SSC Literary Devices

"...Barefoot and breathless back inside."

The use of words to imitate sounds

The repetition of beginning consonant sounds

"...Our future is drying up and blowing away with the dust."

"...Permission to play at the Palace."

The repeating of similar end sounds in words

"...fingers snapping, feet tapping."

Language that means more than what it says on the surface

When a writer repeats a word or a phrase to add rhythm or emphasis

"...I glare at Ma's back with a scowl foul as maggoty stew."

When rhyming is organized into patterns and can be labeled (abab)

A group of lines in a poem or the way a poem is divided

"...I let the petals fall into my hair, a blizzard of sweet-smelling flowers..."

Describing an object by saying it is something else

Giving an animal or object human characteristics

Using extreme exaggeration to describe an object or an event

"...Sorrow climbs up our front steps..."

"The wind took my voice and busted it into a thousand pieces."

A phrase that doesn't have the same meaning as what it says

Language that appeals to the senses, description of people or objects stated in terms of senses

Combining 2 words of contrasting meaning to convey a single thought

"...She's just taking me in like I was so much flannel dry on the line."

Using like or as to compare two unlike ideas