Literary Terms At The End Of Each Chapter

Front 1

Verse

Back 1

This term has two major meanings. It refers to any single line of poetry or any composition written in separate lines of more or less regular rhythm, in contrast to prose.

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Paraphrase

Back 2

The restatement in one's own words of what one understands a poem to say or suggest. A paraphrase is similar to a summary, although not as brief or simple.

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Summary

Back 3

A brief condensation of the main idea or plot of a work. A summary is similar to a paraphrase, but less detailed.

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Subject

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The main topic of a work, whatever the work is "about"

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Theme

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A generally recurring subject or idea noticeably evident in a literary work. Not all subjects in a work can be considered themes, only the central one(s).

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Types of Poetry

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1. Lyric poem

2. Narrative poem

3. Dramatic monologue

4. Didactic poem

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Lyric poem

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A short poem expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker. Often written in the first person, it traditionally has a songlike immediacy and emotional force.

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Narrative poem

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A poem that tells a story. Ballads and epics are two common forms of narrative poetry.

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Dramatic monologue

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A poem written as a speech made by a character at some decisive moment. The speaker is usually addressing a silent listener.

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Didactic poem

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A poem intended to teach a moral lesson or impart a body of knowledge.

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Tone

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The mood or manner of expression in a literary work, which conveys an attitude toward the work's subject, which may be playful, sarcastic, ironic, sad, solemn, or any other possible attitude. Tone helps to establish the reader's relationship to the characters or ideas presented in the work.

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Satiric poetry

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Poetry that blends criticism with humor to convey a message, usually through the use of irony and a tone of detached amusement, withering contempt, and implied superiority.

Front 13

Persona

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Latin for "mask." A fictitious character created by an author to be the speaker of a literary work.

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Irony

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In language, a discrepancy between what is said and what is meant. In life, a discrepancy between what is expected and what occurs.

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Types of Irony

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1. Verbal irony

2. Sarcasm

3. Dramatic irony

4. Cosmic irony

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Verbal irony

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A mode of expression in which the speaker or writer says the opposite of what is really meant, such as saying "Great story!" in response to a boring, pointless anecdote.

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Sarcasm

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A style of bitter irony intended to hurt or mock its target.

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Dramatic irony

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A situation in which the larger implications of character's work, actions, or situation are unrealized by that character but seen by the author and the reader or audience.

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Cosmic irony

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The contrast between a character's position or aspiration and the treatment he or she receives at the hands of a seemingly hostile fate; also called irony of fate.

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Vulgate

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The lowest level of diction, vulgate is the language of the common people. Not necessarily containing foul or inappropriate language, it refers simply to unschooled, everyday speech. The term comes from Latin word vulgus, "mob" or "common people."

Front 21

Colloquial English

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The casual or informal but correct language of ordinary native speakers. Conversational in tone, it may include contractions, slang, and shifts in grammar, vocabulary, and diction.

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General English

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The ordinary speech of educated native speakers. Most literate speech and writing is general English. Its diction is more educated than colloquial English, yet not as elevated as formal English.

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Formal English

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The heightened, impersonal language of educated persons, usually only written, although possibly spoken on dignified occasions.

Front 24

Dialect

Back 24

A particular variety of language spoken by an identifiable regional group or social class of persons.

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Denotation

Back 25

The literal, dictionary meaning of a word.

Front 26

Connotation

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An association or additional meaning that a word, image, or phrase may carry, apart from its literal denotation or dictionary definition. A word may pick up connotations from the uses to which it has been put in the past.

Front 27

Image

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A word or series of words that refers to any sensory experience (usually sight, although also sound, smell, touch, or taste). An image is a direct literal recreation of physical experience and adds immediacy to literary language.

Front 28

Imagery

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The collective set of images in a poem or other literary work.

Front 29

Haiku

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A Japanese verse form that has three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Traditional haiku is often serious and spiritual in tone, relying mostly on imagery, and usually set (often by implication instead of direct statement) in one of the four seasons. Modern haiku in English often ignore strict syllable count, and may have a more playful, worldly tone.

Front 30

Simile

Back 30

A comparison of two things, indicated by some connective, usually like, as, or than, or a verb such as resembles. A simile usually compares two things that initially seem unlike but are shown to have a significant resemblance. "Cool as a cucumber" and "My love is like a red, red rose" are examples of similes.

Front 31

Metaphor

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A statement that one thing is something else, which, in a literal sense, it is not. A metaphor creates a close association between the two entities and underscores some important similarity between them. Ex: "Richard is a pig."

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Implied metaphor

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A metaphor that uses neither connectives nor the verb to be. If we say "John crowed over his victory," we imply metaphorically that John is a rooster but do not say so specifically.

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Mixed metaphor

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The (usually unintentional) combining of two or more incompatible metaphors, resulting in ridiculousness or nonsense. Ex: "Mary was such a tower of strength that she breezed her way through all the work" ("towers" do not "breeze).

