Term to Definition

Question 1

Allegory

Answer 1

Story or tale with two or more levels of meaning. Literal level and one or more symbolic levels

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

Reference to well-known person, place, event, literary work, work of art

Question 3

Aphorism

Answer 3

General truth or observation about life, usually stated concisely and pointedly

Question 4

Apostrophe

Answer 4

Figure of speech in which a speaker addresses an absent person or personified quality, object, or idea

Question 5

Assonance

Answer 5

Repetition of vowel sounds in conjunction with dissimilar consonant sounds

Question 6

Ballad

Answer 6

Songlike poem that tells a story, often dealing with adventure or romance

Question 7

Blank verse

Answer 7

Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

Question 8

Connotation

Answer 8

Association that a work calls to mind in addition to the dictionary meaning of the word

Question 9

Denotation

Answer 9

Word’s objective meaning, independent of other associations the word brings to mind

Question 10

Dramatic monologue

Answer 10

Poem or speech in which an imaginary character speaks to a silent listener

Question 11

Elegy

Answer 11

Solemn and formal lyric poem about death, often one that mourns the passing of some particular person

Question 12

Epigram

Answer 12

A brief, pointed statement, in prose or in verse, often characterized by use of some rhetorical device or figure of speech

Question 13

Expressionism

Answer 13

Artistic movement in early 20th century. Artists emphasized inner experience of individual rather than time frame or physical objects of some reality

Question 14

Fable

Answer 14

Brief story, usually with animals, that teaches a moral or a lesson

Question 15

Free verse

Answer 15

Poetry that lacks a regular rhythmical pattern or meter

Question 16

Hyperbole

Answer 16

Deliberate exaggeration or overstatement

Question 17

Iambic pentameter

Answer 17

Line of poetry with 5 iambic feet, each containing one unstressed syllable by one stressed syllable. Rhymed or unrhymed (e.g. Blank Verse)

Question 18

Idyll

Answer 18

Poem or part of poem that describes and idealizes life

Question 19

Irony

Answer 19

Contrast between what is stated and what is meant, or between what is expected to happen and what actually happens

Question 20

Local color

Answer 20

Use in literary work of characters and details unique to a particular geographic area

Question 21

Lyric Poem

Answer 21

Melodic poem that expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker

Question 22

Metaphor

Answer 22

Figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as if it were something else

Question 23

Meter

Answer 23

Poem’s rhythmical pattern. Pattern determined by number and types of stresses, or beats, in each line.

Question 24

Iamb

Answer 24

Foot with one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. “Around”

Question 25

Troche

Answer 25

Foot with one unstressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable. “Broken”

Question 26

Anapest

Answer 26

Foot with two unstressed syllables followed by one unstressed syllable. “In a flash”

Question 27

Dactyl

Answer 27

Foot with one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed. “Argument”

Question 28

Spondee

Answer 28

Foot with 2 stressed syllables. “Airship”

Question 29

Pyrrhic

Answer 29

Foot with 2 unstressed syllables.

Question 30

Amphibrach

Answer 30

Foot with an unstressed syllable, one stressed syllable, and another unstressed syllable. “Ungainly”

Question 31

Amphimacer

Answer 31

Foot with a stressed syllable, one unstressed syllable, another stressed syllable. “Give and take”

Question 32

Naturalism

Answer 32

Literary movement among novelists at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century. Viewed people as hapless victims of immutable natural laws.

Question 33

Ode

Answer 33

Long, formal lyric poem with a serious theme that may have a traditional stanza structure

Question 34

Onomatopoeia

Answer 34

Use of words that imitate sounds

Question 35

Oxymoron

Answer 35

Figure of speech that combines two opposing or contradicting ideas

Question 36

Parable

Answer 36

Brief story, usually with human characters, that teaches a moral lesson.

Question 37

Paradox

Answer 37

Statement that seems to be contradictory, but actually presents the truth

Question 38

Parody

Answer 38

Humorous interpretation of a literary work. Exaggerates or distorts the characteristic features of the original.

Question 39

Personification

Answer 39

Figure of speech in which nonhuman subject is given human characteristics

Question 40

Realism

Answer 40

Presentation of the detail of actual life. Realism also a literary movement the began in the 19th century and stressed the real world as opposed to the imagined.

Question 41

Refrain

Answer 41

Repeated line or group of lines in a poem or song

Question 42

Regionalism

Answer 42

Tendency among certain authors to write about specific geographical areas

Question 43

Romanticism

Answer 43

Literary and artistic movement of the 19th century that arose in reaction to 18th century neoclassicism, and that places a premium on fancy, imagination, individuality, etc.

Question 44

Satire

Answer 44

Writing that ridicules or criticizes individuals, ideas, institutions, social conventions or other works of literature.

Question 45

Simile

Answer 45

Figure of speech that makes a direct comparison between two subjects using ‘like’ or ‘as’

Question 46

Soliloquy

Answer 46

In a play or prose work, a long speech made by a character who is alone and who reveals his or her private thoughts and feelings to the audience

Question 47

Sonnet

Answer 47

14-line lyric poem focused on a single theme

Question 48

Stanza

Answer 48

Group of lines in a poem, considered as a unit

Question 49

Stream of Consciousness

Answer 49

Narrative technique that presents thoughts as if they were coming directly from a character’s mind

Question 50

Synecdoche

Answer 50

Figure of speech in which a part of something is used to stand for the whole thing.

Question 51

Transcendentalism

Answer 51

American literary and philosophical movement of the 19th century. Based in New England, Transcendentalists believed that intuition and conscience transcend experiences, and thus are better guides to truth that the senses and logic.

Question 52

Vernacular

Answer 52

Ordinary language of people in a particular region

Question 53

Villanelle

Answer 53

19 line poem with only two rhymes that follows a strict pattern popular in traditional french poetry