| Term | Definition |
|---|
| abstract | something theoretical rather than concrete |
| allegory | characters are symbols, has a moral |
| alliteration | repetition at close intervals of initial consonants of words |
| anachronism | something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred |
| analogy | a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based |
| antagonist | adversary or someone who offers opposition |
| antecedent | something that precedes |
| antithesis | exact opposite |
| apostrophe | when someone absent, dead, imaginary, or an abstraction, is being addressed as if it could reply |
| assonance | repetition at close intervals of vowel sounds |
| atmosphere | a particular environment or surrounding influence |
| attitude | a complex mental state involving beliefs, feelings, values and dispositions to act in certain ways |
| ballad | narrative song with recurrent refrain |
| blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| cacophony | harsh, non-melodic, unpleasant sounding arrangement of words |
| caesura, rhetorical pause | natural pause in the middle of a line, sometimes coinciding with punctuation |
| catharsis | purging of emotional tensions |
| climax | the highest point of the plot |
| cogent | well-reasoned |
| comedy | light and humorous drama with a happy ending |
| compare | examine and note the similarities or differences of |
| conceit | extended witty, paradoxical, or startling metaphor |
| concrete | poem written in a shape that adds meaning to the poem |
| conflict | open clash between two opposing groups |
| connotation | what a word suggests beyond its surface definition |
| consonance | repetition at close intervals of final consonant sounds |
| contrast | opposition or dissimilar things that are compared |
| couplet | two successive lines which rhyme, usually at the end of a work |
| denotation | basic definition or or dictionary meaning of a word |
| denouement | outcome of a complex sequence of events |
| details | true confidential information |
| devices of sound | technique of deploying the sounds of words, especially in poetry |
| diction | choice of words for effect |
| dramatic framework | situation, whether actual or fictional, realistic or fanciful, in which an author places his or her characters in order to express the theme |
| dramatic irony | irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play |
| dramatic situation | circumstances of the speaker |
| ellipsis | omission or suppression of parts of words or sentences illustrated by "..." |
| epic | extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero |
| epigram | witty saying |
| euphony | pleasant, easy to articulate words |
| extended figure | figure of speech developed through a whole poem |
| figurative language | writing or speech that is not meant to be taken literally |
| figure of speech | language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense |
| fixed form | traditional pattern that applies to whole poem (sonnet, limerick) |
| foil | anything that serves by contrast to call attention to another thing's good qualities |
| foot | group of 2 or 3 syllables forming the basic unit of poetic rhythm |
| foreshadowing | act of providing vague advance indications |
| form | arrangement of the elements in a composition or discourse |
| frame story | a story within a story, a secondary story |
| free verse | no fixed meter or rhyme |
| heroic couplet | couplet consisting of two rhymed lines of iambic pentamenter and written in an elevated style |
| hubris | overbearing pride or presumption |
| hyperbole | exaggeration, overstatement |
| iamb | metrical unit with unstressed-stressed syllables |
| iambic pentameter | ten syllables per line, following an order of unaccented-accented syllables |
| idiom | expression whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that make it up |
| imagery | representation through language of a sensory experience |
| inference | logical conclusion based on observations |
| irony | incongruity or discrepancy between the implied and expected; verbal, dramatic, situational |
| literary devices | tools used by the author to make the story interesting |
| litotes | understatement for emphasis |
| lyrical | expressing deep personal emotion |
| malapropism | unintentional misuse of a word by confusion with one that sounds similar |
| metaphor | implied or direct comparison |
| meter | regularized rhythm of stressed unstressed syllables; accents occur at approximately equal intervals of time |
| metonymy | symbolism; one thing is used as a substitute for another with which it is closely identified |
| modify | cause to change |
| monologue | dramatic (usually long) speech by a single actor |
| mood | atmosphere suggested by the structure and style of the poem |
| motif | unifying idea that is a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work |
| naturalism | doctrine that the world can be understood in scientific terms without recourse to spiritual or supernatural explanations |
| ode | lyric poem with complex stanza forms |
| onomatopoeia | use of words which mimic their meaning in sound |
| oxymoron | compact paradox; two successive words contradict each other |
| parable | short moral story (often with animal characters) |
| paradox | statement or situation containing seemingly contradictory elements |
| parallelism | presents coordinating ideas in a coordinating manner |
| paraphrase | rewording for the purpose of clarification |
| parody | humorous or satirical mimicry |
| pedantic | marked by a narrow focus on or display of learning especially its trivial aspects |
| persona | assumed speaker of the poem; typically used synonymously with 'speaker' |
| personification | giving a non-human the characteristic of a human |
| plot | story that is told in a novel, play, movie etc. |
| point of view | perspective from which a story is told |
| polemic | controversy especially over a belief or dogma |
| protagonist | the principal character in a work of fiction |
| pun | humorous play on words |
| quatrain | stanza of four lines |
| realism | accepting the facts of life and favoring practicality and literal truth |
| refrain | repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines in a pattern |
| rhetoric | using language effectively to please or persuade |
| rhetorical strategy | how an author organizes words, sentences, and overall argument in order to achieve a particular purpose |
| rhyme | repetition of end sounds; slant, end, internal, eye |
| rhythm | wave-like recurrence of sound |
| romanticism | movement in literature and art during the late 18th and early 19th centuries celebrating nature rather than civilization |
| sarcasm | witty language used to convey insults or scorn |
| sardonic | disdainfully or ironically humorous |
| satire | form of literature in which irony, sarcasm, and ridicule are employed to attack human vice and folly |
| simile | comparison using 'like' or 'as' |
| situational irony | occurs when the outcome of a work is unexpected, or events turn out to be the opposite from what one had expected |
| soliloquy | dramatic (usually long) speech intended to give the illusion of unspoken reflections |
| sonnet (Petrachan or Italian, Shakespearean or English) | fourteen line poem, fixed rhyme scheme, fixed meter (usually ten syllables per line) |
| stanza | fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem |
| stream of consciousness | continuous flow of ideas and feelings that constitute an individual's conscious experience |
| stress | relative prominence of a syllable or musical note |
| structure | internal organization of a poem's content |
| style | author's combined use of these ideas into a recurring pattern of usage |
| syllogism | deductive reasoning in which a conclusion is derived from two premises |
| symbol | something (object, person, situation) means more than what it is |
| syntax | word order or grammatical appropriateness (capitalization, punctuation, spacing) |
| theme | central idea |
| tone | writer's attitude toward the audience or subject implied or related directly |
| tragedy | drama in which the protagonist is overcome by some superior force or circumstance |
| tragic flaw | character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall |
| tragic hero | character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on a tragedy |
| understatement | saying less than one means, for effect |
| verbal irony | occurs when what is said contradicts what is meant or thought |
| allusion | reference to something in literature or history |
| anaphora | repetition of the same word or words at the start of two or more lines |
| archetype | character or personality type found in every society |
| didactic poetry | poetry with the primary purpose of teaching or preaching |
| dramatic monologue | character "speaks" through the poem; a character study |
| elegy | poem which expresses sorrow over a death of someone for whom the poet cared, or another solemn theme |
| enjambment | describes a line of poetry in which the sense and grammatical construction continues on to the next line |
| feminine rhyme | latter two syllables of first word rhyme with latter two syllables of second word |
| internal rhyme | repetition of sounds within a line (but not at the end of the line) |
| masculine rhyme | final syllable of first word rhymes with final syllable of second word |
| pace | tempo or rate implied by the structure and style of the poem |
| sibilance | hissing sounds represented by s, z, sh |
| synecdoche | symbolism; the part signifies the whole, or the whole the part |
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