American Literature Midterm Exam Review

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Prose

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the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse.

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Poetry

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the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts

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Plain language

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simple words, clearer sentence order (syntax), commonly understood references

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Ornate language

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elevated diction, inverted sentence order, learned allusions and paralellism.

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Description

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the type of writing that deals with the appearance of a person, an object, or a place.

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Narration

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the kind of writing or speaking that tells a story

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Expostition

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the kind of writing that is intended primarily to present information

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Persuasion

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the type of speaking or writing that is intended to make its audience adopt a certain opinion, perform an action, or both.

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Paralellism

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the use of phrases, clauses, or sentences that are similar or complementary in structure or in meaning.

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Stanza

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a unit of a poem that is longer than a single line

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Rhyme

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the repetition of sounds in two or more words or phrases that appear close to each other in a poem

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Rhythm

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the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables into a pattern

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Imagery

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words or phrases that create pictures, or images, in the reader's mind.

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Figure of speech

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a word or expression that is not meant to be interpreited in a literal sense.

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Iamb

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a poetic foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

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Iambic Pentameter

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the most common verse line in English and American poetry

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Foot

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a unit used to measure the meter, or rhythmic pattern, of a line of poetry

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Couplet

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two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

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Metaphor

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a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things which are basically dissimilar

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Simile

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a figure of speech comparing two essentially unlike things through the use of a specific word of comparison

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Hyperbole

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a figure of speech using exaggeration, or overstatement, for special effect

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Alliteration

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the repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants, in a group of words.

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Personification

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a figure of speech in which something nonhuman is given human qualities

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Rhetorical question

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a question suggesting its own answer or not requiring an answer

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Parallel structure

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the use of words, phrases, clauses and sentences that are similar in structure

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Allusion

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a reference to a person, a place, an event, or a literary work that a writer expects a reader to recognize

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Classicism

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a movement or tendency in art, litererature, and music reflecting the principles manifested in the art of ancient Greece and Rome

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romanticism

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a movement that flourished in literature, philosophy, music, and art in Western culture during most of the ninteenth century, beginning as a revolt against classicism.

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Allegory

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a tale in prose or verse in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities

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Tour de force

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a unique accomplishment in art or literature

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Evocative style

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long and complicated sentences.

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Tone

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the attitude a writer takes toward his or her subject, characters and readers

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Caesura

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a break or pause in a line of poetry, which contributes to the rhythm of the poem

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Internal rhyme

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rhyme occuring within a line

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Blank verse

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verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

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Free verse

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unrhymed verse that has either no metrical pattern or an irregular pattern

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Refrain

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a word, phrase, line, or group of lines repeated reguluarly in a poem, usually at the end of each stanza

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Assonance

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the repetition of similar vowel sounds, especially in poetry

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Onomatopoeia

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the use of a word whose sound in some degree imitates or suggests its meaning

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Mood

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the prevailing feeling or emotional climate of a literary work, often developed, at least in part, through descriptions of setting

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Gothic

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a term that describes the use in fiction of grotesque, gloomy settings (often castles), and mysterious, violent, and supernatural occurence to create suspence and awe.

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Foreshadowing

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the use of hints in a narrative to suggest what action is to come