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And when, after a long while, this storm had passed, the maid was seen; and she cried aloud with the sharp cry of a bird in its bitterness,-even as when, within the empty nest, it sees the bed stripped of its nestlings. So she also, when she saw the corpse bare, lifted up a voice of wailing, and called down curses on the doers of that deed.
(Fifth century BCE)
The passage contains which literary device?
Simile is the correct literary device. This type of simile is called a "submerged simile" oftentimes, because it does not contain the words "like" or "as" as you would normally expect to accompany a simile. The writer uses the submerged simile to compare "the maid" to a bird that discovers its nest to be empty.
(Adapted from the R. C. Jebb translation of Antigone by Sophocles 462-469, Fifth century BCE)
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Yet I would have thee know that o'er-stubborn spirits are most often humbled; 'tis the stiffest iron, baked to hardness in the fire, that thou shalt oftenest see snapped and shivered; and I have known horses that show temper brought to order by a little curb.
(Fifth century BCE)
The passage employs which of the following literary devices?
This excerpt contains multiple metaphors: it compares a heart breaking to iron breaking and to wild horses being tamed.
(Adapted from the R. C. Jebb translation of Antigone by Sophocles 520-525, Fifth century BCE)
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1 Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
2 That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
3 And then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
4 Signifying nothing.
(1611)
What literary device is employed in the passage?
The writer compares life to a shadow that struts. This is a metaphor because it compares life to a shadow but doesn't use 'like' or 'as' (like a simile would).
(Passage adapted from Shakespeare's Macbeth, V.iv.23-28)
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MERCUTIO:
O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies (5)
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep…
And in this state she gallops night by night
Through lover's brains, and then they dream of love;
O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight;
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees… (10)
Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit…
(1597)
What literary device can be found in line 12?
In the line “And then dreams he of smelling out a suit,” we see the inversion of the normal subject-verb order (“he dreams”) to the unusual verb-subject order (“dreams he”). This is the definition of anastrophe. Anaphora is the repetition of the beginning of a clause, while epistrophe is the repetition of the end of a clause at the end of several clauses in a row (e.g. “I like strawberry ice cream, I buy chocolate ice cream, I eat all kinds of ice cream”). Apostrophe, on the other hand, is a direct address to the reader (e.g. Herman Melville’s “Call me Ishmael”). Ellipsis is the deliberate omission of one or more words for the purpose of concision; it is sometimes marked with “…” but sometimes not.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (1597)
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HAMLET: … What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty and appal the free,(5)
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing. No, not for a king, (10)
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain?
Lines 5-6 are an example of which literary device?
In lines 5-6, we have the use of clauses with identical grammatical patterns, syntax, or meter (e.g. “She expected nothing, hoped for everything, and received something”). Parenthetical speech would be an aside, a remark set off by parentheses, em dashes, or other punctuation. Asyndeton denotes a lack of conjunction words (e.g. “I came, I saw, I conquered”). Colloquialism is the use of an informal, conversational, or regional bit of speech (e.g. “y’all” for “you all”). Apostrophe is a direct address to the reader (e.g. Herman Melville’s “Call me Ishmael”).
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark. (1603)
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HAMLET: … What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty and appal the free,(5)
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing. No, not for a king, (10)
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain?
Lines 12-13 are an example of which literary device?
Rhetorical questions, or questions not designed to be answered literally, are what we see in lines 12-13. Imperative voice is the use of commands, and a cliché is a phrase that’s become trite or worn out from overuse (e.g. “fast as lightning”). Ellipsis is the deliberate omission of one or more words for the purpose of concision; it is sometimes marked with “…” but sometimes not. Antithesis is a contrast or direct opposite to something.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark. (1603)
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HAMLET: … What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty and appal the free,(5)
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing. No, not for a king, (10)
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain?
The lines “Yet I, / A dull and muddy-mettled rascal” are an example of all but which of the following literary devices?
Here, we have assonance (repetition of vowel sounds) in “dull” and “muddy.” We also have consonance (repetition of consonant sounds) and alliteration (repetition of sounds at the beginning of words) in “muddy-mettled.” Lastly, this is an epithet, a short and somewhat scurrilous description of a character.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark. (1603)
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MEPHISTOPHELES: Tut, Faustus,
Marriage is but a ceremonial toy;
And if thou lovest me, think no more of it.
I’ll cull thee out the fairest courtesans,
And bring them every morning to thy bed;(5)
She whom thine eye shall like, thy heart shall have,
Be she as chaste as was Penelope,
As wise as Saba, or as beautiful
As was bright Lucifer before his fall.
Here, take this book peruse it thoroughly: \[Gives a book.\] (10)
The iterating of these lines brings gold;
The framing of this circle on the ground
Brings whirlwinds, tempests, thunder and lightning;
Pronounce this thrice devoutly to thyself…
(1592)
What literary device can be found in lines 6-8?
