Literary/poetry Terms

Front 1

Alliteration

Back 1

a repetition of the initial sounds of several words in a group

Front 2

Allusion

Back 2

a reference in one literary work to a character or theme found in another literary work

Front 3

Antagonist

Back 3

a person of force which opposes the protagonist in a literary work

Front 4

Assonance

Back 4

the repetition of vowel sounds in a literary work, especially in a poem

Front 5

Blank Verse

Back 5

a poem written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

Front 6

Character

Back 6

a person, or anything presented as a person, ex. 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) what the character says about himself or herself (2) what others reveal about the character and (3) the character's own actions

Front 8

Climax

Back 8

the decisive moment in a drama, the climax is the turning point of the play to which the rising action leads

Front 9

Conflict

Back 9

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

Front 10

Epic

Back 10

On literature generally, a major work dealing with an important theme.

Front 11

Exposition

Back 11

In drama, the presentation of essential information regarding what has occured prior to the beginning of the play.

Front 12

Fable

Back 12

A brief talk designed to illustrate a moral lesson. Often the characters are animals.

Front 13

Falling Action

Back 13

the series of events which take place after the climax

Front 14

Foreshadowing

Back 14

a method used to build suspense by providing hints of what is to come

Front 15

Free Verse

Back 15

unrhymed poetry with lines of varying lengths, and containing no specific metrical pattern

Front 16

Genre

Back 16

a literary type or form, drama is a genre of literature, within drama, genre includes tragedy, comedy, and other forms

Front 17

Hyperbole

Back 17

a figure of speech in which an overstatement or exaggeration occurs

Front 18

Imagery

Back 18

a word or group of words in a literary work which appeal to one or more of the senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell

Front 19

Dramatic Irony

Back 19

the audience knows something that the characters do not

Front 20

Mood

Back 20

the atmosphere or feeling created by a literary work, partly by a description of the objects or by the style of the descriptions

Front 21

Metaphor

Back 21

where a comparison is made between two unlike things without the use of the words "like" or "as"

Front 22

Meter

Back 22

a regular pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables in a line or lines of poetry

Front 23

Narrative Poem

Back 23

a poem which tells a story

Front 24

Onomatopoeia

Back 24

the sound of a word echoes the sound it represents

Front 25

Oxymoron

Back 25

a combination of contradictory terms, such as cruel kindness or bittersweet

Front 26

Personification

Back 26

a figure of speech in which something nonhuman is given human characteristics

Front 27

Plot

Back 27

the structure of a story; the sequence in which the author arranges events in a story

Front 28

Point of View

Back 28

a piece of literature contains a speaker who is speaking either in the first person, telling things from his or her own perspective, or in the third person, telling things from the perspective of an onlooker. If the speaker knows everything including the actions, motives, and thoughts of all the characters, the speaker is referred to a omniscient (all-knowing).

Front 29

Quatrain

Back 29

a four-line stanza which may be rhymed or unrhymed

Front 30

Resolution

Back 30

the part of a story or drama which occurs after the climax and which established a new norm, a new state of affairs-the way things are going to be from now on

Front 31

Rhyme

Back 31

a pattern of repeated sounds

Front 32

Rhythm

Back 32

recurrences of stressed and unstressed syllables at equal intervals, similar to meter

Front 33

Rising Action

Back 33

begins with the exposition and sets the stage for the climax

Front 34

Setting

Back 34

the time and place in which a story unfolds

Front 35

Simile

Back 35

a comparison of two unlike things using "like" or "as"

Front 36

Sonnet

Back 36

a fourteen line poem with a fixed rhyme scheme

Front 37

Stanza

Back 37

a major subdiviion in a poem

Front 38

Symbolism

Back 38

a device in literature where an object represents an idea

Front 39

Theme

Back 39

the general idea or insight about life that a writer wishes to express

Front 40

Tone

Back 40

expresses the author's attitude toward his or her subject

Front 41

Tragedy

Back 41

a protagonist is engaged in a morally significant struggle ending in ruin or profound disappointment