Understanding Literary Devices and Poetic Structures
Literary Devices: Definitions and Examples
Allegory: A prolonged correspondence of symbols or metaphors.
Alliteration: The repetition of one or more phonemes in different words, with a perceptible rate.
Anadiplosis: Repeating the last part of a syntactic unit or a verse at the beginning of the next.
Anaphora: A series of phrases or fragments of sentences that begin the same way.
Antithesis: Also called contrast, consisting of two opposing ideas.
Apostrophe: Directly addressing a loved word, animate or inanimate, passionately, outside the sentence structure.
Asyndeton: Suppression of conjunctions that usually serve as a liaison.
Conversion: Repeating the same word several times at the end of every sentence, verse, or stanza.
Ellipse: Omission of words usually considered necessary.
Enjambment: When there is a point or a comma where it is unnecessary or should not be.
Epanadiplosis: A phrase or a verse that begins and ends the same way.
Epithet: Ornamental adjectives that are not specified.
Euphemism: A friendly way to hide or conceal something unpleasant or taboo.
Hyperbaton: Investment or marked change in the usual syntactical order.
Hyperbole: Disproportionate exaggeration.
Rhetorical Question: Formulating a question, not to reply, but to give more strength to the thought.
Irony: Suggesting or saying something the opposite of what one thinks or feels.
Pun: Amending the meaning of a word or phrase by grouping the syllables differently. For example, “plátano es” / “plata no es” (banana is / silver is not).
Metaphor: In general, the identification of a real word with an image; the actual term may appear expressed or not.
Metonymy: There are different types: Designating the whole with the name of a part, designating a part with the name of the whole, designating a portion of one with the name of another part of another whole. In the first two cases, it is called synecdoche.
Paradox: A meeting of thoughts seemingly irreconcilable, but consistent in meaning.
Parallelism: An anaphora is called parallel when the repetition is almost complete, with a slight variation at the end.
Periphrasis: Also called circumlocution, consisting of a detour that avoids, by a strong amplification, the direct expression.
Paranomasia: Also called paronomasia. Located near two voices of similar significance, but with a different meaning.
Tautology: Needless words that reinforce the idea.
Polysyndeton: Multiplication of unnecessary conjunctions.
Reduplication: Repetition of a word or group of words in contact within a sentence.
Silimicadencia: Also called assonance. When two or more words near the end, sounds are identical.
Pun: When a sentence is composed of the same words as above, but reversed in order or function.
Symbol: An object or quality designated as real, but at the same time alluding to another different reality.
Comparison: It differs from the previous figure in that here the actual word and image are always explicit and without specifying.
Poetic Forms: Definitions and Examples
Art Major: Verses of 9 or more syllables.
Art Minor: Verses of 8 or fewer syllables.
Sonnet: A composition consisting of 14 hendecasyllable (11 syllables) verses.
Serventesio: A stanza composed of 4 major art hendecasyllable (11 syllables) verses.
Lira: A metric combination of five verses: the first, third, and fourth are seven syllables, and the second and fifth are hendecasyllable (aBabB). *When the last word is acute, a syllable is added; if it is proparoxytone, it is subtracted.
Rima Consonant: Occurs between two or more lines when the phonemes of their last words match from the stressed vowel.
Rima Assonance: Matching words in accented vowels in each syllable from the last stressed vowel.