Literary Terms

Front 1

Voice

Back 1

The characteristic speech and thought patterns of the first-person narrator

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Persona

Back 2

A dramatic character, distinguished from the poet, who is the speaker of the poem; the speaking "I," a fictional identity. In Latin, meant "theatrical mask." Has come to mean a "version of the self," or what elements of your personality you chose to reveal in a given situation.

Front 3

Tone

Back 3

Author's attitude toward the material he is presenting.

Front 4

Epigraph

Back 4

A quotation at the beginning of a literary work to set the tone or suggest the theme.

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Metaphor

Back 5

A comparison that expresses an abstract, unfamiliar, or vague concept (the tenor) in terms of something familiar and concrete (the vehicle).

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Anaphora

Back 6

Repetition of a particular word or phrase at the beginning of clauses, verses, or lines

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Allusion

Back 7

Indirect or passing reference to a person, place, event, or other literary work or passage.

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Synecdoche

Back 8

Subcategory of metaphor that substitutes a part for the whole (eg. saying "my wheels" instead of "my car")

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Objective Correlative

Back 9

"A set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory, experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked"

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Synesthesia

Back 10

A kind of analogy that blends the qualities of one sense (like light) with that of another (like hearing). Ex. "The apple nestles in the air/ humming in its color".

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Personification

Back 11

Representing or addressing an inanimate object as though it possessed human qualities.

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Metonymy

Back 12

Referring to one thing by using the name of something associated with it. Very closely related to synecdoche. Ex. "I ate the whole plate."

Front 13

Simile

Back 13

Latin for "like". We use simile when we say one thing is "like" another.

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Analogy

Back 14

Any resemblance in form or function between unlike objects can be called analogy, which is a kind of reasoning based on metaphor.

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Symbol

Back 15

An image that stands for more than it denotes.