Literary terms and devices

Literature in English · WAEC and JAMB · SS2 and SS3

The objective paper draws most of its questions from this list, and the essay papers quietly depend on it, because you cannot explain how a writer achieves an effect if you cannot name what the writer did. Learn each device with its effect attached, never the bare definition.

What you need to know

Imagery is language that appeals to the senses. Classify it precisely: visual imagery for sight, auditory for sound, tactile for touch, olfactory for smell and gustatory for taste. Saying the writer uses imagery is almost worthless; saying the writer piles up auditory imagery so that the reader hears the market before seeing it is worth a mark.
A simile compares two unlike things using like or as, while a metaphor states that one thing is the other. The man fought like a lion is a simile; the man is a lion of the village is a metaphor. The metaphor is the stronger device because it collapses the comparison instead of holding the two things apart.
An extended metaphor carries one comparison through several lines or a whole poem, building the idea in stages. When you spot one, trace how it develops rather than commenting on the first instance and stopping.
Personification gives human qualities to something non-human. In the invented line, the harmattan coughed through the broken louvres, the wind is given a human action, which makes the weather feel like an intruder in the compound rather than mere background.
Irony comes in three kinds, and the examiner expects you to name which. Verbal irony says the opposite of what is meant. Situational irony is when the outcome is the reverse of what was expected. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something a character does not.
A symbol is an object, person or action that stands for an idea beyond itself, and it usually recurs. A road may symbolise a journey into the unknown, a broken calabash the breaking of a tradition. The difference from metaphor is persistence: a symbol keeps meaning throughout the work, a metaphor works in one place.
Enjambment runs a sentence past the end of a line with no punctuation, so the voice carries over. It speeds the poem up and makes the first word of the next line land harder, because the reader arrives at it still in motion.
Caesura is a pause inside a line, usually created by a comma, full stop or dash. It breaks the rhythm mid-line and is often used to mark hesitation, shock or a change of thought.
Alliteration repeats the initial consonant sound of nearby words, assonance repeats vowel sounds inside words, and consonance repeats consonant sounds at the end. Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound it names, such as hiss or thud. Each creates music, and your job is to say what mood that music supports.
The persona is the voice speaking in a poem, which is not automatically the poet. A male poet may write in the voice of a widow; a living poet may write in the voice of a dead soldier. Write the persona or the speaker, and keep the poet for the person making the artistic choices.
Tone is the attitude of the speaker towards the subject, such as bitter, nostalgic, mocking or reverent. Mood is the feeling created in the reader, such as tense, gloomy or hopeful. The two are often different, and the best answers say so.
Hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration for effect, understatement deliberately plays something down, and euphemism substitutes a mild expression for a harsh one, as in saying someone has passed on. All three tell you something about the speaker as much as about the thing described.
An oxymoron places two contradictory words side by side, such as bitter sweetness. A paradox is a whole statement that seems self-contradictory but holds a truth. Both force the reader to stop and resolve the contradiction, which is exactly the effect the writer wants.
Apostrophe addresses someone absent or dead, or an abstract thing, as in Death, you have taken enough. Rhetorical questions expect no answer but push the reader towards one, and anaphora repeats the same opening words across successive lines to build insistence.

Key terms

Imagery: Language that appeals to any of the five senses to create a picture or sensation in the reader's mind.
Metaphor: A comparison that states one thing is another, without using like or as.
Irony: A contrast between what is said and what is meant, what is expected and what happens, or what a character knows and what the audience knows.
Symbolism: The use of a concrete object, action or person to represent an idea larger than itself, sustained through the work.
Persona: The invented voice that speaks in a poem or narrative, distinct from the writer.
Tone: The attitude of the speaker or writer towards the subject or audience.
Mood: The emotional atmosphere a piece of writing creates in the reader.

Worked examples

Identify two literary devices in this line and comment on the effect of each: 'The harmattan coughed through the broken louvres, and the whole compound held its breath.'

Find the first device. The harmattan, which is wind, is given the human action of coughing, so this is personification.
State its effect in terms of the reader's experience. The wind becomes a sick, intrusive presence rather than ordinary weather, which makes the house feel vulnerable.
Find the second device. The compound, a place, is said to hold its breath, which is a second personification but also builds suspense, so the stronger label here is personification used to create tension.
If asked for two different devices, identify the auditory imagery instead: coughed makes the reader hear the wind in the louvres.
Write the comment as a full sentence that names the device, points to the words and explains the effect, in that order.

Answer: Personification: the harmattan coughed turns the wind into a sick human intruder, making the house seem exposed and unwell. Auditory imagery: the verb coughed lets the reader hear the broken louvres rattling, so the tension is felt through sound before anything happens.

A character returns home to find his house burnt down, and remarks to his neighbour that it has been a fine day. The audience already knows that the neighbour set the fire. Name the two kinds of irony present and distinguish between them.

Look first at what the character says against what he means. He calls a ruinous day fine, which is verbal irony, since he says the opposite of what he feels.
Look next at what the audience knows against what the character knows. The audience knows the neighbour is the arsonist while the speaker does not, which is dramatic irony.
Check whether the outcome itself reverses an expectation. He goes home for shelter and finds destruction, so there is also situational irony in the event.
Distinguish them by their source: verbal irony lives in the words, situational irony in the events, dramatic irony in the gap of knowledge between audience and character.
Add the effect, because naming alone scores little: the dramatic irony makes the audience feel pity and dread while the character is still calm.

Answer: Verbal irony, because he calls a day of disaster fine, and dramatic irony, because the audience knows the neighbour is responsible while he does not. Verbal irony is created by the speaker's words; dramatic irony is created by the audience's superior knowledge.

The mistake to avoid

Device-spotting and stopping. Candidates write that the poet uses alliteration and metaphor, quote the words, and move on, which earns the identification mark only. Every device you name must be followed by what it does to the reader or to the meaning. The second standing error is calling any comparison imagery, or calling every metaphor a simile.

In the exam

In the objective paper you need instant recognition, so drill the devices until you can name one from a single line without thinking. In the essay papers, never list devices; choose two or three that genuinely carry the writer's meaning and explain each in two or three sentences. A useful habit is to write the sentence in the order device, words, effect, so that you cannot finish the sentence without the analysis.