Discovering Literary Devices 2 Personification Hyperbole Idiom Pun Onomatopoeia Oxymoron Repetition Imagery

Simile and Metaphor Simile – direct comparison between two unlike objects using like or as. Example: Paul Bunyan is as big as a mountain. Metaphor – a figure of speech in which something is described as though it is something else. Unlike a simile, a metaphor does not contain like or as. Example: Paul Bunyan is a mountain of a man.

-Walt Whitman, “O Captain! My Captain!” Extended Metaphor A figure of speech that compares two essentially unlike things at some length. Example: Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won… -Walt Whitman, “O Captain! My Captain!” In this poem, President Lincoln is compared to the captain of a ship, and the ship is a metaphor for the U.S.

Personification The giving of human qualities to an animal, object, or idea. Example: Winter trees are starving, lacking leaves of spring.

Onomatopoeia The use of words whose sounds suggests their meaning. Example: The boom of thunder woke me from my nap.

Hyperbole A figure of speech in which the truth is exaggerated for emphasis or for humorous effect. Example: He runs so fast he could catch a bullet.

Idiom Phrases that have nothing to do with the meaning of the whole group of words together as a whole. Examples: A Dime A Dozen: Anything that is common and easy to get. A Leopard Can't Change His Spots: You cannot change who you are. Finding Your Feet:  To become more comfortable in whatever you are doing Cliché - An expression, such as “turn over a new leaf,” that has been used and reused so many times that it has lost its expressive power.

Pun A play on words that uses the similarity in sound between two words with distinctly different meanings.

Oxymoron Figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms. Examples: icy hot; jumbo shrimp; bittersweet

Repetition A technique in which a sound, word, phrase, or line is repeated for effect or emphasis. Example: In my sleep, I dream I believe I mourn

Imagery Consists of words and phrases that appeal to readers’ five senses. Example: Soft snow fall upon the waiting roofs. The fluffy flakes create a mound of white powder…

Symbol A person, a place, an object, or an action that stands for something beyond itself. Example: A single white dove flew above the warring country, lost in its path.