Term | Definition |
Accentual meter | stressed rhythmic structure of poetic lines |
Agon | Struggle |
Alexandrine | 12 syllable line written in iambic hexameter |
Allergorical | A naritive that is an extended metaphor |
Alliteration | repetition in a consonant |
Allusion | A reference to a person place or thing in another work or history |
Anapest | 2 short syllables followed by 1 long syllable |
Antagonist | The one who struggles against or contends with the protagonist |
Apostrophe | Direct address to someone or something not present |
Argumentative | Describes writting that establishes a position and support it with evidence |
Assonsnce | Repetition of vowel sounds |
Aubade | A morning love song |
Ballad | A narrative folk song or set to music |
Balled stanza | Four line stanzas consisting of alternating four- and three- stress lines |
Bathos | Abrupt changes in style going from exalted to mundane |
Blank verse | Unrhymed iambic pentameter |
Ceasura | A complete pause in a line of poetry |
Catastrophe | Final resolution in a poem or narrative that unravels the plot and concludes the work |
Catharsis | Cleaning or purging |
Climax | Turning point in a story, action stops building and begins to fall |
Closed form | Poetry specified to pre specified requirments of rhyme |
Complication | Eliment introduced into the plot to alter its course |
Conceits | Extended metaphor governing an entire passage or poem |
Conclusion | Final division that brings the work to and end |
Connotation | Emotional association that accompanies a certain word or phrase |
Consonance | Repetition of a conconant sound in short succesion |
Conventional | Following accepted standards |
Couplet | Two consecutive lines in poetry |
Crisis | Turning point in a story, clumination of the events |
Dactyl | A foot in meter of poetry. greek:long followed by 2 short, English: stressed followed by 2 unstressed |
Denotation | Literal meaning |
Denouement | The conclusion of a story |
Diction | Word choice |
Dimeter | A line containting only two metrical feet |
Doggerel | Derogatory term for verse with little literary value |
Dramatic monologue | Speech delivered by a single charachter |
Dynamic | A character whose personality changes |
Elegy | A sorrowful, melancholic poem |
Enacted | Preformed by an actor or actors |
End rhyme | Repetition of siilar sound in two or more worlds |
Enjambment | A line having no end punctuation so that the meaning countinues uniterupted to the next line |
Epic | A long narrative poem written in elevated language and style about the expoits of a hero or heroine |
Epigram | A short verse apperning at the beginning of a longer work to set the mood or reveal the stories meaning |
Exposition | The author's explanation of the bachground information |
Expository | Writing or discourse with the primary purpose of informing, clarifying, or explaning |
Expressionism | Subjective depiction of the real world through imagination |
Falling action | Moment following the climax, problem is solved |
Farce | Comedy that entertains the audience through absurdity |
Feminine rhyme | Two or more syllables match in the ryhyming words |
Fiction | Imaginary narrative; the information or events are created by the author |
Figurative | Deviation from usual meaning of a word or group of words resulting in a specific affect or meaning |
Figurative image | Picture painted by the writer usually a poet |
Fixed form | Any one of three foureenth and fifteenth-century French poectic form: the ballad , the virelai, and rondeau |
Foil | A character who highlights through contrast opposite charachteristics in another character |
Foot | Basic unit of meter consisting of a set number of stressed and unstressed syllables |
Form | Pattern or design of a poem (closed or open form) |
Free verse | Poetry using natural rhythms of words and phrases |
Hamartia | A tragic flaw within a character |
Heptameter | Line with seven metrical feet |
Heroic couplet | Two successive lines of iambic pentameter with the second lines usually ending with a stop |
Hexameter | Line with 6 metrical feet |
High comedy | Comedy carried out by characters that are true to life or realistic |
The how | The authors style |
Hyperbole | Exaggeration |
Iambic foot | Unstressed followed by a stresses syllable |
Iambic meter | Iambic foot |
Iambic pentameter | Line of 5 feet with unstressed then stressed syllable |
Iambic pentameter | Line of 5 feet with unstressed then stressed syllable |
Iambic rhythm | Rising and falling rhythm, alternating stressed and unstressed syllables |
Image | Word picture painted by the writer |
Imagine | To visualize the picture evoked by the writer through the sense |
Imagism | Free imagery, open interpretation |
Impressionism | Subjective or personal literary style that relies on association |
Internal rhyme | A word rhyming at the end of the line with a word in the middle of the line |
Introduction | First stage in a plot which the author establishes the situation and shares background information |
Invective | Writing that attacks a person or idea through emotional language |
Inversion | Doing or saying the opposite or unexpected |
Irony | Discrepancy between what is said or done and what is meant |
Limericks | A five line humor or nonsensical poem in which the first two lines are anapestic trimester then the next two are anapestic diameter and the last line is trimester, the rhyme scheme is aab |
Literal | The meaning of a word or phrase according to the dictionary denotation |
Literary ballad | Four rhyming lines (abcb) with lines 1 and 3 having eight syllables and lines 2 and 4 having six |
Low comedy | Humor with absurdities |
Lyric | A poem sharing personal emotions in classical poetry accompanied by a lyre |
Masculine rhyme | A rhyme that matches just one syllable |
Metaphor | Comparison of two unlike I teams |
Meter | Basic rhythmic structure for lines in poetic verse |
