Literary Terms

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Accent

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When a syllable is given a greater amount of force in speaking than is given to another, also called a stress

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Alexandrine

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In English verse, a line of iambic hexameter, usually having a caesura after the thrid foot

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Allegory

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A narrative in either verse or prose in which characters, events, and in some cases setting, represent abstract concepts apart from the literal meaning of the story

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Alliteration

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The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or within them, especially in accented syllables

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Allusion

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An indirect reference to a person, place, or thing - fictitious, historical, or actual

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Analogy

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A comparison made between two objects, situations, or ideas that share something in common but are otherwise totally different

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Anapest

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a metrical foot consisting of three syllables, two unaccented followed by one accented

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Anaphora

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The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of several successive clauses, verses, or paragraphs

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Antagonist

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a character in a story or play that opposes the protagonist

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Apostrophe

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a figure of speech in which a character or narrator directly addresses an abstract concept, an inanimate object, or a person who is not present

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Assonance

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the repetition of similar vowel sounds in stressed syllables or words, like alliteration, assonance may occur either initially or internally

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Ballad

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A narrative song or poem passed on orally

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Blank verse

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verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

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Caesura

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a light but definite pause within a line of poetry

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Catharsis

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the purification of emotions by vicarious experience, especially through drama

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Characterization

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the methods used by an author to develop the personality of a character in a literary work

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Chiasmus

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a rhetorical device in which words or phrases initially presented are restated in reverse order, for example: "do not live to eat, but eat to live"

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Chorus

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in ancient Greek drama, a group of actors who sang and danced in unison and provided commentary on the actions of the main characters

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Cliche

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a trite or hackneyed expression, idea, plot, character development, etc.

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climax

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a decisive moment that is of maximum intensity or is a major turning point in a plot; a point when the action changes course and begins to resolve itself in some manner

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comedy

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a play written primarily to amuse the audience, usually featuring a protagonist whose fortunes take a turn for the better

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comic relief

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an amusing scene, incident, character, or speech introduced into a serious or tragic work to relieve tension

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conceit

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an elaborate, extended, and often surprising comparison made between two very dissimilar things that exhibits the author's ingenuity and cleverness; (from the Italian "concetto" meaning concept, bright idea)

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concrete poem

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a poem in which the visual arrangement of the letters and words suggests its meaning

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conflict

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a struggle between two opposing forces or characters in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem; a conflict can be internal or external

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types of conflicts

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1 - person against person
2 - person against nature
3 - person against society
4 - person against himself

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connotation

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the emotional associations that surround a word as opposed to its denotation

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consonance

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the repetition of consonant sounds that are preceded by a different vowel

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couplet

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two successive lines of verse that have the same meter and in many cases rhyme

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dactyl

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a 3-syallable metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables

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declining action

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falling action

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denotation

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the literal meaning of a word, dictionary definition

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denouement

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the resolution of the plot of a literary work

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deus ex machina

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power, event, person, or thing that comes in the nick of time to solve a difficulty, Latin for "the god from the machine"

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dialect

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variety of language spoken by a social group or in a certain locality

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dialogue

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conversation, can serve many purposes, including characterization, advancement of the plot, development of a theme, and creation of mood

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diction

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the author's choice of words and phrases: involves both connotation and denotation

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Didactic poetry

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poetry whose purpose is to teach the reader some kind of lesson

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dramatic irony

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a situation in which the author and the audience share knowledge by which they can recognize that the character's actions are inappropriate or that the charcater's words have a significance but these things are unknown to the character

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dramatic monologue

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a lyric poem in which the speaker addresses someone whose replies are not recorded; the poet adopts the voice of a fictive or historical voice or some other persona

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dramatic situation

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a situation that drives the plot of a drama that involves the dynamic relation between a character and a goal or objective and the obstacles that intervene between the character and the objective

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dynamic character

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a character that changes in some way, usually for the better, during the course of a story

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elegy

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a lament or a sadly meditative poem, sometimes written on the occasion of a death; usually formal in language and structure and solemn or melancholy in tone

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end rhyme

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rhyming of words at the ends of lines of poetry

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end-stopped line

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a line of poetry that contains a complete thought, usually ending with a period, colon, or semicolon, and therefore ends in a full pause; the opposite of a run-on line

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English or Shakespearean sonnet

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a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter haveing a rhyme scheme of abab/cdcd/efef/gg; is usually presented in a four-part structure in which a theme or idea is developed in the first three quatrains and then is brought to a conclusion in the couplet

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enjambment

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the employment of run-on lines of poetry, whereby the meaning of the statement is carried from one line to the next without a pause

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epic

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a long narrative poem describing the deeds of a great hero, gread adventrues, and matters of national or global significance and sometimes featuring supernatural forces

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epigram

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a short poem that ends in a witty or ingenious turn of thought, to which the rest of the composition is intended to lead up

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epigraph

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a motto or quotation at the beginning of a book, poem, or chapter that usually indicates its theme

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epiphany

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a moment of enlightenment in which the underlying truth or essential nature of something is suddenly revealed or made clear to a character

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epistolary

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associated with letters or the writing of letters; for example an epistolary poem is a letter written in verse

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eye rhyme

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rhyme in which two or more words look the same and are spelled similarly but have different pronunciations, for example, "have" and "grave" also called sight rhyme

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falling action

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in a narrative, action that occurs after the climax and directly before the denouement or the resolution of the plot

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farce

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a highly comic, light-hearted drama, usually involving stock situations and characters and based on far-fetched hmorous situations

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feminine ending

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an unaccented syllable at the end of a line of poetry

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feminine rhyme

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a rhyme in which the similarity of sound is in both of the last two syllables, for exmample, "weary" and "dreary"

