Literary Terms

Pun

A play on words, often achieved through the use of words with similar sounds but different meanings Example: (when finding a real life bear) I guess we have to bear with it!

Bildungsroman

a coming of age story. Example: Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Ekphrasis

a description of a visual work of art. Example: Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

Iamb

a metrical foot of two syllables, one short (or unstressed) and one long (or stressed).

Maxim

a proverb, a short, pithy statement or aphorism believed to contain wisdom or insight into human nature Example: Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.

Synecdoche

a rhetorical trope involving a part of an object representing the whole, or the whole of an object representing a part Example: "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" - Shakespeare, Julius Ceasar

Anecdote

a short account on an incident. Example: News reports

Metaphor

an unlike comparison without using like or as Example: The lion is the beast.

Jargon

potentially confusing words and phrases used in an occupation, trade, or field of study Example: STAT: Immediately

Monologue

the internal or emotional thoughts or feelings of an individual Example: ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL by Shakespeare

Voice

the narrative or elegiac voice in a poem Example: Something that can naturally be heard through one's writing.

Antithesis

the opposite meaning of whatever is being contrasted. Example: It is normal to make mistakes, but it is odd if no mistakes were made.

Plot

the story that is told in a novel or play or movie etc. Example: The gingerbread man is about a baked/carved pastry coming to life/causing trouble until it was eaten.

Antagonist

the villain or someone who opposes the protagonist. Example: the Joker (from Batman)

Didactic Literature

writing that tries to convince readers of a particular point or moral. Example: Milton's Paradise Lost

Discourse

a description of written and spoken communications.

Genre

a type or category of literature or film marked by certain shared features or conventions Example: Fiction, tragedy, etc.

Archetype

an original thing that is copied by others.

Dissonance

disagreeing sounds. Example: "Fierce-throated beauty"

Imagery

language that appeals to the senses Example: The light blue sky stretched across the vast green hills.

Assonance

the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhymes in a sentence or phrase. Example: In the hot pot of soup.

Morpheme

the smallest collection of sounds or letters in a spoken or written word that has semiotic importance or significance Example: in the English word rerun, the prefix re- is a morpheme implying "again" and the word run is a morpheme implying "an act of motion

Euphemism

the substitution of a soft agreeable expression instead of one that is harsh or unpleasant. Example: Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands As if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll meet The company below, then. I repeat, The Count your master's known munificence Is ample warrant that no just pretense Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;-My Last Duchess

Paradox

using contradiction in a manner that oddly makes sense on a deeper level Example: Pinocchio: "My nose will grow." -"I always lie. Am I telling the truth?"

Onomatopoeia

using words that imitate the sound they denote Example: Ka Boom!

Local Color

writing which presents the mannerisms, dress, speech and customs of a particular geographical region Example: "An alligators yawn can be seen as something deep or primitive"

Kenning

A figurative, usually compound expression used in place of a name or noun, especially in Old English and Old Norse poetry. Example: storm of swords (a kenning for battle)

Hymn

A song of praise or thanksgiving to God or a deity. Example: In classical Roman literature, hymns to Minerva and Jupiter survive. The Greek poet Sappho wrote a number of hymns to Aphrodite.

Invocation

The act or an instance of invoking, especially an appeal to a higher power for assistance.

Diction

The choice of a particular word as opposed to others. Example: "The principal meaning of diction is the selection and use of words or the manner of expression. But this fact does not rule out, as some purists would like to do, the companion meaning of mode of speaking or enunciation."

Hegemony

The predominant influence, as of a state, region, or group, over another or others.

Epitaph

a brief literary piece in place of a deceased person. Example: I was born Then I wed Nagging Wife Now I'm dead!

Theme

a central idea or statement that unifies and controls an entire literary work Example: Everything is not always what it seems.

Anticlimax

a change from a dramatic/tense scene to a trivial scene. Example: Two fourths of the platoon of soldiers are being wiped out, but the squad leader still didn't receive new orders.

Foil

a character who contrasts with another character. Example: Hamlet and Laertes (Hamlet is vengeful, while Laertes is quick and bold.)

