Ever read a poem and thought, “Wait, was that a reference to Greek mythology?” Or maybe the poet just dropped the name Romeo mid-verse and you thought, “Aha! Shakespeare!”

Let’s talk about assonance—the unsung hero of poetic sound devices that gives poetry a little extra musicality

Ah, synecdoche—the figure of speech that likes to get clever by letting a part stand in for the whole, or sometimes, the whole represent just a part.

Ever heard a word that sounds exactly like what it describes? That’s the magic of onomatopoeia—the literary device that lets words be as noisy, crunchy, or zippy as they sound.

Say hello to alliteration, the poetic device that makes sentences sing by repeating the same consonant sounds at the beginning of closely connected words.

Welcome to the wonderful world of oxymorons, where opposites not only attract, but actually make sense together. An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two contradictory or opposing terms to create a new, often surprising, meaning.

Ever had a moment where you expect one thing to happen, but the complete opposite happens instead? Congratulations, you’ve just met irony!

What if your car groaned at the sight of a steep hill? Or the wind whispered secrets in your ear? No, it’s not magic (well, kind of) — it’s personification, the literary device that gives human qualities to non-human things.

If similes are the friendly comparisons that use “like” or “as,” then metaphors are their cooler, more mysterious cousins who don’t need such obvious introductions.

If you’ve ever wanted to add a little zing to your writing, look no further than the trusty simile. You know, that language trick that compares two things using “like” or “as.”