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Figures of Speech

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1. Personification

2. Apostrophe

3. Overstatement

4. Understatement

5. Metonymy

6. Synecdoche

7. Paradox

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Personification

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The endowing of a thing, an animal, or an abstract term with human characteristics. Personification dramatizes the nonhuman world in tangibly human terms.

Front 36

Apostrophe

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A direct address to someone or something. In an apostrophe, a speaker may address an inanimate object, a dead or absent person, an abstract thing, or a spirit.

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Overstatement

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Also called hyperbole. Exaggeration used to emphasize a point.

Front 38

Understatement

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An ironic figure of speech that deliberately describes something in a way that is less than the case.

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Metonymy

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Figure of speech in which the name of a thing is substituted for that of another closely associated with it. Ex: We might say "The White House decided" when we mean that the president did.

Front 40

Synecdoche

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The use of a significant part of a thing to stand for the whole of it, or vice versa. Ex: Saying 'wheels' for 'car' is an example of synecdoche.

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Paradox

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A statement that at first strikes one as self-contradictory, but that on reflection reveals some deeper sense. Paradox is often achieved by a play on words.

Front 42

Stanza

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From the Italian, meaning "stopping-place" or "room." A recurring pattern of two or more lines of verse, poetry's equivalent to the paragraph in prose. The stanza is the basic organizational principle of most formal poetry.

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Rime scheme

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Any recurrent pattern of rime within an individual poem. A rime scheme is usually described by using lowercase letters to represent each end rime - a for the first rime, b - for the second, and so on - in the order in which the rimed words occur.

Front 44

Refrain

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A word, phrase, line, or stanza repeated at intervals in a song or poem. The repeated chorus of a song is a refrain.

Front 45

Ballad

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Traditionally, a song that tells a story. Ballads are characteristically compressed, dramatic, and objective in their narrative style.

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Folk ballads

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Anonymous narrative songs, usually in ballad meter. They were originally created for oral performance, often resulting in many versions of a single ballad.

Front 47

Ballad stanza

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The most common pattern for a ballad, consisting of four lines rimed a b c b, in which the first and third lines have four metrical feet (usually eight syllables) and the second and fourth lies have three feet (usually six syllables). Common meter, often used in hymns, is a variation rimed a b a b.

Front 48

Literary ballad

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A ballad not meant for singing, written by a sophisticated poet for educated readers, rather than arising from the anonymous oral tradition.

Front 49

Blues

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A type of folk music originally developed by African Americans in the South, often about some pain or loss. Blues lyrics traditionally consist of three-line stanzas, in which two identical lines are followed by a third, riming line. The influence of the blues is fundamental in virtually all styles of contemporary pop - jazz, rap, rock, gospel, country, and rhythm and blues.

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Rap

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A popular style of music that emerged in the 1980s in which lyrics are spoken or chanted over a steady beat, usually sampled or prerecorded. Rap lyrics are almost always rimed and very rhythmic - syncopating a heavy metrical beat in a manner similar to jazz.

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Sound effects

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1. Alliteration

2. Assonance

3. Cacophony

4. Euphony

5. Onomatopoeia

Front 52

Alliteration

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The repetition of a consonant sound in a line of verse or prose. Alliteration can be used at the beginning of words (initial alliteration as in "Cool Cats") or internally on stressed syllables (internal alliteration as in "I meT a Traveler from an anTique land.")

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Assonance

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The repetition of two or more vowel sounds in successive words, which creates a kind of rime. Like alliteration, the assonance may occur initially ("All the Awful Auguries") or internally ("white lilacs").

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Cacophony

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A harsh, discordant sound often mirroring the meaning of the context in which it is used. The opposite of cacophony is euphony.

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Euphony

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The harmonious effect when the sounds of the words connect with the meaning in a way pleasing to the ear and mind. The opposite of euphony is cacophony.

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Onomatopoeia

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An attempt to represent a thing or action by a word that imitates the sound associated with it.

Front 57

Rime

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Two or more words that contain an identical or similar vowel sound, usually accented, with following consonant sounds (if any) identical as well (woo and stew). An exact rime is a full rime in which the sounds following the initial letters of the words are identical in sound (follow and hollow).

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Types of Rimes

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1. Consonance (Slant Rime)

2. End rime

3. Internal rime

4. Masculine rime

5. Feminine rime

6. Eye rime.

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Consonance

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Also called Slant rime. A kind of rime in which the linked words share similar consonant sounds but have different vowel sounds, as in reason and raisin, mink and monk. Sometimes, only the final consonant sound is identical, as in fame and room.

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End rime

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Rime that occurs at the ends of lines, rather than within them. End rime is the most common kind of rime in English-language poetry.

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Internal rime

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Rime that occurs within a line of poetry, as opposed to end rime.

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Masculine rime

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Either a rime of one-syllable words (fox and socks) or - in polysyllabic words - a rime on the stressed final syllables (con-trive and sur-vive).

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Feminine rime

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A rime of two or more syllables with stress on a syllable other than the last (tur-tle and fer-tile).

