Literary Devices

Literary Devices or Figures of Speech

Figures of Speech or rhetorical figures are found in English literature and are divided into various categories according to some characteristics like analogy, association,sound,sense, construction etc.

Here are some important literary devices we need to learn

• Allegory
• Alliteration
• Allusion
• Analogy
• Anaphora
• Anticipation
• Anti-Climax
• Antithesis
• Apostrophe
• Assonance
• Asyndeton
• Bathos
• Chiasmus
• Climax
• Conceit
• Diacope
• Epigram
• Epistrophe
• Euphemism
• Exclamation
• Fable
• Hyperbole
• Imagery
• Innuendo
• Interrogation
• Irony
• Juxtaposition
• Kenning
• Litotes
• Metaphor
• Metonymy
• Onomatopoeia
• Oxymoron
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Parable
• Paradox
• Peripharasis
• Personification
• Personal Metaphor
• Polysyndeton
• Prolepsis
• Pun
• Sarcasm
• Simile
• Synecdoche
• Synesthesia
• Tautology
• Transfer Epithet
• Vision
• Zeugma

Now we will group the figures of speech on the basis of the characteristics:

Similarities or resemblance

• Simile
• Allegory
• Metaphor
• Analogy
• Parable
• Fable

Association

• Metonymy
• Transfer Epithet
• Synecdoche
• Allusion

Contrast or difference

• Antithesis
• Oxymoron
• Epigram
• Paradox
• Climax
• Anti-Climax

Imagination

• Personification
• Personal Metaphor
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Apostrophe
• Hyperbole
• Vision

Indirectness

• Innuendo
• Irony
• Sarcasm
• Peripharasis
• Euphemism
• Litotes

Sound

• Onomatopoeia
• Pun
• Alliteration
• Assonance

Construction

• Interrogation
• Exclamation
• Chiasmus
• Zeugma
• Asyndeton
• Polysyndeton
• Hyperbole
• Anaphora

Miscellaneous

• Tautology
• Anticipation
• Epistrophe