| Term | Definition |
| Interior Monologue | For novels & poetry, not dramas. Refers to writing that records the mental talking that goes on in a character's head. |
| Inversion | When you switch the order of elements in a sentence or phrase |
| Irony | Statement that means the opposite of what it seems to mean or is supposed to mean. |
| Lament | A poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved on or another intense loss. |
| Lampoon | A type of satire |
| Loose Sentences | Its complete before its end |
| Periodic Sentences | Not gramatically correct untill its reached its final phrase |
| Lyric | A type of poetry that explores the poet's personal interpretation of and feelings about the world |
| Masculine Rhyme | A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable |
| Melodrama | Cheesy drama, hero good, evil bad |
| Metaphor | Comparison, analogy |
| Simile | Softens out the full equation of things, doesnt always use like or as |
| Nemesis | The protagonist's arch enemy, or supreme difficulty |
| Objectivity | Impersonal or outside view |
| Subjectivity | Interior or personal views |
| Onomatopoeia | Words that sound like what they mean Boom! Pow! Bam! |
| Oxymoron | A phrase composed of opposites "calm frenzy" "jumbo shrimp" |
| Parable | A fable or alagory, story that insturcts |
| Parenthetical Phrase | Phrase that is set off by commas that interupt the flow of the sentence (added detail) |
| Parody | A work that results when a specific work is exaggerated to ridiculousness |
| Pastoral | A poem set in tranquil nature about shepards |
| Persona | The narrator in a non-first person novel |
| Personification | An inanimate object takes on human shape |
| Plaint | A poem or speech expressing sorrow |
| Point of view | Perspective from which the action of a story is presented |
| Omniscient narrator | A third person narrator who sees like god, is all knowing |
| Limited Omniscient narrator | A third person narrator who generally only reports what one character sees, thinks, etc |
| Objective, Camera eye Narrator | A thrid person narrator who only reports what is visible to a camera |
| First Person Narrator | A narrator who is a character in the story, they tell it from their POV |
| Stream of consciousness technique | Instead of character telling sotry, author places reader inside main character's head |
| Prelude | An introductory poem to a longer work or verse |
| Protagonist | Main character of a novel or play |
| Refrain | A line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem |
| Requiem | A song of prayer for the dead |
| Rhapsody | An intensly passionate verse or section of verse; usually love/praise |
| Rhetorical question | A question that suggests an answer |
| Satire | Exoses common character flaws to the cold light of humor |
| Soliloquy | A speech spoken by a character alone onstage |
| Stanza | A group of lines roughly analogous in fuction inverse to the paragraph's function in pros |
| Stock Characters | Standard of cliche type characters |
| Suspension of disbelief | The demand made of the theatre audience to accept the limitations of staging and supply the details with their imaginations |
| Thesis | Main position of a agrement |
| Tragic Flaw | The weakeness of a character in an otherwise great individual that ultimatley leades to his demise |
| Travesty | A grotesque parody |
| Unreliable narrator | Not creditied, is biased, not trustable POV |
| Utopia | An idealized place |