1. Literary Terms

2. Allusion: A Reference to someone or something in history or literature or the arts
She was as beautiful as the Mona Lisa.

3. Alliteration: Repetition of beginning consonant sounds
Apostrophe: Where a writer addresses an inanimate object, idea or absent person
Example: Oh, Death, where is thy sting?
Alliteration: Repetition of beginning consonant sounds
Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

4. Assonance: Repetition of similar vowel sounds
Example: The geese sweep by the sleeping fleet.
I like Ike.
Consonance: Repetition of final (ending) consonant sounds.
Examples: Do not go gentle into that goodnight.
Short and sweet.

5. Extended Metaphor: A metaphor that is developed over several lines or writing or even an entire poem.
Example: "I graduated from the University of Life. All right? I received a degree from the School of Hard Knocks. And our colors were black and blue, baby. I had office hours with the Dean of Bloody Noses. (Will Ferrell, Commencement Address at Harvard University, 2003)
The sea is a hungry dog,
He rolls on the beach all day
With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws,
He likes to chew on the most ghastly things
And spit them out over different land
Taking the rubbish with him.

6. Example: My mind was going in a million different directions at once.
Flashback: Interrupts the normal chronological order to show something that happened earlier
Hyperbole: Incredible exaggeration or overstatement used for effect
Example: My mind was going in a million different directions at once.

7. Imagery: Language that appeals to the senses, creates a picture or a mood.
Then after a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
three golden fields swam around a red farmhouse.
Inversion: Reversing normal word order in a sentence
Example: Sam, I am.

8. Example: A dentist gets a cavity.
Irony: Discrepancy between appearance and reality, what is said and what is meant
Example: A dentist gets a cavity.
Metaphor: Comparison not using “like” or “as”
Example: Fame is a bee.

9. Onomatopoeia: Use of a word whose sound imitates its meaning
Example: Pow! Zap! Wow!
Oxymoron: Combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase
Example: There was a deafening silence.

10. Paradox: Statement that seems contradictory but reveals a truth
Example: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Parallelism: Repetition of words, phrases, or sentences that have the same structure or that state a similar idea.
Example: Going to the beach, shopping at the mall, and visiting my grandma are all part of the plan.

11. Pun: A play on words (used a lot in jokes)
Personification: Where an object or animal is given human characteristics
Example: The picture stared at me with sad eyes.
Pun: A play on words (used a lot in jokes)
Example: A bicycle can’t stand alone because it is two-tired.

12. Repetition: Say a word or phrase over for effect
Example: Row, row, row your boat.
Rhyme: words that sound the same
End Rhyme: occurs at the end of lines
The ring
Is the thing
Internal Rhyme: occurs in the middle of lines.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary.

13. Symbol: Person, place, thing, event that has meaning or represents something else
Example: the bird of night (owl is a symbol of death)
Sarcasm: Use of humor in a mocking remark and usually meant to wound
Example: "Oh, a sarcasm detector. That’s a really useful invention!“ (Comic Book Guy, The Simpsons)

14. Simile: A comparison using “like” or “as”
Example: My love is as bright as the sun.
Understatement: Saying less than what is meant
Example: "It's just a flesh wound."
(The Black Knight, after having both arms cut off, in Monty Python and the Holy Grail)