LITERARY

DEVI ES AESURA
ATHARSIS
LICHÉ
O N N O TAT I O N
ONSONANCE
Caesura is a
rhythmical pause in
a poetic line or a
sentence.
PLAY CAESURA STOP
Initial
Dead! || One of them shot by the sea in the east

Mother and Poet (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Medial
With the milk-teeth of babes, || and a smile at the
pain?

Mother and Poet (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Terminal
No voice says 'My mother' again to me. || What!

Mother and Poet (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Caesurae
To be, || or not to be — || that is the question...

Hamlet (William Shakespeare)

Feminine Caesura
It is for you we speak, || not for ourselves:
You are abused || and by some putter-on
That will be damn’d for’t; || would I knew the villain,
I would land-damn him. || Be she honour-flaw’d,
I have three daughters; || the eldest is eleven

The Winter Tales (William Shakespeare)

Masculine Caesura
I’m nobody! || Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us || – don’t tell!
They’d banish || – you know!

I’m Nobody! Who Are You? (Emily Dickinson)

Functions of Caesurae
• to break the monotonous
rhythm of a line
• to create a dramatic or
ominous effect
Catharsis is an
emotional discharge
through which one
can achieve a state
of moral or spiritual
renewal.
Originally, the term
was used as a
metaphor to explain
the impact of
tragedy on the
audiences.
Example
Here’s to my love! [Drinks] O true apothecary! Thy
drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. [Falls]

Romeo and Juliet (William Shakespeare)

Functions of Catharsis
• to purge, purify, or cleanse
• to achieve intellectual
clarification
Cliché refers to an
expression that has
been overused to
the extent that it
loses its original
meaning or novelty.
Examples
a matter of time to happen sooner or later
only time will tell to become clear over time
as brave as a lion describes a very brave person
fit as a fiddle describes a person in a good shape
frightened to death to be too frightened
haste makes waste mistakes when rushing
 IT’S BEEN
SAID BEFORE!
Functions of Clichés
• to stimulate behavior
• make a complex topic easier
to understand
Connotation refers
to a meaning that is
implied by a word
apart from the thing
which it describes
explicitly.
Examples
Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day…

Sonnet 18 (William Shakespeare)

She is all states, and all princes, I.

The Sun Rising (John Donne)

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

Julius Caesar (William Shakespeare)

Functions of
Connotation
• to pave way for creativity by
using figures of speech like
metaphor, simile, symbolism,
and personification
Consonance refers
to repetitive sounds
produced by
consonants within a
sentence or phrase.
Example
Great, or good, or kind, or fair,
I will ne’er the more despair;
If she love me, this believe,
I will die ere she shall grieve;
If she slight me when I woo,
I can scorn and let her go;
For if she be not for me,
What care I for whom she be?

Shall I Wasting in Despair (By George Wither)

Functions of
Consonance
• to provide rhyming effect or
lyrical feeling
• to reiterate the significance
of an idea or make imagery
clearer
LITERARY
DEVI ES AESURA
ATHARSIS
LICHÉ
O N N O TAT I O N
ONSONANCE