THE SHISHUKUNJ INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

CLASS –XII
LITERARY DEVICES REFERENCE SHEET

1. SIMILE

● a figure of speech comparing two unlike things that is often

introduced by ‘like’ or ‘as’
● Example: cheeks like roses
●

Last Lesson I had counted on the commotion to get to my desk

without being seen; but, of course, that day
everything had to be as quiet as Sunday
morning.
They looked like little flags.
Lost Spring his dream looms like a mirage
as her hands move mechanically like the tongs of
a machine
Deep Water the bottom was as clean and white as a bathtub

I would bob to the surface like a cork

they hung as dead weights

expending my strength as one in a nightmare

fights an irresistible force

The Third I passed a dozen men who looked just like me.
Level
I think Grand Central is growing like a tree,
pushing out new corridors and staircases like
 roots.

old style bills, half as big as the money we use

today

My Mother face ashen like that of a corpse

at Sixty-six
as old as she looked

pale as a late winter’s moon

An like rootless weeds

Elementary
Classroom in like bottle bits on stones
a Slum
slums as big as doom

like catacombs

2. METAPHOR

● a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one

kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a
likeness or analogy between them
● Example: drowning in money
●

Last Lesson what a thunderclap these words were to me!

Lost Spring now drowned in an air of desolation

a place on the periphery of Delhi, yet miles away
from it metaphorically

Garbage to them is gold.

 web of poverty
Deep Water the curtain of life fell
The Enemy those islands yonder are the stepping stones to
the future of Japan
An paper-seeming boy
Elementary
Classroom with rat’s eyes
in a Slum
Squirrel’s game (short-lived happiness, a break,
escape)

sour cream walls

open-handed map (compared to a generous human

being)

these windows...their world

future’s painted with a fog

stars of words

cramped holes

slag heap (children’s bodies)

Spectacles of steel (their emaciated skeletal

framework of their bodies look like the thin steel
rim or frame of glasses)

Foggy slum

language is the sun

 Keeping put on clean clothes
Quiet
The Enemy flickers of rumour

3. PERSONIFICATION

● a figure of speech in which an idea or thing is given human

attributes and/or feelings or is spoken of as if it were human.
● Personification is a common form of metaphor in that human
characteristics are attributed to nonhuman things
● Example: my alarm yelled at me this morning; I like onions, but
they don’t like me.
●

Lost Spring years of mind numbing toil has killed all

initiative and ability to dream
Deep Water the waves knocked me down
my introduction… revived unpleasant memories

terror that knows no understanding, terror that

knows no control
a mass of yellow water held me
stark terror took an even deeper hold of me
icy horror would grab my heart
The Third There’s probably a long tunnel that nobody
Level
knows about, feeling its way under the city right
now.

The Enemy The curling mist hid him again

My Mother at Young Trees sprinting

 Sixty-six

An
Elementary
Classroom in dome riding all cities
a Slum
open-handed map Awarding the world its world

make their world run azure

tongues run naked

Keeping Quiet face of the earth

Earth can teach us

4. ALLITERATION
● The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of
adjacent or closely connected words.
● Example: wild and woolly, threatening throngs
●

Last Lesson The whole school seemed so strange and

solemn.
Lost Spring In one part of it, thatched with dead grass, is a
firewood stove over which sits a large vessel of
sizzling spinach leaves.

few airlines fly over Firozabad

An far far from
Elementary
Classroom street sealed … sky
 in a Slum Surely, Shakespeare
from fog
by bones
bottle bits
Keeping we would
Quiet
sudden strangeness

his hurt hands

clean clothes

so single-minded

5. ANAPHORA (A KIND OF REPETITION)

● The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a series of
clauses or sentences.
●

Lost Spring without an identity, without

permits
for the children it is wrapped in
wonder, for the elders it is a
means for survival
An Elementary Classroom in a run azure…./ run naked
Slum
Keeping Quiet let’s not...let’s not
without rush, without engines
 wars with gas, wars with
engines
My Mother at Sixty-six All I said was...All I did was

6. ONOMATOPOEIA
● Words that sound like the thing they’re referring to.
● Well-known instances of onomatopoeia include whiz, buzz, snap,
grunt, etc
● Last Lesson: and then the babies chanted their ba, be bi, bo, bu
7. PARADOX
It’s a statement that asks people to think outside the box by
providing seemingly illogical — and yet actually true — premises.
Example: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength

Keeping Quiet: victory with no survivors

When everything seems dead and later proves to be alive
8. IRONY
● Irony creates a contrast between how things seem and how they
really are.
● There are three types of literary irony: dramatic (when readers
know what will happen before characters do), situational (when
readers expect a certain outcome, only to be surprised by a turn of
events), and verbal (when the intended meaning of a statement is
the opposite of what was said).
●

Lost Spring After months of knowing him, I ask him his name-
Saheb-e-Alam, he announces. He doesn't know
what it means. If he knew its meaning, lord of the
 universe, he would have a hard time believing it.

