Literary Terms

Question 1

a brief, comprehensive summary of the contents of an article

Answer 1

abstract

Question 2

a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one

Answer 2

allegory

Question 3

the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words

Answer 3

alliteration

Question 4

an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference

Answer 4

allusion

Question 5

the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses

Answer 5

anaphora

Question 6

a figure of speech in which an opposition or contrast of ideas is expressed by parallelism of words that are the opposites of, or strongly contrasted with, each other

Answer 6

antithesis

Question 7

a punctuation mark used to indicate either possession or the omission of letters or numbers

Answer 7

apostrophe

Question 8

when a character in a work of fiction addresses the audience directly for a moment to either express a truth, reveal a feeling, or comment on the events of the story

Answer 8

aside

Question 9

the repetition of vowel sounds across a line of text or poetry

Answer 9

assonance

Question 10

poetry written in unrhymed but metered lines, almost always iambic pentameter

Answer 10

blank verse

Question 11

A stop or pause in a metrical line, often marked by punctuation or by a grammatical boundary, such as a phrase or clause

Answer 11

caesura

Question 12

the purification or purgation of the emotions (especially pity and fear) primarily through art

Answer 12

catharsis

Question 13

a storytelling genre that uses laughter and humor in order to entertain and amuse

Answer 13

comedy

Question 14

A resemblance in sound between two words, or an initial rhyme

Answer 14

consonance

Question 15

a pair of end-rhymed lines of verse that are self-contained in grammatical structure and meaning

Answer 15

couplet

Question 16

choice of words, especially with regard to correctness, clearness, or effectiveness

Answer 16

diction

Question 17

A poem in which an imagined speaker addresses a silent listener, usually not the reader

Answer 17

dramatic monologue

Question 18

a song or poem expressing sorrow or lamentation, especially for one who is dead

Answer 18

elegy

Question 19

a poetic term for the continuation of a sentence or phrase from one line of poetry to the next

Answer 19

enjambment

Question 20

long narrative poem recounting heroic deeds

Answer 20

epic

Question 21

a figure of speech that is an intentional exaggeration for emphasis or comic effect

Answer 21

hyperbole

Question 22

The most common meter in English verse. It consists of a line ten syllables long that is accented on every second beat

Answer 22

iambic pentameter

Question 23

whenever a person says something or does something that departs from what they (or we) expect them to say or do

Answer 23

irony

Question 24

a comparison between two things that are otherwise unrelated

Answer 24

metaphor

Question 25

A revival of classical aesthetics and forms

Answer 25

neoclassicism

Question 26

“it does not follow”
a conclusion that does not follow from the statements that lead to it

Answer 26

non-sequitur

Question 27

An eight-line stanza or poem

Answer 27

octave

Question 28

A formal, often ceremonious lyric poem that addresses and often celebrates a person, place, thing, or idea

Answer 28

ode

Question 29

statement that appears to contradict itself, but upon further rumination, either reveals a deeper meaning or actually makes sense

Answer 29

paradox

Question 30

class of literature that presents the society of shepherds as free from the complexity and corruption of city life

Answer 30

pastoral

Question 31

the person who is understood to be speaking (or thinking or writing) a particular work

Answer 31

persona

Question 32

attribution of personal qualities

Answer 32

personification

Question 33

the vantage point from which a story is presented

Answer 33

point of view

Question 34

the repetition of syllables, typically at the end of a line

Answer 34

rhyme

Question 35

an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century
The movement was characterized by a celebration of nature and the common man, a focus on individual experience, an idealization of women, and an embrace of isolation and melancholy

Answer 35

romanticism

Question 36

the art of making someone or something look ridiculous, raising laughter in order to embarrass, humble, or discredit its targets.

Answer 36

satire

Question 37

The analysis of the metrical patterns of a poem by organizing its lines into feet of stressed and unstressed syllables and showing the major pauses, if any

Answer 37

scansion

Question 38

the act of talking to oneself

Answer 38

soliloquy

Question 39

A 14-line poem with a variable rhyme scheme

Answer 39

sonnet

Question 40

a narrator: one who tells a story

Answer 40

speaker

Question 41

an object, a person, a situation, or an action that has a literal meaning in a story but suggests or represents other meanings

Answer 41

symbol

Question 42

a verse form composed of iambic tercets (three-line groupings)

Answer 42

terza rima

Question 43

a literary device that reflects the writer’s attitude toward the subject matter or audience of a literary work

Answer 43

tone

Question 44

branch of drama that treats in a serious and dignified style the sorrowful or terrible events encountered or caused by a heroic individual

Answer 44

tragedy

Question 45

A French verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas

Answer 45

villanelle