What technique does the poet use when writing lines? Poetic techniques. Gain or Gradation

Why are artistic techniques needed? First of all, in order for the work to correspond to a certain style, implying a certain imagery, expressiveness and beauty. In addition, a writer is a master of associations, an artist of words and a great contemplator. Artistic techniques in poetry and prose make the text deeper. Consequently, both the prose writer and the poet are not satisfied with just the linguistic layer; they are not limited to using only the superficial, basic meaning of the word. In order to be able to penetrate into the depth of thought, into the essence of the image, it is necessary to use various artistic means.

In addition, the reader needs to be lured and attracted. To do this, various techniques are used that give special interest to the narrative and some mystery that needs to be solved. Artistic media are also called tropes. These are not only integral elements of the overall picture of the world, but also the author’s assessment, the background and general tone of the work, as well as many other things that we sometimes don’t even think about when reading another creation.

The main artistic techniques are metaphor, epithet and comparison. Although the epithet is often considered as a type of metaphor, we will not go into the jungle of the science of “literary criticism” and will traditionally highlight it as a separate means.

Epithet

The epithet is the king of description. Not a single landscape, portrait, interior can do without it. Sometimes a single correctly chosen epithet is much more important than an entire paragraph created specifically for clarification. Most often, when talking about it, we mean participles or adjectives that endow this or that artistic image with additional properties and characteristics. An epithet should not be confused with a simple definition.

So, for example, to describe the eyes, the following words can be suggested: lively, brown, bottomless, large, painted, crafty. Let's try to divide these adjectives into two groups, namely: objective (natural) properties and subjective (additional) characteristics. We will see that words such as "big", "brown" and "painted" convey in their meaning only what anyone can see, since it lies on the surface. In order for us to imagine the appearance of a particular hero, such definitions are very important. However, it is the “bottomless”, “living”, “crafty” eyes that will best tell us about his inner essence and character. We begin to guess that in front of us is an unusual person, prone to various inventions, with a living, moving soul. This is precisely the main property of epithets: to indicate those features that are hidden from us during the initial examination.

Metaphor

Let's move on to another equally important trope - metaphor. comparison expressed by a noun. The author’s task here is to compare phenomena and objects, but very carefully and tactfully, so that the reader cannot guess that we are imposing this object on him. This is exactly how, insinuatingly and naturally, you need to use any artistic techniques. “tears of dew”, “fire of dawn”, etc. Here dew is compared with tears, and dawn with fire.

Comparison

The last most important artistic device is comparison, given directly through the use of such conjunctions as “as if”, “as if”, “as if”, “exactly”, “as if”. Examples include the following: eyes like life; dew like tears; tree, like an old man. However, it should be noted that the use of an epithet, metaphor or comparison should not only be used for the sake of a catchphrase. There should be no chaos in the text, it should gravitate towards grace and harmony, therefore, before using this or that trope, you need to clearly understand for what purpose it is used, what we want to say by it.

Other, more complex and less common literary devices are hyperbole (exaggeration), antithesis (contrast), and inversion (reversing word order).

Antithesis

A trope such as antithesis has two varieties: it can be narrow (within one paragraph or sentence) and extensive (placed over several chapters or pages). This technique is often used in works of Russian classics when it is necessary to compare two heroes. For example, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in his story “The Captain's Daughter” compares Pugachev and Grinev, and a little later Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol will create portraits of the famous brothers, Andriy and Ostap, also based on the antithesis. The artistic techniques in the novel "Oblomov" also include this trope.

Hyperbola

Hyperbole is a favorite device in such literary genres as epics, fairy tales and ballads. But it is found not only in them. For example, the hyperbole “he could eat a wild boar” can be used in any novel, short story, or other work of the realistic tradition.

Inversion

Let's continue to describe artistic techniques in the works. Inversion, as you might guess, serves to give the work additional emotionality. It can most often be observed in poetry, but this trope is often used in prose. You can say: “This girl was more beautiful than others.” Or you can shout out: “This girl was more beautiful than the others!” Immediately, enthusiasm, expression, and much more arise, which can be noticed when comparing the two statements.

