After reading this post, you will effectively know how to analyse and interpret literary expressions in various poetry terms, using excellent examples. These terminologies are mostly evident in drama and comedic writing. For successfully outline various literary terms, you need to fully understand how they are applied in literature works. So our experts gathered all the most important devices for you to use in the completely free essays online.
Primary Info for Students
You should clearly define the difference between literary techniques and elements. The former is not necessary and universal, in a manner that not literature works contain these instances. Irony and simile are some of the examples of these techniques. Since a lot of poems contain various similes, this element can be considered to be a literary technique other than a mere element. On the other hand, a literary element is considered to a universal constituent in literature works and can be denoted in oral and written narrations. Character and plot, for instance, are relevant to the story since they are available in various cultures recorded in different times in history.
One of the terminologies includes the metaphor. This is a commonly used device in literature and used to provide a comparison of items by defining that an item is similar to the other unrelated element. Metaphor is a form of analogy and can be mistaken to a simile. However, the main different between a simile and a metaphor is that the former includes words like ‘as’ and like’ when providing comparisons while metaphors are assertions of comparison without any conjunctions or modifiers. One commonly known example for this element is cited from the Shakespeare play ‘As you like it’.
In the play, Jaques argues that the globe is a stage, which is obviously not true according to literature. Nonetheless, through an extension of a metaphor, the character compared humanity’s lifetime acting in the entire play, considering birth with death as an entrance and an exit. The applicability of metaphors is stretched according to how readers understand how the world words; and this can be seen from the sample play.
The Definition and Application of Apostrophe Literary Device
The apostrophe literary device is a commonly used punctuation mark, which refers to an exclamation speech figure. As a literary device, this term is applied when a narrator breaks after addressing a particular party to address another party. The third party could be an individual who might be absent or present in a given scene. This party can also be an inanimate object, such as a dagger, or just any abstract element like moon or death. Since the audience is able to see the speaker, the transition of addresses has to be supported by an apostrophe in many plays. These marks are also seen in proses or poetries.
The best apostrophe literary definition is derived from the Greek language as ‘turning back’, based on the works of Homer Odyssey. In the drama, these marks normally occur whenever an impersonal speaker pauses in any narration in order to give additional information and comments. The application of apostrophes, whereby the speaker interrupts his/her tale to provide comments, has been famous in literature works in the 19th to the mid-20th century.
There is a difference between apostrophes as a device and as for punctuation marks. In both cases, the word comes from a Greek expression, which means turning back, as mentioned earlier on in this article. The apostrophe is an elision and can be applied when a letter is eliminated, which seems to be elided. The application of apostrophes when constricted ‘I’m, and I am’, for the case of the English language is broadly used. On the other hand, these marks can be viewed as a device and evolve when the speaker turns from a single address and focusses on another.
Apart from apostrophes, we’ve provided a literary devices list in this article, discussed in the section below.
The Most Common Literary Devices List
This section includes a list of common literary devices, which appear in proses and poetries mostly. This article has clearly defined literary terminologies and provides the best examples of how these terminologies are applied. These devices include:
- Allegory: This is a storyline, which is applied to denote a general message on an actual event or issues in life. This term represents a complete novel, book or play.
Example: Faerie by Edmund Spenser is considered to be a moral allegory in literature whereby every character stands for a particular virtue. Precisely, the Red Cross Knights denote holiness, whereby Lady Una represents kindness and faithfulness. The parents to Una represent humanity and its race while the evil character is symbolized by a dragon. Another example is seen from the Lion, Witch and Wardrobe by C.S Lewis, which is considered to be a religion allegory. In the story, we notice that the Aslan, the lion symbolized God or Christ, while the white witch symbolizes evil doing and Edmund representing the betrayer Judas.
Among the different types of literary devices, there is alliteration.
- Alliteration: This device represents a series of phrases and words that begin with one sound, which are normally a consonant that provides more stress on a given syllable. Mostly, alliteration will be evident in book titles, poems or poetry.
Example: Tongue twisters with common words ‘Peter Piper Picked Peppers.’ The tongue twister, in this case, is sound ‘P’ which is repeated at the beginning of each word.
- Allusion: This term normally appears when the writer references to particular events, place or ideas that are retrieved from somewhere else. This device is commonly used in literature; so, students should remember it once asked: “what is a literary device and provide an example of one”.
