| Term | Definition |
|---|
| dialect | the characteristic speech of a particular of group |
| diction | the author's choice of words |
| didactic | primary purpose is to theach |
| dirge | song for the dead |
| dissonance | the grating of incompatible sounds |
| doggerel | crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme |
| dramatic monologue | single speaker in literature talks to silent audience |
| dramatic poem | a poem that has a conflict |
| dualistic | two-valued, e.g., good/evil |
| dystopia | opposite of utopia, society where social technological advances have served to aid corruption |
| elegy | poem on death or mortality |
| encomium | a laudatory poem for a legendary or real person |
| enjambment | continuation of syntax over a line break |
| enumeratio | listing parts, cause, effect, for added emphasis |
| epic | a long narrative poem on a serious theme in a dignified style; often describes glorious or profound subject |
| epigram | a short poem intended to impart wisdom |
| epigraph | a quotation that is placed at the start of a work or section that expresses what will be said |
| epiphany | a sudden realization or comprehension of the meaning of something |
| epistle | a letter directed or sent to a group of people |
| epistrophe | repeat of same word(s) at the end of sentences |
| epitaph | lines that commemorate the name at the burial place |
| epithalamium | a poem that is written for the birde; celebration of a wedding |
| epithet | a word preceding or following a name which serves to describe |
| epizeuxis | repetition of the same word for emphasis |
| eponym | subsituting the name of a famous person for a description (He's a real Einstein.) |
| eulogy | formal expression of praise, usually given at a funeral |
| euphemism | a word that takes the place of a more harsh or inapporpriate word |
| euphony | sounds blending harmoniously |
| euphuism | elegant Victorian prose style (filled with alliteration and similies) |
| exemplum | citing an example |
| expletive | word interrupting syntax to give emphasis to words around it |
| expressionism | emphasizes the life of the mind and feelings rather than the realistic external details of everyday life |
| eye of the poem | the central focus of the poem |
| eye rhyme | words that look similar, but pronounced differently (wind/find) |
| falling rhyme | feminine rhyme; ending with unaccented last syllable |
| farce | a comedy of unlikely, but possible, situations |
| feminine rhyme | falling rhyme; ending with unaccented last syllable |
| figurative image | representation of one thing by another |
| flashback | a scene that interrupts the action to show an event that happened earlier |
| foil | a secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character |
| foot | basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry, formed by two or three syllables, stressed or not |
| foreshadowing | an event or statement that, in miniature, suggests a larger event that comes later |
| free verse | poetry without regular rhyme or meter |
| genre | a sub-category of literature; categorizes literatures by types |
| gothic | use of eerie themes and images |
| haiku | Japanese poetry with 3 lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables |
| half rhyme | words that almost rhyme; slant rhyme (dizzy/easy) |
| hamartia | tragic flaw or error which brings down the protagonist of a tragedy |
| Harlem Renaissance | flowering of African American art & music in the 1920s |
| head rhyme | another word for alliteration |
| heptameter | poem of seven metrical feet |
| heroic couplet | a rhyming couplet in iambic pentameter |
| hexameter | poetic form of six metrical feet |
| homonyms | words that sound alike but have different spellings and meanings (sale/sail) |
| hubris | excessive pride/ambition which leads to a character's downfall |
| hyperbaton | departure from normal word order; a form of inversion (personality indescribable) |
| hyperbole | exaggeration or deliberate overstatement |
| hypophora | raising a question then proceeding to answer it |
| iambic | a metrical foot with an unstressed first syllable and a stressed second syllable |
| in media res | a piece of writing that begins in the middle of the action |
| incongruity | the joining of opposites to create an unexpected situation |
| interior monologue | recording of mental talk in character's head |
| invective | speech/writing that abuses, denouces, attacks |
| inversion | switching the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase |
| irony | events turn out exactly the opposite of how they might be expected; saying the opposite of what is meant |
| lament | a poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved one or some intense loss |
| lampoon | a satire |
| linked rhyme | first syllable of a line echoes the last syllable of the previous line (on the rooftop/Stops the light of the cop) |
| literal image | concrete replication in words of an object or experience |
| litotes | type of understatement achieved by denying the opposite |
| local color | use of specific details describing dialect, dress, customs, and scenery associated with a particular region |
| loose sentence | a sentence complete before its end (Jack loved Barbara despite her irritating laugh.) |
| lyric | poetry that explores the poet's personal interpretation of and feelings about the world |
| madrigal | a short lyric on love or pastoral themes |
| masculine rhyme | rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable |
| melodrama | cheesy theater; often emphasizes plot and action over character development |
| metabasis | brief summary of what has been said and what will follow |
| metanoia | modifies a statement by recalling it and expressing it in a better way (Max is he best of all bichons, nay of all dogs.) |
| metaphor | comparison or analogy that states that one thing IS another |
| meter | rhythmic patter of stressed and unstressed syllables that make up feet |
| metonymy | a single characteristic used to describe something outside itself (Victory crossed the finish line.) |
| mixed metaphor | combination of incompatible comparisons; trying to compare objects too dissimilar to carry off a comparison |
| mood | prevailing atmosphere created by language, tone, setting |
| motif | a recurring feature (e.g., name, image, phrase) in a work of literature |
| narrative | a story poem |
| naturalism | emphasis on man as animal, behaving strictly according to dictates of nature; emphasizes lack of free will; emphasizes sordid |