Irony

The next trope, irony, or hidden authorial ridicule, is also used quite often in fiction. Of course, a serious work should be serious, but the subtext hidden in irony sometimes not only demonstrates the wit of the writer, but also forces the reader to take a breath for a while and prepare for the next, more intense scene. In a humorous work, irony is indispensable. The great masters of this are Zoshchenko and Chekhov, who use this trope in their stories.

Sarcasm

Another one is closely related to this technique - it is no longer just a good laugh, it reveals shortcomings and vices, sometimes exaggerates the colors, while irony usually creates a bright atmosphere. In order to have a more complete understanding of this trail, you can read several tales by Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Personification

The next technique is personification. It allows us to demonstrate the life of the world around us. Images appear such as grumbling winter, dancing snow, singing water. In other words, personification is the transfer of the properties of animate objects to inanimate objects. So, we all know that only humans and animals can yawn. But in literature one often encounters such artistic images as a yawning sky or a yawning door. The first of them can help create a certain mood in the reader and prepare his perception. The second is to emphasize the sleepy atmosphere in this house, perhaps loneliness and boredom.

Oxymoron

Oxymoron is another interesting technique, which is a combination of incompatible things. This is both a righteous lie and an Orthodox devil. Such words, chosen completely unexpectedly, can be used by both science fiction writers and lovers of philosophical treatises. Sometimes just one oxymoron is enough to build an entire work that has dualism of existence, an insoluble conflict, and a subtle ironic subtext.

Other artistic techniques

It is interesting that the “and, and, and” used in the previous sentence is also one of the artistic means called polyunion. Why is it needed? First of all, to expand the narrative range and show, for example, that a person has beauty, intelligence, courage, and charm... And the hero also knows how to fish, and swim, and write books, and build houses...

Most often, this trope is used in conjunction with another, called This is the case when it is difficult to imagine one without the other.

However, this is not all artistic techniques and means. Let us also note rhetorical questions. They don't require an answer, but still make readers think. Perhaps everyone knows the most famous of them: “Who is to blame?” and "What should I do?"

These are just basic artistic techniques. In addition to them, we can distinguish parcellation (division of a sentence), synecdoche (when the singular is used instead of the plural), anaphora (similar beginning of sentences), epiphora (repetition of their endings), litotes (understatement) and hyperbole (on the contrary, exaggeration), periphrasis (when some word is replaced by its brief description. All these means can be used both in poetry and in prose. Artistic techniques in a poem and, for example, a story are not fundamentally different.

When we talk about art and literary creativity, we are focused on the impressions that are created when reading. They are largely determined by the imagery of the work. In fiction and poetry, there are special techniques for enhancing expressiveness. A competent presentation, public speaking - they also need ways to construct expressive speech.

For the first time, the concept of rhetorical figures, figures of speech, appeared among the orators of ancient Greece. In particular, Aristotle and his followers were involved in their study and classification. Delving into the details, scientists have identified up to 200 varieties that enrich the language.

Means of expressive speech are divided according to language level into:

• phonetic;
• lexical;
• syntactic.

The use of phonetics is traditional for poetry. Musical sounds often predominate in a poem, giving poetic speech a special melodious quality. In the drawing of a verse, stress, rhythm and rhyme, and combinations of sounds are used for emphasis.

Anaphora– repetition of sounds, words or phrases at the beginning of sentences, poetic lines or stanzas. “The golden stars dozed off...” - repetition of the initial sounds, Yesenin used phonetic anaphora.

And here is an example of lexical anaphora in Pushkin’s poems:

Alone you rush across the clear azure,
You alone cast a dull shadow,
You alone sadden the jubilant day.

Epiphora- a similar technique, but much less common, in which words or phrases are repeated at the end of lines or sentences.

The use of lexical devices associated with a word, lexeme, as well as phrases and sentences, syntax, is considered as a tradition of literary creativity, although it is also widely found in poetry.

Conventionally, all means of expressiveness of the Russian language can be divided into tropes and stylistic figures.

Trails

Tropes are the use of words and phrases in a figurative sense. Paths make speech more figurative, enliven and enrich it. Some tropes and their examples in literary work are listed below.

