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Lyric Writing Techniques
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Assonance
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within words close to each other. For example, ‘The light of the fire is a sight’ showcases assonance with the ‘i’ sound.
Personification
Personification gives human qualities to non-human things. For instance, 'The wind whispered through the trees'.
Anaphora
Anaphora is the deliberate repetition of the first part of the sentence in order to achieve an artistic effect. For example, 'Every day, every night, in every way, I am getting better'.
Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is the use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. For example, 'The bees buzzed', and 'The clock ticks'.
Pathetic Fallacy
Pathetic fallacy is the attribution of human feelings and responses to inanimate things or animals, particularly in art and literature. For example, 'The angry clouds marched across the sky'.
Hyperbole
Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement that is not meant to be taken literally. For example, 'I've told you a million times'.
Euphemism
A euphemism is a polite or mild word or expression used to refer to something embarrassing, taboo, or unpleasant. For example, 'He passed away' instead of 'He died'.
Synecdoche
Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa. For example, 'All hands on deck' represents all crew members.
Euphony
Euphony is the use of words or phrases that are distinguished as having a wide range of noteworthy melody or loveliness in the sounds they create. For example, 'The smooth river rocks caressed the passing waters'.
Internal Rhyme
Internal rhyme is rhyme that occurs within a single line of verse. For example, 'I drive fastly past the vast, last hideout'.
Consonance
Consonance involves the repetition of consonant sounds within or at the end of words in a sentence. An example is ‘The lumpy, bumpy road’ using the 'm' and 'p' sounds as consonance.
Apostrophe
An apostrophe is a figure of speech where the poet addresses someone absent as if they were present. For instance, 'Oh, death, where is thy sting?'
Litotes
Litotes is a figure of speech in which understatement is used to emphasize a point by stating a negative to further affirm a positive, often incorporating double negatives for effect. For example, 'He's not bad looking' meaning 'He's good looking'.
Imagery
Imagery involves using vivid and descriptive language to create mental images. For example, 'The crisp autumn leaves crunched underfoot as the sunset painted the sky in hues of orange and pink.'
Metonymy
Metonymy is a figure of speech in which an attribute or commonly associated feature is used to name or designate something. An example is 'The pen (writing) is mightier than the sword (war/fighting)'.
Meter
Meter refers to the rhythmic structure of lines in a song, defined by the pattern of stressed (strong) and unstressed (weak) syllables. An example is iambic pentameter, which is five sets of unstressed followed by stressed syllables per line.
Oxymoron
An oxymoron is a figure of speech where contradictory terms appear in conjunction. An example is 'bittersweet'.
Enjambment
Enjambment occurs when a line of poetry runs over into the next line without a punctuation mark. For example, 'The sun does arise / And make happy the skies'.
Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is the act of placing two elements close together to present a comparison or contrast. For example, 'In the heat of the night, we find the chilling truth'.
Synesthesia
Synesthesia is a rhetorical device that describes or associates one sense in terms of another, often in the form of a simile or metaphor. For example, 'The silence was as thick as a forest'.
Tautology
Tautology is the repetitive use of phrases or words that have similar meanings. For example, 'Free gift' - as gifts are inherently free, the term 'free' is redundant.
Allusion
Allusion is an indirect or passing reference to an event, person, place, or artistic work that the author expects the reader to understand. For example, saying 'He was a real Romeo with the ladies' refers to Shakespeare's Romeo.
Refrain
Refrain is a repeated line or number of lines in a poem or song, typically at the end of each verse. For example, the phrase 'Let it be' in The Beatles' song of the same name.
Anachronism
Anachronism involves placing something in a time where it does not belong. It's used for effect, to make anachronistic comparisons or commentaries. An example is a modern-day character using a smartphone in a story set in the Victorian era.
Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of closely connected words. For instance, ‘Sweet birds sang softly’ uses alliteration with the letter 's'.
Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech where a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. For example, 'Love is a battlefield'.
Simile
Simile is a figure of speech comparing two different things using the words 'like' or 'as'. An example is 'Her smile was as bright as the sun'.
Pun
A pun is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term or similar-sounding words for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. For example, 'Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.'
Slant Rhyme
Slant rhyme, also known as half rhyme, is the rhyming of the ending consonant sounds in a word. For example, 'hold' and 'bald'.
Parallelism
Parallelism is the repetition of the same grammatical form within a sentence or series of sentences. For example, 'She loves singing, dancing, and playing piano.'
Irony
Irony involves stating something that is the opposite of what is expected or meant. For example, 'The fire station burned down'.
Cacophony
Cacophony refers to the use of harsh and discordant sounds in literary composition. An example is 'Grunts and groans and shrieks' which creates a jarring and unpleasant auditory effect.
Rhyming
Rhyming involves using words that have the same or similar ending sounds. For example, rhyming ‘sky’ with ‘high’ in a couplet.
Epistrophe
Epistrophe is the counterpart to anaphora, involving the repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses. For example, 'See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil'.
Antithesis
Antithesis is a rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect. An example is 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'.
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