| Term | Definition |
|---|
| poetry | rythmic, compressed language that uses figures of speech and imagery to appeal to emotion and imagination |
| narrative | a long story told in verse form |
| lyric | a brief, personal poem that is especially musical and is filled with emotion |
| ballad | a type of poem that is actually meant to be sung and is both lyric and narrative in nature |
| figure of speech | a word or phrase that describes one thing in terms of another and is not meant to be taken on a literal level |
| simile | two dissimilar things that are compared using the words such as "like" "as" "than" or "resembles" |
| metaphor | two dissimilar things that are compared without using the words such as "like" "as" "than" or "resembles" |
| direct metaphor | directly compares two things with a verb such as "is" |
| implied metaphor | suggests a comparision without using "is" |
| extended metaphor | a metaphor that is developed over several lines of writing |
| personification | giving human or animate qualities to nonhuman or inanimate things |
| apostrophe | addressing something nonhuman as if it were human |
| literary allusion | a reference to a person, place, or thing from previous literature |
| mythology, bible, shakespear | what are the three more popular sources for literary allusions? |
| hyperbole | using exaggeration for emphasis, not to be taken literally; overstatement |
| verbal irony | meaning the opposite of what is said |
| antithesis | the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in parallel gramatical structures; balancing or contrasting one thing against another for effect |
| synecdoche | using a part of something to represent the whole thing |
| metonymy | the substitution of one word for another closely associated word |
| paradox | an apparent contradiction which proves upon examination to be true; a situation or statement that seems like it does not make sense |
| symbol | something concrete used to represent something abstact; means more than what it is |
| alliteration | the repetition of the inital consonant sound in two or more words in a line of verse |
| consonance | the repetition of consonant sounds that are not at the beginning of words in a line of verse |
| assonance | the similarity or repetition of vowel sounds in two or more words with different consonant sounds |
| onomatopoeia | the use of words that imitat the sounds they define |
| repetition | repeating a word or phrase within a poem |
| pleasing to the ear, draws attention or emphasizes, for humor or ironic effect | what are the three reasons to use repetition? |
| refrain | the repetition of one or more phrases or lines at definite intervals in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza |
| plot | the sequence of events in a narrative that is carefully constructed by the author for artistic purpose |
| simple narrative account | a chronological description of real events to tell what happened |
| exposition | background information on the characters, setting, and other events necessary for understanding the story given |
| complication (rising action) | the conflict is developed, suspense is created, and foreshadowing may be used |
| conflict | the interplay between opposing elements |
| conflict | the plot of a story is produced and propelled by...? |
| internal conflict | protagonist vs. self |
| external conflict | protagonist vs. other(s) |
| external conflict | protagonist vs. environment |
| technical climax | the turning point in the plot at which the outcome of the action is determined; often, the protagonist changes or has an opportunity to change |
| resolution (falling action) | the events following the technical climax in which the outcome is actually worked out |
| conclusion | the final event of the story's plot |
| dramatic climax | the point of greatest interest or intensity to the story |
| plotless short story | very modern creation that is pleasurable to read as it escribes characters in a situtaion, but does not employ the development or the resolution of a conflict |
| setting | the represented time and place of events in a literary work |
| to provide time and place for the story, to help in understanding of the characters and their actions, to help create mood and atmosphere, to facilitate plot development | What are the four funtions of setting? |
| character | a fictional personality created by an author |
| characterization | the technique a writer uses to create and reveal characters in a work of fiction |
| credibility and consistency | What are essential to good characterization? |
| expository character revelation | telling the reader about a character in a straightforward manner; more direct quicker and less attention grabbing |
| dramatic character revelation | showing the reader what a character is like through descrptions of thought, dialogue, action etc; indirect, less quick, more attention getting |
| motivation | the reasons that cause characters to act the way they do |
| protagonist | the central character in a work of fiction about whom the audience is most concerned |
| antagonist | the principle opponent of the main character |
| round character | a character who is well described and whose thoughts and actions are reavealed during the development of the story |
| flat character | a character who is not well developed in a story, but who represents a type rather than an individual |
| stock or stereotyped character | 2 examples of a flat character |
| dynamic character | a character who grows, learns, or changes in some significant way throughout the story |
| static character | a character who resists change or refuses to change during the story |
| foil character | a character that contrasts in some important way with a more important character |
| consistent character | a character whose speech, thoughts, and actions are what the reaser has been lead to expect from the particular character |
| stock character | a TYPE of character that is usually found in a particular literary form |
| stereotyped characters | a character created accordingly to widely hep, often narrowminded, ideas |
| point of view | the physical and psychological relationship between the narrator and the story's characters and events |
| narrator | tells the story |
| first person | the narrator is a character in the story |
| third person objective | the narrator is not a character in the story and reports only what can be seen and heard |
| third person limited omniscent | the narrator is not a character in the story and reports not only what can be seen and heard, but also the thoughts and feeling of a few characters |
| third person omniscent | the narrator is not a character in the story and report what can be seen and heard, along with the thoughts and feelings of all the characters |
| theme | the controlling idea of a literary work that is a general truth or commentary about life, people, the world, that is brought out in the story |
| must be a complete declarative sentence, must state a general truth about life, and must be clearly brought out throughout the entire work | What are the three guidelines to stating a theme? |
| mood | describes the reader's state of mind after finishing the story |
| atmosphere | describes the general feeling of the story itself |
| style | the distincitve handling of language by a writer through diction and syntax |
| diction | purposeful selection of words |
| syntax | sentence structure that helps to indicate tone |
| tone | the author or speaker's attitude toward the characters, events, or audience |
| symbolism | the use of something concrete to represent something abstact; using a thing to represent and idea, concept, quality, or condition |
| irony | contrast between the way things are and the way they appear to be |
| verbal irony | a discrepancy between the literal meaning of a word and the meaning actually converyed; sarcasm |
| dramatic irony | a discrepancy between knowledge held by the reader and a character's ignorance of that knowledge; when the reader knows something the character doesnt |
| situational irony | a discrepancy between the expected outcome of a situation and the actual outcome |
| stanza | a group of consecutive lines in a poem that form a single unit |
| rhyme | the similarite or likeness of sound in 2 or more words |
| perfect rhyme | rhyme involving souds that are exactly the same |
| imperfect rhyme | rhyme involving words that sound similar, but are not exactly the same |
| eye rhyme | rhyme that depends on spelling rather than sound; words that look like they should rhyme |
| end rhyme | rhyme that occurs between words found at the ends of 2 or more lines in a poem |
| internal rhyme | rhyme between words that occurs within a single line of poetry |
| rhyme scheme | the patter or sequence in which end rhyme occurs throughout a poem |
| rhythm | the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in words in a line of poetry |
| meter | a regular pattern or stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry |
| foot | a unit of meter |
| scansion | the process of marking lines of poetry to show the type of feet and the number of feet they contain |
| iambic foot | a 2 syllable foot with the stress on the second syllable |
| trochaic foot | a 2 syllable foot with the stess on the first syllable |
| anapestic foot | 3 syllables with the stress on the last syllable |
| monometer | one foot per line |
| dimeter | 2 feet per line |
| trimeter | 3 feet per line |
| tetrameter | 4 feet per line |
| pentameter | 5 feet per line |
| hexameter | 6 feet per line |
| heptameter | 7 feet per line |
| octameter | 8 feet per line |
| rhymed verse | consists of a verse with end rhyme and regular meter |
| blank verse | consists off unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| free verse | consists of lines of poetry that do not have a regular rhythm and do not rhyme |
Combine with other sets
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