Download Literary Elements

Literary Elements
a writer’s tools
The Elements
• Assonance
• Repetition
• Figurative Language • Consonance
• Lyric poems
• Alliteration
• Concrete poem
• Onomatopoeia
• Rhyme
• Simile
Assonance
• The repetition of the same middle
vowel sound in two or more closely
grouped words
Example
“I must confess that in my quest I felt
depressed and restless.”
- "With Love" by Thin Lizzy
Figurative Language
• Give readers a clear picture of what
is being described.
Example
“I have a baseball
That sits on a throne…”
- My Championship Baseball by Troy B.
Lyric Poems
Example
• Short and
songlike and
express the
feelings of the
speaker
Paper Birds
Our minds have become intimate with
words.
We fly together like two paper birds.
Small creeks, big rivers and the mighty
sea,
Sustains the lyrics of calligraphy.
My friend, the lamp of sunset lights the
grass.
Leaves paint old panes with poems of
stained glass.
Deft fingers pluck the lyre-strings of the
heart.
Emotion is as beautiful as art.
-Sandra Fowler
Concrete Poem
• Poems shaped to look like the
poem’s subject matter
Onomatopoeia
• The use of words that sound like the
action or thing they describe
Rhyme
• End words that sound the same and
mostly occur a the end of lines of
poetry
Example
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.
And you know what you know.
You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.
-Dr. Seuss
Simile
• A comparison between two unlike
things using like or as
Examples
The sun is like a glowing lightbulb in the sky.
That bear was as big as a building.
My pillow is as soft as a cloud.
I slept like a baby.
Repetition
Repeating a word or phrase for
rhythmic effect and emphasis
Examples
I Dream a World
I dream a world where man
No other will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn.
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom’s way…
-Langston Hughes
Consonance
The repetition of final consonant
sounds in two or more words grouped
closely together
Example
"He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake."
- Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (Robert Frost)
Alliteration
The repetition of the same initial
consonant sound
Example
“Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,
He bravely breach'd his boiling bloody breast.”
- Shakespeare’s "A Midsummer Night's Dream"