Lit terms

Question 1

Accent

Answer 1

A syllable given more prominence in pronunciation than its neighbors

Question 2

Allegory

Answer 2

A narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface one

Question 3

Alliteration

Answer 3

The repetition at close intervals of the initial consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words

Question 4

Allusion

Answer 4

a reference, explicit or implicit, to something in literature

Question 5

Anapest

Answer 5

A metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables followed by one accented symbol

Question 6

Anapestic meter

Answer 6

A meter in which a majority of the feet are anapests

Question 7

Anaphora

Answer 7

Repetition of an opening word or phrase in a series of lines

Question 8

Apostrophe

Answer 8

A figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and could reply

Question 9

Approximate Rhyme

Answer 9

a term used for words in a rhyming pattern that have some kind of sound correspondence but occasionally in patterns where most of the rhymes are perfect and sometimes are used systematically in place of perfect rhyme

Question 10

assonance

Answer 10

the repetition at close intervals of the vowel sounds of accented syllables or important words

Question 11

Aubade

Answer 11

A poem about dawn; a morning love song; or a poem about the parting of lovers at dawn

Question 12

Ballad

Answer 12

A fairly short narrative poem written in a songlike stanza form

Question 13

Blank Verse

Answer 13

unrhymed iambic pentameter

Question 14

Cacophony

Answer 14

a harsh, discordant, unpleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds

Question 15

Caesura

Answer 15

A speech pause occurring within a line. See grammatical pause and rhetorical pause.

Question 16

Connotation

Answer 16

what a word suggests beyond its basic dictionary definition; a word’s overtones of meaning

Question 17

Consonance

Answer 17

the repetition at close intervals of the final consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words

Question 18

Continuous form

Answer 18

the form of a poem in which the lines follow each other without formal grouping, the only breaks being dictated by units of meaning

Question 19

Couplet

Answer 19

two successive lines, usually in the same meter, linked by rhyme

Question 20

Dactyl

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Dactylic meter

Answer 21

a meter in which a majority of the feet are dactyls

Question 22

Denotation

Answer 22

the basic definition or dictionary meaning of a word

Question 23

didactic poetry

Answer 23

poetry having as a primary purpose to teach or preach

Question 24

dimeter

Answer 24

a metrical line containing two feet

Question 25

Dramatic framework

Answer 25

the situation whether actual or fictional, realistic or fanciful, in which an author places his or her characters in order to express the theme

Question 26

Dramatic Irony

Answer 26

see irony

Question 27

Duple meter

Answer 27

A meter in which a majority of the feet contain two syllables. Iambic and trochaic are both duple meters

Question 28

End rhyme

Answer 28

Rhymes that occur at the ends of the lines

Question 29

End-stopped line

Answer 29

a line that ends with a natural speech pause, usually marked by punctuation

Question 30

English (Shakespearean)

Answer 30

A sonnet rhyming

Question 31

Euphony

Answer 31

A smooth, pleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds

Question 32

Expected Rhyme

Answer 32

The rhythmic expectation set up by the basic meter of a poem

Question 33

Extended figure

Answer 33

A figure of speech sustained or developed through a considerable number of lines or through a whole poem

Question 34

Extended metaphor

Answer 34

extended simile (extended figure)

Question 35

Extrametrical syllables

Answer 35

In metrical verse, extra unaccented syllables added at the beginnings or endings of lines; these may be either a feature of the metrical form of a poem

Question 36

Feminine Rhyme

Answer 36

a rhyme in which the repeated accented vowel is in either the second or third-last syllable of the words involved

Question 37

Figurative Language

Answer 37

Language employing figures of speech; language that cannot be taken literally or only literally

Question 38

Figure of speech

Answer 38

Broadly, any way of saying something other than the ordinary way

Question 39

Fixed Form

Answer 39

Any form of poem in which the length and pattern are prescribed by previous usage or tradition, such as sonnet, villanelle, and so on

Question 40

Folk ballad

Answer 40

A narrative poem designed to be sung, composed by an anonymous author, and transmitted orally for years or generations before being written down. It has usually undergone modification through the process of oral transmission

Question 41

Foot

Answer 41

the basic unit used in the scansion or measurement of metrical verse. A foot usually contains one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables

Question 42

Form

Answer 42

the external pattern or shape of a poem, describable without reference to its content, as continuous form, stanzaic form, fixed form, free verse , and syllabic verse

Question 43

Free Verse

Answer 43

Non-metrical poetry in which the basic rhythmic unit is the line and in which pauses, line breaks, and formal patterns develop organically from the requirements of the individual poem rather than from established poetic form

Question 44

Grammatical pause

Answer 44

A pause introduced into the reading of a line, usually by a mark of punctuation

Question 45

Heard Rhythm

Answer 45

the actual rhythm of a metrical poem as we hear it when it is read naturally. The heard rhythm mostly conforms to but sometimes departs from or modifies the expected rhythm

Question 46

Hexameter

Answer 46

a metrical line containing six feet

Question 47

Hyperbole

Answer 47

an overstatment

Question 48

Iamb

Answer 48

A metrical foot consisting of one unaccented syllable followed by on accented syllable

Question 49

Iambic meter

Answer 49

a meter in which the majority of feet are iambs; the most common english meter

Question 50

Imagery

Answer 50

the representation through language of sense experience

Question 51

Internal rhyme

Answer 51

a rhyme in which one or both of the rhyme words occur(s) within the line

Question 52

Irony

Answer 52

A situation, or a use of language, involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy. Three kinds of irony are distinguished in this book

Question 53

Verbal irony

Answer 53

A figure of speech in which what is meant is the opposite of what is said