| Term | Definition |
|---|
| melodrama | has a romantic plot that makes excessive appeal to the reader's emotions; has little regard for convincing characters or believable plot motivations; highly predictable with good guys rewarded and evil-doers punished; happy endings are the norm |
| metabasis | A brief statement 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 the best of all bichons, nay of all dogs.) |
| meter | the rhythmical pattern or arrangement and number of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem |
| metaphor | comparison using "is." |
| 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 | the prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work |
| motif | recurring person, character, thing |
| narrative | a story poem |
| naturalism | emphasis on man as animal behaving strictly according to dictates of nature emphasizes lack of free will |
| neo-classicim | sees man as flawed and his institutions are flawed. neither is good nor evil |
| neologism | coinage forming a new word usually spontaneously |
| nonce | open form poem written for a special occasion |
| novel of manners | novel describing social habits/customs of a social group |
| octave | eight 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 in charact's heads |
| onomatopoeia | words that sound like what they mean |
| opposition | a pair of elements that contrast sharply |
| oxymoron | a phrase that composed of opposites a contradiction |
| palinode | a poem retracting a regretted derogatory statement |
| parable | a sorty told in prose of 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 syntactical similarities used for effect |
| parenthetical | a phrase set off by commas that interrupts the flow of a sentence |
| parody | exaggerating a specific work so that it appears ridiculous |
| pastoral | a poem set in a tranquil nature |
| pathetic fallacy | a cliched personification of nature |
| pentameter | a line of verse containing five metrical feet |
| periodic sentence | a sentence that is grammatically in complete until its final phrase |
| persona | the character created by the author to arrate |
| personification | inanimate objects take on human shape |
| Petrarchan sonnet | 14 lines/ abba abba cde cde |
| picaresque novel | novel about a picara or rogue or vagabond |
| prelude | an introductory poem to a longer work of verse |
| private symbol | an authors personal symbol that the reader understands through the context |
| protagonist | the main character, who must overcome obstacles and resolve the conflict |
| public voice | a writer who is speaking for all people |
| pun | the humorous use of a word in a way that suggests two or more interpretations |
| 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 | a stanza of four lines |
| 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 to |
| refrain | a line or a 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 praise |
| rhetorical shift | A change from one tone, attitude, etc. Look for key words like but, however, even though, although, yet, etc |
| 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 | masculine 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 |
| sarcasm | ridicule expressed in ironic praise |
| satire | use of mockery, humor, or sarcasm in literary work to ridicule human vice |
| 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 six 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 |
| similie | a comparison using "like" or "as" |
| slant rhyme | half rhyme (home/bone) |
| soliloquy | - When a character stands on stage alone and speaks his thoughts to the audience |
| sonnet | 14 line poem, written 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 consciousness | a style of writing of which the thoughts and feelings of the writing are recorded as they occur |
| 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 disbelief | demand of audience to accept stage limitations and believe |
| syllogism | deductive reasoning in which a conclusion is derived from two premises |
| 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 | attitudes of author |
| transcentalism | holds that basic truths can be reached through intuition |
| travesty | a 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 | ideal and perfect place |
| verismilitude | n. the quality of appearing to be true, real, likely, or probable s) realism, lifelikeness, authenticity |
| vernacular | the everyday language of a people in a 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 |
| word specification | impercise abstract language |
| wit | words that are intellectually amusing delight that surprises |
| zeugma | word modifies two or more words for different meanings (the floor was square as was his personality |
Combine with other sets
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace