| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Alliteration | The repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants, in a group of words |
| allusion | a reference to another work of literature, person, or event |
| assonance | the repetition of similar vowels in the stressed syllables of successive words |
| Blank Verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| Caesura | a pause or break in a line of verse |
| characterization | the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character |
| conflict | a struggle between opposing forces |
| diction | A writer's or speaker's choice of words |
| hyperbole | a figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement |
| iambic pentameter | a common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable |
| irony | a contrast between what is expected and what actually exists or happens |
| metaphor | a figure of speech that makes a comparison between to things which are basically dissimilar |
| meter | A generally regular patter of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry |
| motif | A recurring feature (such as a name,image, or phrase) in a work of literature |
| oxymoron | A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory ideas or terms |
| parallelism | the use of phrases, clauses, or sentences that is similar or complementary in structure or meaning. |
| personification | A figure of speech on which something nonhuman is given human qualities |
| point of view | the vantage point from which a narrative is told |
| rhetoric | the art of using language for persuasion |
| satire | a kind of writing that holds up to ridicule or contempt the weaknesses and wrongdoings of individuals, groups, institutions, or humanity in general |
| scansion | analysis of verse in terms of meter |
| simile | a figure of speech that makes a direct comparison between two unlike subjects using like or as |
| style | A writer's characteristic way of writing, determined by the choice of words, the arrangement of words in sentences, and the relationship of the sentences to one another |
| symbol | any object, person, place, or experience that means more than what it is. |
| theme | the general idea or insight about life that a writer wishes to express |
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