Poetic+Devices+Definitions

**Hyperbole** : an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally "My mother is going to murder me in my sleep" **Satire** : a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule **Alliteration** : the commencement of two or more stressed syllables of a word group either with the same consonant sound or sound group

"Ahri is allergic to alliteration." **Onomatopoeia** : the formation of a word, as cuckoo or boom, by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent "The whip went //CRACK//" **Rhythm** : movement or procedure with uniform or patterned recurrence of a beat, accent, or the like "Boom boom boom - the future boom boom boom" **Rhyme** : verse or poetry having correspondence in the terminal sounds of the lines "I don't have time to think of a rhyme - the bell's about to chime. - Song by Sublime" **Oxymoron** : a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect "She is a large, small elephant." **Metaphor** : a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance. "Her heart is a tornado." **Malapropism** : an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, esp. by the confusion of words that are similar in sound. "Listen to the blabbing brook" - //Norm Crosby// **Analogy** : a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">"This math problem is like a school bus of children:..." <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Euphemism** : the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Your looking rather plump" <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Repetition** : Repetition of a sound, syllable, word, phrase, line, stanza, or metrical pattern <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">"deceit is not deceit if you repeat, repeat, repeat" <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Allusion** : a passing or casual reference; an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">"When he heard about the news, he freaked." <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Personification** : the attribution of a personal nature or character to inanimate objects or abstract notions <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">"The clouds tumbled in the murky sky" <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Allegory** : a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than the literal