Literary Terms 1 Flashcards
Allegory
A story in which the characters and actions make literal sense as well as signify a second story. “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” is a religious allegory. Aslan is Christ and Edmund is Judas.
Alliteration
the repetition of sounds, especially beginning consonants in a sequence of words. “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”
Apostrophe
a direct address to either a person or entity; many odes begin by addressing the subject of the poem. Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” uses apostrophe:
“Is this a dagger which I see before me,
“The handle toward my hand?
“Come, let me clutch thee
“I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.”
Assonance
the repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds in a sequence of words. Creates internal rhyming within phrases. Cormac McCarthy: “And stepping softly with her air of blooded ruin about the glade in a frail agony of grace she trailed her rags through dust and ashes, circling the dead fire, the charred billets and chalk bones, the little calcined ribcage.”
Aubade
a song meant to be played or sung in the morning. Often about lovers separating at dawn. John Donne’s “The Sunne Rising”
Ballad
a song, transmitted orally, which tells a story about hardship, love, romance, and tragedy. “Ballad of Hollis Brown” by Bob Dylan.
Bildungsroman
a novel of education that tells the story of the protagonist’s growth into adulthood. Often, the novel begins with a tragedy, leaving protagonist in a vacuum. “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee.
Breton Lay (Bretan Lai)
(fourteenth-century) poems written in the style of Marie de France. Typically short, 600-1000 lines. Rhymed tales of love and chivalry, often fairy-tale esque. Chaucer’s “The Franklin’s Tale” is an example.
Cacophony
language that sounds harsh and unmusical to the ear. “I hate causes because causes are silly.”
Caesura
a strong pause which occurs within a line of poetry. “Mozart–oh how your music makes me soar!”
Conceit
an extended comparison of two dissimilar things, used for poetic effect. See “Romeo and Juliet”:
“Thou counterfeit’st a bark, a sea, a wind;
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is,
Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, thy sighs;
Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them,
Without a sudden calm, will overset
Thy tempest-tossed body.”
Juliet is compared to a ship at sea.
Connotation
the thoughts and feelings associated with a word outside of its dictionary meaning. Can be positive, negative, or neutral.
Consonance
the repetition of consonants in a sequence of words. E.g. chuckle, fickle, and kick are consonant with one another because of /ck/ sound. The ship has sailed to far off shores.
Courtly Love
an aristocratic code of love, wherein love was viewed as a religious passion. The devoted love between the knight and the beloved lady was ennobling and forever unfulfilled. Debate still underway as to whether Courtly Love was really practiced or if it was just a literary device. Chaucer’s “Troylus and Criseyde” well known example.
Denotation
the dictionary definition of a word, its primary meaning.
