Lit Terms 5

Simile

A figurative comparison using the words "like" or "as"

Personification

A figure of speech in which objects and animals are given human characteristics Ex. "Look at my car. She is a beauty, isn't it so?" "The wind whispered through dry grass."

Quatrain

A four-line poem or a four-line unit of a longer poem types include: Ballad Stanza - Its rhyme scheme is abab with iambic tetrameter. Envelope Stanza - Its rhyme scheme is abba with iambic tetrameter. Goethe Stanza - Its rhyme scheme is abab but no meter. Italian Quatrain - Its rhyme scheme is abba with iambic pentameter. Hymnal Quatrain - This multi stanza contains three alternating rhymes with iambic trimester and iambic tetrameter. Rhyme scheme is a4 b3 c4 b3. Elegiac Stanza - This uses abab rhyme scheme with iambic pentameter. Memoriam Stanza - This uses abba rhyme scheme with iambic tetrameter.

Pun

A humorous play on words, using similar-sounding or identical words to suggest different meanings

Satire

A literary style used to poke fun at, attack or ridicule an idea, vice, or foible, often for the purpose of inducing change (technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule.)

Ode

A lyric poem usually marked by serious, respectful, and exalted feelings toward the subject. Ex. Keats' poem, "On first Looking into Chapman's Homer" is this an example of this term as it honors the translation of Homer's works by the Elizabeth poet, George Chapman.

Omniscient Narrator

A narrator with unlimited awareness, understanding, and insight of characters, setting, background, and all other elements of the story Ex. Scarlet letter, Harry Potter

Paradox

A statement that seems self-contradictory but is nevertheless true Ex. Your enemy's friend is your enemy. I am nobody. "What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young." - George Bernard Shaw Wise fool Truth is honey which is bitter. "I can resist anything but temptation." - Oscar Wilde

Parable

A story consisting of events from which a moral or spiritual truth may be derived (uses imagery and metaphors) Ex. "The Good Samaritan" in the Bible

Oxymoron

A term consisting of contradictory elements juxtaposed to create a paradoxical effect Ex. loud silence, jumbo shrimp, "cruel kindness" or "living death". , controlled chaos kill with kindness old news small giant original copy even odds elevated subway Open secret Tragic comedy Seriously funny Awfully pretty Foolish wisdom Original copies Liquid gas

oxymoron 2

Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will! Where shall we dine?—O me! What fray was here? Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. Here's much to do with hate but more with love. Why then, O BRAWLING LOVE, O LOVING HATE, O anything of nothing first created! O HEAVY LIGHTNESS , serious vanity, Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms! FEATHER OF LEAD , bright smoke, COLD FIRE , SICK HEALTH, Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! This love feel I, that feel no love in this. (Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare) Example #2 Down the close darkening lanes they sang their way To the siding-shed, And lined the train with faces GRIMLY GAY . Their breasts were stuck all white with wreath and spray As men's are, dead. ("The Send-Off" by Wilfred Owen) Example #3 -As for believing things, I can BELIEVE anything, provided that it is quite INCREDIBLE. (The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde) Example #4 -All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. (Animal Farm by George Orwell) Some animals being "more" equal than others is not actually possible if one is to believe the first half of the statement. _____________________________________________ Example #2 ------Tennyson's "Lancelot and Elaine". "the shackles of love straiten'd him His HONOUR rooted in DISHONOURED stood And faith unfaithful kept him FALSELY TRUE " Example #3 -------In Sir Thomas Wyatt's Petrarch's 134th sonnet, "I find no peace, and all my war is done I fear and hope, I BURN and FREEZE like ice, I flee above the wind, yet can I not arise;" Example #4 Alexander Pope "Essays of Criticism" "The bookful blockhead IGNORANTLY READ, With loads of learned lumber in his head, With his own tongue still edifies his ears, And always list'ning to himself appears." Example #5 -Shakespeare "Hamlet" "I will bestow him, and will answer well The death I gave him. So, again, good night. I must be cruel, only to be kind: Thus bad begins and worse remains behind. One word more, good lady."