Epithet- artistic definition. Using it, the author gives the word additional emotional overtones and his own assessment. To understand how an epithet differs from an ordinary definition, you need to understand when reading whether the definition gives a new connotation to the word? Here's a simple test. Compare: late autumn - golden autumn, early spring - young spring, quiet breeze - gentle breeze.

Personification- transferring the signs of living beings to inanimate objects, nature: “The gloomy rocks looked sternly...”.

Comparison– direct comparison of one object or phenomenon with another. “The night is gloomy, like a beast...” (Tyutchev).

Metaphor– transferring the meaning of one word, object, phenomenon to another. Identifying similarities, implicit comparison.

“There is a red rowan fire burning in the garden...” (Yesenin). The rowan brushes remind the poet of the flame of a fire.

Metonymy– renaming. Transferring a property or meaning from one object to another according to the principle of contiguity. “The one in felt, let’s argue” (Vysotsky). In felt (material) - in a felt hat.

Synecdoche- a type of metonymy. Transferring the meaning of one word to another based on a quantitative connection: singular - plural, part - whole. “We all look at Napoleons” (Pushkin).

Irony- the use of a word or expression in an inverted, mocking sense. For example, the appeal to the Donkey in Krylov’s fable: “Are you crazy, smart one?”

Hyperbola- a figurative expression containing exorbitant exaggeration. It may relate to size, meaning, strength, and other qualities. Litota is, on the contrary, an exorbitant understatement. Hyperbole is often used by writers and journalists, and litotes is much less common. Examples. Hyperbole: “The sunset burned with one hundred and forty suns” (V.V. Mayakovsky). Litota: “a little man with a fingernail.”

Allegory- a specific image, scene, image, object that visually represents an abstract idea. The role of allegory is to suggest subtext, to force one to look for hidden meaning when reading. Widely used in fable.

Alogism– deliberate violation of logical connections for the purpose of irony. “That landowner was stupid, he read the newspaper “Vest” and his body was soft, white and crumbly.” (Saltykov-Shchedrin). The author deliberately mixes logically heterogeneous concepts in the enumeration.

Grotesque– a special technique, a combination of hyperbole and metaphor, a fantastic surreal description. An outstanding master of Russian grotesque was N. Gogol. His story “The Nose” is based on the use of this technique. A special impression when reading this work is made by the combination of the absurd with the ordinary.

Figures of speech

Stylistic figures are also used in literature. Their main types are shown in the table:

Repeat	At the beginning, end, at the junction of sentences	This cry and strings, These flocks, these birds
Antithesis	Opposition. Antonyms are often used.	Long hair, short mind
Gradation	Arrangement of synonyms in increasing or decreasing order	Smolder, burn, glow, explode
Oxymoron	Connecting contradictions	A living corpse, an honest thief.
Inversion	Word order changes	He came late (He came late).
Parallelism	Comparison in the form of juxtaposition	The wind stirred the dark branches. Fear stirred in him again.
Ellipsis	Omitting an implied word	By the hat and out the door (he grabbed it and went out).
Parcellation	Dividing a single sentence into separate ones	And I think again. About you.
Multi-Union	Connecting through repeating conjunctions	And me, and you, and all of us together
Asyndeton	Elimination of unions	You, me, he, she – together the whole country.
Rhetorical exclamation, question, appeal.	Used to enhance feelings	What a summer! Who if not us? Listen, country!
Default	Interruption of speech based on a guess, to reproduce strong excitement	My poor brother...execution...Tomorrow at dawn!
Emotional-evaluative vocabulary	Words expressing attitude, as well as direct assessment of the author	Henchman, dove, dunce, sycophant.

Test "Means of Artistic Expression"

To test your understanding of the material, take a short test.

Read the following passage:

“There the war smelled of gasoline and soot, burnt iron and gunpowder, it scraped with caterpillar tracks, screeched from machine guns and fell into the snow, and rose again under fire...”

What means of artistic expression are used in the excerpt from K. Simonov’s novel?

Swede, Russian - stabs, chops, cuts.

