Midterm definitions Flashcards
The giving of personal characteristics to something that is not a person
Personification
The repetition of an idea in different words with the same grammatical form
Variation
The recurrence of consonants at the beginning of nearby tresses syllables
Alliteration
Professional minstrels who compose and recite tribal gatherings
Scop
A long, stylized narrative poem celebrating the deeds of a national hero
Epic
A break between words in a metrical foot
Caesura
Express personal, emotional feelings and traditionally spoken in the present tense
Lyric poetry
Intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive
Didactic
A formal poem lamenting the death of a particular person or meditating on the subject of death
Elegy
A metaphoric compound of two words
Kenning
The expression of an idea in a more roundabout, elegant way
Paraphrastic epithet
A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter
Genre
A poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas, traditionally unknown authorship and passed on orally
Ballad (folk/literary)
A narrative providing the framework for connecting a series of otherwise unrelated stories
Frame story
Two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by a rhyme, that form a unit
Couplet
Attitude of an writer toward a subject or audience
Tone
A stanza or poem of four lines, usually with alternating rhymes
Quatrains
A novel or other prose narrative depicting heroic or marvelous deeds, pageantry, romantic exploits usually in a historical or imaginary setting
Romance
Intended to convey instruction and info as well as pleasure and entertainment
Didacticism
Long, humorous poem written in mock-heroic style
Mock epic
(Storyline) the plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work
Plot
The dominant mood or emotional tone of a work of literature
Atmosphere
Extravagant statement or figure of speech not to be taken literally
Hyperbole
An artistic and poetic movement or style using symbolic images and indirect suggestion to suppress mystical ideas, emotions, and states of mind
Symbolism
The presentation of something being smaller, worse, or less important than it is
Understatement
A figure of speech that consists of the use of the name of one object to concept for that of another to which it is related or a part of
Metonymy
A highly artificial literary mode which centers on shepherds and idealizes rural settings
Pastoralism
Instruction in literature, writers and critics believe imaginative literature should have two purposes: to delight and teach
Didacticism
A lyric poem of fourteen iambic pentameter conventionally rhyming according to one of two patterns
Sonnet
The first eight lines called an octave rhyme “abbaabba.” The last six lines called a sestet may use any combination of any two or three new rhymes. (cdcdcdc, cdecde, cdedce)
Petrarchan or Italian sonnet
Consists of three quatrains and a closing couplet and rhymes “ababacdcdefefgg”
Shakespearean or English sonnet
The regular recurrence of accented syllables in a line of poetry
Meter
Identical sound in corresponding words or phrases
Rhyme
A four line stanza, one of the most common stanza forms in English poetry
Quatrain
A seeming contradiction
Paradox
The addressing of some no personal object as of it could reply
Apostrophe
The expression of one thing in terms of another/the stated or implied equivalence of two things
Metaphor
The recurring or emerging idea in a work of literature
Theme
A striking and often elaborate comparison carried out in considerate detail
Conceit
Unrhymed iambic pentameter
Blank verse
A speech addressed to an audience by an actor alone on stage
Soliloquy
A stage device in which a character briefly discloses his thoughts in the presence of others characters who by convention do not hear him
Aside
What did the Middle Ages (450-1485) consist of?
The Old English (450-1100) and Middle English periods (1100-1485)
What did the Renaissance (1485-1688) consist of?
The tudor period (1485-1603) and the Stuart period (1603-1688)
What did the Age of Revolution (1688-1832) consist of?
The neoclassical period (1688-1789) and the romantic period (1789-1832)
What did the age of reform (1832-present) consist of?
The Victorian period (1832-1914) and the modern period (1914-present)
