refer to a plan as brilliant, while actually meaning that(s) he thinks the plan is foolish. Sarcasm is a form of verbal irony.
13. Metaphor
A figure of speech wherein a comparison is made between two unlike quantities without the use of the words "like" of "as". Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," has this to say about the moral condition of his parishioners:
There are the black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads,
full of the dreadful storm and big with thunder;
The comparison here is between God's anger and a storm. Note that there is no use of "like" or "as" as would be the case in a simile
14. Mood
The atmosphere or feeling created by a literary work, partly by a description of the objects or by the style of the description. A work many contain a mood of horror, mystery, holiness, or childlike simplicity, to name a few, depending on the author's treatment of the work.
15. Onomatopoeia
A literary device wherein the sound of a word echoes the sound it represents. The words "splash." "knock," and "roar" are examples. The following lines end Dylan Thomas' "Fern Hill":
Out of the whinnying green stable
On to the fields of praise.
The word "whinnying" is onomatopoetic. "Whinny" is the sound usually selected to represent that made by a horse
16. Personification
A figure of speech in which something nonhuman is given human characteristics. Consider the following lines from Carl Sandburg's "Chicago":
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the big shoulders:
Carl Sandburg description of Chicago includes shoulders. Cities do not have shoulders, people do. Sandburg personifies the city by ascribing to its something human, shoulders. "Justice is blind." is another example
17. Point of View
A piece of literature contains a speaker who is speaking either in the first person, telling things from his or her own perspective, or in the third person, telling things from the perspective of an onlooker. The perspective used is called the Point of View, and is referred to either as first person or third person. If the speaker knows everything including the actions, motives, and thoughts of all the characters, the speaker is referred to as omniscient (all-knowing). Of the speaker is unable to know what is in any character's mind but his of her own, this called limited omniscience.
18. Protagonist
The hero, or central character of a literary work. In accomplishing his or her objective, the protagonist is hindered by some opposing force either human (one of Batman's antagonists if The Joker), animal (Moby Dick is Captain Ahab's antagonist in Herman Melville's "Moby dick"), or natural.
19. Simile
A figure of speech which takes the form of a comparison between two unlike quantities for which a basis for comparison can be found, and which uses the words "like" or "as" in the comparison, as in the lien from Ezra Pound's "Fan-Piece, for Her Imperial Lord:" clear as frost on the grass-blade, in this line, a fan of white silk is being compared to frost on a blade of grass. Not the use of the word "as".
20. Suspense
Suspense in fiction results primarily from two factors: the reader's identification with and concern for the welfare of a convincing and sympathetic character, and an anticipation of violence. The following line form Elizabeth Spencer's "The Name of the Game" is an example of a suspense maker:
He was an innocent, this boy; the other boys were out to get him.
21. *Theme
The message that the author is trying to send, usually bout life or human nature.
22. Tone
Tone express the author's attitude toward his or her subject. Since there are as many tones in literature as there are tones of voice in real relationships, the tone of a literary work may be one of anger or approval, pride or piety-the entire gamut of attitudes toward life's phenomena. Here is one literary example: The tone of John Steinbeck's short novel "Cannery Row" is non-judgemental. Mr. Steinbeck never expresses disapproval of the antics of Mack and his band of bums. Rather, he treats them with unflagging kindness.
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