English Midterm

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a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds

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epic poem

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a figure of speech in which a positive is stated by negating its opposite. it is the opposite of a hyperbola (understatement for irony and humor)

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litotes

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an old english poet or a poet troubadour of early Teutonic poetry (responsible for passing history)

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scop

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"man gold." the legal system of many germanic tribes, including the anglo-saxons. this tradition allowed an individual and his family to make amends for a crime by paying a fine known as the wergild to the family of another man whom he had injured or killed. the price depended on the nature of the injury or status of the injured man

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wergild

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a compound (two-word) poetic phrase substituted for the usual name of a person or thing (ex. hamlet and laertes)

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foil

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a poetic device where the first constant sounds or any vowel sounds in words or syllables are repeated (ex. silly sally sells seashells)

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alliteration

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a pause, metrical or rhetorical, occurring somewhere in a line of poetry. the pause may or may not be typographically indicated (ex. page break)

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caesura

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a story in a song, usually a narrative song or poem (ex. folk song)

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ballad

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a song or poem expressing grief or regret

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lament

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medieval drama edsigned to teach a lesson. the characters were often allegorical and represented virtues or faults (good and evil), such as good deeds, friendship, or avarice (ex. everyman)

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morality plan

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a compound (two-word) poetic phrase substituted for the usual name of a person or thing (ex. ring bearer=king)

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Kenning

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a story illustrating an idea or a moral principle in which objects take on symbolic meanings

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allegory

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an introductory section of a literary work. it often includes information about the setting, time, period, or action (aka preface) (ex. intro to canterbury tales)

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prologue

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a pair of lines of verse that form a unit. most rhyme. (ex. end of scenes in hamlet)

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couplet

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tale of knightly conflict and love. usually narrative

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chivalric romance

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a bawdy comic tale that has a ridiculous climax and ends with a trick (ex. miller's tale)

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fabliaux

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narrator confesses his sins to the audience (ex. claudius admitting murder)

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allegorical confession

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a story in a sermon used to make a point or illustrate a moral truth (ex. pardoner's tale)

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exemplum

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a comparison between two seemingly unlike things by using like or as

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metaphor

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a kind of metaphor in which a non human thing or quality is talked about as if it were human (ex. the trees danced in the wind)

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personification

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a comparison between two seemingly unlike things by using like or as

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simile

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a figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion or create a comic effect (ex. to walk to the store would take forever)

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hyperbole

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a figure of speech in which something closely related to a thing or suggested by it is substituted for the thing itself (ex. crown= king)

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metonymy

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a figure of speech in which a part stands for a whole (ex. our daily bread=food)

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synecdoche

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a figure of speech that combines apparently contradictory ideas (ex. jumbo shrimp)

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oxymoron

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a literary movement that advocates the use of highly person symbols to suggest ideas, emotions, or moods

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symbolism

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language that appeals to the senses

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imagery

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a fanciful and elaborate figure of speech of two apparently different things to create an immortalizing effect (ex. shakespeare's sonnet 18)

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eternizing conceit

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a poem whereby the person complains about a lover (ex. shakespeares sonnet 29)

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complaints

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an apparent contradiction that is apparently true

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paradox

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the repetition of words, phrases, or sentences that have the same grammatical structure or that restate a similar idea

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parallelism

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a reference to a statement, person, place, event, or thing that is known from literature, history, religion, mythology, politics, sports, science, or popular culture

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allusion

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when a speaker directly addresses an absent or dead person as if they could respond

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apostrophe