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| A story, usually with supernatural significance, that explains the origins of gods, heroes, or natural phenomena. They are fictional but contain deeper truths about the nature of humankind. |
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A poem that tells a story
Ex: Noyes's "The Highwayman" |
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| Near, Off, or Slant Rhyme |
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A rhyme based on an imperfect or incomplete correspondence of end syllable sounds.
Ex: Common in the work of Emily Dickinson:
It was not death, for I stood up,
And all the dead lie down.
It was not night, for all the bells
Put out their tongues for noon. |
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Words that imitate sounds
Ex: meow, clip-clop,pop,bang |
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A figure of speech that combines two contradictory words, place side by side.
Ex: bitter sweet, wise fool |
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A short story illustrating a moral or religious lesson.
Ex: The story of the Good Samaritan and the tale of the Prodigal Son are both parables. |
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A statement or situation that at first seems impossible or oxymoronic, but which solves itself and reveals meaning.
Ex: "Fair is foul and fouls is fair" |
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The repeated use of the same grammatical structure in a sentence or a series of sentences. This device tends to emphasize what is said and thus underscores the meaning. Can also refer to two or more stories within a literary work that are told simultaneously and that reinforce one another.
Ex: We went to school, to the mall, and then to a movie. |
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A comical imitation of a serious piece with the intent of ridiculing the author or his work.
Ex: "The Rape of the Lock" is about the foibles of 18th-century high society-hardly traditional "epic" material. |
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| A poem, play, or story that celebrates and idealizes the simple life of shepherds and shepherdesses. This highly conventional form was popular until the late 18th century. The terms also refers to an artistic work that portrays rural life in an idyllic. |
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The quality of a literary work or passage which appeals to the reader's of viewer's emotions-especially pity,compassion, and sympathy. Pathos is different from the pity one feels for a tragic hero in that the pathetic figure seems to suffer through no fault of his or her own.
Ex: King Lear is a tragic figure, for Cordelia's situation represent pathos. The deaths of Romeo and Juliet and Desdemona represent pathos. |
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A sentence that delivers its point at an end; usually constructed as a subordinate clause followed by a main clause.
Ex: At the piano she practiced scales. |
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The attribution of human characteristics to an animal or an inanimate object.
Ex: Wordsworth's daffodils "tossing their heads in a sprightly dance" in "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" |
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Perspective of the speaker or narrator in a literary work.
Ex: Third person omniscient, third person limited, first person. |
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The main or principle character in a work; often considered the hero or heroine.
Ex: Hamlet, Macbeth, and Tom Sawyer are the protagonists of the eponymous works in which they appear. |
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Humorous play on words that have several meanings or words that sound the same but have different meanings.
Ex: In "Romeo and Juliet", Mercutio's "you will find me a grave man" refers both to the seriousness of his words and the fact that he is dying. |
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Repetition of a line, stanza, or phrase
Ex: In Poe's "The Raven" the following phrase appears as a refrain:"Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore." |
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A word of phrase used more than once to emphasize an idea
Coleridge's "Water, water everyone" in "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" serves to emphasize the sense of frustration that the poet seeks to convey in describing a situation where a man is dying of thirst while surrounded by water. |
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A question with an obvious answer, so no response in expected; used for emphasis or to make a point.
Ex: "Where it not madness to deny
To live because we're sure to die?"
(Etherge, "To a Lady Asking Him How Long He Would Love
Her") |
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The use of humor to ridicule and expose the shortcomings and failings of society, individuals, and institutions, often in the hope that change and reform are possible.
Ex: Swift's suggestion that Irish babies be butchered and sold as food to wealthy English landlords in order to alleviate poverty in Ireland. |
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| A six-line stanza of poetry; also, the last six lines of a sonnet. |
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In writing, a movement from one thought or idea to another; a change.
Ex: Tennyson's poem "Ulysses speaking of- and to- himself, then shifts to lines about his son. |
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A comparison of unlike things using the word like, as, or so.
Ex: "O, my Love is a like a red, red rose." |
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A character's speech to the audience, in which emotions and ideas are revealed. A monologue is a soliloquy only if the character is alone on the stage.
Ex: Macbeth's famous "Is this a dagger I see before me?" speech, Act II, scene i |
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| Sonnet, English or Shakespearean |
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| Traditionally, a fourteen-line love poem in iambic pentameter, but in contemporary poetry, themes and form vary. A conventional Shakespearean sonnet's prescribed rhyme scheme is abab,cdcd, efef. The final couplet sums up or resolves the situation described in the previous lines. |
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A grouping of poetic lines; a deliberate arrangement of lines of poetry.
Ex:
"Hope" is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
and never stops- at all. |
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A stereotypical character; a type. The audience expects the character to have certain characteristics. Similar to conventional characters and flat characters.
Ex: the absent-minded professor |
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A form of writing which replicates the way the human mind works. Ideas are presented in random order; thoughts are often unfinished.
Ex: Morrison's "Beloved" |
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The particular way in which parts of a written work are combined.
Ex: The structure of a sonnet in 14 lines. |
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The way a writer uses language. Takes into account word choice, diction, figures of speech, and so on. The writer's "voice".
Ex: Fitzgerald's style is poetic and full of imagery. |
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A concrete object, scene, or action which has deeper significance because it is associated with something else, often an important idea or theme in the work.
Ex: The dangerous road in AKM symbolizes the struggles of life |
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A figure of speech where one part represents the entire object, of vice versa.
Ex: All hands on deck, lend me your ears. |
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The way in which words, phrases and sentence are ordered and connected.
Ex: Many of Mark Twain's characters speak in dialect, so their syntax is ungrammatical. |
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The central idea of a literary work.
Ex: In Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman", one of the themes is the emptiness of the American dream. |
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Refers to the author's attitude toward the subject, and often sets the mood of the piece.
Ex: In Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart", the depiction of the District Commissioner shows the author's disdain for the colonial power's rule. |
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Expressing a thought in a way that appears to be sincere, but is actually joking.
Ex: "How do you like this neon cowgirl outfit? I think I'll wear it to my job interview tomorrow." |
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