| Term | Definition |
|---|
| caesura | a pause |
| synecdoche | a form of metonymy where a part of something is used to represent the whole |
| pastoral | a poem set in tranquil nature |
| persona | the narrator is a non first-person novel |
| personification | when an inanimate object takes on human shape |
| plaint | a poem or speech expressing sorrow |
| limited omniscient narrator | third person narrator who generally reports only what one character sees |
| objective (camera eye) narrator | third person narrator who only reports on what would be vixible to a camera |
| stream of consciousness technique | author places the reader inside the main characters head |
| prelude | an introductory poem to a longer work of verse |
| protagonist | main character of a novel or play |
| pun | humorous use of a word in such a way to suggest two or more meanings |
| refrain | a line or set of lines repeated several times ove rthe course of a poem |
| requiem | a song of prayer for the dead |
| rhapsody | an intensely passionate verse or section of verse usually of love or praise |
| rhetorical question | question that suggests an answer |
| satire | exposes common character flaws to the cold light of humor |
| soliloquy | a speech spoken by a character alone on stage |
| stanza | a group of lines roughly analogous in function in verse to the paragraphs function in prose |
| stock characters | standard or cliched character types |
| subjunctive mood | grammatical situation involving the words "if" and "were" and sometimes "it" |
| suggest | to imply, infer, indicate |
| summary | simple retelling of what you've just read |
| suspension of disbelief | the demand made of a theater audience to accept the limitations of staging and supply and the details with their imagination |
| symbolism | a device in literature where an object represents an idea |
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