Literary Terms Flashcards
Simile
A figure in which a similarity between two objects is directly expressed. Most are introduced by as, like, than, liken, or resemble.
Elegy
A sustained formal poem setting forth meditations on death or another solemn theme.
Metaphor
An analogy identifying one object with another and ascribing to the first object one or more qualities of the second.
Heteromerous Rhyme (Mosaic Rhyme)
A fairly rare species of multiple rhyme where one word is forced into a rhyme with to or more words. Ex. “Intellectual” with “you all”
Senryu
A form of Japanese poetry that states- in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables- a different spirit, relying on humor or satire rather than related to the seasons.
Sigmatism
Frequent use of the “s” sound or a faulty enunciation.
Sonnet
A poem of 14 lines following one of several set rhyme schemes.
Elision
The omission of part of a word. Ex. “Th’ orient” for “the orient”
Rhyme Scheme
The pattern in which rhyme sounds occur in a stanza.
Feminine Ending
An extra metrical unstressed syllable added to the end of a line in iambic or anapestic rhyme.
Sestet
The second, six-lined division of an Italian Sonnet. Technically, any six-line poem or stanza.
Masculine Ending
A line of verse that ends on a stressed syllable, as does any regular iambic line.
Connotation
The emotional implications and associations that words may carry.
Tautology
The use of repetitious words. Repeats an idea without adding force or clarity. Ex. “Completely empty” or “ wholly devoid”
Couplet
Two consecutive lines of verse with end rhymes.
Denotation
The basic meaning of a word, independent of its emotional coloration or associations.
Ploce
A kind of repetition whereby different forms and senses of a word are “woven” through an utterance. Ex. “Mail the mail”
Enjambment
The continuation of the sense and grammatical construction of a line on to the next verse or couplet. Also known as run-on line.
Parable
An illustrative story teaching a lesson.
Lay
A song or short narrative.
Quatrain
A stanza of four lines.
Mood
The emotional-intellectual attitude of the author toward the subject.
Tercet
A stanza of three lines. A triplet.
Volta
The turn in thought - from question to answer.
Theme
A central idea. Maybe thought of as the general topic of discussion.
Octave
An eight lined stanza. Synonym for “octet”
Imagery
The collection of images in a literary work.
Tone
The attitudes toward the subject and toward the audience implied in a literary work.
Polyptoton
The repetition in close proximity of words that have the same roots. Ex. The Greeks are strong and skillful in their strength.
Masculine Rhyme
Rhyme that falls on the stressed concluding syllables of the rhyme words.
Anaphora (Parallelism)
One of the devices of repetition, in which the same expression (word or words) is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines or clauses.
Metonymy
The substitution of the name of an object closely associated with a word for the word itself. Ex. “The crown” for a king
Alliteration
The repetition of initial consonant sounds or any vowel sounds in successive or closely associated syllables.
Double Entendre
A statement that is deliberately ambiguous, one of whose possible meanings is risqué or suggestive of impropriety.
Redende Name (Nominal Symbolism)
German for “Speaking name”. A name that is significant. Having a character that is a dentist with the name Payne is an example.
Analogue
A cognate or a word in one language corresponding with another. Ex. Mother in English is mater in Latin.
Echo
A subtle, complex, and multifarious acoustic phenomenon involving a faint repetition inside a work.
Assonance
Patterning of vowel sounds without regards to consonants. The patterning may be successive, alternating, or chiastic.
Synesthesia
The concurrent response of two or more of the senses to the stimulation of one. For example, “a loud shirt” or “ the sweet sound of music”
Allusion
A figure of speech that makes a brief reference to a historical or literary figure, event, or object.
Idiom
A use of words peculiar to a given language; an expression that cannot be translated literally. Ex. “I’ll be there shortly”
Feminine Rhyme
A rhyme in which the rhyming stressed syllables are followed by an undifferentiated identical unstressed syllable.
Synecdoche
A trope in which a part signifies the whole or the whole signifies the part. Ex. “Wheels” for a car
Meter
The recurrence in poetry of rhythmic patten or the rhythm established by the regular occurrence of similar units of sound.
Prosthesis
The addition of a syllable at the beginning of a word. Ex. - “a-cold”
Allegory
A form of extended metaphor in which objects, persons, places, and actions in a narrative are equated with meanings outside the narrative.
Inversion
The placing of a sentence element out of its normal position. Ex. “House fair” or “lady beautiful”
Anastrophe (Hyperbaton)
Inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence.
Paradox
A statement that although seemingly contradictory or absurd may actually be well-founded or true.
Symbol
Something that it itself and stands for something else. For example, a flag stands for a particular country.
Rebus
A text in which ordinary verbal symbols are supplemented by pictures and other devices to suggest total meaning. Ex. - “IOU” for I owe you
Antithesis
A figure of speech characterized by strongly contrasting words, clauses, sentences, or ideas. A balancing of one term against another.
Litotes
A form of understatement in which a thing is affirmed by stating the negative of its opposite. For example, “not unbecoming” or “not bad” for good
Pun
A play on words based on the similarity of sound between two words with different meanings.
Oxymoron
A self-contradictory combination of words or smaller verbal units.
Haiku
A form of Japanese poetry that states- in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables a clear picture designed to arouse a distinct emotion. Usually about nature.
Chiasmus
A pattern in which the second part is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed. Ex. “Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike”
Consonance
The relation between words in which the final consonants in the stressed syllables agree but the vowels that precede them differ.
Motif
A simple element that serves as a basis for expanded narrative; or, less strictly, a conventional situation, device, interest, or incident.
Eye Rhyme
Rhyme that appears correct from the spelling but is not so from the pronunciation, as “watch” and “match”
Apostrophe
A figure of speech in which someone (usually absent), some abstract quality, or personage is addressed as though present.
Terza Rima
A three-lined stanza, supposedly designed by Dante with the rhyme scheme aba bcb cdc ded and so forth.
Onomatopoeia
Words that by their sound suggest their meaning. Ex. “Hiss”, “buzz”, and “sizzle”
