literary terms part one

Question 1

allegory

Answer 1

a symbolic story (often didactic and moralistic) in which each aspect or character represents a deeper meanin

Question 2

alliteration

Answer 2

repetition consonant sounds

Question 3

allusion

Answer 3

indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance

Question 4

ambiguous

Answer 4

language with simultaneous different meanings

Question 5

ambivalence

Answer 5

co-existence of two opposing attitudes or feelings

Question 6

analogy

Answer 6

figure of speech in which comparison is based on resemblance between two things

Question 7

anaphora

Answer 7

repetition of words or phrases at the start of successive sentences or clauses

Question 8

anthropomorphism

Answer 8

attribute human characteristics to animals or objects

Question 9

antithesis

Answer 9

opposition of ideas juxtaposed in a text

Question 10

aside

Answer 10

speech in drama which is heard by the audience but not the other characters

Question 11

ballad

Answer 11

a narrative poem structured in quatrains with an ABAB rhyme

Question 12

bawdy

Answer 12

indecent, sexual humour

Question 13

bathos

Answer 13

a ridiculous statement within a serious speech

Question 14

blank verse

Answer 14

unrhyming verse

Question 15

caesura

Answer 15

a pause within a line of poetry