Literary Devices

By Malyatha Sadagopan

Literary Devices - so hard to learn,

It just sails over my head, 

So if you can’t remember them, 

Use this trick instead:

Let’s start off strong, 

Here’s Oxymoron, 

Contradictory terms side by side, 

To one meaning they are tied;

Hey! You ate a whole piece of pie,

You can’t say a truthful lie,

Good grief! You’re too much to deal,

I don’t want a Secret Reveal! 

Alright, what’s next? Let’s see,

Yay! It’s Hyperbole!

When you like to stretch things out a little too much, 

Hyperbole is who you get in touch (with)

I gasped an entire ocean of air,

My heart is beating like a snare, 

I’m so scared, I could die!

She’s so light, she could fly! 

Next is simile, here we go!

Where ‘Like’ and ‘as’ steal the show, 

When two things you want to compare, 

It’s a simile you will add there!

You look as pretty as a doll, 

Why is your face as big as a ball? 

I slept like a log, O-M-G, 

Stop drooling like a dog, please please please!  

Cousin of simile, metaphor, say hi,

If you want an indirect comparison, this is your guy, 

Metaphor can differentiate two things without you ever knowing, 

It’s so discreet, it's MIND BLOWING!

Come on, bite the bullet (don’t be scared),

Life is a journey, (best be prepared),

(Please don’t disturb), I’m busy as a bee, 

(Live your life), Time is a thief,   

What’s next, Alliteration? Look who I found! 

Oh, it’s that funny guy who likes to repeat sound,

The first sound of each word is just the same, 

Kind of like a tongue twisting game

Betty Bought some Bitter Butter,

Sally has a Silly Stutter, 

The Newt Nuzzled in a Narrow Nook,

Colin, Catch that Crazy Crook! 

Here is Repetition, who loves to repeat words,

He groups the same term together in herds, 

I think Repetition is my favourite one, 

Because anything repeated is double the fun!

Coconut is something I hate, hate, hate,

She ran far, far, away from the gate,

He was playing for a long, long, time

I really really like this amazing rhyme!

Ooh, Onomatopoeia, I really like its vibes,

It phonetically resembles the sound it describes,

It’s just so cool, I want to use it everyday,

Onomatopoeia, totally slays!

I hate when the alarm goes beep beep beep!

Could you stop squealing like a constipated sheep?

He goes crunch crunch all day long,

The trickling of the rain sounds like a song!

Metonymy, you’re next on the list!

You’re the least straightforward literary device to exist 

When you substitute an idea with a word,

Mentonymy is the one that’s preferred

(This is so simple) It’s a breeze,

(This is of such good quality) It’s the bees knees,

(Alcohol or Liquor) Don’t you touch that booze!

(Youtube) Woah! Look at the views! 

Going down, Irony! You’re up next,

It’s a rhetorical device that leaves anyone perplexed,

When you use words to convey a figurative meaning,

Then it’s Irony, that’s who you’re feeling

That pilot is really scared of heights,

That boxer hates getting into fights, 

That health nut just ate a load of sweets,

My ‘I hate twitter’ post got a lot of tweets  

And here’s personification! Truly one of its kind, 

When to inanimate objects, human characteristics are assigned,

This helps you emotionally connect, and strengthens your bond,

To some non living thing, of which you’re really fond

The floorboards groaned beneath my feet, 

The leaves chased me all the way down the street, 

The fireplace hissed, spitting out coal, 

The wind is strong, and my hat it stole

And we can’t forget Litotes, though not well known, 

That clever little thing turns the tables on its own, 

When you use a double negative to create a positive beat, 

That’s Litotes! That’s who you’ll meet 

The food wasn’t terrible (it was good)

He’s not ignorant (he understood)

She’s not unwell (she’s feeling fine)

She didn’t turn down the job ( she didn’t decline) 

And finally, Understatement, the deadpan king, 

Even in serious situations, humour it will bring,

To make a mole out of a mountain, that’s what it does, 

And turns grand drama into a tiny fuss 

It’s just a brain tumor, i’m totally fine, 

It’s just an alcohol allergy, I can still drink wine, 

I won the lottery, it’s just a minor stroke of luck, 

It’s just a little scratch, I only got hit by a truck 

So here we end our journey through words and play,

Where similes dance and metaphors sway,

Irony smirks with its knowing glance,

Understatement whispers, giving wit a chance,

Personification breathes life where stillness lay,

And all these devices, in their clever array,

Remind us that language, both humble and grand,

Shapes worlds unseen, with a gentle hand.

By Malyatha Sadagopan