| Term | Definition |
| alliteration | a repetion of 2 or more consonants in a line of poetry |
| allusion | a reference to a person place thing or idea in a poem |
| analysis | the examination of a piece of lititure |
| apostrophe | a dirsct adress to someone or something |
| archetype | a recurring symbol, character, landscape, or event found in a myth and literature across different cultures and eras |
| assonance | the repetion of 2 or more vowel sonds in succesive words which creat a rythme |
| auditory imagery | a word or sequence of words that refer to the sense of hearing |
| cacophony | a harsh discordant sound |
| caesura, cesura | a pause within a line of verse ussally in a punctuation |
| comparison | in the analysis or critism of lititure, one might put them side to side to point out there similarities |
| conceit | a poetic device using elaborate comparrisons, such as equating a loved one with the grace and beauties of the world |
| connotation | an association or addition meaning that a word , image , or phrase may carry, apart from its literal denotion or dictionary definition |
| consonance | a kind of rythme in which the linked words so8und similar consonant sounds but different vowel sounds |
| contrast | a contrast of two works of liteture is developed by placing them side by side to point out there difference |
| couplet | a two line stanza inpoetry, usually rhymed |
| denotation | trhe literal dictionary meaning of a word |
| diction | word choice or vocabulary |
| dramatic irony | a special kind of suspenseful execptation, when the audience or reader knows what is going to happen |
| Dramatic irony | a poem written as a speech made by a character at some decisive moment |
| end rhyme | rhyme that occurs at at the ends of line |
| end stoppes line | a line of versr that ends in a full pause |
| epic | a long narrative poem |
| epigram | a very short poem, ofen comic |
| euphony | the harmonous effect when when the sounds of the words connect with the meaning in a way pleasing to the ear and mind |
| epigraph | a breif quotation proceding a story |
| exact rythme | a full rythme in which the sounds following the initial letter in the word are identical in sound |
| figure of speech | a expression example he is dumb as dirt |
| form | the means by which a litteral work conveys it's meaning |
| formal english | the heighted impersonal language of educated persons |
| free verse | poetry that has no fixed pattern of meter or rhyme. |
| hyperbole | a figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor |
| image | a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface |
| imagery | the collective set of images in a poem or other literary work |
| internal reflection | ryhme that occurs within a line of poetry |
| irony | the opposite of what is expected |
| metaphor | a comparision without using like or as |
| meter | The measured arangement of words in poetry, as by accentual rhythm, syllabic quantity, or the number of syllables in a line |
| metonymy | substituting the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself (as in |
| microcosm | small representative world; world in miniature; Ex. microcosm of English society |
| monologue | a long speech or written expression of thoughts by one character in a literary work |
| motif | A recurrent image word phrase represented object or action that tends to unify the literary work or that may be elaborated into a more general theme |
| myth | A fictitious narrative presented as historical, but without any basis of fact. |
| onomatopoeia | crackle |
| overstatement | exaggeration used to emphasize a point |
| parable | a short narrative that teaches a moral |
| paradox | a situation or statement that seems to be impossible or contradicting, but is nevertheless true, either literally or figuratively |
| parallelism | the repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structure |
| paraphrase | restate a passage in one's own words while retaining thought of author; N: restatement of a text in other words |
| persona | Literally, a persona is a mask. In literature, a persona is a speaker created by a writer to tell a story or to speak in a poem. A persona is not a character in a story or narrative, nor does a persona necessarily directly reflect the author's personal voice. A persona is a separate self, created by and distinct from the author, through which he or she speaks. |
| personification | A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes |
| prose poem | is a compact and rhythmic composition written in a form of a paragraph. It uses vivid figures of speech |
| pun | a humorous play on words |
| quatrain | a poem consisting of four lines or a four line poem that can be considered as a unit |
| refrain | a repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines (poem, songs, speeches) |
| rhyme | be similar in sound, especially with respect to the last syllable |
| rhyme scheme | The pattern of rhymes in a poem. |
| rhythm | in poetry, a pattern of stressed and unstressed sounds; in prose, some sort of recurrence (for example, of a motif) at approximately identical intervals |
| run-on line | a line or verse that doesn't end in a punctuation |
| simile | a comparision using like,as, than , or a verb such as resembles |
| slant rhyme | the final consonant sounds are the same, but the vowels are different; substituion of assonance or consonance for a perfect rhyme |
| soliloquy | a (usually long) dramatic speech intended to give the illusion of unspoken reflections |
| sonnet | 14 lines of iambic pentameter with a particular rhyming scheme |
| stanza | a recurring pattern of 2 or more lines of verse |
| stress | emphasis on one syllable as compared with another |
| symbol | any object, person, place, or experience that means more than what it is. |
| synecdoche | substituting a more inclusive term for a less inclusive one or vice versa |
| theme | a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work |
| thesis sentence | main idea in a work of literature |
| tone | a mood or feeling of a specific writing |
| understatement | a statement that says less than what is meant |
| verbal irony | A figure of speech that occurs when a person says one thing but means another. |
| visual imagery | descriptive language that appeals to the sense of sight |