Device Library & Practice

Devices overlap: a rhetorical figure can also shape a poem or story. Forms, meter, narrative techniques, and historical names are labeled rather than treated as identical kinds of device. No single catalogue is universally complete. Historical authorities sometimes disagree on names and meanings; the linked source gives the convention used in each sourced entry.

Reference definitions labeled Silva Rhetoricae are reproduced or adapted from Gideon O. Burton, Brigham Young University, under CC BY 3.0. Each entry links to its source. Hub explanations, teaching examples, and schematic form illustrations are original. No modern literary quotations were imported. Index-only names are cross-references, not fully explained lessons or practice items.

Further references: Silva Rhetoricae · Harvard poetic terms · Academy of American Poets. Some historical terminology describes grammatical faults, ridicule, or abuse; examine its purpose critically.