Picaresque Novel

An episodic novel about a roguelike wanderer who lives off his wits Ex. "Don Quixote" by Cervantes, "Moll Flanders" by Daniel Defoe, "The Red and the Black" by Stendhal

Parody

An imitation of a work meant to ridicule its style and subject Ex. SNL and other late night shows perform skits to poke fun at political figures, movies, and celebrities "The Daily Show", "The Colbert Report", and "The Larry Sanders Show"; "Vampire Sucks" parodies and pokes fun at "Twilight" which was a film adaptation of Stephanie Meyer's novel "Twilight".

Pun 2

Denial is not just a river in Egypt. Make like a tree and leave. Put that down, it's nacho cheese. The life of a patient of hypertension is always at steak. Why do we still have troops in Germany? To keep the Russians in Czech. A horse is a very stable animal. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. An elephant's opinion carries a lot of weight. What is the difference between a conductor and a teacher? The conductor minds the train and a teacher trains the mind. ___________________________________________________ Example #1 In constructing puns, William Shakespeare was a master craftsman. We find many examples of puns in his plays. Let us have a look at some of them: "It is the unkindest tied that ever any man tied."(Richard III) "winter of our discontent...made glorious summer by this Son of York."(Richard III) Romeo: "Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes with nimble soles; I have a soul of lead" (Romeo and Juliet) Claudius: "...But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son..." Hamlet: [aside] "A little more than kin, and less than kind. (Kindred)" (Hamlet) Example #2 John Donne's "A Hymn to God the Father" has several examples of pun. Read the following lines: "When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done for I have more. That at my death Thy Son / Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore And having done that, Thou hast done; I fear no more." He is playing with his name Donne and with the name of his wife Anne More. Besides, he uses Son, referring to the Christ, instead of sun. Example #3 Oscar Wilde employs puns in his play "Importance of being Earnest". Jack Earnest tells Aunt Augusta in Act III: "On the contrary, Aunt Augusta, I've now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest" Similarly, in Act III we see Jack puns his family name again: "I always told you, Gwendolen, my name was Ernest, didn't I? Well, it is Ernest after all. I mean it naturally is Ernest." Here Jack discovers his father name which makes him truly earnest. Example #4 Charles Dickens plays around with words in his novel "Great Expectations". In his opening chapter "Pip" says: "They seemed to think the opportunity lost, if they failed to point the conversation to me, every now and then, and stick the point into me" Note the pun in the use of the word "point". We see another interesting example in Chapter 2: "Tickler was a wax-ended piece of cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame." The writer puns the word "tickle". Example #5 We notice a unique use of multilingual puns in Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita". For example, the name of a character "Humbert" is a pun in two languages. In French it means "Shadow" and in Spanish it means "man". Similarly, "Lolita" changing her name to "Dolores" which means pain in Latin and her nick name "Dolly" refers to a toy in English. _______________________________________ Example #1 HAMLET I will speak to this fellow.—Whose grave's this, sirrah? GRAVEDIGGER Mine, sir. HAMLET I think it be thine, indeed, for thou liest in 't. GRAVEDIGGER You lie out on 't, sir, and therefore it is not yours. For my part, I do not lie in 't, and yet it is mine. HAMLET Thou dost lie in 't, to be in 't and say it is thine. 'Tis for the dead, not for the quick. Therefore thou liest. GRAVEDIGGER 'Tis a quick lie, sir. 'Twill away gain from me to you. (Hamlet by William Shakespeare) William Shakespeare used hundreds of puns in his plays and sonnets. They indicate a cleverness of thought on the part of the speaker; Hamlet being perhaps the cleverest character in all of Shakespeare's works, it is not surprise that he uses many throughout the play. Hamlet encounters a gravedigger in this pun example and the two of them have a witty back-and-forth using the two meanings of the word "lie." They pun on the idea of the gravedigger resting horizontally in the grave versus the gravedigger fabricating the story of the grave being his own. Example #2 CECILY: You must not laugh at me, darling, but it had always been a girlish dream of mine to love some one whose name was Ernest. [ALGERNON rises, CECILY also.] There is something in that name that seems to inspire absolute confidence. I pity any poor married woman whose husband is not called Ernest. (The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde) Oscar Wilde used many examples of puns in his works, though he was also once quoted as having said, "Puns are the lowest form of humor." His entire play The Importance of Being Earnest hinges on a homophonic pun. "Earnest" functions both as a name and as a quality. The quote from Cecily perfectly sums up the dual meanings. Cecily says she wants to marry a man named "Ernest" because its homonym, "earnest," inspires confidence. Cecily mistakenly believes that the character of Algernon is named "Ernest," which is one of the primary reasons that she loves and wants to marry him. Example #3 [Alice:] 'You see the earth takes twenty-four hours to turn round on its axis-' 'Talking of axes,' said the Duchess, 'chop off her head!' (Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll) Lewis Carroll was yet another author who was a fan of using puns in his work. In this example of pun, Alice is trying to impress the Duchess with her worldly knowledge. When she uses the word "axis," though, the Duchess makes the homophonic connection to "axes" and calls for Alice's execution.

