Literary Movements 2Nd Set Of Vocab Words

Front 1

blank verse

Back 1

A poem written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

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cacophony

Back 2

An unpleasant combination of sounds. Following is an example of cacophony from a
Matthew Arnold poem: "And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know,/Self-school 'd, self-
scann 'd, self-honor 'd, self-secure,/Didst tread on earth unguess 'd at. "

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canto

Back 3

A subdivision of an epic poem. Each of the three books of Dante's Divine Comedy is
divided into cantos. For example, in each of the cantos of "The Inferno," Dante meets the souls of
people who were once alive and who have been condemned to punishment for sin.

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Carpe Diem

Back 4

A Latin phrase which translated means "Seize the day," meaning "Make the most of
today." The phrase originated as the title of a poem in 65 B.C. and caught on as a theme with such
English poets as Robert Herrick and Andrew Marvell.

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catastrophe

Back 5

The scene in a tragedy which includes the death or moral destruction of the
protagonist. In the catastrophe at the end of Sophocles' Oedipus the King, Oedipus, discovering the
tragic truth about his origin and his deeds, plucks out his eyes and is condemned to spend the rest of
his days a wandering beggar.

Front 6

character

Back 6

A person, or any thing presented as a person, e.g., a spirit, object, animal, or natural
force, in a literary work.

Front 7

characterization

Back 7

The method a writer uses to reveal the personality of a character in a literary
work: Methods may include (1) by what the character says about himself or herself; (2) by what others
reveal about the character; and (3) by the character's own actins.

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climax

Back 8

The decisive moment in a drama, the climax is the turning point of the play to which the
rising action leads. This is the crucial part of the drama, the part which determines the outcome of the
conflict.

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comedy

Back 9

A literary work which is amusing and ends happily. Modern comedies tend to be funny,
while Shakespearean comedies simply end well.

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conceit

Back 10

A far-fetched simile or metaphor. A literary conceit occurs when the speaker compares
two highly dissimilar things. In the following example from Act V of Shakespeare's Richard II, the
imprisoned King Richard compares his cell to the world in the following line:
I have been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world:

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conclusion

Back 11

Also called the resolution, the conclusion is the point in a drama to which the entire
play has been leading. It is the logical outcome of everything that has come before it. The conclusion
stems from the nature of the characters.

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concrete poetry

Back 12

a poem that visually resembles something found in the physical world.

Front 13

conflict

Back 13

In the plot of a drama, conflict occurs when the protagonist is opposed by some person or force in the play.

Front 14

denotation

Back 14

The denotation of a word is its dictionary definition. The word wall, therefore,
denotes an upright structure which encloses something or serves as a boundary.

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connotation

Back 15

The connotation of a word is its emotional content. In this sense, the word wall can also mean an attitude or actions which prevent becoming emotionally close to a person.