Literary Terms

Question 0

quest

Answer 0

a search for immortal life or some sort of secret knowledge

Question 1

archetype

Answer 1

symbols, images, or patterns that appear in the myths, literature, and visual art of many different peoples

Question 2

hero

Answer 2

a character whose actions are inspiring or noble

Question 3

conflict

Answer 3

a struggle between two forces

Question 4

pastoral poetry

Answer 4

poems that deal with the pleasures of a simple rural life or treat the longings and desires of simple people

Question 5

concrete language

Answer 5

the language that appeals to the senses: taste, touch, smell, sight, sound

Question 6

diction

Answer 6

a writer’s choice of words

Question 7

theme

Answer 7

the central idea, concern, or insight into life

Question 8

psalms

Answer 8

150 poems and hymns composed by many psalmist over a period of time known as “songs of praise” and express human feelings related to God such as joy, gratitude, fear, and despair

Question 9

personification

Answer 9

a figure of speech in which something nonhuman is described in human terms

Question 10

extended metaphor

Answer 10

a metaphor that is developed at length and includes several points of comparison

Question 11

qasidas

Answer 11

Arabian odes or poems

Question 12

prose

Answer 12

written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure.

Question 13

metaphor

Answer 13

a type of comparison that prompts us not only to see the similarities between two seemingly different things but to pretend that one thing is something totally different

Question 14

rubai

Answer 14

from the Arabic word for “four”
poems consisting of four lines, the first, second, and fourth of which rhyme with one another
poets use concise and vivid imagery to convey their message to the reader

Question 15

didactic literature

Answer 15

central to many religions
imparts moral lessons through simple stories that may take the form of short tales or fables and its purpose is to define the values of a society

Question 16

aphorism

Answer 16

a short pointed statement that expresses human truths

Question 17

folk tales

Answer 17

stories that were originally handed down orally among the common people of a particular culture and told in simple language that can be understood by virtually anyone

Question 18

parallelism

Answer 18

the use of similar grammatical constructions - words, phrases, or clauses - to express similar ideas

Question 19

antithesis

Answer 19

the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, expressed in parallel grammatical constructions

Question 20

synonym

Answer 20

a word that means roughly the same thing as another word

Question 21

antonym

Answer 21

a word that means the opposite of another word

Question 22

analogy

Answer 22

a comparison between two things, typically on the basis of their structure and for the purpose of explanation or clarification