Midterm-Terms Flashcards
The expression of an idea in a roundabout, more elegant way
Periphrastic Epithet
The repetition of an idea an different words with the same grammatical form
Variation
A metaphoric compound of two words
Kenning
A long, stylized narrative poem celebrating the deeds of a national hero
Epic
Concerned with teaching; its method is to implant a pattern of heroic conduct in the reader’s mind
Didactic
A standard type or category of literature
Genres
A concise, anonymous narrative poem intended to be sung; characterized by simple verse
Ballad
The recurrence of consonant sounds at the beginning of nearby stressed syllables
Alliteration
The giving of personal characteristics to something that is not a person
Personification
Wondering minstrels; sang to entertain chieftains, Warriors, and their retainers in mead halls
Scop
Major pauses within lines marked in scansion by a double bar
Caesura
Traditionally a short, melodic, personally expressive poem; a poem that isn’t long, narrative, dramatic (in sense of being written to be acted out), or expository (written merely to convey info)
Lyric Poetry
Any poem of solemn meditation; a formal poem lamenting the death of a particular person or meditating on the subject of death itself
Elegy
The Anglo-Saxon concept of Fate
Wyrd
A moral fable in which animals act the parts of humans
Beats Fable
A short, simple narrative song.
Ballad
Characteristically impersonal, compressed, dramatic (in use of dialogue and absence of transitions), ritualistic in effect (through the use of various devices and repetition), and simple in stanza form
Folk Ballad
A poem that tells a story
Literary Ballad
A secondary story or stories embedded in the main story
Frame story
A pair of rhymed lines
Couplets
The attitude of a work toward its subject; the emotional view of the subject (indignation, awe, compassion, derision, etc) the reader is meant to share with the author.
Tone
Amour line stanza p, one of the most common stanza forms in English poetry
Quatrains
The typical long narrative poem; generally includes elements of the supernatural-enchanters, Giants, dragons, prophetic visions, magic tokens- and often romantic love, which was subject to special “rules”.
Romance
Instruction in literature; to delight and to teach; literature should give both pleasure and wisdom. Essential to the highest literary achievement.
Didacticism
As a genre or an ingredient of satire, ridicules a subject by treating it in high heroic terms while allowing its triviality to appear
Mock epic
A connected series of incidents; the connecting principle is not chronological but casual
Plot
The emotion pervading a work
Atmosphere
Exaggeration that implies less than what is sold
Hyperbole
An object that stands for something else as well as for itself; points to a meaning beyond itself
Symbolism
Implies more than what is said
Understatement
The substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant
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 to teach
Didacticism
A lyric poem of fourteen iambic-pentameter lines conventionally rhyming acceding to one of two patterns
Sonnet
The first eight lines, called the octave, rhyme abbaabba. The last six lines called, the setset may use and combination of two or three new rhymes. For example, cdcdcd, cdecde, cdecd. (Introduced in England by Sir Thomas Wyatt)
Petrarechian or Italian Sonnet
Consists of the three quatrains and closing couplet and rhymes ababcdcdefefgg (improvised by the Earl of Surrey and refined by Shakespeare)
Shakespearean or English Sonnet
The regular recurrence of accented syllables in a line of poetry.
Meter
Identical sound in corresponding words or phrases
Rhyme
requires agreement of sounds from the last stressed vowel sound onward, with a difference in the immediately preceding con- sonant sounds.
Perfect Rhyme
includes partial rhyme and eye rhyme.
Imperfect Rhyme
usually shows agreement in terminal consonant sounds but disagreement in the preceding vowel sounds; show agreement in the vowel sounds but disagreement in the succeeding consonant sounds
Partial rhyme
which is not so respectable a type of imperfect rhyme, is based on the similarity of sight rather than sound.
Eye Rhyme
uses the first part of a word divided by the end of a line as a rhyme sound: “king-“ (from kingdom), “wing.” Rhyme is distinguished also by its location
Run-On Rhyme
refers to rhymes at the ends of lines
End Rhyme
rhymes within a line
Internal Rhyme
A seeming contradiction (“Death, thou shalt die”)
Paradox
The addressing of some non personal(or absent) object as if it were able to reply (“O, Death, where is thy sting.”)
Apostrophe
Broadly, the expression of one thing in terms of another. In stricter usage, it is the stated or implied equivalence of two things. (“I am the bread of life”)
Metaphor
A recurring or emerging idea in a work of literature. A work may have many themes. It’s major theme is its main point, similar to the thesis of an essay. It may explicit (stated outright) or implicit (it’s concept must be inferred).
Theme
A striking and often elaborate comparison carried out in considerable, 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 other characters who by convention don’t hear him
Aside