point of view 2

Example # 1 Hamlet, the protagonist, explains the feeling of melancholy, which afflicts him after his father's death in the following lines (from Shakespeare's "Hamlet", Scene II of Act II). "I have of late,—but wherefore I know not,—lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory." This is one of the best first person point of view examples. The use of first person point of view gives us a glimpse into the real inner feelings of frustration of the character. The writer has utilized the first person point of view to expose Hamlet's feelings in a detailed way. Example # 2 Notice how William Wordsworth uses the first person point of view to express his subjective feelings about the scene of daffodils in his famous poem "Daffodils". "I gazed-and gazed-but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought." The use of the pronoun "I" gives a special quality to the feelings expressed in these lines. The reader can see that the poet has employed first person point of view to share with us his own personal emotions. Example #3 Ernest Hemingway in "The Sun also Rises" employs the first person point of view which is peculiar to his style. "I could picture it. I have a habit of imagining the conversations between my friends. We went out to the Cafe Napolitain to have an aperitif and watch the evening crowd on the Boulevard." The use of two first person pronouns "I" and "We" gives these lines the quality of having a first person point of view. The reader can feel like he/she is hearing the dialogue directly from the characters. Example #4 Read the following lines from "Bright Lights, Big City" by Jay Mclnemey: "You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy." The writer illustrates the use of second person point of view by using the pronoun "you". This technique may be a little rare but you can realize that it has its own strength of hooking the reader right from the start. Example #5 Have a look at the following lines from "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen: "When Jane and Elizabeth were alone, the former, who had been cautious in her praise of Mr. Bingley before, expressed to her sister how very much she admired him." "He is just what a young man ought to be," said she, "sensible, good humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners! — so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!" These lines demonstrate a fine use of the third person point of view. The excerpt shows the reader two different ways of the use of the third person point of view. Jane Austen first presents two leading characters Jane and Elizabeth, from the third person point of view and then shows us that the two characters are talking about Bingley from their own third person point of view. This can be a good example of the use of dual third person point of view — first by the author and then by the characters. ___________________________________________________ Example #1: First Person Singular There must have been about two minutes during which I assumed that I was killed. And that too was interesting—I mean it is interesting to know what your thoughts would be at such a time. My first thought, conventionally enough, was for my wife. My second was a violent resentment at having to leave this world which, when all is said and done, suits me so well. I had time to feel this very vividly. (Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell) George Orwell writes about his own experiences in the Spanish Civil War in his book Homage to Catalonia. In autobiographical works, the "I" narrator is the character of the author. Here Orwell relates the experience of getting shot and the thoughts that passed through his mind directly thereafter. Example #2: First Person Plural It didn't matter in the end how old they had been, or that they were girls, but only that we had loved them, and that they hadn't heard us calling, still do not hear us, up here in the tree house, with our thinning hair and soft bellies, calling them out of those rooms where they went to be alone for all time, alone in suicide, which is deeper than death, and where we will never find the pieces to put them back together. (The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides) Jeffrey Eugenides's novel The Virgin Suicides is narrated by a collective "we", who view and comment on a group of five sisters. Eugenides successfully uses this example of point of view by making the "we" a group of boys who love and try to understand the girls from afar. Example #3: Second Person You get home to your apartment on West 12th Street. It's a wreck. Like you. No kidding. You wonder if Amanda will ever explain her desertion. She was a model and she thought you were rich. You never spotted she was an airhead. So what does that make you? (Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerny) Jay McInerny's novel Bright Lights, Big City, is one of the few novels written for adults in the second person point of view. This point of view example creates a sense of intimacy between the narrator and the reader, implicating the reader in the events of the plot and relating the powerlessness the narrator has to forestall his own self-destruction. Example #4: Third Person The family of Dashwood had long been settled in Sussex. Their estate was large, and their residence was at Norland Park, in the centre of their property, where, for many generations, they had lived in so respectable a manner as to engage the general good opinion of their surrounding acquaintance. (Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen) The opening to Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility introduces the Dashwood family, and goes on to describe each character in detail. This is another example of Jane Austen using the third person omniscient point of view and gives her access to all of the character's thoughts, desires, and motivations.

