Literary Terms
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Created by:
maya816 on October 1, 2011
Classes:
Sevies at La Reina, 9th Grade @ La Reina
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86 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 poetry | A type of literature that expresses ideas, feelings, or tells a story in a specific form (usually using lines and stanzas) |
| simile | A comparison of two things using "like, as, than," or "resembles." |
| metaphor | A direct comparison of two unlike things |
| extended metaphor | A metaphor that goes several lines or possibly the entire length of a work |
| symbolism | When a person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself also represents, or stands for, something else |
| universal symbol | A symbol that is recognized at different times in history and across cultures as having a main meaning |
| diction | How all of the words in a poem sound once they are placed against one another |
| dialect | words used to reflect a certain culture, time, or geographic region |
| denotation | literal definition of a word |
| connotation | the suggested emotional meaning of a word |
| imagery | language that appeals to the senses; most are visual |
| poet | author of the poem |
| speaker | the "narrator" of the poem; can be different than the poet |
| mood or tone | The speaker's attitude toward the subject, revealed by the words he or she chooses |
| hyperbole | Exaggeration often used for emphasis |
| litotes | Understatement - basically the opposite of hyperbole. Often it is ironic |
| Idiom | An expression where the literal meaning of the words is not the meaning of the expression. It means something other than what it actually says |
| personification | An animal given human-like qualities or an object given life-like qualities |
| allusion | Allusion comes from the verb "allude" which means "to refer to". A reference to something famous |
| types of allusion | Literary allusion, historical allusion, and biblical allusion |
| apostrophe | An absent person or inanimate object is directly spoken to as though it or he was present |
| synedoche | a part stands for the whole or vice versa |
| onomatopoeia | words that imitate the sound they arenaming or sounds that imitate another sound |
| anaphora | the same words or phrases are repeated throughtout the poem |
| alliteration | any sound repeated at the beggining of words |
| consonance | similar to alliteration EXCEPT the repeated consonance sounds can be anywhere in the words |
| assonance | when the vowel sounds inside words are repeated |
| Euphony | Occurs when there is a soft pleasing sound |
| rhythm | the beat created by the sounds of the words in a poem |
| inverted word order | the words of a poem are not in usual grammatical construction |
| meter | a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables; are arranged in a repeating pattern |
| scansion | the process of marking the metrical pattern of a poem |
| foot | unit of meter |
| iambic | unstressed, stressed |
| pentameter | 5 feet on a line |
| free verse poetry | doesnt have repeating patterns, doesnt have to rhyme, sounds like a conversation to you, is more modern |
| blank verse poetry | written in lines of iambic pentameter but doesnt use end rhyme |
| rhyme | words sound alike because they share the same consonant sounds |
| exact rhyme | uses words with identical end sounds |
| end rhyme | a word at the end of one line rhymes with a word on another line |
| internal rhyme | a word inside a line rhymes with another word on the same line |
| near rhyme | imperfect rhyme, close; the words share either the same vowel or constanant sound but not both |
| visual rhyme | when words look alike, rather than sound like they should rhyme |
| rhyme scheme | is a pattern of rhyme (usually end) |
| couplet | a 2 line stanza |
| triplet | a 3 line stanza |
| quatrain | a 4 line stanza |
| poetry form | the appearance of the words on the page |
| line | a group of words together on one part of the poem |
| stanza | a group of lines arranged together |
| enjambed line | when a line of poetry runs over into the nest line in a poem without punctuation |
| lyric | express an emotion or an idea or describes a scene |
| haiku | japanese poem written in 3 lines |
| sonnet | 14 line poem with specific line scheme, written in 3 quatrains and ends with a couplet |
| narrative poem | a poem that tells a story |
| ballad | a type of narrative poem about love/adventure/relationships |
| concrete poem | words are arranged to create a picture that relates to the content of the poem |
| Cacophony | Has a harsh, grimming sound |
| dynamic | able to change, changes |
| static | stays the same |
| flat | plain, not complicated, not very many aspects |
| round | complex, many characteristics |
| direct characterization | comes out and tells reader directly what a character is like |
| indirect characterization | author drops hints of how/what character is like |
| methods of indirect characterization | have the character SPEAK WORDS that reveal the trait; have the character ACT in certain ways to reveal the trait; have the character reveal trait in way it DRESSES/LOOKS; OTHER CHARACTERS talk about character |
| action | refers to everything that goes on or happens in a story |
| antagonist | the person/thing fighting against the hero of the story; the villain or "negative force" |
| character | a person in a story |
| conflict | the "problem" in a story which triggers the action; man vs. man, man vs. society, man vs. himself, man vs. nature, man vs. fate (God) |
| dialogue | refers to the talking that goes on between characters in a story |
| mood | the feeling(s) a reader gets from a story |
| moral | the lesson an author is trying to teach in a story |
| narrator | the person or character who is telling the story |
| plot | the action of the story |
| plot line | shows the action or events in a story; exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution |
| exposition | part of story (usually beginning) which explains the background and setting of the story; characters are introduced |
| rising action | leads up to climax |
| climax | highest point (turning point) in the action of the story |
| falling action | the action or dialogue necessary to lead the story to a resolution or ending |
| resolution | the end of a story where all the problems are solved |
| irony | a type of humor; 3 types of it |
| verbal irony | sarcasm |
| dramatic irony | audience/reader knows something characters don't know |
| situational irony | something unexpected happens that makes a situation humorous |
| flashback | going into one's memory of the past |
| foreshadowing | hints that show what happens before it does |
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