The repetition of the same consonant sounds in a sequence of words, usually at the beginning of a word or stressed syllable

  Language that is discordant and difficult to pronounce, such as this line from John Updike's "Player Piano": "never my numb plunker fumbles." Cacophony ("bad sound") may be unintentional in the writer's sense of music, or it may be used consciously for deliberate dramatic effect.

Refers to a type of informal diction that reflects casual, conversational language and often includes slang expressions.

 Associations and implications that go beyond the literal meaning of a word, which derive from how the word has been commonly used and the associations people make with

For example, the word eagle connotes ideas of liberty and freedom that have little to do with the word's literal meaning. 

 the I in the story presents the point of view of only one character. The reader is restricted to the perceptions, thoughts, and feelings of that single character. For example, in Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener," the lawyer is the first-person narrator of the story. First-person narrators can play either a major or a minor role in the story they are telling.

refers to poems characterized by their nonconformity to established patterns of meter, rhyme, and stanza. Free verse uses elements such as speech patterns, grammar, emphasis, and breath pauses to decide line breaks, and usually does not rhyme.

A boldly exaggerated statement that adds emphasis without intending to be literally true, as in the statement "He ate everything in the house."

A light, humorous style of fixed form poetry. Its usual form consists of five lines with the rhyme scheme aabba; lines 1, 2, and 5 contain three feet, while lines 3 and 4 usually contain two feet.

a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, without using the word "like" or "as." Metaphors assert the identity of dissimilar things, as when Macbeth asserts that life is a "brief candle."

 a type of unreliable narrator usually characterized by youthful innocence, such as Mark Twain's Huck Finn or John Updike's Sammy.

Onomatopoeia 

  A term referring to the use of a word that resembles the sound it denotes. Buzz, rattle, bang, and sizzle

A condensed form of paradox in which two contradictory words are used together, as in "sweet sorrow" or "original copy."

Refers to who tells us a story and how it is told. What we know and how we feel about the events in a work are shaped by the author's choice of point of view.

The method of describing the pattern of end rhymes. Rhyme schemes are mapped out by noting patterns of rhyme with small letters: the first rhyme sound is designated a, the second becomes b, the third c, and so on.

The process of measuring the stresses in a line of verse in order to determine the metrical pattern of the line.

Sentimentality 

  A pejorative term used to describe the effort by an author to induce emotional responses in the reader that exceed what the situation warrants. Sentimentality especially pertains to such emotions as pathos and sympathy; it cons readers into falling for the mass murderer who is devoted to stray cats, and it requires that readers do not examine such illogical responses. Clichés and stock responses are the key ingredients of sentimentality in literature.

 A common figure of speech that makes an explicit comparison between two things by using words such as like, as, than, appears, and seems: "A sip of Mrs. Cook's coffee is like a punch in the stomach."

The repetition of similar concluding syllables in different words, with sounds that are almost but not exactly alike. Also called approximate rhyme, near rhyme, and off rhyme.

 a foot consisting of two stressed syllables, such as "dead set." Spondee is not a sustained metrical foot and is used mainly for variety or emphasis.

The most intense use of a central consciousness in narration. The stream-of-consciousness technique takes a reader inside a character's mind to reveal perceptions, thoughts, and feelings on a conscious or unconscious level. This technique suggests the flow of thought as well as its content; hence, complete sentences may give way to fragments as the character's mind makes rapid associations free of conventional logic or transitions. James Joyce's novel Ulysses makes extensive use of this narrative technique.

A person, object, image, word, or event that evokes a range of additional meaning beyond and usually more abstract than its literal significance.

The ordering of words into meaningful verbal patterns such as phrases, clauses, and sentences. Poets often manipulate syntax, changing conventional word order, to place certain emphasis on particular words. Emily Dickinson, for instance, writes about being surprised by a snake in her poem "A narrow Fellow in the Grass," and includes this line: "His notice sudden is." In addition to the alliterative hissing s-sounds here, Dickinson also effectively manipulates the line's syntax so that the verb is appears unexpectedly at the end, making the snake's hissing presence all the more sudden.

The central meaning or dominant idea in a literary work. A theme provides a unifying point around which the plot, characters, setting, point of view, symbols, and other elements of a work are organized. It is important not to mistake the theme for the actual subject of the work; the theme refers to the abstract concept that is made concrete through the images, characterization, and action of the text. In nonfiction, however, the theme generally refers to the main topic of the discourse.

The author's implicit attitude toward the reader or the people, places, and events in a work as revealed by the elements of the author's style.

When a rhythmic pattern of stresses recurs in a poem, it is called meter. Trochaic meter consists of one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, such as in the word "lovely".