Literary Elements Flashcards
Alliteration
the repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables
Allusion
a reference to a well-known person, character, place, or event that a writer makes to deepen the reader’s understanding of their work
Classic Hero
a character who possesses a great talent or ability that separates them from the rest of their contemporaries
Couplet
A pair of rhyming lines, usually the same length
Epic Poem
a long narrative poem about the deeds of extraordinary characters who, deal with gods or other forces, giving shape to the world for their descendants
Foreshadowing
a warning or indication of a future event
Hyperbole
exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally
Iambic pentameter
a rhythm structure, used most commonly in poetry, that combines unstressed syllables and stressed syllables in groups of five
Imagery
visually descriptive or figurative language
Metaphor
a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison
Oxymoron
a figure of speech where contradictory terms appear in conjunction
Personification
the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman
Protagonist
the leading character or one of the major characters
Pun
a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings
Quatrain
a stanza of four lines, especially one having alternate rhymes
rhetorical question
a question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer
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