Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words. In line 8, "To question heaven and hell and heart in vain," the "h" sound is repeated three times in close succession. The words "heaven," "hell," and "heart" all begin with "h" and so the sound is repeated.

Passage adapted from "Why did I laugh tonight?" by John Keats (1819)

The structure and rhyme scheme of this poem identify it as a sonnet.  

A sonnet has fourteen lines, as this poem does. A sonnet also has a rhyme scheme of ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG--as this poem does. In addition, English sonnets are written in iambic pentameter, which this poem is.

Passage adapted from "Why did I laugh tonight?" by John Keats (1819)

This convoluted or inverted syntax (“Speak will I of the other things I saw there”) is a prime example of anastrophe, the purposeful inversion of normal sentence structure for dramatic effect or metrical harmony. Enjambment is a poetic technique in which the meaning and syntax of one line are carried over and finished in the next line (e.g. Robert Frost’s “And there's a barrel that I didn't fill / Beside it”). Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds (e.g. “a bitter debtor”), while assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds (e.g. Edgar Allan Poe’s “the mellow wedding bells”). Prolepsis is another word for flash forward, the literary technique of telling the reader what’s going to happen in the story’s future.

Passage adapted from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, trans. Charles Eliot Norton. (1920)

In lines 1-2 we have an uncomplicated metaphor that likens life to a journey and the narrator’s travails to a dark forest without the use of “like” or “as.” Don’t confuse this with a simile, which is a comparison using “like” or “as” (e.g. “the still pond is like a looking glass”). Metonymy is the substitution of one word for another word that’s commonly associated with it (e.g. using “throne” to discuss a monarchy), while synecdoche is a specific type of metonymy in which the real word for something is replaced by a word for a part of that thing (e.g. someone saying they need a “hand” when they really need the entire person’s help). An aphorism is a pithy saying or adage (e.g. “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”).

Passage adapted from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, trans. Charles Eliot Norton (1920)

“Liquid ditty” repeats the short “i” sound, which makes it an example of assonance, repetition of vowel sounds. Alliteration is the repetition of similar sounds at the beginning of multiple words (e.g. “two torn tulips”), and allusion is a reference to another literary (or sometimes historical, artistic, etc.) thing, place, or event (e.g. the title of the novel Brave New World alludes to the lines “O brave new world, / That has such people in ‘t!” in Shakespeare’s The Tempest). Onomatopoeia is the use of a word that mimics the sound of the thing it is describing (e.g. “pop” or “buzz”)

Passage adapted from "The Bells" by Edgar Allen Poe (1850)

Describing musical notes (auditory) as golden (visual) and molten (tactile) is a conflation of sensory imagery, which is known as synesthesia. Parallelism is the use of clauses with identical grammatical patterns, syntax, or meter (e.g. “She expected nothing, hoped for everything, and received something”). A pastoral is a literary work that idealizes rustic country life (e.g. Wordsworth’s Prelude). Prolepsis is another word for flash forward, the literary technique of telling the reader what’s going to happen in the story’s future, and flashback is the opposite technique.

Passage adapted from "The Bells" by Edgar Allen Poe (1850)

Epistrophe is the repetition of the end of a clause at the end of two or more clauses in a row, and this is what we see in the line “what I assume you shall assume.” Epanalepsis is another word for chiasmus, the repetition of the beginning of one clause at the end of the subsequent clause. Motif is the recurring use of an image, idea, or subject in a work of literature. Oxymoron is a simple contradictory term (e.g. “ice water”). Simile is a comparison using “like” or “as” (e.g. “the still pond is like a looking glass”).

Passage adapted from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” Leaves of Grass (1855).

Line 5 asserts that the lover is a particular object (“A bundle of myrrh”) without the use of “like” or “as,” which makes this a metaphor. A simile is a comparison using “like” or “as” (e.g. “the still pond is like a looking glass”). An anecdote is a short, often humorous story. Epanalepsis is another word for chiasmus, the repetition of the beginning of one clause at the end of the subsequent clause. Enjambment is a poetic technique in which the meaning and syntax of one line are carried over and finished in the next line (e.g. Robert Frost’s “And there's a barrel that I didn't fill / Beside it”).

Passage adapted from the “Song of Solomon,” King James Bible.

An apostrophe is a direct address by a narrator to a reader or to another character, and that is the device seen with “O my love.” Allegory is the use of a story or extended metaphor to make a philosophical or moral point (e.g. George Orwell’s Animal Farm). Metonymy is the substitution of one word for another word that’s commonly associated with it (e.g. using “throne” to discuss a monarchy). A pun is a play on words, and jocularity is the quality of being jovial.

Passage adapted from the “Song of Solomon,” King James Bible.

Here we have another comparison between the beloved and an object (“as a cluster of camphire”), but this one uses “as,” making it a simile. Hyperbole is the use of extreme exaggeration (e.g. “this suitcase weighs a ton”). Mythology refers to a culture’s collection of sacred or important myths or archetypal stories (e.g. stories about Zeus and Hera are part of Greek mythology). Litotes is the deliberate use of understatement or double negatives, the opposite of hyperbole (e.g. “they don’t seem unhappy”). A loan word is a word adopted into the vocabulary of another language without translation (e.g. café or bon mot from the French).

Passage adapted from the “Song of Solomon,” King James Bible.