She still has bangles on her wrist but no light in her

eyes.

An heir of twisted bones

Elementary
Classroom Shakespeare’s head ( literary master’s portrait
in a Slum housed in a classroom where no serious teaching
takes place / can take place)
Shakespeare is wicked (literary stalwart
Shakespeare is wicked because caught in the rut of
life and poverty, literature and its beauty is not
accessible and a far off dream for them)

Map a bad example (because their world is nothing

beyond poverty, deprivation and hunger unlike the
privileged children world over as seen in the map)

The Enemy I wonder why I could not kill him. (the reader
knows the protagonist is compulsively a doctor
first; the character himself does not know.)

9. CLIMAX

● Refers to a figure of speech in which words, phrases, or clauses are

arranged in order of increasing importance.
● Example: "There are three things that will endure: faith, hope, and
love. But the greatest of these is love." (Corinthians 13:13)
●

Lost Spring they talk endlessly in a spiral

that moves from poverty to
apathy to greed to injustice
 My Mother at Sixty-six doze, open mouthed, her face
ashen like that of a corpse

An Elementary Classroom in a ships and sun and love

Slum
Deep Water hour after hour, day after day,
week after week

10.COLLOQUIALISM

● Colloquialism is the use of casual and informal language in

writing, which can also include slang. Writers use colloquialisms to
provide context to settings and characters, and to make their
writing sound more authentic.
● Last Lesson: Don’t go so fast, bub; Bah! I’ve plenty of time. I’ll
learn it tomorrow.

11.HYPERBOLE

● Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement that emphasizes the

significance of the statement’s actual meaning.
● When a friend says, "Oh my god, I haven't seen you in a million
years," that's hyperbole.
● Example: “At that time Bogotá was a remote, lugubrious city
where an insomniac rain had been falling since the beginning of the
16th century.” — Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel García
Márquez
●
 Lost Spring Garbage to them is gold.
Through the years it has
acquired the proportions of a
fine art.
An Elementary Classroom in a fog to endless night
Slum
The Enemy familiar with every atom of this
human body

12.HYPOPHORA

● Hypophora is much like a rhetorical question, wherein someone

asks a question that doesn't require an answer.
● However, in hypophora, the person raises a question and answers it
immediately themselves (hence the prefix hypo, meaning 'under' or
'before'). It’s often used when characters are reasoning something
aloud.
● Example: “Do you always watch for the longest day of the year
and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and
then miss it.” — Daisy in The Great Gatsby
● Last Lesson: Will they make them sing in German too, the
pigeons?

13.IMAGERY

● Imagery appeals to readers’ senses through highly descriptive

language.
● Example: “In the hard-packed dirt of the midway, after the glaring
lights are out and the people have gone to bed, you will find a
veritable treasure of popcorn fragments, frozen custard dribblings,
 candied apples abandoned by tired children, sugar fluff crystals,
salted almonds, popsicles, partially gnawed ice cream cones and
wooden sticks of lollipops.” — Charlotte's Web by E.B. White’
●

Last Lesson for seeking birds eggs or going

The Third Level
My Mother at Sixty-six
sliding on the Saar
In 1894, summer evenings were
twice as long….
…………………………..want
ed two tickets for that.
I was wearing a tan gabardine
suit and a straw hat with a
fancy band.
Dominant figure of speech in
Mother at Sixty-six

An Elementary Classroom in a Dominant figures of speech in

Slum Elementary Classroom in a
Slum
gusty waves

paper-seeming boy

heir of twisted bones

sour cream walls

Shakespeare’s head

cloudless at dawn, civilized

dome riding all cities

Belled flowery Tyrolese Valley

rivers, cape … sea, ship

Ships and sun

 cramped holes

spectacles of steel, mended

glass

green fields
gold sands
tongues run naked

Keeping Quiet cold sea, man gathering salt

14.REPETITION

● Repetition, repetition, repetition… where would we be without it?