Drumming, clicks, grinding,

The thunder of guns, stomping, neighing, groaning,

And death and hell on all sides.

A. Pushkin

The answer to the test is given at the end of the article.

Expressive language is, first of all, an internal image that arises when reading a book, listening to an oral presentation, or a presentation. To manipulate images, visual techniques are needed. There are enough of them in the great and mighty Russian. Use them, and the listener or reader will find their own image in your speech pattern.

Study expressive language and its laws. Determine for yourself what is missing in your performances, in your drawing. Think, write, experiment, and your language will become an obedient tool and your weapon.

Answer to the test

K. Simonov. The personification of war in the passage. Metonymy: howling soldiers, equipment, battlefield - the author ideologically connects them into a generalized image of war. The techniques of expressive language used are polyunion, syntactic repetition, parallelism. Through this combination of stylistic techniques when reading, a revived, rich image of war is created.

A. Pushkin. The poem lacks conjunctions in the first lines. In this way the tension and richness of the battle are conveyed. In the phonetic design of the scene, the sound “r” plays a special role in different combinations. When reading, a rumbling, growling background appears, ideologically conveying the noise of battle.

If you were unable to give the correct answers while answering the test, do not be upset. Just re-read the article.

Answer the questions about the poem "Railroad"

1) What is the meaning of the epigraph “Conversation in the carriage” in the poem:
Vania. Dad who built this road
Dad. Count Pyotr Andreevich Kleinmichel, darling
2) Re-read the first part of the poem. What can you say about a person who saw the picture of nature this way? How is the picture of nature related to the subsequent conversation between the author and his neighbors in the carriage?

3) Why does Nekrasov call hunger the king? How is the power of this king manifested?
4) how do you understand the lines:
Many are in senior struggle,

bringing these barren wilds back to life,

did you find a coffin here?...
what idea is expressed by the antithesis?

5) Why is the poem addressed to children?

6) Why do you think the poet begins the story about the construction of the railway with a description of the beautiful autumn nature? Why does the poet, and after him the actor, emphasize the words: glorious autumn; peace and space; frosty nights; clear, quiet days; there is no ugliness in nature; everything is fine under the moonlight.

7) What technique did the poet use, first giving a description of autumn, and then showing a terrible picture of the construction of the railway? How does an actor reproduce this technique using literary reading?

8) The railroad is a poem about the distant past. Do you think there are thoughts in it that are modern and for our days? Find these lines.

Reluctantly and timidly

The sun looks over the fields.
Chu, it thundered behind the cloud,
The earth frowned.
Warm gusts of wind,
Distant thunder and rain sometimes...
Green fields
Greener under the storm.
Here I broke through from behind the clouds
Blue lightning jet -
The flame is white and volatile
He bordered its edges.
More often than raindrops,
Dust flies like a whirlwind from the fields,
And thunderclaps
Getting angrier and bolder.
The sun looked again
From under your brows to the fields,
And drowned in the radiance
The whole earth is in turmoil.

1. Find epithets and comparisons that help the author paint a picture of an approaching thunderstorm and an all-conquering sun.

2. What technique is used by the poet when writing the lines: “the sun looks at the fields,” “the earth frowned,” “The sun once again looked down at the fields,” “and the whole troubled earth was drowned in radiance”? What is achieved with this technique?

What can you wish for a person who wants to engage in literary work? Firstly, inspiration and dreams. Without this, any creativity is unthinkable. This is the only way craft becomes art! However, in order for a person to start writing, he should a priori read a lot. Literary reading techniques are initially studied in high school. It is important to understand the actual content of the work, its main ideas, motives and feelings that drive the characters. Based on this, a holistic analysis is carried out. In addition, your own life experience plays a significant role.

The role of literary devices

An adherent of literary activity should carefully and moderately use standard techniques (epithets, comparisons, metaphors, irony, allusions, puns, etc.). The secret that is somehow rarely shared is that they are secondary. Indeed, mastering the ability to write works of fiction is often interpreted by criticism as the ability to use certain literary techniques.