pathetic fallacy 2

Example #1 Shakespeare uses pathetic fallacy in his play "Macbeth" to describe the dark murder of "Duncan". In Act 2 Scene 3 "Lennox" says: "The night has been unruly. Where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say, Lamentings heard i' th' air, strange screams of death, And prophesying with accents terrible Of dire combustion and confused events New hatched to the woeful time. The obscure bird Clamored the livelong night. Some say the Earth Was feverous and did shake." The pathetic fallacy examples in the above lines describe the ominous atmosphere on the night of the murder of "Duncan". The "unruly" night, the "screams of death" in the air, and the "feverous" earth depict the "evil" act of murder that happened a night before. Example #2 Emily Bronte's novel "Wuthering Heights" is full of pathetic fallacies. The title itself shows the use of this device as "Wuthering Heights" means uproarious and aggressive weather that represents the nature of its residents. There are lots of instances in the novel in which the mood of nature portrays the nature of events in the narrative. For example, "Lockwood" is trapped in a "snow storm" before the nightmare scene, the "wild and windy" night at the time of Mr. Earnshaw's death, the "violent thunderstorm" on the night Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights, and the stormy weather outside when "Cathy" makes a choice between "Heathcliff" and "Edgar" indicates her inner turmoil. Example #3 Keats employs pathetic Fallacy in his "Ode to Melancholy", "But when the melancholy fit shall fall Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud That fosters the droop-headed flowers all And hides the green hills in an April shroud" The feeling of melancholy has been described by attributing a human emotion "weeping" to the "clouds". Example #4 William Wordsworth in his poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" says: "I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills," The poet describes clouds as "lonely" to describe his state. Example #5 Charles Dickens makes use of pathetic fallacy in "Great Expectations". At the beginning of chapter 39, his protagonist"Pip" comments on the "wretched weather": "Day after day, a vast heavy veil had been driving over London from the East, and it drove still, as if in the East there were an Eternity of cloud and wind. So furious had been the gusts, that high buildings in town had had the lead stripped off their roofs; and in the country, trees had been torn up, and sails of windmills carried away; and gloomy accounts had come in from the coast, of shipwreck and death. Violent blasts of rain had accompanied these rages of wind, and the day just closed as I sat down to read had been the worst of all." The "furious" gusts and the "rages" of wind indicate the confused inner world of Pip.

