| Term | Definition |
|---|
| dialect | the characteristic speech of a particular region or group |
| diction | the authors choice of words |
| didactic | primary purpose to teach, like VDB ;-) |
| dirge | a song fo da 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 good/evil |
| dystopia | opposite of utopia, place where everything sucks |
| 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 |
| 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 somethign |
| epistle | a letter directed or sent to a group of people |
| epistrophe | repeat of the same words at the end pf sentences |
| epitaph | inscription in memory of a dead person |
| epizeuxis | repetition of one word for emphasis |
| eponym | substituting the name of a famous person for a description (He's a real Einstein) |
| eulogy | formal expression of praise usually at a funeral |
| euphemism | a word used to take the place of a meaner word |
| euphony | sounds blending harmoniously |
| euphuism | elegant Victorian prose style (filled with alliteration and similes) |
| exemplum | citing an example |
| expletive | word interrupting syntax to give emphasis to those 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 ryhme | words that look similar but are pronounced differently (wind/find) |
| falling rhyme | feminine rhyme, ending with an unaccented last syllable |
| farce | n. a comedy based on crudely humorous, unlikely situations; something absurd or ridiculous, as an obvious pretense |
| feminine rhyme | falling rhyme, ending with unaccented last syllable |
| figurative image | representation of one thing by another |
| first person narrator | a narrator within the story who tells the story from the "I" perspective |
| flashback | interrrupting the story with events from the past |
| foil | a character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of the main character |
| foot | basic rhythmic unit of poetry formed by two or three sylables |
| foreshadowing | An event of statement in a narrative that in miniature suggests a larger event that comes later. |
| free verse | poetry that has no fixed pattern of meter or rhyme. |
| genre | a category used to classify literary works according to their form, technique, or content |
| gothic | Style of art and literature that emphasizes darkness, mystery, horror, and grotesqueness |
| haiku | three lined Japanese poem, 5 7 5 syllables. |
| half rhyme | words that almost rhyme, slant rhyme (dizzy/easy) |
| hamartia | flaw in a character leading to his downfall |
| Harlem Renaissance | Rebirth of African American culture during the 1920's. |
| head rhyme | another word for alliteration |
| heptameter | metrical unit consisting of 7 metrical feet |
| heroic couplet | a couplet consisting of two rhymed lines of iambic pentamenter and written in an elevated style |
| hexameter | poetic form of six metrical feet |
| homonyms | two words are this if they are pronounced or spelled the same way but have different meanings |
| hubris | excessive pride |
| hyperbaton | departure from normal word order; a form of inversion (personality indescribable) |
| hyperbole | Exaggeration or overstatement. |
| hypophora | raising a question then proceeding to answer it |
| iambic | : a metrical foot containing two syllables--the first is unstressed, while the second is stressed |
| in media res | beginning a story midway in the events before explaning the context or preceding actions. |
| incongruity | The joining of opposites to create an unexpected situation. |
| interior monologue | recording the mental talking inside a character's head; novels and poetry |
| invective | Speech or writing that abuses, denounces, or vituperates against |
| 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 |
| lament | a poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved one or an 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 a cop) |
| literal image | concrete replication in words of an object or experience |
| litotes | a type of understatement in which something affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite |
| local color | use of specific details describing dialect, dress, customs, and scenery associated with a particular region |
| loose sentence | Gramatically complete before the end of the sentence |
| lyric | A type of poetry that explores the poet's personal interpretation of and feelings about the world. |
| madrigal | a short lyric on love or pastoral scenes |
| masculine rhyme | a rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable--spent, went |
Combine with other sets
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