Stereotype

a character who is so ordinary or unoriginal that the character seems like an oversimplified representation of a type, gender, class, religious group, or occupation Example: "Asians can't drive," "Mexicans are lazy," etc

Comedy of Humors

a character's actions controlled by a whim or humor. Example: characters that do actions that they think are humorous.

Aside

a character's speech directed towards the audience that cannot be heard by other characters. Example: Christmas Carol- Scene where Scrooge is complaining to his co worker. Scrooge's worker to the audience: Scrooge has always been like that after Marley died.

Courtly Love

a code of behavior that gave rise to modern ideas of chivalrous romance. Example: a woman falling for a man who came back from a battle.

Canon

a collection of work that is considered holy. Example: The thirty-seven plays created by William Shakespeare

Dystopia

a community or society that is in some important way undesirable or frightening. Example: Hunger Games

Epilogue

a concluding part added to a literary work. Example: If we shadows have offended, Think but this and all is mended: That you have but slumbered here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend. If you pardon, we will mend. And, as I am an honest Puck, If we have unearned luck Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue, We will make amends ere long. Else the Puck a liar call. So good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends.- A Midsummer Night's Dream

Motif

a conspicuous recurring element, such as a type of incident, a device, a reference, or verbal formula, which appears frequently in works of literature Example: the "loathly lady" who turns out to be a beautiful princess is a common motif in folklore, and the man fatally bewitched by a fairy lady is a common folkloric motif appearing in Keats' "La Belle Dame sans Merci

Epithet

a descriptive expression, a word or phrase expressing some quality or attribute. Example: Book 1 The Iliad by Homer

Allegory

a device where the poem, picture, or story symbolizes an idea. Example: I wander as lonely as a cloud- the flowers

Act

a division or unit. Example: Romeo and Juliet- Act Scene IV

Melodrama

a dramatic form characterized by excessive sentiment, exaggerated emotion, sensational and thrilling action, and an artificially happy ending Example: The first in England was the 1802 A Tale of Mystery. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, written in 1853

Irony

a dryly humorous or lightly sarcastic figure of speech in which the literal meaning of a word or statement is the opposite of that intended. Example: Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.- Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Litotes

a figure of speech in which affirmative is expressed by the negation of the opposite. Example: Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly.'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy; The way into my parlour is up a winding stair, And I've a many curious things to shew when you are there."- The Spider and the Fly

Simile

a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds, usually formed with "like" or "as"

Stanza

a fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem Example: I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain-and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light. I have looked down the saddest city lane I have passed by the watchman on his beat And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

Free verse

a form of Poetry composed of either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have no set fixed metrical pattern. Example: I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loaf and invite my soul, I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.- Song of Myself by Walt Whitman

Exposition

a form of discourse that explains, defines, and interprets Example: Spiderman 2 in the begging Peter Parker gives a brief note on his life so far.

Acrostic

a form of writing where the first syllable or word of each line forms some sort of message. Example: Playful contrivances of prose or verse rendered so that each line opens or closes with words in sequence to read from.

Dirge

a funeral hymm or mournful music composition. Example: "Their voices, too, are heard as a fugacious part in the dirge which is ever played along the shore for those mariners who have been lost in the deep since first it was created."- Cape Cod

Caesura

a grammatical pause or break in a line of poetry. Example: Know then thyself II, presume not God to scan; The proper study of Mankind II is Man. Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state, A being darkly wise, and rudely great:- An Essay on Man

Chorus

a group of performers who comment on a dramatic action. Example: Sophicles: Antigone

Epic

a heroic or narrative poem telling a hero's deeds. Example: And sometimes a proud old soldier Who had heard songs of the ancient heroes And could sing them all through, story after story, Would weave a net of words for Beowulf's Victory tying the knot of his verses Smoothly, swiftly, into place with a poet's Quick skill, singing his new song aloud While he shaped it, and the old songs as well

Anachrony

a lack of similarity in chronological order or time period. Example: Batman Begins (it does not relate to the classic batman movies which are in the past)

Farce

a light, humorous play or foolish show. Example: The Miller's Tale from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

Refrain

a line or set of lines at the end of a stanza or section of a longer poem or song Example: The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe "And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming, And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted nevermore."