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foil

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a person or thing that highlights the traits of a character by contrast

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foot

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a division of verse consisting of a number of syllables, one of which has the principal stress, the basic unit of meter in poetry

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framed story

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a narrative device whereby a story or group of stories is presented (often told by one of the characters) within the framework of a larger narrative

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free verse

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poetry that does not have a fixed meter or rhyme scheme

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half-rhyme

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slant rhyme

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heroic couplet

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2 rhymed lines of iambic pentameter

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high comedy

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a comedy that appeals to the intellect using verbal wit, a clever plot, and visual elegance, usually having upper-class characters

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Iamb

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a metrical foot consisting of two syllables, the first unaccented, the second accented

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Iambic pentameter

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poetry consisting of a line of five iambs, the most common verse line in English poetry, a meter especially familiar because it occurs in all blank verse, heroic couplets, and sonnets

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in medias res

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Latin meaning "in the middle of thins" narratives that begin in the middle of the action

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internal rhyme

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rhyme that occurs within a line of poetry

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irony

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the contrast between what appears to be and reality

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Italian or Petrarchan sonnet

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a 14-line poem in two parts, an initial octet (8 lines) followed by a sestet (6 lines) usually having a rhyme scheme of abbaabba/cdecde, the octet and the sestet are usually played off each other in some way

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limerick

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a 5-line comic verse form with a rhyme scheme of aabba, with the first, second, and fifth lines in trimeter and the third and fourth in dimeter

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litotes

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a type of understanding in whcih an affirmative is expressed by the negation of its opposite; for example "this is no small problem"

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low comedy

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comic actions based on broad physical humor, scatology, crude punning, and the argumentative behavior or ignorant and often lower-class characters

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lyric

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a poem that expresses an emotion or state of mind, creating a single, highly personal impression upon the reader

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masculine ending

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an accented syllable that ends a line of verse

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masculine rhyme

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a rhyme of one-syllable words (jail and bail) or of stressed final syllables (divorce and remorse)

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melodrama

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a sensational nineteenth-century play that featured a suspenseful, plot-oriented drama with all-good heroes, all-bad villains, simplistic dialogue, and soaring moral conclusions

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meter

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a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry

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metonymy

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a figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (the use of the word "Washington" to mean the U.S. government)

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microcosm

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in literature, refers to a model in which events on a miniature scale parallel those occurring on a larger scale; for example, conflict within a family might be a microcosm of a world at war

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mood

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the overall atmosphere or prevailing emotional aura of a literary work

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near rhyme

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slant rhyme

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ode

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a formal, ceremonious, and complexly organized form of lyric poetry; odes are usually rather long and often commemorate an important event or celebration such as a marriage or public ceremony

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off rhyme

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slant rhyme

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partial rhyme

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slant rhyme

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pastoral

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a conventional form of lyric poetry that presents an idealized view of rural life

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pathos

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that quality in speech, writing, music, or artistic representation that excites feelings of pity or sadness, the power of stirring tender or melancholy emotion

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peripeteia

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a sudden change of events or a reversal of circumstances

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persona

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the mask or voice of the author or the author's creation n a literary work

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pyrrhic

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metrical foot of two unaccented syllables

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quatrain

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stanza of four lines of verse

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return

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falling action

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rhythm

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the recurrence of stresses and pauses in the language of a literary owrk or a speech, when rhythm falls into a regular, identifiable pattern, we refer to it as meter

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romance

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a narrative form that originated in the Middle Ages that can be written in prose or poetry, generally feature elements such as adventure, magic, and love

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run-on line

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a line of verse that does not express a complete thought, but rather, the thought continues on to the next line and there is no pause at the end of the run-on line

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scansion

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the process of demarking the metrical feet of a poem and marking the accented and unaccented symbols to indicate the meter of the poem

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sestina

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a complicated verse form comprised of six sestets and a concluding tercet, with the end words of each line of the first sestet being repeated in the subsequent stanzas

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sight rhyme

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eye rhyme

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situational irony

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an occurrence that is contrary to what is expected or intended

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slant rhyme

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two words or syllables that have approximately the same vowel sounds but not exactly

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soliloquy

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a dramatic convention whereby a character speaks his or her thoughts aloud; a speech to oneself

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sonnet

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a 14-line poem, written in iambic pentameter

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spondee

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a metrical foot consisting of two accented syllables

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static character

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a character that does not change during the course of a narrative

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stock character

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a character that is of little consequence to the dramatic situations and its ultimate resolution, but who nonetheless may serve to advance the plot, provide humore, or provide contrast with the main character

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style

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the distinctive use of language by the author

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symbolist drama

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one product of a late 19th century school of French poets/playwrights who aimed to reveal ideas and emotions by indirect suggestion rather than by direct expression and attached a symbolic meaning to particular objects, words, sonnets, etc.

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synecdoche

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a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole; the whole of something is used to represent a part; the specific is used for the general; the general is used for the specific; or the material of an object is used in place of the object (hired hands)

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synesthesia

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the manner of speaking about one sense in terms of another (she wore a screaming red skirt)

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tone

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the author's attitude, whether stated or implied, about his or her subject matter and toward the audience

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tragic flaw

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in a tragedy, the flaw in the protagonist that leads to his or her downfall

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tragic irony

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refers to instances in a tragedy when the protagonist experiences a misfortune that is contrary to what he or she expected to happen

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tragicomedy

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a drama that combines elements of tragedy and comedy

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trochee

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

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villanelle

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a poetic form that usually is comprised of five tercets, each rhyming aba, and a concluding quatrain, rhyming abaa, with the first and third lines of the first tercet alternating as refrains throughout the poem