satire 2

Example #1 There are numerous examples of satire in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. He uses satire as a tool to share his ideas and opinion on slavery, human nature and many other issues that afflicted American society at that time. Below are a few citations from the novel that demonstrate satire: "What's the use you learning to do right, when it's troublesome to do right and isn't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?" (Chap 16) "There warn't anybody at the church, except maybe a hog or two, for there warn't any lock on the door, and hogs likes a puncheon floor in summer-time because it's cool. If you notice, most folks don't go to church only when they've got to; but a hog is different." (Chap 18) "The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that's what an army is-a mob; they don't fight with courage that's born in them, but with courage that's borrowed from their mass, and from their officers. But a mob without any man at the head of it is beneath pitifulness." (chap 22) Example #2 Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock is an example of poetic satire in which he has satirized the upper middle class of eighteenth century England. It exposes the vanity of young fashionable ladies and gentlemen and the frivolity of their actions. For example, Pope says about Belinda after losing her lock of hair: "Whether the nymph shall break Diana's law, Or some frail china jar receive a flaw, Or stain her honor, or her new brocade" The line mocks at the values of the fashionable class of that age. The trivial things were thought of as equal to significant things. For Belinda, the loss of her virtue becomes equal to a China jar being cracked. Example #3 Jonathan Swift's Gulliver Travels is one of the finest satirical works in English Literature. Swift relentlessly satirizes politics, religion, and Western Culture. Criticizing party politics in England, Swift writes, "that for above seventy Moons past there have been two struggling Parties in this Empire, under the Names of Tramecksan and Slamecksan from the high and low Heels on their shoes, by which they distinguish themselves." During Swift's times, two rival political parties, the Whigs and the Tories, dominated the English political scene. Similarly, "The Kingdom of Lilliput" is dominated by two parties distinguished by the size of the heels of their boots. By the trivial disputes between the two Lilliputian parties", Swift satirizes the minor disputes of the two English parties of his period. ________________________________________________ non-literary examples of satire: Steven Colbert: Steven Colbert is a popular media figure who has built his career on pretending to be a self-righteous and highly opinionated commentator. His satire is based on parroting popular opinions or government officials' ideas and taking them to the furthest extent, thereby revealing their hypocrisy. The Onion: The Onion is a fake news source that uses contemporary issues and highlights their absurdity. Some of the most popular headlines they've published include: "Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace and Prosperity Is Finally Over,'" "Supreme Court Rules Supreme Court Rules," and "Clinton Deploys Vowels to Bosnia; Cities of Sjlbvdnzv, Grzny to Be First Recipients." Ig Nobel Prize: The Ig Nobel Prizes are a satirical take on the Nobel Awards. They are a gentle mockery of the kind of scientific studies being done around the world that sound ridiculous to the common observer. Recent recipients of the award have included studies on "Patient Preference for Waxed or Unwaxed Dental Floss," "training pigeons to discriminate between the paintings of Picasso and those of Monet," and a discovery that "black holes fulfill all the technical requirements for the location of Hell." ___________________________________________ Example #1 Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift, one of the leading satirists of his day, wrote Gulliver's Travels as a satire of human nature and especially an anti-Whig satire. Lemuel Gulliver travels to several different lands, including the famous encounter with the Lilliputians, a society of people only a few inches tall. One example of satire in the book is that some Lilliputian men wear high heels and others wear low heels. The men who wear low heels are in power and will only appoint other men to government who wear low heels. Clearly, government appointments have nothing to do with ability—this is a direct attack on the separation of Whigs and Tories in English culture. Example #2 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain As is often the case, the satire in Huckleberry Finn is often misunderstood and misconstrued as Mark Twain's actual opinions. Twain hated slavery and used Huckleberry Finn to point out the inhumane way that slave-owners treated slaves. While some contend that the book is racist, Twain was strongly against racism. He used the characters of Jim and Miss Watson, Jim's owner, to highlight the hypocrisy of slavery. Miss Watson is called a "good Christian woman" so that readers may realize that what she purports to stand for is in direct opposition to her actions. Example #3 Animal Farm by George Orwell George Orwell's satire Animal Farm directly echoes the events of the Russian Revolution. He replaces the Russian people with animals on a farm, with the leading figures of communism represented by pigs. At first these pigs are supportive of equal rights for all animals, but gradually they give themselves all the benefits and exclude the other animals from the rewards of the farm. The men who were expelled at the beginning of the story represent the Tsars; by the end of the story, however, men are back on the farm and the animals outside cannot tell the difference between the pigs and the men. Orwell used this satire example to show that the men who came to power after the Russian Revolution were no more "equal" to the common people than the Tsars before them. Example #4 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Joseph Heller's World War II novel Catch-22 is a great example of satire. Joseph Heller had flown bomber missions in WWII, just like his main character Captain John Yossarian, and was tortured by the experience. He found the wartime bureaucracy and logic to be incredibly hypocritical. The most famous example of satire in the book comes from the title, the concept of the Catch 22. This is one of those bureaucratic nightmares in which something can only be done when the thing that precludes it from happening happens. Yossarian eventually discovers that the catch doesn't even exist, but because everything thinks it does it still has the same effect. And, unfortunately, because it doesn't exist it can't be repealed. This is a good metaphor for the entire lack of logic in bureaucracy.