Though too much repetition is rarely a good thing, occasional
repetition can be used quite effectively to drill home a point, or to
create a certain atmosphere. For example, horror writers often use
repetition to make the reader feel trapped and scared.
● Example: In The Shining, Jack Torrance types over and over again
on his pages,  “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” In
this case, obsessive repetition demonstrates the character’s
unraveling mind.
●

Last Lesson It was so warm, so bright!

all he said seemed so easy, so
easy
Deep Water hour after hour, day after day,
week after week
My Mother at Sixty-six smile…..smile
 An Elementary Classroom in a far far
Slum
Break O Break open till they
break
Keeping Quiet without rush, without engines
green wars, wars with gas,
wars with fire

15.SYMBOLISM

● Authors turn to tangible symbols to represent abstract concepts and

ideas in their stories. Symbols typically derive from objects or non-
human — for instance, a dove might represent peace, or raven
might represent death.
●

Lost Spring The steel canister is heavier

My Mother at Sixty-six
than the plastic bag that he
would carry so lightly over his
shoulder; weight of the canister
is symbolic of weight of
responsibilities
scrounging for gold; gold is the
symbol for something valuable
I remembered the prayer
another boy had made to the
goddess when he had finally
got a pair of shoes, “let me
never lose them”; shoes are a
symbol of abundance
merry children, trees sprinting
(symbolic of youth,
vigour,exuberance,life,hope)
 Late winter’s moon ( symbolic
of death,decay)

An Elementary Classroom in a Dominant figures of speech in

Slum Elementary Classroom in a
Slum
Gusty waves (symbolic of
civilization, verve, activity and
jubilations of life)

paper-seeming boy (symbolic

of malnourishment, emaciated
body)

heir of twisted bones (symbolic

of a handicap)

sour cream walls (symbolic of

the lost colour, paleness and
dilapidated condition of the
walls)

Shakespeare’s head (symbolic

of selective erudition, literature
and knowledge)

cloudless at dawn, civilized

dome riding all cities- (symbol
for clarity, suggestive of new
beginnings)

civilized dome- (symbol for

infrastructural growth,
development)

open-handed map (symbolic of

a world with limitless
opportunities)
rives, capes, stars of words
(symbolic of
abundance,freedom to explore,
development and education)

stars of words

rivers, cape … sea, ship -

exploration, coolness, natural
beauty, free flow of ideas

Ships and sun ( symbolic of

adventure and hope)

cramped holes ( symbolic of

constricted living)

spectacles of steel, mended

glass (broken/fragmented
vision of the world, lack of
clarity)

bottle bits- (symbolism for

shattered future, their
individuality)

blot their maps with slums -

symbolism - (slum is a
restriction to their exploration,
their growth)

these windows - symbolism for

world of limitless
opportunities; world of limited
opportunities
green fields -(symbolic of
beauty of nature, abundance)
run azure - symbolic of
openness, clarity
golden sands (symbolic of
 prosperity)
tongues run naked ( symbolic
of tasting education)
language is the sun ( symbolic
of bright future, hope, power)
Keeping Quiet fisherman not harming
whales(symbolic of those
harming nature man gathering
salt

16.SYNECDOCHE

● Synecdoche is the usage of a part to represent the whole and vice

versa. Synecdoche must actually be attached in some way: either to
the name, or to the larger whole itself.
● Examples: “Stanford won the game” (Stanford referring to the full
title of the Stanford football team) or “Nice wheels you got there”
(wheels referring to the entire car)
●

Last Lesson Ah, that’s the great trouble with

Alsace!
An Elementary Classroom in a eyes live in a dream
Slum
Keeping Quiet face of the earth –
personification NOT
synecdoche because it only
refers to the ‘face’, nothing else
The Enemy There came other white faces
he had known.
17.TRANSFERRED EPITHET

● figure of speech in which a modifier (usually an adjective)

qualifies a noun other than the person or thing it is actually
describing. 
●  "cruel bars," "sleepless night," and "suicidal sky." 
●

Last Lesson dreadful rule for the participle

An Elementary Classroom in a civilized dome- ( it is not the

Slum domes that are civilized but the
educated and advanced people
who enjoy the opportunities
and privileges of city life)

gnarled disease (it’s not the

disease but the bones in boy’s
body that is gnarled)

