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English > Literary Terms > Flashcards

Literary Terms Flashcards

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Proverbs and Idioms flashcards
1
Q

Allegory

A

Story with a hidden meaning

-George Orwell’s Animal Farm

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2
Q

Alliteration

A

repetition of constant sounds

-Nick’s nephew needed new notebooks now not never.

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3
Q

Allusion

A

reference to a character or event

-“He was a real Romeo with the ladies.”

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4
Q

Antithesis

A

Using opposite phrases in close conjunction

  • Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
  • Man proposes, God disposes.
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5
Q

Apostrophe

A

author address an absent person or abstract idea

-Lorenz Hart, “Blue Moon”

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6
Q

Assonance

A

The repetition of similar vowel sounds

-Try to light the fire

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7
Q

Ballad

A

poem with a serious subject

  • “Ballata 5” by Guido Cavalcanti
  • “Ballad of the Gibbet” by Francois Villon
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8
Q

Blank Verse

A

verse don’t rhythm

-Macbeth by William Shakespeare

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9
Q

Conceit

A

fancy image of two dissimilar thing have a relationship

-Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?by William Shakespeare

-All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances

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10
Q

Connotation

A

The feelings or emotions surrounding a word.

-childlike and childish

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11
Q

Couplet

A

two lines of rhyming poetry

-“I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.” - Joyce Kilmer

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12
Q

Denotation

A

direct meaning of a word

-Cheap(low cost)

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13
Q

Diction

A

The choice and use of words

  • Thy
  • Thee
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14
Q

English sonnet

A

3 quatrain (2 couplet - 18 lines)

-Sonnet 18 - Shakespeare

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15
Q

Petrarchan sonnet

A

2 part (8 lines / 6 lines)

  • Poem 292 - The SongBook
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16
Q

Epic

A

narrative about a significant event, often featuring a hero.

  • “The Divine Comedy” - Dante
  • Epic of Gilgamesh
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17
Q

Figurative language

A

Describe something by comparing it with something else.

  • Alright, the sky misses the sun at night.
  • The poorest man is the richest, and the rich are poor.
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18
Q

Hyperbole

A

exaggeration is used for emphasis

-“I’ve told you a million times”

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19
Q

Imagery

A

vivid descriptive language that appeals to the senses

-On a starry winter night in Portugal

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20
Q

Verbal irony

A

occurs when people say the opposite of what they mean.

  • The cake is as soft as concrete”
  • “Water is as clear as mud
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21
Q

Situational irony

A

the situation is different from what common sense indicates it is.

-A man who is a traffic cop gets his license suspended for unpaid parking tickets.

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22
Q

Dramatic irony

A

characters know less than the audience

-Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. When Romeo finds Juliet in a drugged sleep, he assumes her to be dead and kills himself. Upon awakening to find her dead lover beside her, Juliet then kills herself.

23
Q

Metaphor

A

describe by implying that two different thing are related

  • Time is a thief
  • He is the apple of my eye
24
Q

Metonymy

A

Substitution of word because of the word closely related

  • Crown - in place of a royal person
  • The White House - in place of the President or others who work there
25
Q

Narrative poem

A

a poem that tell a story

  • The Divine Comedy - Dante
  • The epic of gilgamesh
26
Q

Mood

A

the atmosphere of a piece of literature

  • Amuse
  • Jubilant
27
Q

Ode

A

A lyric poem of a serious subject

“An Ode to Halloween”

28
Q

Onomatopoeia

A

Word use to imitate sound

  • Hiss
  • Buzz
29
Q

Oxymoron

A

a statement with two parts which seem contradictory

  • Sad joy
  • Wise fool
30
Q

Paradox

A

Statements whose two parts seem contradictory yet make sense with more thought

  • They have ear but hear not
  • Deep down here’s really very shallow
31
Q

Personification

A

given human attributes to inanimate objects.

  • The wind whispered
  • The teddy bear hug him
32
Q

Pun

A

a play on words

  • I met this girl in internet café, but we did not click
  • I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. It’s impossible to put down.
33
Q

Refrain

A

a regularly recurring phrase or verse.

  • Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening - Robert Frost
  • annabel lee edgar allan poe
34
Q

Satire

A

Ridicule human foolishness

-Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

35
Q

Stanza

A

a group of lines within a poem.

-Nothing Gold Can Stay - Robert Frost

36
Q

Symbol

A

something that stands for or represents another thing.

  • Dove is a symbol of peace.
  • Rose rose stands for love.
37
Q

Synecdoche.

A

a part represent a whole or whole represent a part

  • The word “wheels” refers to a vehicle.
  • US win gold medal - team from usa not the country
38
Q

Theme

A

the main idea of a text

  • Man struggles against nature
  • Overcoming adversity
39
Q

Tone

A

The writer’s attitude toward the material

  • Atticus was feeble: he was nearly fifty.”
  • “The course of true love never did run smooth.”
40
Q

Understatement

A

make a situation less than it is

  • “The desert is sometimes dry and sandy” -
  • “It’s just a scratch”
41
Q

Analogy

A

comparison between two different things

  • You are as annoying as nails on a chalkboard.
  • Life is like a box of chocolates.
42
Q

Pathos

A

persuade an audience by appealing to their emotions.

  • “Doctors all over the world recommend this type of treatment.”
  • “Made in China”
43
Q

Ethos

A

convince an audience of the author’s credibility.

  • President Obama’s Acceptance Speech
  • Michael Jordan’s Nike commercial
44
Q

Logos

A

convince an audience by use of logic or reason

  • Car accidents rise 10% during the first week of daylight savings time.
  • 3/4 of people do not know fractions
45
Q

Epiphany

A

a character has a sudden insight that change his or her understanding.

-Hamlet - Shakespeare

46
Q

Malaprop

A

The mistaken use of a word in place of a similar sounding one.

  • dance a flamingo
  • Rainy weather can be hard on the sciences
47
Q

Commedia dell’arte

A

Humorous theatrical presentation.

  • Mezzetin
  • A dance in the Country
48
Q

Parody

A

a work for comic effect

  • Will you veddy much bring me a coke please?”
  • Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat”
49
Q

Stream of consciousness

A

Flow of thought of character as they occur

  • Les Lauriers sont Coupes”
  • “The Sound and the Fury”
50
Q

Flashback

A

a shift to an earlier point in time

-Birches - Robert Frost

51
Q

Foreshadowing

A

Hinting that something will occur

-Shakespeare’s Macbeth

52
Q

Euphemism

A

word use to soften meaning

-Passed away instead of died

53
Q

enjambment

A

A run-on line of poetry

- Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale

English (13 decks)

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