Flashback

a literary or cinematic device in which an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronological order of a narrative. Example: Batman Begins- the movie goes back to Bruce Wayne's past where he had the accident on falling in the hole.

Ode

a long, often elaborate stanzaic poem of varying line lengths and sometimes intricate rhyme schemes dealing with a serious subject matter and treating it reverently Example: Ode To A Nightingale by John Keats My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:

Rhyme

a matching similarity of sounds in two or more words, especially when their accented vowels and all succeeding consonants are identical Example: flower and power

Soliloquy

a monologue spoken by an actor at a point in the play when the character believes himself to be alone Example: In Hamlet, Hamlet's soliloquy decides whether he should commit suicide after he is left alone.

Elegy

a mournful poem Example: O Captain, My Captain

Portmanteau Word

a new word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings Example: infomercial (information + commercial)

Baroque

a period of artistic style that shows drama and tension with exaggerated motion along with easily interpreted details. Example: The style began at Rome and spread to Europe.

Verse

a piece of poetry Example:Daffodils by William Wordsworth I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Haiku

a poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Example: None is travelling Here along this way but I, This autumn evening. The first day of the year: thoughts come - and there is loneliness; the autumn dusk is here.- None is Travelling

Lyric

a poem that is related to a song-like quality Example: Words to a song; "I believe I could fly.."

Internal Rhyme

a poetic device in which a word in the middle of a line rhymes with a word at the end of the same metrical line Example: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary - Edgar Allen Poe (The Raven).

Pathos

a quality that arouses emotions Example: People giving thumbs up in pictures to make it seem good.

Epigraph

a quotation set at the beginning of a literary work or one of its divisions to suggest its theme. Example:The broad-backed hippopotamus Rests on his belly in the mud; Although he seems so firm to us He is merely flesh and blood.- The Hippopotamus by T.S. Elliot

Meter

a recognizable though varying pattern of stressed syllables alternating with syllables of less stress Example: u / u / u / u / u /

Allusion

a reference to people, places, or other work. Example: It was like the great fire all over again.

Alliteration

a repetition in a specific sound in a series of words or phrases. Example: peter piper picked peppers out of the patch.

Caricature

a representation by picture or words where a subject's distinctive features are exaggerated. Example: Beerbohm-Beardsley

Rondeau

a short poem consisting of ten, thirteen, or fifteen lines using only two rhymes which concludes each section with an abbreviated line that serves as a refrain Example: "I walk in loneliness through the greenwood for I have none to go with me. Since I have lost my friend by not being good I walk in loneliness through the greenwood. I'll send him word and make it understood that I will be good company. I walk in loneliness through the greenwood for I have none to go with me." - Anon.

Fable

a short, simple story, usually using animals as characters. Example: The Hare and the Turtle, slow and steady wins the race.

Petrarchan Sonnet

a sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba, followed by a sestet with the rhyme pattern cdecde or cdcdcd. Example: "When I Consider How My Light is Spent." By John Milton When I consider how my light is spent, Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, And that one talent which is death to hide Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present My true account, lest He returning chide; "Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?" I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need Either man's work or His own gifts. Who best Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without rest; They also serve who only stand and wait."

Spenserian Sonnet

a sonnet form composed of three quatrains and a couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme abab bcbc cdcd ee Example: Sonnet LXXV One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washed it away; Again I wrote it with a second hand, But came the tide and made my pains his prey. "Vain man," said she, "that dost in vain assay A mortal thing so to immortalize, For I myself shall like to this decay, And eke my name be wiped out likewise "Not so." quod I, "Let baser thing devise To die in dust, but you shall live by fame; My verse your virtues rare shall eternize And in the heavens write your glorious name, Where, when as death shall all the world subdue, Our love shall live, and later life renew." ------Sir Edmund Spenser

Sibilance

a special form of alliteration using the softer consonants that create hissing sounds, or sibilant sounds Example: Six sizzling sausages

Quatrain

a stanza of four lines Example: The Tyger by William Blake Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Fallacy

a statement or an argument based on false or invalid inference.