Example: “Do not pretend to be so intelligent. It is as if you are Einstein.” The expression is an allusion of actual life smart scientist and has been used to refer to a certain person.
- Anachronism: This term normally comes up in case of intentional mistakes in a timeline or chronology of texts. The device might be a character that seems to appear in various time periods, where they actually existed. Moreover, it can also represent a technology that was used before it was fully invented. These devices are usually applied for comedic influence.
Example: The Renaissance ruler who insists: “That is pretty cool” will be considered to be an anachronism since this form of expression is considers to be used by modern day generation and not during the time of such rulers.
- Anaphora: This terminology is evident when a phrase or word is being repeated at the start of a number of sentences throughout your writing. As such, it is applicable when emphasizing repeated words to evoke a particular feeling on the reader.
Example: A commonly used example is Winston's "We shall fight on the Beach" whereby the phrase 'we shall fight' is being repeated throughout his speech. As such, the speech implies that the audience will fight in the various listed places during the Second World War. The speaker did this to the British people and the military troops to motivate them for victory.
- Anthropomorphism: This term is evident when an element that is not human behaves like a human. These elements include a place, animal or inanimate thing. This is an example to remember when you think: “what are literary devices?"
Example: Cartoons watched by children have a lot of anthropomorphism. For instance, Mickey and Mouse are able to put on clothes, speak, drive and sing. Actually, a real mouse cannot do all these things done by people.
- Asyndeton: This type of term appears when an author omits conjunctions like but, and or for in a selection of phrases or words to emphasize the meaning of particular phrases and words. This term can also be applied for narrations since phrases and sentence, which have asyndeton contain a firm memorable rhythm.
Example: Abraham Lincoln completes the Gettysburg speech with a sentence: "the government of the people, by the people and for the people will not perish from the earth". With particular conjunctions, it is evident that the narrator leaves a strong melodic terminology.
- Colloquialism: This is the application of words that are not formal. These words are slang and used by writers to instil some form of realism to dialogue or character. Various types of colloquialism include phrases, contractions and words which are normally not real.
Example: “Alas! What’s up” This form of analogue is a sample of the device because it has been applied broadly in daily phrases and words.
- Epigraph: This is applicable whenever the write wants to insets famous poems, quotation, passages or statements at the start of large texts like chapters and books. These are normally written by various authors, whereby credit is provided, to present overarching messages and themes of literature works. Some forms of literature work like the Melville 1851 book has many epigraphs all over the text.
Example: In the start of the Ernest books, the Sun is seen to rise in an epigraph, which contains the quotation from a famous poet ‘Gertrude Stein’: “You are a lost generation.”
The Proper Literary Devices Definition to Note Down
The best literary devices definition can be difficult. These are techniques that authors apply when creating pointed and special effects in texts. With proper examples of literary devices, this article has conveyed vital information that will help students to understand the purpose of these devices and where they are applied in the literature.
For instance, the apostrophe literary term will be applied as a punctuation mark to show that the author has posed and intends to include more information concerning what he/she has just said. This device, among others, is used in literature to put more emphasis or to ensure texts are clear. Normally, writers will use these devices to enable the reader to connect stories and character in a broad dimension.
Since it is relevant to familiarize yourself with various devices, we have included a literary techniques list to help you to know various terms and how they are applied in the literature. Apart from assisting students in getting good grades while writing poems, these devices are also helpful to enhance individual competency of the literature expression. Moreover, knowing these techniques enables us to get familiarized concerning the different choices used in literature and how they are applied.
Our list also has literary devices examples to effectively help students to comprehend these techniques on their own. The ability of a student to identify a given element in a poem or story will assist them in ruling out the reason why a writer decided to choose that focal direction in plotting certain points in literature. Moreover, it also enables you to note down the meaning of a certain phrase in a more defined manner.
Finally, our list of literary elements introduces important techniques that students should be aware of. These elements make the texts to be more fun and interesting when reading. The reader should also be able to notice these terms paper since it will make him/her detect various phrases, which have been interwoven to build the thesis of the text.
Now that you’ve learnt various devices and how they are applied in literature, you can now be confident of writing your own poem and apply these techniques. However, you can still contact professional service for more help concerning these types of assignment and others. We have the best expert for the same, and we will be willing to assist you. Call us now for prompt assistance.