Metonym | A figure of speech in which and idea or a thing is referenced by a a name closely associated with it "a change of name" |
Mimesis | "Imitation" mimetic theory from Aristotle held that successful imitation in art portrayed reality as closely as possible |
Mock heroic | Satire or parody that mocks the classical stereotype of a hero or heroic literature |
Mode | A broad literary method not tied to one specific form or genre such as irony or satire |
Manometer | A line of verse with one foot |
Motif | An object concept or structure repeated in a literary work thereby giving it symbolic significance in the story |
Narrative | The events that tell the story |
Narrator | An individual who tells or speaks the story |
Naturalism | Literary movement that depicts life as accurately as possible |
Neo-classical | A style of prose and poetry from seventeenth and eighteenth centuries reviving a classical style from Greek to roman culture |
Non-fiction | Writing that delivers factual events and observations |
Novel | An extended fictional narrative written in prose that includes characters plots and setting |
Octameter | A line of poetry of eight meters cal feet |
Octave | Poetic verse of eight lines of iambic pentameter |
Ode | Lyrical verse or poem with a serious topic and tone |
Onomatopoeia | Use of a word that suggests or mimics it's meaning through sound |
Open form | Poetry that does not follow a predetermined form freedom in the form of a poem |
Oxymoron | A figure of speech where two words opposite in meaning are placed next to each other |
Paradox | A statement that seems absurd or contradictory but it is true |
Parody | A work that mocks an original work character or style through humorous imitation |
Personification | Figure of speech that attributes human characteristics to inanimate objects or animals |
Phonic | Pertaining to sound from speech |
Plot | The series of events that makeup the story |
Point of view | The perspective or vantage point from which the author chooses to tell the story |
Prose | The most common form of written language following natural speech patterns and grammatical structure |
Protagonist | Main character in a literary work, literally one who struggles toward or for something |
Pun | A play on the meaning of a word or of similar-sounding words for an intended effect |
Quatrain | Four line of verse making up a stanza or a poem |
Realism | Delivering subjects from third person objective point of view with no added interpretation or elaboration |
Resolution | Point of final conflict in the plot between the protagonist and antagonist where one emerges as the categorical winner |
Reversal | Doing or saying the opposite or unexpected |
Rhyme scheme | Pattern of repetition of rhyme within a Pom designated by aabb or abab, where the letter a marks the first line and all other lines rhyming with it |
Rising action | Introduction of conflict into the plot bringing tension that continues throughout the story |
Roman a clef | "Novel with a key" a narrative that depicts historical figures and events in the form of fiction |
Romance | An aritistic and and literary movement originating in the second half of the eighteenth century in Europe, emphasizing emotion idealism, adventure, and chivalry |
Sarcasm | Harsh or biting verbal irony |
Satire | Literary form that ridicules human vices or shortcomings |
Sestet | Poetic verse of six lines |
Sestina | Poem of six, six-line stanzas with six end words that are repeated in a closing tercel |
Setting | The time, place, and circumstances in which a story occurs |
Simile | Comparison of two unlike I teams using like, as, or as if |
Slant rhyme | Repetition of final consonants only in two words |
Sonnet | Specified poetic patter of fourteen lines arranged in a set rhyme scheme |
Speculative | Writing or discourse that explores ideas |
Stanza | In poetry a group of lines set off by space also referred to as a verse |
Static | A character who stays the same throughout a literary work |
Stereotype | A popularly held belief about as pacific group or type of individuals |
Stock | A well-understood and accepted interpretation of an image symbol or character. |
Stricture | Organization of a literary work |
Style | How an author writes incorporates diction syntax use of narrative and dialogue. Choice point of view and description |
Symbol | An object, image, word, or feeling that represents something treating |
Synecdoche | Specific type of metaphor in which a part is used to represent the whole or the whole for a part |
Syntax | Sentence construction or sentence structure |
Tercet | Three lines of poetry that form a stanza or a complete poem |
Tetrameter | A line of four metrical feet |
Thought | Idea the essayist is conveying |
Theme | Statement summarizing the message or a complete poem |
Tone | The attitude toward the subject conveyed by the author |
Topic | Phrase stating subject or theme of a work or speech |
Tragic hero | Noble good protagonist in a tragedy who experiences adversity or misfortune |
Tragic comedy | Fictional work combining characteristics of tragedy and comedy such as a somber play with a happy ending |
Trimeter | In poetry a line with three metrical feet |
Trochee | Metrical foot in poetry of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one |
Truth | Fact or reality that transcends genres |
Understatement | Expression of an idea with less force or strength than expected for the sake of humor |
Verse | A line of poetry often used to refer to a section or stanza of a poem |
Villanelle | A poem consisting of nineteen lines: five tercets followed by one quatrain |
Voice | The speaker in nonfiction the author in fiction the narrator may also refer to the style chosen by the writer such as formal or informal |
The when | Setting of the story within time |
Then where | Physical setting of the story |
The who | Characters in the story |
The why | Theme or main idea of the story |
The wit | Intellectual humor in poetry with works through word play to emphasize concepts |