Literary Devices In Lyrics

SIMILE A comparison between UNLIKE items using “like” or “as.”

Examples: “Life is like a ride on a freeway.” “A dream is like a river.” “Forever ain’t that long, when your smile is stuck in your head like a pop song.”

METAPHOR A direct comparison between unlike items--does not use “like” or “as.”

Examples “I’m a speck thrown on a map.” “Love is a burning thing.” “The process of belief is an elixir when you’re weak.” “We are the prey, and culture is the predator.

HYPERBOLE Intense exaggeration, usually intended to make a point.

Examples: “I need 10,000 angels to walk me out the door.” “Maybe we’re worlds apart.”

Onomatopoeia Words that mimic real-life sounds.

Examples: “BANG, BANG, the nail guns rang out.” “Here comes the BOOM.” “whoppa whoppa whoppa whoppa”

Imagery Descriptions that use the five senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, sound)

Examples: “blue clear sky.” “My little black heart breaks apart.” “My brain is hanging upside down.” “I can see my breath in between the words that fog my spinning head.”

ALLITERATION: Repeating a consonant sound, usually at the beginning of words.

EXAMPLES: “ M ass paranoia is a M ode not a M alady.” “ C offin C reated for C reative thought” “ S ick S ick S enses that S ense DNA on barbed wire fen C es.

Personification Giving life-like qualities to non-living things.

Examples: “Street’s idle chatter tears your heart strings to tatters.” “London calling.” “If my heart says ‘I’m sorry’ can we leave it at that.” “This place will chew you up and spit you out before you go.”

Couplet A unit of poetry that has two lines, usually rhymed. “For something is amiss or out of place When mice with wings can wear a human face.”

Stanzas “The paragraphs of poetry” Groups of lines that form the units of poems All but blind In his chambered hole Gropes for worms The four-clawed mole.

Symbol An object with a double meaning. A thing that stands for something besides itself.

IRONY Something said or done that is the opposite of what you would expect.

Examples: “It’s for the better, your better half is gone.” “We were different, just like all the other kids.” “The beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair.” “No sense, no guide, ain’t it beautiful to be alive?”

Lyrical examples courtesy of: Bad Religion Relient K Less Than Jake The Clash The Ramones Alkaline Trio George Strait Unwritten Law Garth Brooks Mindy McCready Philmore P.O.D. The Offspring Social Distortion/Johnny Cash