Literary Techniques Language Arts Educational Posters
for the language arts classroom and home schoolers.

Alliteration - repeating the same consonant sound at the beginning of two or more words in close succession.

On the hall-guest she hurled herself, hent her short sword, broad and brown-edged, the bairn to avenge, the sole-born son. Beowulf

Anthropomorphism - applies human-like characteristics to animals or objects.

The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth and addressed Alice in the languid, sleepy voice.
“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Foreshadowing - hints at events to occur later.

The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.

The Cask of Anomtillado by Edgar Allan Poe

Hyperbole - exaggerated statements used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally.

There did not seem ot be brains enough in the entire nursery, so to speak, to bait a fish-hook with;

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

Imagery - is the forming mental images of a scene using descriptive words, especially making use of the human senses.

...it was the incarnation of blind and insenate Greed. It was a monster devouring with a thousand mouths, trampling with a thousand hoofs; it was the Great Butcher – it was the spirit of Capitalism made flesh.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Metaphor - an analogy between two objects or ideas, conveyed by the use of a word instead of another.

Normally he admired the office, . . . It was a vault, a steel chapel where loafing and laughter were raw sin.

Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

Onomatopoeia - suggests the source of the sound that it describes.

One, two! One, Two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead
and with its head
He went galumphing back.

The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

Personification - using comparative metaphors and similes to give living characteristics to non-living objects.

Each felt the wound,
and Nature from her seat
Sighing through all her Works
gave signs of woe,
That all was lost.

Paradise Lost by John Milton

Repetition - the simple repeating of a word in order to emphasize.

I looked upon the rotting sea,
And drew my eyes away;
I looked upon the rotting deck,
And there the dead men lay.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Simile - a figure of speech comparing two unlike things, often introduced with the words “like”, “as”, or “than”.

One of the new things people began to find out in the last century was that thoughts – just mere thoughts – are as powerful as electric batteries – as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett