American Lit: Literary Terms

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Genre

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A kind or type of literature, such as fiction, poetry, autobiography, essay, or drama

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Prose

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Writing that closely resembles the patterns of everyday speech; it is organized by sentences and paragraphs. Contrasted with POETRY.

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Poetry

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Writing that is designed: it makes conscious use of sound, image, meaning, rhythm, and structure to achieve its goal. Poetry is sentences organized into lines and stanzas. Contrasted with PROSE.

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Fiction

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imaginative prose that tells a story

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Novel

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a work of fiction of some length, generally involving multiple characters and frequently including subplots in addition to the main plot

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Short Story

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relatively short work of fiction, with the goal of revealing a character, as opposed to being focused on events.

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Autobiography

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a work of prose that tells some or all of the life story of the writer

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Essay

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a short prose composition that undertakes to discuss a matter, express a point of view, or persuade the reader to accept a thesis on a subject

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Alliteration

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the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words in a line of poetry: a choir of clothes clapping on the line. Note that it is sound being repeated, and not necessarily letters; thus, circle slowly is alliterative, but cut the silence is not

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Assonance

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the repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words or stressed syllables: The Violets lie.

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End Rhyme

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when the words at the ends of lines of poetry rhyme: A sepal, petal, and a thorn/ Upon a common summer's morn--

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Rhyme Scheme

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the patter made by the end rhymes of rhymed verse

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Internal rhyme

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rhyme that occurs within a line of poetry: Did but a snake bisect the brake

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Perfect rhyme

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when rhyming sounds match exactly: night/might

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Slant rhyme

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when a pair of words almost rhyme, but don't: dear/dare or stone/stun; also known as half rhyme

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Eye rhyme

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when spelling matches but sound does not; that is, the look like they should rhyme: flood/brood or cough/plough

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Meter

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the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem

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Line

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the basic unit of a poem

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Stanza

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a section of lines in a poem, often with a set rhyme scheme; stanzas help structure a poem

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End-stopped

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a line of poetry in which the logical and grammatical sense of the words corresponds with the line break--that is, the end of the line coincides with the end of a thought. This creates a pause between lines of poetry. End-stopped lines usually end with punctuation, but not always. Contrasted with ENJAMBMENT

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Enjambment

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the logical and grammatical sense carries over from one line into the next, requiring the reader to continue to the next line to get the complete thought. Thus, though the line ends, there is no pause. Lack of punctuation at the end of a line usually indicates enjambment, but not always. Contrasted with END-STOP

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Caesura

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a pause in the middle of a line of poetry; the pause is indicated by a mark of punctuation: As he defeated--dying--

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Allusion

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an author's deliberate incorporation of identifiable elements from other sources with the goal of enriching the meaning of the text. Allusion assumes a common body of knowledge between the author and the reader. Note: direct references to God are not allusions, but a reference to something in the Bible (e.g., the burning bush) could be. Example: Jonathan Edward's reference to Song of Solomon in his "Personal Narrative"

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Connotation

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the ideas, attitudes, or emotions associated with a word in the mind of the speaker or listener, writer or reader; subjective. Contrasted with DENOTATION

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Denotation

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the dictionary definition; objective. Contrasted with CONNOTATION

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Metaphor

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a direct comparison of unlike things: grass is "the flag of my disposition"

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Simile

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an indirect comparison using like, as, or as if: "the Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs"

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Syntax

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The ordering of words into meaningful verbal patterns such as phrases, clauses, and sentences. Poets often manipulate syntax, changing conventional word order, to place emphasis on particular words

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Personification

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giving human traits (qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics) to non-human objects (things, colors, qualities, or ideas).

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Repetition

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perhaps the most basic idea in poetics. repetition contributes to sound, can help provide structure, and often enhances meaning. there are all sorts of repetition: the repetition of rhythmic elements (meter); the repetition of sounds (rhyme, etc.); the repetition of syntactic elements; the repetition of stanzas, and so on