What are the main literary figures

Reading poetry or narrative has not always been simple. The writers write in a language that contains some complexity for anyone who is not used to it. They use, above all, literary resources or rhetorical figures to express their feelings and emotions. Therefore, with you will be able to know which are the main literary figures.

Onomatopoeia

It consists of the imitation of the sounds of nature.

For example: The rooster's kikirikí woke me up.

Humanization or prosopopeia

It is when attributes or actions of human beings are attributed to inanimate beings .

For example: With my crying the stones soften.

Hyperbole

Hyperbole as a literary figure is synonymous with exaggeration.

For example: There was a man with a nose stuck.

Antithesis

An antithesis means ' the opposite ', that is, it consists in putting two ideas before it. Sometimes, these ideas are repeated several times in order to reinforce the contrast.

Ellipsis

Do you sound those phrases that are missing some element? This is the task of ellipsis, eliminate words, omit elements that are not necessary for the correct understanding of the phrase. You can remove, for example, the verbs and replace them with commas.

Hyperbaton

It is to alter the grammatical order of sentences. Instead of writing subject and predicate, the writer prefers to write the predicate first and then the subject.

Example: Formidable of the earth yawning.

Metaphor

Have you ever identified one object with another because of its similarity relationship ? If the answer is affirmative, then you have made a metaphor. You can see here a very complete list of metaphors.

To make it better understood, if you say the phrase 'the crystal of water', you are relating the clarity of the water to the aspect of a crystal.

Reiteration or anaphora

As its name suggests, these literary figures consist of the repetition of words in sentences or at the beginning of a verse, as can be seen in the following example:

Loneliness, and there is the bird in the tree

loneliness and there is water on the banks,

loneliness, and there is the wind in the cloud (...)

Asyndeton and polysyndeton

Both terms express different meanings. So while asyndeton refers to the absence of conjunctions and the constant presence of commas instead; the polisindeton is that literary figure that is characterized by using more conjunctions than necessary, to give the story a greater slowness and solemnity.

Paradox

It consists of the union of two opposing ideas . It is much more than an antithesis, since the two opposing ideas are contradictory by nature and are in the same thought.

As for example: I live without living in me.