Literary Terms #2

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

repetition of similar sounds close together

‘‘while I nodded, nearly napping…’’

Question 2

allegory

Answer 2

figurative work which carries a symbolic, metaphorical meaning (lion rep. Christ in Narnia)

Question 3

Allusion

Answer 3

Reference to something known (e.g. from history, culture, literature, religion etc.)

Question 4

Ambiguity

Answer 4

writer suggest two+ meanings in a work (e.g. heaven’s just a sin away)

Question 5

anaphora

Answer 5

repetition that occurs in beginning of sentence/clause/phrase (e.g. first letter in almost every word)

Question 6

apostrophe

Answer 6

addressing a person/object that is not present/addressing someone/thing directly

Question 7

assonance

Answer 7

deliberate repetition of internal vowel sounds to create rhythm, mood, emphasis

Question 8

blank verse

Answer 8

unrhymed iambic pentameter

Question 9

caesura

Answer 9

pause/comma in a line of poetry

Question 10

canon

Answer 10

those whose work is accepted as ‘‘the great ones’’

Question 11

characterization

Answer 11

protagonist, antagonist, antihero, persona, foil

Question 12

protagonist vs. antagonist

Answer 12

main character vs. the opponent

Question 13

antihero

Answer 13

lacks/seems to lack heroic traits

Question 14

persona

Answer 14

fictional character, often to distinguish the writer from the character in his work

Question 15

foil

Answer 15

character that contrasts another (e.g. Horatio to Hamlet)

Question 16

Characters:

Answer 16

dynamic (changes in important way ‘cause of plot)
static (does not change)
round (complex char., has dimensions to pers.)
flat (one-dimensional, can be summed up in a single phrase (e.g. loyal sidekick)

Question 17

coming-of-age

Answer 17

character is initiated into adulthood through experience/knowledge/loss of innocence

Question 18

plot

Answer 18

struggle/conflict in fiction. internal or external

Question 19

euphemism

Answer 19

substitution of negative/blunt words

died->passed away

Question 20

foreshadowing

Answer 20

use of hints to suggest what will happen later in the work

Question 21

free verse

Answer 21

poetry that is not rhymed and metered

Question 22

genre

Answer 22

literary form, e.g. tragedy, epic, comedy, novel, essay, biography, lyric poem

Question 23

hyperbole

Answer 23

overstatement/exaggeration

Question 24

understatement

Answer 24

states less than what is true/real

Question 25

imagery

Answer 25

use of language to evoke a concrete sensation of a person, thing, place, experience (words that appeal to touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing)

Question 26

inverted sentence

Answer 26

reverse normal word order (used for emphasis, to catch attention)

Question 27

irony

Answer 27

discrepancy between appearances and reality

Question 28

verbal irony

Answer 28

sarcasm, say one thing but mean another

Question 29

situational irony

Answer 29

discrepancy between what is appropriate to happen and what really happens

Question 30

dramatic irony

Answer 30

character thinks one thing is true but audience knows better

Question 31

meter

Answer 31

measurement of rhythm in poems, patterns resulting from heavy and light stresses on syllables

Question 32

foot: iamb
trochee
anapest

Answer 32

U /
/ U
U U /

Question 33

monometer

Answer 33

one foot

Question 34

dimeter

Answer 34

two feet

Question 35

trimeter

Answer 35

three feet

Question 36

tetrameter

Answer 36

four feet

Question 37

pentameter

Answer 37

five feet

Question 38

hexameter

Answer 38

six feet

Question 39

iambic pentameter

Answer 39

five pairs of U /

Question 40

trochaic tetrameter

Answer 40

four feet of / U

Question 41

metonymy

Answer 41

name of one thing is used for another (e.g. gray hair = age and wisdom, the crown = monarch)

Question 42

onomatopoeia

Answer 42

word whose sound echoes its meaning

Question 43

oxymoron

Answer 43

two contradictory terms combined (true lies, living dead)

Question 44

parable

Answer 44

short story that teaches a moral lesson

Question 45

paradox

Answer 45

a statement that seems self-contradictory but has valid meaning (I have a degree, but I know nothing)

Question 46

Parallel structure

Answer 46

repetition of words/phrases that have similar grammatical structures

Question 47

personification

Answer 47

giving human characteristics to objects, ‘‘personify’’

Question 48

point of view

Answer 48

perspective. first person (‘‘I’’)
omniscient narrator (knows everything
limited third person (p.o.v. of one char.)
objective p.o.v. (presents actions without comment)

Question 49

rhetorical question

Answer 49

asked for effect, does not need answering

Question 50

satire

Answer 50

based on criticism of people/society through ridicule

Question 51

simile

Answer 51

uses the words ‘‘as’’ or ‘‘like’’ to compare things (as soft as lamb)

Question 52

metaphor

Answer 52

does not use ‘‘as’’ or ‘‘like’’, compares things without those extra words (John’s head is a computer)

Question 53

stanza form

Answer 53

(stanza: group of lines) couplet: two lines
trecet: three lines
quatrain: four lines
cinquain: five lines
sestet: six lines
octave: eight lines

Question 54

symbol

Answer 54

something that has a meaning for itself and stands for something else as well (dove=peace)

Question 55

lyric poem

Answer 55

short poem, speaker expresses feelings/comment about life/descriptive. speaker is often the poet

Question 56

dramatic poem

Answer 56

tells a story, character(s) talk, speaker is not the poet

Question 57

ballad

Answer 57

story in song form, usual theme is love

Question 58

elegy

Answer 58

mournful poem (e.g. In Memoriam by Tennyson)

Question 59

ode

Answer 59

song in honor of gods or heroes, many of Greek origin

Question 60

sonnet

Answer 60

poem of fourteen lines, many types

Question 61

Shakespearian sonnet

Answer 61

iambic pentameter, three quatrains and one couplet, rhyme: abab, cdcd, efef etc.

Question 62

Spenserian sonnet

Answer 62

first 12 lines form a single unit, last two are separated, rhyme: ababbcbccdcd,,ee

Question 63

Italian sonnet

Answer 63

eight line stanza (octave) and sestet stanza, rhyme: abba, abba, cde, cde (e.g. Sonnets from the Portugese)

Question 64

epic

Answer 64

long serious poem that tells a story of a hero, he often has superhuman traits (e.g. Beowulf, Odyssey)

Question 65

haiku

Answer 65

three line poem which makes a statement, lines have 5-7-5 syllables