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Eye rime

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A "false" rime in which the spelling of the words is alike, but the pronunciations differ (daughter and laughter).

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Stress

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An emphasis, or accent, placed on a syllable in speech. The unstressed syllable in a line of verse is called the slack syllable.

Front 66

Rhythm

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The recurring pattern of stresses and pauses in a poem. A fixed rhythm in a poem is called meter.

Front 67

Prosody

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The study of metrical structures in poetry.

Front 68

Cesura or caesura

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A light but definite pause within a line of verse. Cesura often appear near the middle of a line, but their placement may be variated for rhythmic effect.

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Run-on line

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A line of verse that does not end in punctuation, but carries on grammatically to the next line. The use of run-on lines is called enjambment.

Front 70

End-stopped line

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A line of verse that ends in a full pause, often indicated by a mark of punctuation.

Front 71

Meter

Back 71

1. Foot

2. Iamb

3. Iambic pentameter

4. Anapest

5. Trochee

6. Dactyl

7. Spondee

8. Accentual meter

Front 72

Foot

Back 72

The basic unit of measurement in metrical poetry. Each separate meter is identified by the pattern and order of stressed and unstressed syllables in its foot.

Front 73

Iamb

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A metrical foot in verse in which an unaccented syllable is followed by an accented one. The iambic measure is the most common meter used in English poetry.

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Iambic pentameter

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The most common meter in English verse, five iambic feet per line. Many fixed forms, such as the sonnet and heroic couplets, employ iambic pentameter.

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Anapest

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A metrical foot in verse in which two unstressed syllables are followed by a stressed syllable.

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Trochee

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A metrical foot in which one stressed syllable is followed by a an unstressed one.

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Spondee

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A metrical foot of verse consisting of two stressed syllables.

Front 78

Accentual meter

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Verse meter based on the number of stresses per line, not the number of syllables.

Front 79

Form

Back 79

In a general sense, form is the meaning by which a literary work expresses its content. In poetry, form is usually used to describe the design of a poem.

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Fixed form

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A traditional verse from requiring certain predetermined elements of structure-for example, a stanza pattern, set meter, or predetermined line length.

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Closed form

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A generic term that describes poetry written in a pattern of meter, rime, lines, or stanzas. A closed form adheres to a set structure.

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Open form

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Verse that has no set scheme-no regular meter, rime, or stanzaic pattern. Open form has also been called free verse.

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Blank verse

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Blank verse contains five iambic feet per line (iambic pentameter) and is not rimed. ("Blank" means unrimed.)

Front 84

Couplet

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A two-line stanza in poetry, usually rimed and with lines of equal length.

Front 85

Closed couplet

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Two rimed lines of iambic pentameter that usually contain an independent and complete thought or statement. Also called heroic couplet.

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Quatrain

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A stanza consisting of four lines, it is the most common stanza used in English-language poetry

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Epic

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A long narrative poem tracing the adventures of a popular hero. Epic poems are usually written in a consistent form and meter throughout.

Front 88

Epigram

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A very short, comic poem, often turning at the end with some sharp with or unexpected stinger.

Front 89

Sonnet

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A fixed form of fourteen lines, traditionally written in iambic pentameter and rimed throughout.

Front 90

Italian sonnet

Back 90

Also called Petrarchan sonnet, it rimes the octave (the first eight lines) a b b a a b b a; the seste (the last six lines) may follow any rime pattern, as long as it does not end in a couplet. The poem traditionally turns, or shifts in mood or tone, after the octave.

Front 91

English sonnet

Back 91

Also called Shakespearean sonnet, it has the following rime scheme organized into three quatrains and a concluding couplet: a b a b c d c d e f e f g g. The poem may turn-that is, shift in mood or tone- between any of the rime clusters.

Front 92

Open form

Back 92

Poems that have neither a rime scheme nor a basic meter are in open form. Open form has also been called free verse.

Front 93

Free verse

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From the French vers libre. Free verse is poetry whose lines follow no consistent meter. It may be rimed, but usually is not. In the last hundred years, free verse has become a common practice.

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Prose poetry

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Poetic language printed in prose paragraphs, but displaying the careful attention to sound, imagery, and figurative language characteristic of poetry.

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Concrete poetry

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A visual poetry composed exclusively for the page in which a picture or image is made of printed letters and words. Concrete poetry attempts to blur the line between language and visual objects, usually relying on puns and cleverness.

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Diction

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Word choice or vocabulary. Diction refers to the class of words that an author chooses as appropriate for a particular work.

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Concrete diction

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Words that specifically name or describe things or persons. Concrete words refer to what we can immediately perceive with our senses.

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Abstract diction

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Words that express general ideas or concepts

Front 99

Poetic diction

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Strictly speaking, poetic diction means any language deemed suitable for verse, but the term generally refers to elevated language intended for poetry rather than common use.

Front 100

Allusion

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A brief, sometimes indirect, reference in a text to a person, place, or thing. Allusions imply a common body of knowledge between reader and writer and act as a literary shorthand to enrich the meaning of a text.