Understatement

a statement that is restrained in ironic contrast to what might have been said Example: "A soiled baby, with a neglected nose, cannot be conscientiously regarded as a thing of beauty."

Parable

a story or short narrative designed to reveal allegorically some religious principle, moral lesson, psychological reality, or general truth Example: the Bible or the Buddhist Tipitaka

Montage

a technique of presenting a series of disconnected scenes in a novel or picture Example: editing films

Thesis

a treatise advancing a new point of view resulting from research Example: "We watch baseball: it's what we have always imagined life should be like. We play softball. It's sloppy--the way life really is."

Suspension of Disbelief

a willingness to suspend one's critical faculties and believe the unbelievable; sacrifice of realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment Example: Twilight

Metonymy

a word or phrase that is used to stand in for another word Example: The "pen" stands in for "the written word"

Locution

a word or phrase that particular people use in particular situations

Symbol

a word, place, character, or object that means something beyond what it is on a literal level Example: The bird can symbolize hope.

Palindrome

a word, sentence, or verse that reads the same way backward or forward Example: Stressed or desserts

Memoir

an account of the author's personal experiences Example: "The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass"

Bard

an ancient Celtic poet, singer, and harpist who recited heroic poems by memory Example: William Shakespeare is known as The Bard of Avon.

Surrealism

an artistic movement doing away with the restrictions of realism and verisimilitude that might be imposed on an artist Example: Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró would sketch or paint bizarre, often nightmarish quality of surrealistic paintings.

Nom de Plume

an author's pseudonym Example: Samuel Clemens used the nom de plume 'Mark Twain.'

Cartharsis

an emotional break down or extreme change in emotion. Example: In Sophocles' Oedipus Rex,when Oedipus discovers that his wife, Jacosta, is his own mother and that the stranger he killed on the road was his own father.

Cliche

an expression or idea on an artistic work that has lost its original meaning. Example: "People say, 'I'm taking it one day at a time.' You know what? So is everybody. That's how time works."

Persona

an external representation of oneself which might or might not accurately reflect one's inner self, or an external representation of oneself that might be largely accurate, but involves exaggerating certain characteristics and minimizing others Example: My Last Duchess by Robert Browning Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands As if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll meet The company below, then. I repeat, The Count your master's known munificence Is ample warrant that no just pretense Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;

Utopia

an imaginary place or government in which political and social perfection has been reached in the material world as opposed to some spiritual afterlife as discussed in the Christian Bible.

Conflict

an incompatibility in objectives of two or more characters. (can be internal- problem in the mind or external- between other characters. Example: Romeo and Juliet- The Capulets and Montagues

Prologue

an introduction to a play Example: The chorus in Romeo and Juliet introduces the star-crossed lovers.

Suspense

an uncertain cognitive state Example: He was an innocent, this boy; the other boys were out to get him.

Conceit

an unusual comparison. Example: If they be two, they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two; Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show To move, but doth, if th' other do. And though it in the centre sit, Yet, when the other far doth roam, It leans, and hearkens after it, And grows erect, as that comes home. Such wilt thou be to me, who must, Like th' other foot, obliquely run; Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end where I begun.

Prose

any material that is not written in a regular meter like poetry Example: Toad, hog, assassin, mirror Prose Poem by Larry Levis Toad, hog, assassin, mirror. Some of its favorite words, which are breath. Or handwriting: the long tail of the 'y' disappearing into a barn like a rodent's, and suddenly it is winter after all. After all what? After the ponds dry up in mid-August and the children drop pins down each canyon and listen for an echo.

Setting

arrangement of scenery and properties to represent the place where a play or movie is enacted Example: Hamlet is taken place in the 17th-18th century and in Elsinore.

Mise-en-Scene

arrangement of scenery and properties to represent the place where a play or movie is enacted Example: Stage setting; Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, etc.