18.APOSTROPHE
● Apostrophe is an exclamatory figure of speech.
● It occurs when a speaker breaks off from addressing the audience
and directs speech to a third party sometimes absent from the
scene. Often the addressee is a personified abstract quality or
inanimate object.
● Deep Water: but now I could frown and say to that terror, “trying
to scare me, eh? well, here is to you, look!”; Well, Mr. Terror,
What do you think you can do to me?
19.CHREMAMORPHISM
● Chremamorphism is the literary technique of comparing a person
to an object in some way.
● For example, an old man’s character might be compared to a rock
or a chimney
● My Mother at Sixty Six: children spilling out of their homes
(spilling is a characteristic of fluids which has been given to the
children)

20.POLYSYNDETON
● the repetition of conjunctions in close succession
● My Mother at Sixty Six: smile AND smile AND smile
● An Elementary Classroom in a Slum: ships and sun and love

21.ELLIPSES: ….
● The term ellipsis comes from the Greek word meaning “omission,”
and that's just what an ellipsis does—it shows that something has
been left out.
● My Mother at Sixty-Six: suggests smile of reassurance

22.ENJAMBMENT
● In poetry, enjambment is incomplete syntax at the end of a line; the
meaning 'runs over' or 'steps over' from one poetic line to the next,
without punctuation. Lines without enjambment are end-stopped.
●

An Elementary Classroom in a the paper- / seeming boy

Slum
unlucky heir / of twisted bones

for these / children

these children / wear skins

spectacles of steel / with

 mended glass

these windows / that shut upon

make their world / run azure
let their tongues / run naked
Keeping Quiet we would all be together / in a
sudden strangeness
Fishermen ….hurt hands
walk about with their brothers /
in the shade
...not be confused / with total
inactivity
...single-minded / about
keeping our…
a huge silence / might
interrupt…
this sadness / of never
understanding ourselves

23.ZEUGMA

● one governing word or phrase conveying two different meanings at

the same time
● For example: Mr Pickwick took his hat and his leave.
● An Elementary Classroom in a Slum: reciting father’s gnarled
disease, his lesson

24.PUN/DOUBLE ENTENDRE

● The pun is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a

term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or
rhetorical effect.
 ●

An Elementary Classroom in a “dim class” (poorly lit, shabby

Slum and lacks maintenance /makes
their future sketchy, unclear,
imperfect)
Keeping Quiet Not move our arms so much

25.CONTRAST

● Contrast is a rhetorical device through which writers identify

differences between two subjects, places, persons, things, or ideas.
Simply, it is a type of opposition between two objects, highlighted
to emphasize their differences

● An Elementary Classroom in a Slum: “cloudless at dawn, civilized

dome riding all cities” (contrast to the morbidity and inactivity in
the slum school)

26.ASYNDETON

● Asyndeton is one of several rhetorical devices that omit

conjunctions. The definition of asyndeton is simple enough: It is a
sentence containing a series of words or clauses in close
succession, linked without the use of conjunctions.

● An Elementary Classroom in a Slum: “belled, flowery”; “governor,

inspector, visitor”

27.ANTANACLASIS

● Antanaclasis is a rhetorical device in which a phrase or word is

repeatedly used, though the meaning of the word changes in each
case. It is the repetition of a similar word in a sentence with
different meanings, or a word is repeated in two or more different
senses.
 ● An Elementary Classroom in a Slum: “Awarding the world its
world”; “map becomes their window and these windows”

28.METONYMY

● Metonymy is a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is

referred to by the name of something closely associated with that
thing or concept.
● An Elementary Classroom in a Slum: “Shakespeare” (an author for
his works, as in, “I’m studying Shakespeare”)
29.ANTI-CLIMAX

● Anticlimax refers to a figure of speech in which statements

gradually descend in order of importance. Unlike climax,
anticlimax is the arrangement of a series of words, phrases, or
clauses in order of decreasing importance.
● An Elementary Classroom in a Slum: governor, inspector, visitor

30.INTERJECTION
● demonstrates the emotion or feeling of the author.
● An Elementary Classroom in a Slum: Break O Break

31.ALLUSION

● An allusion is a figure of speech that refers to a famous person,

place, or historical event or something well known—either directly
or through implication.
● Keeping Quiet: twelve (to clock/zodiac signs/months)

32.TAUTOLOGY

It is a figure of speech where two different words are used to say the
same thing in the same statement or sentence.
 for eg: The money should be adequate enough

Our nation must come together to unite

My mother at Sixty Six: Wan, pale as a late winter’s moon

33.ANTITHESIS

● Antithesis is used in writing or speech either as a proposition that

contrasts with or reverses some previously mentioned proposition,
or when two opposites are introduced together for contrasting
effect.
● Keeping Quiet: I’ll count up to twelve / and you keep quiet