Literary Terms
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Created by:
daniellencrtr on April 27, 2010
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92 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 lyric | songlike poem |
| narrative | story poem |
| dramatic poem | represents a conflict |
| tone | shows the speaker's emotion and sense of situation |
| allusions | references to people, objects, or events outside the poem |
| paraphrase | put what the poem is saying into your own words |
| aubade | poem written on waking at dawn |
| denotation | explicit meaning |
| connotation | suggested meaning |
| concrete words | name specific things; always fresh |
| abstract words | describe generalizations or concepts |
| onomatopoeia | always sounds fresh, sounds |
| alliteration | repeating an initial consonant sound |
| consonance | repetitions of consonant sounds |
| assonance | repetitions of vowel sounds |
| euphony | flowing and pleasing sound without disruption |
| cacophony | group of harsh words |
| sibilance | patterning "s" and hissing sounds |
| diction | a poem's entire word choice |
| image | a picture of any sense impression (not necessarily visual) |
| literal image | tries to replicate, in words, the exact object or experience |
| figurative image | likens an object or experience to something else |
| epic simile | makes an extended comparison |
| mixed metaphors | mix of incompatible metaphors |
| synesthesia | a sensory expression described in terms of a different sense |
| synecdoche | a part of the whole that represents the whole |
| personification | attributing human-like qualities to inanimate objects |
| pathetic fallacy | nature personification that acts out the emotions of the subjects |
| oxymoron | contrasting words juxtaposed to encompass contrary ideas |
| symbol | image or action that stands for more than itself |
| archetype | image that has universal meaning |
| private symbol | readers do not come to this with symbolic associations of their own |
| dramatic monologue | poem spoken by a persona who tells someone else a story or an event of significance |
| epistle | poem written as a letter |
| public voice poem | the poet is concerned with a cultural or historical subject with broad scope and conclusions |
| didactic | moral lesson is intended |
| slant/off/half rhymes | words that almost rhyme |
| pure rhymes | the initial sounds of the word differ but the rest of the sound is identical |
| end rhymes | rhymes at the end of lines |
| internal rhyme | when a word within the line rhymes with the end rhyme or with another word within the rhyme |
| apocopated rhyme | a cut-off rhyme |
| linked rhyme | the first syllable of a line echoes the last syllable of the previous line |
| triple rhyme | words of three rhyming syllables |
| head rhyme | repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of a word (another name for alliteration) |
| eye rhyme | words that look similar though they're pronounced differently |
| unpatterned rhyme | randomly placed rhyming words |
| identical rhyme | repetition of the same word when the reader would expect a rhyming word |
| homonyms | same sound is repeated although the spelling differs |
| rhyme scheme | pattern of rhyme in an entire poem |
| anaphora | the beginning word(s) of a line repeat |
| combined repetition | lines, phrases, and single words repeat extensively, tightly unifying the poem |
| refrain | whole stanzas, concluding lines of stanzas, or multiple lines recur |
| opening and closing repetition | when a poem ends with a line identical to or similar to the opening line |
| image repetition | the poet repeats an image or a certain kind of imagery |
| syntactical repetition | a sentence structure, or part of a sentence structure, repeats |
| syntax | pattern of the word order in a sentence or phrase |
| sonnet | poem with 14 lines |
| Italian sonnet | consists of an octave (8 lines), a sestet (6 lines), and a volta (a shift between the 2) |
| Shakespearean sonnet | consists of 3 quatrains (abab cdcd efef gg) and a couplet, with a change in tone in the couplet |
| meter | organization of words' accents into a pattern |
| scansion | process of noting accents and their intervals of recurrence |
| foot | unit of measurement in a metered poem |
| syncopation | variation of meter |
| iambic foot | unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable (rising rhythm) |
| trochaic foot | accented syllable followed by an unaccented syllable (falling rhythm) |
| iambic pentameter | 5 sets of iambic feet |
| accentual-syllabic | both the number of syllables and the number of accents count |
| accentual | meter counts only the number of stressed per line |
| syllabic | meter counts only the number of syllables per line |
| caesura | pause |
| end-stopped | the sense of the line is terminated with a period |
| enjamb | when a line runs on the the next |
| continuous form | proceeds without stanza breaks |
| concrete poetry | poetry that has a shape |
| open form | poetry without a shape |
| common measure | quatrain the alternates a four-foot iambic line with a 3-foot iambic line, rhyming abcb |
| villanelle | nineteen lines, 3 line stanzas, with a concluding quatrain and a lot of repetition |
| sestina | six six-lined stanzas that end with a tercet/triplet, the last words on each line in the first stanza repeat as the last words in the following stanza |
| rondeau | consists of 15 lines arranged in a quintet, quatrain, and sestet |
| haiku | seventeen syllables, 5-7-5 |
| pantoum | sequence of quatrains; the 2nd and 4th lines of each stanza become the first and 3rd lines of the next stanza |
| verse paragraph | has no regularity |
| pastoral | poem that features a rural landscape; no petty details, class differences, or world events can get to the lovers |
| ars poetica (the art of poetry) | a poem written on the subject of the poetic art, usually to explain the poet's reason for writing |
| carpe diem | poem urging one to live in the moment because time passes quickly |
| dithyramb | any poem about the adventures of the gods |
| elegy | poem written for or about someone dead |
| encomium | laudatory poem for a legendary or real person |
| epithalamium | celebration for a wedding |
| madrigal | short poem about nature and love |
| style | interplay of everything the poet brings to the art |
| hyperbole | exaggeration by overstatement |
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