Hubris

arrogance, excessive self-pride and self-confidence. Example: Sophocles in The Oedipus Trilogy

In Medias Res

beginning a narrative well along in the sequence of events. Example: The Iliad

Shakespearean Sonnet

composed of three quatrains and a terminal couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg Example: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste: Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow, For precious friends hid in death's dateless night, And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe, And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight: Then can I grieve at grievances foregone, And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan, Which I new pay as if not paid before. But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, All losses are restor'd and sorrows end. -Sonnet 30, Shakespeare

Oxymoron

conjoining contradictory terms such as "jumbo shrimp"

Narrative

consisting of or characterized by the telling of a story Example: The Birthday Room

Syllogism

deductive reasoning in which a conclusion is derived from two premises Example: Major premise: A general statement. Minor premise: A specific statement. Conclusion: based on the two premises

Resolution

finding a solution to a problem Example: In Merchant of Venice, Portia proves Shylock's guilt.

Parody

humorous or satirical mimicry Examples: "Scary Movie"

Empathy

identification and understanding of another's situation and feelings. Example: To Kill a Mockingbird

Dialogue

lines that are spoken by the characters in a play or story. Example: Juliet: Oh Romeo! Oh Romeo! Where art thou Romeo? Deny thy father... Romeo: (aside) Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?

Couplet

lines that express a complete thought or forms a separate stanza. Example: Whilom ther was dwellynge in Lumbardye A worthy knyght, that born was of Pavye, In which he lyved in greet prosperitee; And sixty yeer a wyflees man was hee, And folwed ay his bodily delyt On wommen, ther as was his appetyt... lines 1 - 6 - Merchant's Tale

Sonnet

lyric poem of fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to certain definite patterns Example: Turn back the heart you've turned away Give back your kissing breath Leave not my love as you have left The broken hearts of yesterday But wait, be still, don't lose this way Affection now, for what you guess May be something more, could be less Accept my love, live for today. Your roses wilted, as love spurned Yet trust in me, my love and truth Dwell in my heart, from which you've turned My strength as great as yours aloof. It is in fear you turn away And miss the chance of love today! -By James Deford

Hyperbole

obvious and deliberate exaggeration or an extravagant statement. Example: His legs bestrid the ocean; his reared arm Crested the world . . . .- Anthony and Cleopatra

Muckraker

one who spreads real or alleged scandal about another Example: Samuel Hopkins Adams

Concrete Poetry

poetry that draws much power from how its texts are situated. Example: George Herbert's poem The Temple

Blank Verse

poetry that is written without rhyming words. Example:Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

Personification

representing an abstract quality or idea as a person or creature Example: The wind shrieked with fury.

Connotations

something that a word suggests beyond its normal meaning, Example: And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each- Mending Wall

Ballad

songs or folk tale that narrates a story. Example: The Mermaid Oh the ocean waves may roll, And the stormy winds may blow, While we poor sailors go skipping aloft And the land lubbers lay down below, below, below And the land lubbers lay down below.

Repitition

sounds, words, phrases, lines or stanzaz are repeated for emphasis Example: "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe, "Nevermore"

Ambiguity

the ability to express more than one interpretation. Example: a picture of the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland in the back (it looks like a human from behind)

Sarcasm

the act of ostensibly saying one thing but meaning another Example: "Thrift, thrift, Horatio! The funeral bak'd meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables." - Hamlet.

Scansion

the act of scanning a poem to determine its meter Example:"I-leant-up-on-a-cop-pice-gate-when-Frost-was-spec-tre-grey."

Malapropism

the act or habit of misusing words to comic effect. Example: "Comparisons are odorous," and later, "It shall be siffigance"-said by Mrs Malaprop from The Rivals

Tragic Flaw

the character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall Example: Greed, Jealousy, Pride, etc.

Enjambment

the continuation of a sentence form one line or couplet into the next. Example: I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the sweet earth's flowing breast; A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray; A tree that may in summer wear A nest of robins in her hair; Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain. Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree.- Trees

Rhetorical Techniques

the devices used in effective or persuasive language, such as apostrophe, contrast, repetition, paradox, understatement, sarcasm, satire, and rhetorical Example: "Who let the dogs out?"

Contrast

the differences between two or more entities. Example: "my love is unlike all other women" or "I am unlike her other loves."