In lines 6-8 we have a literary allusion or reference to Penelope, Saba, and Lucifer, all characters from other works of literature. Apostrophe is a direct address to the reader (e.g. Herman Melville’s “Call me Ishmael”). Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds (e.g. “a bitter debtor”). Colloquialism is the use of an informal, conversational, or regional bit of speech (e.g. “y’all” for “you all”). Ellipsis is the deliberate omission of one or more words for the purpose of concision.
Passage adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1592)
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MEPHISTOPHELES: Tut, Faustus,
Marriage is but a ceremonial toy;
And if thou lovest me, think no more of it.
I’ll cull thee out the fairest courtesans,
And bring them every morning to thy bed;(5)
She whom thine eye shall like, thy heart shall have,
Be she as chaste as was Penelope,
As wise as Saba, or as beautiful
As was bright Lucifer before his fall.
Here, take this book peruse it thoroughly: \[Gives a book.\] (10)
The iterating of these lines brings gold;
The framing of this circle on the ground
Brings whirlwinds, tempests, thunder and lightning;
Pronounce this thrice devoutly to thyself…
(1592)
What other literary device can be found in lines 6-8?
Here we have parallelism, the use of clauses with identical grammatical patterns, syntax, or meter (usually undertaken for emphasis or to achieve a pleasing sound). Synecdoche is a specific type of metonymy in which the real word for something is replaced by a word for a part of that thing (e.g. someone saying they need a “hand” when they really need the entire person’s help). Hyperbole is the use of extreme exaggeration (e.g. “this suitcase weighs a ton”). Litotes, on the other hand, is the deliberate use of understatement or double negatives. Epistles are letters, and epistolary is an adjective that describes the use of letters as a storytelling device in a larger narrative.
Passage adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1592)
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MEPHISTOPHELES: Tut, Faustus,
Marriage is but a ceremonial toy;
And if thou lovest me, think no more of it.
I’ll cull thee out the fairest courtesans,
And bring them every morning to thy bed;(5)
She whom thine eye shall like, thy heart shall have,
Be she as chaste as was Penelope,
As wise as Saba, or as beautiful
As was bright Lucifer before his fall.
Here, take this book peruse it thoroughly: \[Gives a book.\] (10)
The iterating of these lines brings gold;
The framing of this circle on the ground
Brings whirlwinds, tempests, thunder and lightning;
Pronounce this thrice devoutly to thyself…
(1592)
What literary device can be found in line 2?
The answer choices here are largely similar. “Marriage is but a ceremonial toy” is a metaphor, a comparison that does not employ “like” or “as.” Don’t mistake this for a simile, a comparison using “like” or “as” (e.g. “the still pond is like a looking glass”). An allegory is an extended metaphor (e.g. a metaphor that takes up the entire passage), as is a conceit. Paradoxes are contradictory statements, something that seems impossible (e.g. Odysseus’ “I am no man” in The Odyssey).
Passage adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1592)
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MEPHISTOPHELES: Within the bowels of these elements,
Where we are tortured and remain forever.
Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed
In one self place, for where we are is hell,
And where hell is must we ever be. (5)
And, to conclude, when all the world dissolves,
And every creature shall be purified,
All places shall be hell that is not heaven.
(1604)
The beginning of lines 5-7 can be seen as an example of what literary device?
With the repetition of “and,” we can tell that this is polysyndeton, the excessive use of conjunctions. (It could also be considered anaphora, repetition of the beginnings of subsequent clauses). It is not epanalepsis (chiasmus), oxymoron (contradictory term), or redundancy. It is also not prolepsis (flash forward).
Passage adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1604)
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MEPHISTOPHELES: Within the bowels of these elements,
Where we are tortured and remain forever.
Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed
In one self place, for where we are is hell,
And where hell is must we ever be. (5)
And, to conclude, when all the world dissolves,
And every creature shall be purified,
All places shall be hell that is not heaven.
(1604)
Lines 4-5 contain an example of what literary device?
In these lines we have an example of the relatively rare chiasmus: the use of a crisscross or reverse structure in a sentence or paragraph. Enjambment is a poetic technique in which the meaning and syntax of one line are carried over and finished in the next line (e.g. Robert Frost’s “And there's a barrel that I didn't fill / Beside it”). Imagery is language that calls upon vivid sensory descriptions (e.g. Gerard Manley Hopkins “a candycoloured… a gluegold-brown / Marbled river, boisterously beautiful”). Onomatopoeia is the use of a word that mimics the sound of the thing it is describing (e.g. “pop” or “buzz”).
Passage adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1604)
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HENRY V: And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me (5)
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks (10)
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
(1600)
What literary device can be seen in line 4?
