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English Terminology
The essential list of english literary devices.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Allegory | A story in which the characters, settings, events stand for abstract or moral concepts. |
| Alliteration | Repetition of consonant sounds in words that are close to one another. |
| Allusion | A reference to a statement, person, place, event or thing that is known from literature, history, religion, myth, politics, sports, science or popular culture. |
| Anapest | A three syllable poetic foot characterized by this pattern of accented and unaccented syllables: unstressed + unstressed + stressed. |
| Anaphora | Repetition of a word or words at the beginning of two or more successive phrases, verses, clauses or sentences, as in Shakespeare's "This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England. |
| Apostrophe | A figure of speech in which a speaker directly addresses an absent person, dead person, or something non-human as if present. |
| Assonance | Repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds in words that are close together. Ex. Go slowly he said in a low tone. |
| Blank Verse | Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter; other than free verse, it is the poetic form that sounds most like natural speech. |
| Caesura | A pause or break within a line of poetry. |
| Canto | A subdivision in a long poem, like a chapter in a book. |
| Carpe Diem Tradition | Coined by the Roman poet Horace, it refers to works in which one is reminded to eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may die. |
| Chiasmus | A reversal in the order of words in two parallel phrases, as in "He went in, out went she." |
| Conceit | A fanciful and elaborate figure of speech that makes a surprising connection between two seemingly dissimilar things. |
| Consonance | Repetition of combinations of consonants. Ex. stick, stuck or march, lurch. |
| Dactyl | A three syllable poetic foot characterized by this pattern of accented and unaccented syllables: stressed + unstressed + unstressed. |
| Enjambment | The running on of the thought from one poetic line or stanza to the next. |
| Epitaph | A brief composition in praise of a deceased person. |
| Euphony | Sounds that are pleasing to the ear. |
| Heroic Couplet | Rhymed lines of iambic pentameter that make an adage or wise statement. |
| Hyperbole | A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion. |
| Iamb | A two syllable poetic foot characterized by this pattern of accented and unaccented syllables: unstressed + stressed. |
| In Medias Res | Latin for in the middle of things; the technique of starting a story in the middle and then using a flashback to tell what happened earlier. |
| Irony | Contrast between expectation and reality. |
| Kenning | Poetic phrase used used to identify a thing or character. Ex. Wave traveler for boat; Caped Crusader for Batman. |
| Metaphysical Poetry | Poetry that is intellectually complex to the point of being arcane. The term was coined by Samuel Johnson to describe poems, such as Donne's "Holy Sonnet 14" that are filled with metaphysical conceits (comparing God to a violent invader and a rapist). |
| Metonymy | A figure of speech in which something closely related to a thing, or suggested by it, is substituted for the thing itself. Ex. The bench, meaning the judiciary. |
| Motif | A word, character, object, image,, metaphor or idea that recurs in a work. These include common symbols, numbers, colors, vegetation, animals, shapes and seasons. |
| Onomatopoeia | The use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning. Ex. Buzz. |
| Pathetic Fallacy | Endowing nature or inanimate objects with human traits. Ex. Smiling skies. |
| Rondeau | French poetic style of poem having 13 or 10 lines with two rhymes throughout and with the opening phrase repeated twice as a refrain. |
| Scansion | The metrical analysis of a verse. |
| Sonnet | A fourteen line poem, usually written in a n iambic pentameter. |
| Spondee | A two syllable poetic foot with both syllables accented: stressed + stressed. |
| Synecdoche | Figure of speech where a part is used for the whole, or a special word for the general description. Ex. He is a Croesus, meaning he is a rich man' She is a Betty, meaning she is a pretty airhead. |
| Terza Rima | Italian form of tercets (three line stanzas) with the rhyme scheme aba bcb cdc ded. |
| Trochee | A two syllable poetic foot characterized by this pattern of accented and unaccented syllables: stressed + unstressed. |
| Trope | Any literary or rhetorical device, such as metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche or irony, that uses words in other than their literal sense. Ex. Her face was ashen (No ashes were on her face. Her face was the color of ashes). |
| Villanelle | A nineteen line poem divided into five tercets, each with the rhyme scheme abs, and a final quatrain with the rhyme scheme abaa. |
Created by:
AlexanderJohnMark
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