1. The Things They Carried
Rhetorical and Poetic Devices

2. Narration and Point of View
Narration can be found in any form of literature, including plays, short stories, poems, novels, or even jokes. They are considered narration, or narrative, as long as they tell a story. Examples: Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
First person point of view is when the narrator is referring to him or herself. You will see 'I,' 'me,' 'my' and 'mine' in first person. Example: “I felt like I was getting drowned with shame and disgrace.” Second person point of view is when the reader is directly addressed with 'you,' 'your' and 'yours.‘ Example: “Sometimes you cannot clearly discern between anger and frustration.” Third person point of view is when you get an observer's perspective and the use of 'she,' 'he,' 'her,' 'his,' 'their' and 'theirs.' Example: “Mr. Stewart is a principled man. He acts by the book and never lets you deceive him easily.”

3. Irony
Verbal Irony
“intended meaning is opposite of words actually said”
Example: “I look SOOO good first thing in the morning”
Dramatic Irony
“audience knows more than a particular character”
Example: Romeo deciding to kill himself because he thinks Juliet is dead, though we know she is not.
Situational Irony
“Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs”
Example: Fahrenheit 451 is in the top 100 banned books in the US.

4. Simile and Metaphor
Simile
Metaphor
A comparison between two unlike things using the words “like” or “as”
Examples:
“She is shy as a mouse”
“Life is like a bowl of
cherries.”
One subject is implied to be another in order to draw comparisons between their similarities and shared traits
Examples:
“He was a lion on the soccer field”
“Hope is the thing with feathers,
that perches in the soul”

5. “hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins”
Antithesis
Examples:
“hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins”
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”
When two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect.

6. Zeugma
Grammatically correct linkage of one subject with two or more verbs or a verb with two or more direct objects. The linkage shows the relationship between ideas more clearly. Examples: "She opened her door and her heart to the orphan." "The addict kicked the habit and then the bucket."

7. Verisimilitude
Mark Twain in Adventure of Huckleberry Fin used Black American Vernacular to show realistically how the “negroes” [Black Americans] talked in real life: “I didn’t want to go back no more. I had stopped cussing, because the widow didn’t like it; but now I took to it again because pap hadn’t no objections… But by-and-by pap got too handy with his hick’ry, and I could’t stand it. I was all over with welts. He got to going away so much, too, and locking me in. Once he locked me in and was gone three days. It was dreadful lonesome.” Twain successfully achieves verisimilitude or resemblance to a reality by introducing colloquialism in his narrative. The use of double negatives is quite evident in the above passage.
The appearance or semblance of truth; likelihood; probability; depicting realism

8. Anaphora
Regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses
Examples:
“We shall fight in the trenches. We shall fight on the oceans. We shall fight in the sky.”
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

9. Stanza A grouping of lines separated from others in a poem
Stanzas can be used to mark a shift in mood, time, or thought

10. Line Breaks End-Stopped Line:
a line of poetry ending with punctuation (colon, semi- colon, period) or a line containing a complete phrase
Enjambed Line:
the running over of a sentence or phrase from one poetic line to the next; used to create movement in a poem

11. Tone
The mood or attitude that an author adopts in regards to a particular character, setting, or idea as perceived by the reader
Tone can express a variety of emotions ranging from solemn and critical to witty and humorous

12. Imagery
When an author uses words to create “mental pictures” for the reader in order to tickle the senses and help the reader visualize an experience
Example:
“The flowering Dogwood tree, situated beneath her expansive bay window, was dotted with a tiny Finches in a riot of colors”