| Term | Definition |
|---|
| allegory | form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. It has an underlying meaning, thus is a story with a literal and symbolic meaning |
| alliteration | repetition of initial sounds in neighboring words. |
| allusion | reference to a person, event, or place, real or ficticious, or to a work of art |
| analogy | comparison of two pairs which have the same relationship. The key is to ascertain the relationship between the first so you can choose the correct second pair |
| anaphora | The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs. |
| anastrophe | Inversion of the normal syntactic order of words, for example: To market went she |
| anthropomorphism | attributing human forms or qualities to an entities which are not human. |
| assonance | repetition at close intervals of vowel sounds |
| consonance | repetition at close intervals of final consonant sounds |
| cacophony | harsh, non-melodic, unpleasant sounding arrangement of words |
| euphony | pleasant, easy to articulate words |
| onomatopoeia | use of words which mimic their meaning in sound |
| sibilance | hissing sounds represented by s, z, sh |
| apostrophe | someone absent, dead, or imagianary, or an abstraction, is being addressed as if it could reply |
| connotation | what a word suggests beyond its surface definition |
| denotation | basic definition or dictionary meaning of a word |
| diction | choice of words for effect |
| syntax | word order or grammatical appropriateness |
| caesura | a natural pause in the middle of a line, sometimes coinciding with punctuation |
| couplet | two successive lines which rhyme, usually at the end of a work |
| enjambment | describes a line of poetry in which the sense and grammatical construction continues on to the next line |
| feminine rhyme | latter two syllables of first word rhyme with latter two syllables of second word (ceiling appealing) |
| internal rhyme | repetition of sounds within a line (but not at the end of the line) |
| masculine rhyme | final syllable of first word rhymes with final syllable of second word (scald recalled) |
| structure | internal organization of a poem's content |
| anaphora | repetition of the same word or words at the start of two or more lines |
| archetype | a character or personality type found in every society |
| conceit | an extended witty, paradoxical, or startling metaphor |
| hyperbole | exaggeration, overstatement |
| imagery | representation through language of a sensory experience |
| irony | incongruity or discrepancy between the implied and expected; verbal, dramatic, situational |
| metaphor | implied or direct comparison |
| metonymy | symbolism; one thing is used as a substitute for another with which it is closely identified (the White House) |
| mood | the atmosphere suggested by the structure and style of the poem |
| oxymoron | compact paradoxl two successive words contradict each other |
| pace | tempo or rate implied by the structure and style of the poem |
| paradox | statement or situation containing seemingly contradictory elements |
| parallelism | presents coordinating ideas in a coordinating manner |
| persona | assumed speaker of the poem; typically used synonymously with 'speaker' |
| personification | giving a non-human the characteristics of a human |
| simile | comparison using 'like' or 'as' |
| style | an author's combined use of these ideas into a recurring pattern of usage |
| symbolism | something (object, person, situation, etc.) means more than what it is |
| synecdoche | symbolism; the part signifies the whole, or the whole the part (all hands on board) |
| theme | central idea |
| tone | writer's attitude toward the audience or subject, implied or related directly |
| understatement | saying less than one means, for effect |
| tautology | where two near-synonyms are placed consecutively or very close together for effect |
| metaphor | a word or phrase that describes one thing being used to describe another; on a simple level a phrase such as 'the heart of the matter' is a metaphor as matters do not actually have hearts. |
| simile | a comparison between two different things, designed to create an unusual, interesting, emotional or other effect often using words such as 'like' or 'as ... as'. |
| ambigram | a word that can be read from different angles, like or MOW or NOON that can be turned through 180 degrees and still be read as the same words. |
| anaphora | when they point backwards to something earlier in the text. The term is also used for the repetition of words or phrases for rhetorical effect |
| ellipsis | ... |
| Sound | harsh, mellifluous, gutteral, sibilant |
| Fictional biography/ autpbiography | focuses on the life and development of one charachter |
| picaresque novel | follows a central charachter on a journey through life in which he or she encounters a series of 'adventures' which form seperate episodes |
| social or 'protest' novel | uses the charachters and the world they inhabit as a way of criticising or protesting about social or political issues |
Combine with other sets
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