Literary Devices: Definition, Usage, and Examples

Literary Devices

Literary devices are narrative techniques that allow the writer to convey deeper meaning to his text. It works alongside other literary elements to elevate the text.

Examples:

• Alliteration
• Assonance
• Personification
• Metaphor
• Simile
• Irony
• Rhyme

Alliteration

Alliteration is a literary device where recurring words start with the same consonant sound. It is the process of repeating the same sound at the beginning of recurring words. Alliteration occurs when two or more words starting with the same consonant sound are used repeatedly in a sentence.

Example:

• Trembling tower
• Mighty Mammoth Mountain.
• Wonderful white whale.
• Magnificent, mysterious magician.

Assonance

• Assonance is the literary device where the vowel sound is repeated in a sentence.

Example:

• Pain and gain
• Surf and turf
• Do good, be good

Personification 

• Personification means representing a non-human thing as if it were human. 
• Personification gives human traits and qualities, such as emotions, desires, sensations, gestures, and speech, often by way of a metaphor. 
• Personification is when a speaker gives an object or idea -human characteristics, abilities, or qualities.

Examples:

• The frost paints the pines in the wintertime.
• The sun was cheerful in the morning.

Metaphor

• It is a literary device used for direct comparisons.
• They dictate one thing is another.
• It is a literary expression that describes an object or person by referring to something that shares similar characteristics.

Examples:

• You are my sunshine.
• I am fuming.
• He is my guardian angel.
• She is the devil in disguise.

Simile

• A simile is a literary device used to describe something by comparing it to another.
• The words like and as usually mark their use.
• It could be a comparison between two like things or two, unlike things. It is also known as an indirect comparison.

Example:

• Life is like a box of chocolates.
• My love is like a red rose.
• She sang like an angel.
• He is as fast as a snail.

Irony

• The irony is a figure of speech and one of the most widely known literary devices used to express a strong emotion or raise a point.

Example:

• A driver whose license was taken away by a patrol officer may say, “Thank you, Officer; now that you have my license, I can’t drive.”

Rhyme

• A rhyme scheme is a pattern of rhymes seen at the end of every line in a poem.
• Rhymes make the poems seem interesting and help to remember the lines quickly.
• The rhyme scheme is an integral part of the formal verse.