The repetition of the beginning of each clause (“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers”) is an example of anaphora. Antimetabole, similar to chiasmus, is the repetition and transposition of words (e.g. Dr. Seuss’s “I meant what I said and I said what I meant”). Ellipsis is the deliberate omission of one or more words for the purpose of concision, while polysyndeton is the excessive use of conjunctions. Aposiopesis is the sudden, deliberate breaking-off of a line of writing or speech for deliberate effect (e.g. “When your father gets home…”).
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s Henry V (1600)
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HENRY V: And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me (5)
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks (10)
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
(1600)
Which lines contain a parenthetical remark?
In line 4, the speaker describes his audience as his “brothers.” Lines 5-7 then expand upon that thought, clarifying how this group of unrelated soldiers could be brothers: “For he today that sheds his blood with me / Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, / This day shall gentle his condition.” Thus, even though the lines don’t appear in parentheses, they can be considered a parenthetical remark.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s Henry V (1600)
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KING LEAR: Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulph'rous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts, (5)
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o' th' world,
Crack Nature's moulds, all germains spill at once,
That makes ingrateful man!
(1606)
What literary device can be seen throughout this passage?
Throughout the passage, the speaker directly addresses the storm. An aphorism is a pithy saying or adage (e.g. “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”). Allegory is the use of a story or extended metaphor to make a philosophical or moral point (e.g. George Orwell’s Animal Farm). Stream of consciousness is a style of writing designed to mimic the free-flowing thoughts of someone’s inner consciousness. Sarcasm is verbal irony and is often cutting or satirical.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s King Lear (1606)
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KING LEAR: Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulph'rous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts, (5)
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o' th' world,
Crack Nature's moulds, all germains spill at once,
That makes ingrateful man!
(1606)
What line contains an example of anastrophe?
Line 9 contains an inversion of ordinary word order. Instead of saying “that makes man ingrateful,” the passage has reversed the typical word order. The technical term for this inversion is anastrophe, and it is often used for emphasis or metrical effect.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s King Lear (1606)
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KING LEAR: Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulph'rous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts, (5)
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o' th' world,
Crack Nature's moulds, all germains spill at once,
That makes ingrateful man!
(1606)
What literary device can be found in lines 1-2?
In lines 1-2, we have a frequent repetition of the hard “k” sound. Specifically, we have “crack,” “cheeks,” “cataracts,” and “hurricanes.” This is an example of consonance, the repetition of consonant sounds.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s King Lear (1606)
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PROLOGUE.
Now, luck yet sends us, and a little wit
Will serve to make our play hit;
(According to the palates of the season)
Here is rhime, not empty of reason.
… thus much I can give you as a token (5)
Of his play's worth, no eggs are broken,
… The laws of time, place, persons he observeth,
From no needful rule he swerveth.
All gall and copperas from his ink he draineth,
Only a little salt remaineth, (10)
Wherewith he'll rub your cheeks, till red, with laughter,
They shall look fresh a week after.
(1606)
Which of the following literary devices can be seen throughout the entire passage?
In order to fit a fixed rhyme scheme and meter, the playwright has relied heavily on anastrophe, the intentional inversion of word order. An aside is a lengthy speech delivered to or for the benefit of the audience and not the other characters, while an anecdote is a short, often humorous story. Epiphany is a sudden realization that changes someone's life, and is often experienced by a character at the end of a short story. Litotes is the deliberate use of understatement or double negatives, the opposite of hyperbole.
Passage adapted from Ben Jonson’s Volpone (1606)
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TROILUS: Peace, you ungracious clamours! peace, rude sounds!
Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair,
When with your blood you daily paint her thus.
I cannot fight upon this argument;
It is too starved a subject for my sword. (5)
What literary device is “clamours” (line 1) an example of?
This is anthimeria the use of one part of speech (in this case, “to clamor,” a verb) in place of another (in this case “clamours,” a noun), usually to create an apropos new word. A loan word is a word adopted into the vocabulary of another language without translation (e.g. café or bon mot from the French). Colloquialism is the use of an informal, conversational, or regional bit of speech (e.g. “y’all” for “you all”). A contraction is a different part of speech, as is an interjection.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (1602).
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NESTOR: Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man
When Hector's grandsire suck'd: he is old now;
But if there be not in our Grecian host
One noble man that hath one spark of fire,
To answer for his love, tell \[them\] from me (5)
I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver
And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn…
I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.
… ULYSSES: Give pardon to my speech:
Therefore 'tis meet Achilles meet not Hector. (10)
What literary device can be seen in line 7?
“And in my vantbrace put this wither’d brawn” represents an inversion of the usual word order: anastrophe. Anthimeria is the use of one part of speech in place of another (e.g. “gift someone a sweater,” with “gift” used as a verb instead of a noun), often to create an apropos new word. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds (e.g. Edgar Allan Poe’s “the mellow wedding bells”). Caesura refers to a dramatic pause in a sentence or line of poetry, often accomplished by use of an em dash.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (1602).
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