Literary Devices Review

Synecdoche is primarily a matter of structure.

"My vegetable love should grow vaster than empires, but more slow . . ."

Self-reference is primarily a matter of style.

Similar patterns of grammatical structure and length: "To be, or not to be . . ."

Metonomy is primarily a matter of style.

"This is just to say . . ." William Carlos Williams

Synesthesia is primarily a matter of style.

"The hard braying light is zebra'd black and white" - Edith Sitwell

"By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food" - Genesis 3:19

A narration of restricted meaning in which characters represent specific abstract ideas.

From the Greek for "error": a tragic hero's error in judgment that brings about suffering.

Anaphora is primarily a matter of structure.

Allegory is primarily a matter of style.

Litotes is primarily a matter of style.

A metaphor in which a part signifies the whole.

Charles Dickens uses this device to open A Tale of Two Cities

Persona is primarily a matter of structure.

A device that reverses the order in which words or concepts were originally introduced.

Writing that comments upon another art work. "Flaming flowers that brightly blaze . . ."

Paradox is primarily a matter of style.

Parallelism is primarily a matter of structure.

A trope that makes an affirmative point by negating its opposite: "Not bad!"

From the Latin word that means "that through which [a voice] passes".

Chiasmus is primarily a matter of style.

Hyperbole is primarily a matter of style.

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair."

Ekphrasis is predominantly a matter of structure.