test 1 Flashcards
Allitteration
repetitive initial sounds
Allegory
a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one (refers to the entire piece of work)
Allusion
Reference to literary or historical event, person, or place
Anapestic
a metrical foot in poetry that consists of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed (ex. Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house/Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse”
Anaphora
repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses
Anecdote
a brief story/tale told by a character in a piece of literature
Antagonist
any force that opposes the main character/protagonist
Antithesis
juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”
Apostrophe
to address something inanimate
Archetype
recurrent designs, patterns of action, character types, themes, or images (stereotypes)
Asyndeton
Conjunctions omitted “i came, i saw, i conquered”
Assonance
repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds
Attitude
sense expressed by tone of voice/mood of piece of writing
Ballad
a narrative poem that is/was originally meant to be sung
Ballad stanza
stanza consisting of a quatrain (4 lines) alternates 4 beats and 3 beat lines (1 and 3 are unrhymed - iambic tetrameter; 2 and 4 rhyme - iambic trimeter)
Blank verse
verse form that most resembles common speech, consists of unrhymed lines in iambic pentameter
Caesura
a pause in a line of verse, indicated by natural speech patterns rather than due to specific metrical patterns
Caricature
depiction of character’s characteristics - exaggerated
Chiamus
figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first two parallel clauses is reversed in the second “pleasure’s a sin and sometimes sin’s a pleasure
Colloquial
Variations of the same word (bubbler, water fountain)
Conceit
extended metaphor throughout a piece of literature/poem
Connotation
ideas suggested by words