Syntax

the grammatical arrangement of words in sentences Example:Normal word order in English sentences is firmly fixed in - subject -verb -object sequence or subject-verb-complement

Climax

the highest/intense point in a story. Example: The climax of Beowulf -when Beowulf slays the mother of the monster, Grendel.

Dialect

the language of a particular district or group of people. Example: Jim: "We's safe, Huck, we's safe! Jump up and crack yo' heels! Dat's de good ole Cairo at las', I jis knows it!" Huck: "I'll take the canoe and go see, Jim. It mightn't be, you know."- Huckleberry Finn

Idiom

the language, dialect, or style of speaking peculiar to a people or the constructions or expressions of one language whose structure is not matched in another language. Example: I'm all ears- means that you are listening with full attention.

Elision

the leaving out of an unstressed syllable or vowel. Example: Whiles holding fast his guid blue bonnet, Whiles crooning o'er an auld Scots sonnet, Whiles glow'ring round wi prudent cares, Lest bogles catch him unawares: Kirk-Alloway was drawing nigh, Whare ghaists and houlets nightly cry.- Tam o' Shanter

Protagonist

the main character in a work, on whom the author focuses most of the narrative attention Example: Batman

Tone

the means of creating a relationship or conveying an attitude or mood Example: Inspirational, demanding.

Atmosphere

the mood or feeling created by the setting. Example: The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe- it creates a scene of dread when the narrator kills the cat's eye.

Denotation

the normal definition or dictionary meaning of a word. Example: And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each.- Mending Wall

Meiosis

the opposite of exaggeration Example: "You know, Einstein is not a bad mathematician.That pustulant wart is somewhat unbeautiful"

Proscenium

the part of a modern theater stage between the curtain and the orchestra Example: the frame or arch separating the stage from the auditorium, through which the action of a play is viewed

Apostrophe

the part where the writer breaks up and directs a speech to an imaginary character. Example: Hamlet speaking to the ghost of his father (the ghost is not seen by the other characters)

Character

the personality of a person made through morals. (round, static, or flat) Example: the ballad Edward

Point of View

the perspective from which a story is told Example: Omniscient -- the narrator has a god-like perspective, can see everything and knows what everyone is thinking. Limited Omniscient -- the narrator still has god-like perspective but can only see inside one person. Objective -- the narrator is simply a 'fly on the wall' doesn't know what anybody is thinking, only sees what is going on.

Comic Relief

the release of tension from a tragic scene, made to lighten the mood. Example: Hamlet, the graveyard scene.

Consonance

the repetition of the same consonant in two or three times. Example: Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow.- Stopping by woods on a snowy evening

Denouement

the result of a complex situation or sequence of events. Example: After Beowulf has once again saved a group of villagers, this time from a dragon, the poet writes of Beowulf's funeral and the grief of his followers

Verisimilitude

the sense that what one reads is "real," or at least realistic and believable Example: If the character's finger produces gold from whatever it touches rather than producing nothing then this is not verisimilitude.

Foreshadow

the use of indicative words/phrases and hints that set the stage for a story to unfold and give the reader a hint of something that is going to happen without revealing the story or spoiling the suspense. Example: "He had no idea of the disastrous chain of events to follow".

Rhythm

the varying speed, loudness, pitch, elevation, intensity, and expressiveness of speech, especially poetry Example: Hiawatha's Departure from The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow By the shore of Gitchie Gumee, By the shining Big-Sea-Water, At the doorway of his wigwam, In the pleasant Summer morning, Hiawatha stood and waited.

Antecedent

the word,phrase,or clause referred to by a pronoun. Example: Spongebob likes his pet snail Gary.

Attitude

tone of someone or something. Example: Strong, inspiring.

Parallelism

when the writer establishes similar patterns of grammatical structure and length Example: "When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative." (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Satire

witty language used to convey insults or scorn Example: The songs of Weird Al Yankovic

Cacophony

words that combine sharp, harsh, hissing, or unmelodious sounds. Example: 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. -Jabberwocky

Stream of Consciousness

writing in which a character's perceptions, thoughts, and memories are presented in an apparently random form, without regard for logical sequence, chronology, or syntax Example: Stream of Consciousness in E.B. White's "The Door"