What will awareness and understanding of their essence give to a composing and writing person? Let us answer figuratively: approximately the same as what fins will give to someone who is trying to swim. If a person does not know how to swim, fins are useless to him. That is, stylistic linguistic tricks cannot serve as an end in themselves for the author. It is not enough to know what literary devices are called. You must be able to captivate people with your thoughts and imagination.

Metaphors

Let's define the main literary devices. Metaphors represent appropriate creative replacement of the properties of one subject or object with the properties of another. This trope achieves an unusual and fresh look at the details and episodes of the work. An example is the well-known metaphors of Pushkin (“fountain of love”, “along the mirror of rivers”) and Lermontov (“the sea of ​​life”, “splashing tears”).

Indeed, poetry is the most creative path for lyrical natures. Perhaps this is why the literary devices in the poem are most noticeable. It is no coincidence that some literary works of prose are called prose in verse. This is what Turgenev and Gogol wrote.

Epithets and comparisons

What are literary devices such as epithets? The writer V. Soloukhin called them “clothing of words.” If we talk about the essence of the epithet very briefly, it is the very word that characterizes the essence of an object or phenomenon. Let us give examples: “stately birch”, “golden hands”, “quick thoughts”.

Comparison as an artistic technique allows us to compare social actions with natural phenomena to increase expressiveness. It can be easily noticed in the text by the characteristic words “as”, “as if”, “as if”. Often comparison acts as a deep creative reflection. Let us remember the quote from the famous poet and publicist of the 19th century Pyotr Vyazemsky: “Our life in old age is like a worn-out robe: it’s both a shame to wear it and a pity to leave it.”

Pun

What is the name of the literary device that uses wordplay? We are talking about the use of homonyms and polysemantic words in works of art. This is how jokes that are well known to everyone and loved by all people are created. Such words are often used by classics: A.P. Chekhov, Omar Khayyam, V. Mayakovsky. As an example, here is a quote from Andrei Knyshev: “Everything in the house was stolen, and even the air was somehow stale.” Isn't that a witty saying?

However, those who are interested in the name of the literary device with a play on words should not think that a pun is always comical. Let us illustrate this with the well-known thought of N. Glazkov: “Criminals are also attracted to good, but, unfortunately, to someone else’s.”

However, we admit that there are still more anecdotal situations. Another pun immediately comes to mind - the comparison of a criminal with a flower (the first is first grown and then planted, and the second - vice versa).

Be that as it may, the literary device of word play came from common speech. It is no coincidence that Odessa humor is rich in puns Mikhail Zhvanetsky. Isn’t it a wonderful phrase from the maestro of humor: “The car was collected... in a bag.”

Able to make puns. Go for it!

If you really have a bright sense of humor, then the literary device of wordplay is your know-how. Work on quality and originality! A master of creating unique puns is always in demand.

In this article we limited ourselves to the interpretation of only some of the tools of writers. In fact, there are many more of them. For example, a technique such as metaphor contains personification, metonymy (“he ate three plates”).

Literary device parabola

Writers and poets often use tools that sometimes have simply paradoxical names. For example, one of the literary devices is called “parabola”. But literature is not Euclidean geometry. The ancient Greek mathematician, the creator of two-dimensional geometry, would probably have been surprised to learn that the name of one of the curves also found literary application! Why does this phenomenon occur? The reason is probably the properties of the parabolic function. The array of its values, coming from infinity to the starting point and going to infinity, is similar to the same name figure of speech. That's why one of the literary devices is called "parabola".

This genre form is used for the specific organization of the entire narrative. Let's remember Hemingway's famous story. It is written according to laws similar to the geometric figure of the same name. The course of the narrative begins as if from afar - with a description of the difficult life of fishermen, then the author tells us the very essence - the greatness and invincibility of the spirit of a particular person - the Cuban fisherman Santiago, and then the story again goes into infinity, acquiring the pathos of a legend. In a similar way, Kobo Abe wrote the parable novel “The Woman in the Sand,” and Gabriel García Márquez wrote “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”

It is obvious that the literary device of the parabola is more global than those previously described by us. To notice its use by a writer, it is not enough to read a certain paragraph or chapter. To do this, you should not only read the entire work, but also evaluate it from the point of view of the development of the plot, the images revealed by the author, and general issues. It is these methods of analyzing a literary work that will allow, in particular, to determine the fact of the writer’s use of a parabola.

