Column 3

Front 1

Litotes

Back 1

understatement, especially that in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary, as in “not bad at all.”

Front 2

Logos

Back 2

( often initial capital letter ) Philosophy . the rational principle that governs and develops the universe.
2.
Theology . the divine word or reason incarnate in Jesus Christ. John 1:1–14.

Front 3

Mask

Back 3

anything that disguises or conceals; disguise; pretense: His politeness is a mask for his fundamentally malicious personality.

Front 4

Monometer

Back 4

a line of verse of one measure or foot.

Front 5

Dimeter

Back 5

a verse or line of two measures or feet, as He is gone on the mountain,/He is lost to the forest.

Front 6

Trimeter

Back 6

a verse of three measures or feet.

Front 7

Tetrameter

Back 7

Prosody . a verse of four feet.

Front 8

Pentameter

Back 8

a line of verse consisting of five metrical feet.
2.
Also called elegiac pentameter. Classical Prosody . a verse consisting of two dactyls, one long syllable, two more dactyls, and another long syllable.
3.
unrhymed verse of five iambic feet; heroic verse.

Front 9

Hexameter

Back 9

a dactylic line of six feet, as in Greek and Latin epic poetry, in which the first four feet are dactyls or spondees, the fifth is ordinarily a dactyl, and the last is a trochee or spondee, with a caesura usually following the long syllable in the third foot.
2.
any line of verse in six feet, as in English poetry.

Front 10

Octameter

Back 10

consisting of eight measures or feet.

Front 11

Metrical Feet

Back 11

(prosody) a group of 2 or 3 syllables forming the basic unit of poetic rhythm

Front 12

Modernism

Back 12

a deliberate philosophical and practical estrangement or divergence from the past in the arts and literature occurring especially in the course of the 20th century and taking form in any of various innovative movements and styles.

Front 13

Monosyllabic

Back 13

having only one syllable, as the word no.
2.
having a vocabulary composed primarily of monosyllables or short, simple words.
3.
very brief; terse or blunt: a monosyllabic reply.

Front 14

Mood

Back 14

a state or quality of feeling at a particular time: What's the boss' mood today?
2.
a distinctive emotional quality or character: The mood of the music was almost funereal.
3.
a prevailing emotional tone or general attitude: the country's mood.
4.
a frame of mind disposed or receptive, as to some activity or thing: I'm not in the mood to see a movie.
5.
a state of sullenness, gloom, or bad temper.

Front 15

Myth

Back 15

a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature.
2.
stories or matter of this kind: realm of myth.

Front 16

Narrative

Back 16

a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious.
2.
a book, literary work, etc., containing such a story.
3.
the art, technique, or process of narrating: Somerset Maugham was a master of narrative.

Front 17

Naturalism

Back 17

a manner or technique of treating subject matter that presents, through volume of detail, a deterministic view of human life and actions.
b.
a deterministic theory of writing in which it is held that a writer should adopt an objective view toward the material written about, be free of preconceived ideas as to form and content, and represent with clinical accuracy and frankness the details of life. Compare realism ( def. 4b ) .
c.
a representation of natural appearances or natural patterns of speech, manner, etc., in a work of fiction.
d.
the depiction of the physical environment, especially landscape or the rural environment.

Front 18

Neoclassicism

Back 18

a late 18th- and early 19th-century style in architecture, decorative art, and fine art, based on the imitation of surviving classical models and types

Front 19

Novel

Back 19

a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity, portraying characters and usually presenting a sequential organization of action and scenes.

Front 20

Novella

Back 20

a tale or short story of the type contained in the Decameron of Boccaccio.
2.
a fictional prose narrative that is longer and more complex than a short story; a short novel.

Front 21

Omniscient

Back 21

having complete or unlimited knowledge, awareness, or understanding; perceiving all things.

Front 22

Paradox

Back 22

a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.
2.
a self-contradictory and false proposition.
3.
any person, thing, or situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature.

Front 23

Paraphrase

Back 23

a restatement of a text or passage giving the meaning in another form, as for clearness; rewording.
2.
the act or process of restating or rewording.

Front 24

Poetic Justice

Back 24

an ideal distribution of rewards and punishments such as is common in some poetry and fiction.

Front 25

Poetic Shift

Back 25

A change that is often intentional
point of view, scenery, mood,...
Often used as a poetic device

Front 26

Postmodernism

Back 26

any of a number of trends or movements in the arts and literature developing in the 1970s in reaction to or rejection of the dogma, principles, or practices of established modernism, especially a movement in architecture and the decorative arts running counter to the practice and influence of the International Style and encouraging the use of elements from historical vernacular styles and often playful illusion, decoration, and complexity.

Front 27

Prose

Back 27

the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse.
2.
matter-of-fact, commonplace, or dull expression, quality, discourse, etc.

Front 28

Pyrrhic

Back 28

consisting of two short or unaccented syllables.

Front 29

Quest

Back 29

a search or pursuit made in order to find or obtain something: a quest for uranium mines; a quest for knowledge.
2.
Medieval Romance . an adventurous expedition undertaken by a knight or knights to secure or achieve something: the quest of the Holy Grail.

Front 30

Realism

Back 30

the tendency to view or represent things as they really are.
3.
Fine Arts .
a.
treatment of forms, colors, space, etc., in such a manner as to emphasize their correspondence to actuality or to ordinary visual experience. Compare idealism , naturalism .

Front 31

Refrain

Back 31

to abstain from an impulse to say or do something (often followed by from ): I refrained from telling him what I thought.

Front 32

Reliability

Back 32

the ability to be relied on or depended on, as for accuracy, honesty, or achievement.

Front 33

Repetition

Back 33

the act of repeating; repeated action, performance, production, or presentation.
2.
repeated utterance; reiteration.
3.
something made by or resulting from repeating.
4.
a reproduction, copy, or replica.

Front 34

Rhetorical Poetry

Back 34

Poetry using artificially eloquent language, that is, language too high-flown for its occasion

Front 35

Narrative Method

Back 35

accepts the idea that knowledge can be held in stories