| Term | Definition |
|---|
| mood | feeling in a work of literature created through details and language |
| irony | contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality |
| euphemism | using a mild or gentle phrase instead of a blunt, embarassing, or painful one |
| tone | the attitude a write takes toward the reader, a subject, or a character |
| foil | character who serves as a contrast to another character |
| motif | a recurring object, concept, or structure in a work of literature |
| anachronism | event or detail that is inappropriate for th etime period |
| allusion | reference to a statement, person, place, event, or thing that is know from literature, history, religion, myth, politics, sports, science or the arts |
| figurative language | a type of language that varies from the norms of literal language, forces the reader to make an imaginative leap to comprehend an author's point |
| extended metaphor | comparison developed over several lines or thoughout an entire poem |
| ambiguity | negative term applied to a vague or equivocal expression when precision would be more useful |
| assonance | repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds in words that are close together |
| blank verse | unrhymed lines of 10 syllables each with the even-numbered syllables bearing the accents |
| imagery | language that appeals to the senses |
| iambic pentameter | line of poetry made up of 5 iambs (unstressed, stress) |
| rhythm | musical quality in language, produced by repitition |
| rhyme | repitition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following them in words that are close together in a poem |
| ennui | weariness and dissatisfaction from lack of occupation or interest, boredom |
| permeate | to spread through, penetrate, soak through |
| scurrilous | coarsely abusive, vulgar or low, foul mouthed |
| soporific | tending to cause sleep, relating to sleepness or lethargy, something that makes sleep |
| expurgate | to remove objectionable passages or words from a written test, cleanse, purify |
| punctilious | very careful and exact, attentive to fine points of etiquette or property |
| perfidy | faithlessness, treachery |
| aplomb | poise, assurance, great self-confidence, perpendicularity |
| anomalous | abnormal, irregular, departing from the usual |
| redoubtable | inspiring fear or awe, illustrious, eminent |
| corpulent | fat, having a large bulley body |
| pillage | to rob of goods by open force (as in war), plunder, the act of looting; booty |
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