Creativity and artistic techniques

When is it useless for a person to undertake literary work? The answer is extremely specific: when he does not know how to express a thought in an interesting way. You shouldn’t start writing armed with knowledge if others don’t listen to your stories, if you don’t have inspiration. Even if you use spectacular literary devices, they will not help you.

Let's say an interesting topic is found, there are characters, there is an exciting (in the subjective opinion of the author) plot... Even in such a situation, we recommend taking a simple test. You must arrange it for yourself. See if you can interest a well-known person whose interests you perfectly represent with the idea of ​​your work. After all, types of people repeat themselves. Once you get one person interested, you can get tens of thousands interested...

About creativity and composition

The author, of course, should stop and not continue writing if he subconsciously associates himself in relation to the readers with either a shepherd, or a manipulator, or a political strategist. You cannot humiliate your audience with subconscious superiority. Readers will notice this, and the author will not be forgiven for such “creativity.”

Talk to the audience simply and evenly, as equals to equals. You must interest the reader with every sentence, every paragraph. It is important that the text is exciting, carrying ideas that interest people.

But this is not enough for a person who wants to study literature. It's one thing to tell, another to write. Literary techniques require the author’s ability to build a composition. To do this, he should seriously practice writing artistic text and combining its three main elements: description, dialogue and action. The dynamics of the plot depend on their relationship. And this is very important.

Description

The description carries the function of linking the plot to a specific place, time, season, or set of characters. It is functionally similar to a theater set. Of course, the author initially, even at the conception stage, presents the circumstances of the story in sufficient detail, but they should be presented to the reader gradually, artistically, optimizing the literary techniques used. For example, the artistic characterization of a character in a work by the author is usually given in separate strokes, strokes, presented in various episodes. In this case, epithets, metaphors, and comparisons are used in doses.

After all, in life, too, attention is first paid to striking features (height, build), and only then are eye color, nose shape, etc. considered.

Dialogue

Dialogue is a good way to display the psychotype of the characters in a work. The reader often sees in them a secondary description of personality, character, social status, an assessment of the actions of one character, reflected by the consciousness of another hero of the same work. Thus, the reader gets the opportunity to both in-depth perception of the character (in the narrow sense) and understanding the peculiarities of society in the work created by the writer (in the broad sense). The author's literary techniques in dialogues are top notch. It is in them (an example of this is the work of Viktor Pelevin) that the most striking artistic discoveries and generalizations are obtained.

However, dialogue should be used with double caution. After all, if you overdo it, the work becomes unnatural and the plot becomes rough. Do not forget that the main function of dialogues is communication between the characters in the work.

Action

Action is an essential element for literary narratives. It acts as a powerful authorial element of the plot. In this case, the action is not only the physical movement of objects and characters, but also any conflict dynamics, for example, when describing a trial.

A warning for beginners: without a clear idea of ​​how to present the action to the reader, you should not start creating a work.

What literary devices are used to describe action? It's best when there are none at all. The action scene in a work, even a fantastic one, is the most consistent, logical, and tangible. It is thanks to this that the reader gets the impression of the documentary nature of the artistically described events. Only real masters of the pen can allow the use of literary techniques in describing the action (let us recall from Sholokhov’s “Quiet Flows the Flow” the scene of the appearance of a dazzling black sun before the eyes of Grigory Melekhov, shocked by the death of his beloved).

Literary reception of the classics

As the author’s skill increases, his own image appears behind the lines more and more voluminously and prominently, and literary artistic techniques become more and more refined. Even if the author does not write about himself directly, the reader feels him and unmistakably says: “This is Pasternak!” or “This is Dostoevsky!” What's the secret here?

When starting to create, the writer places his image into the work gradually, carefully, in the background. Over time, his pen becomes more skillful. And the author inevitably goes through a creative path in his works from his imagined self to his real self. They are beginning to recognize him by his style. Exactly this metamorphosis- the main literary device in the work of every writer and poet.