| neo-classicism | sees man as flawed and hs institiutions are flawed. Nature is neither good nor evil. mN needs to seek harmony with what is |
| neologism | coinage; forming a new word, usually spontaneously |
| nonce | open form poem (shape is unique to poem) written for a special occasion |
| novel of manners | novel describing social habits/customs of a social group |
| octave | 8 line stanza |
| ode | long poem on a serious subject that develops its theme with dignified language, intended to be sung |
| omniscient narrator | a third-person narrator who sees into character's heads |
| onomatopoeia | words that sound like what they mean |
| opposition | a pair of elements that contrast sharply |
| oxymoron | a phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction (sweet vinegar) |
| palinode | a poem retracting a regretted derogatory statement |
| parable | a story told in prose or verse that illustrates a religious or ethical idea |
| paradigm | a formal plan or sequence of changes which acts as a model |
| paradox | a statement that seems contradictory, but is not |
| parallelism | repeated sytactical similarities used for effect |
| parenthetical | a phrase set off by commas that interrupts the flow of a sentence |
| parody | exaggerating a specific workso that it appears ridiculous |
| pastoral | a poem set in a tranquil nature (ideally around shepperds) |
| pathetic fallacy | a cliched personification of nature (rain weeps) |
| pentameter | a line of verse containing five metrical feet |
| periodic sentence | a sentence that is grammatically incomplete until its final phrase (Despite Barbara's irritation, she cut Jack's hair.) |
| persona | the character created by the author to narrate |
| personification | inanimate objects or animals take on human shape |
| Petrarchan sonnet | 14 lines/abba cde cde |
| picaresque novel | novel about a picara or rogue and vagabond |
| prelude | an introductory poem to a longer work of verse |
| private symbol | an author's personal symbol that the reader understands through the context |
| protagonist | the main character of a novel or play |
| public voice | a writer who is speaking for all people |
| pun | humourous use of a word in a way to suggest two or more meanings |
| pure rhyme | initial sounds of a word differ, & rest of the sound is identical (sing/wing) |
| pyrrhic | a metrical foot with two unstressed syllables |
| quatrain | four-line stanza |
| quintet | five lines of poetry with no prescribed rhyme |
| realism | nature is benign and there is optimism that man can rise above his own animal nature if he wills it |
| refrain | a line or set of lines repeated several times in a poem |
| requiem | a song of prayer for the dead |
| rhapsody | passionate verse or section of verse, usually addressing love or preaise |
| rhetorical question | a question that suggests an answer, and therefor doesn't need to be answered |
| rhetorical shift | A change in tone or attitude; key words including "but", "however", "even though", "although", "yet" |
| rhyme royal | ababbcc: sounds are staggered (abab) in first lines, then closely linked (bcc). First used by Chaucer. |
| ridicule | words intended to belittle and generate contempt/laughter |
| rising rhyme | masucline rhyme; rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable |
| romanticism | man is good but institutions and their imposed orders are evil; nature is good; man can live in harmony w/nature |
| saga | generally long novels, often about several generations |
| saracasm | ridicule expressed in ironic pariase |
| satire | work in which human vice or folly is attacked with irony, derision, or wit |
| scansion | analysis of a poem's rhythm and meter |
| second intensity | weak poems that could have been better |
| septet | 7 lines of poetry |
| sestet | a stanza or poem of six lines, e.g, the last lines of a sonnet |
| sestina | 6 six-line stanzas ending with tercet; last words of each line in 1st stanza are repeated as last words in next stanza |
| Shakespearean sonnet | 14 lines in iambic pentameter, ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. three quatrains connected by the interlocking rhyme scheme and followed by a couplet. |
| simile | comparison using "as" or "like" |
| slant rhyme | half rhyme (home/bone) |
| sonnet | 14 rhymed lines of verse in iambic pentameter |
| Spenserian sonnet | 14 lines: ABAB BCBC CDCD EE |
| spondee | a metrical foot with two stressed syllables |
| stanza | a unit within a longer poem |
| stock character | standard or cliched character types |
| stream of consciousness | reader sees inside main character's head and is privy to all character's conscious, random thoughs |
| subjunctive | setting up a hypothetical situation |
| surrealism | allowing the subconscioius or dream-like imagery to guide the poem; leaps from image to image |
| suspension of disblelief | demand of audience to accept stage limitations and believe |
| syllogism | deductive reasoning |
| synecdoche | a type of metaphor wherein a part stands fro the whole (He asked for her hand in marriage.) |
| synesthesia | a mixing of senses (a blue smell) |
| tautology | a repitition so redundant as to be frozen with obvious foolishness |
| technique | styles, devices and diction used by the author |
| tetrameter | a poetic line with four metrical feet |
| texture of poem | the sound of the poetic words in a piece |
| theme | general idea or insight about life that writer wishes to convey |
| tone | the attitude of the poet |
| transcentalism | holds that basic truths can be reached through intuition |
| travesty | grotesque parody |
| trochaic | a metrical measurement of one stressed syllable and one unstressed |
| trope | any figurative language |
| truism | a way-too obvious truth |
| understatement | ironic minimalizing of fact |
| unreliable narrator | first person narrator is crazy, very young, or not entirely credible |
| utopia | an idealized place |
| verisimilitude | how precisely the characters/events in fiction match reality |
| vernacular | everyday spoken language of people in a particular region |
| villanelle | 19 lines: 5 tercets (aba) + a quatrain (abaa) |
| voice | associated with the basic vision of a writer, her general attitude towards the world |
| weak specification | imprecise, abstract language |
| wit | words that are intellectually amusing; delight that surprises |
| zeugma | word modifies two are more words for different meanings (The dance floor was square as was his personality.) |
| soliloquy | speech spoken by single character on stage |
Combine with other sets
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