Exam 1: Literary Terms

Question 1

the appeal to emotion

Answer 1

pathos

Question 2

a lyric poem of fourteen lines, written in iambic pentameter with a fixed rhyme scheme

Answer 2

sonnet

Question 3

the repetition of consonant sound sin successive words

Answer 3

alliteration

Question 4

a rhetorical figure by which a subject matter is expanded upon; the boosting of a main point in an argument to increase its importance or effect

Answer 4

amplification

Question 5

A rhetorical device that features contrasting words or phrases in a strong parallel structure. Example from Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

Answer 5

antitheses

Question 6

a direct, implicit comparison between two unlike things (does not use like, as, or than); shows that something unknown can be understood because it is similar to something known.

Answer 6

metaphor

Question 7

a poem or work that celebrates the joys of simple rural life, often features an idyllic world of nature, bucolic landscapes, and a shepherd addressing a shepherdess, whom he loves; usually a lyric poem

Answer 7

pastoral

Question 8

“a turn of thought”

Answer 8

volta

Question 9

a short poem expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker

Answer 9

lyric poem

Question 10

the comparison of two unlike things with the use of like, as, or than; shows that something unknown can be understood because it is similar to something known

Answer 10

simile

Question 11

the appeal to reason

Answer 11

logos

Question 12

a two-line stanza in poetry, usually rhymed, which tends to have lines of equal length

Answer 12

couplet

Question 13

the order in which rhymed words occur

Answer 13

rhyme scheme

Question 14

the appeal that comes from the quality of the speaker’s character

Answer 14

ethos

Question 15

four metrical feet per line

Answer 15

tetrameter

Question 16

the repetition of a word or words at the beginning of two or more lines, phrases, or clauses

Answer 16

anaphora

Question 17

a figure of speech in which someone (usually absent), an abstract quality, or a non-existent personage is addressed as though present

Answer 17

apostrophe

Question 18

a figure of speech that gives human qualities to animals, inanimate objects, or ideas

Answer 18

personification

Question 19

Similarity of structure in a pair or series of words, phrases, or clauses. Said another way: keeping words phrases, and clauses in the same grammatical form. Example from Jane Eyre: “The ground was hard, the air was still, my road was lonely.”

Answer 19

parallelism

Question 20

In poetry, this is the term we use to refer to the narrating voice. (In short stories and novels, we refer to the narrating voice as the narrator.)

Answer 20

speaker

Question 21

the repetition of identical words (or phrases) in successive clauses, but presented in inverted order

Answer 21

antimetabole

Question 22

the recurrence of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of poetry

Answer 22

meter

Question 23

the repetition of two or more parallel clauses/ideas, but presented in inverted order using different words

Answer 23

chiasmus

Question 24

A line that has five feet per line (ten syllables total). Each metrical foot has two syllables, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

Answer 24

iambic pentameter

Question 25

the scanning of a line of poetry to mark its stresses and meter

Answer 25

scansion

Question 26

the central, most important idea in a poem, novel, or play

Answer 26

Central One Idea

Question 27

the rhyme of a stressed one-syllable word at the end of a line (or if the word has more than one syllable, then the last syllable is stressed)

Answer 27

masculine rhyme

Question 28

attributing human emotions and actions to inanimate objects of nature

Answer 28

pathetic fallacy

Question 29

a rhyme of two or more syllables, with the stress on a syllable other than the last

Answer 29

feminine rhyme

Question 30

a word of series of words that refers to any sensory experience; a direct or literal recreation of physical experience

Answer 30

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