Literary Terms Flashcards
Alliteration
The repetition of the same consonants (usually the initial sounds of words or of stressed syllables) at the start of several words or syllables in sequence or in close proximity to each other.
Anaphora
Repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of consecutive syntactic units. e.g. “Life is short, life is fragile, life is precious”
Apostrophe
As a literary device, apostrophe refers to a speech or address to a person who is not present or to a personified object, such as Yorick’s skull in Hamlet.
Assonance
Used to describe the repetition of vowel sounds in neighbouring syllables. ‘Deep sea’ is an example of assonance.
Asyndeton
The omission of a conjunction from a list (‘chips, beans, peas, vinegar, salt, pepper’)
Blank verse
Is the metre most frequently used by Shakespeare. It consists of an unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Caesura
A pause or breathing-place about the middle of a metrical line, generally indicated by a pause in the sense.
Couplet
A rhymed pair of lines, which are usually of the same length.
Enjambment
The effect achieved when the syntax of a line of verse transgresses the limits set by the metre at the end of the verse.
End-stopping
The effect achieved when the syntax of a line coincides with the metrical boundary at the end of a line. The contrary of enjambment.
Free Verse
Verse in which the metre and line length vary, and in which there is no discernible pattern in the use of rhyme.
Homophones
Words which sound exactly the same but which have different meanings (‘maid’ and ‘made’).
Iambic pentameter
An line in which the dominant accent usually falls on the second syllable of each foot five times.
Irony
Irony says one thing and means its opposite. The word is used often of consciously inappropriate or understated utterances (so two walkers in the pouring rain greet each other with ‘lovely day!’, ‘yes, isn’t it’).
Metaphor
The transfer of a quality or attribute from one thing or idea to another in such a way as to imply some resemblance between the two things or ideas: ‘his eyes blazed’ implies that his eyes become like a fire.
Onomatopoeia
The use of words or sounds which appear to resemble the sounds which they describe. Some words are themselves onomatopoeic, such as ‘snap, crackle, pop.’
Personification
The attribution to a non-animate thing of human attributes.
Polysyndeton
The use of multiple conjunctions, usually where they are not strictly necessary (‘chips and beans and fish and egg and peas and vinegar and tomato sauce’).
Refrain
A repeated line, phrase or group of lines, which recurs at regular intervals through a poem usually at the end of a stanza.
Register
The level of formality/style in language that’s determined by the context in which it is spoken or written.
Rhyme
When two or more words or phrases contain an identical or similar vowel-sound, and the consonant-sounds that follow are identical or similar (red and dead).