simile 2

Example #1 Written by Joseph Conrad, "I would have given anything for the power to soothe her frail soul, tormenting itself in its invincible ignorance like a small bird beating about the cruel wires of a cage." The lines have been taken from Lord Jim. The helplessness of the soul is being compared with a bird in a cage beating itself against the merciless wires of the cage, to be free. Example #2 In her novel To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf compares the velocity of her thoughts about the two men with that of spoken words. ". . . impressions poured in upon her of those two men, and to follow her thought was like following a voice which speaks too quickly to be taken down by one's pencil . . ." She says both are difficult to follow and cannot be copied in words by a pencil. Example #3 Taken from a short story Lolita written by Vladimir Nabokov, "Elderly American ladies leaning on their canes listed toward me like towers of Pisa." This simile produces a humorous effect by comparing old women leaning on walking sticks with the ancient leaning tower of Pisa. Example #4 Robert Burns uses a simile to describe the beauty of his beloved. "O my Luve's like a red, red rose That's newly sprung in June; O my Luve's like the melodie That's sweetly played in tune." He says that his love is a fresh red rose that blossoms in the spring. Example #5 Taken from the poem the Daffodils. "I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o'er vales and hills." The poet envisions himself as a free lone cloud that floats in a blue sky above valleys and the mountains. By choosing this simile, Wordsworth describes his loneliness. Example #6 A significant thing to consider here is that at times simile is drawn without using "as" or "like". Consider the following example, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate" (William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18) In the above example, we see a comparison being drawn between the poet's darling and "a summer's day" not using "as" or "like". However, it is not a metaphor. The use of the word "compare" makes the comparison a simile. _____________________________________________ Strong as an ox Fit as a fiddle Bright as the sun Sweating like a pig White as a sheet His heart was as cold as ice Sleeping like a log Fast as lightning Dance like no one is watching _____________________________________________ Example #1 My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. ("Sonnet 130" by William Shakespeare) This excerpt from Shakespeare's "Sonnet 130" is an example of a negative simile. Shakespeare goes against the expectation praising his mistress's beauty and instead says what she is not like. Her lips are not as red as coral, her skin is not pure as snow, and so on. This striking simile example plays with both the tradition of sonnets as well as the usual function of similes. Example #2 Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail. (A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens) This excerpt from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol also plays with the tradition of similes. Dickens knowingly uses the clichéd simile "dead as a doornail" (perhaps more clichéd now than even in his day). He then investigates the simile, humorously pointing out that there is nothing "particularly dead about a doornail" and that a coffin nail would have provided a better simile. But, as he concludes, some similes display "the wisdom of our ancestors," which is to say, not much wisdom at all. Example #3 What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? ("Harlem" by Langston Hughes) Langston Hughes uses five examples of simile in this short poem, "Harlem." Each simile is one possibility that Hughes imagines for "a dream deferred." The imagery was so striking in this poem that playwright Lorraine Hansberry named her famous play A Raisin in the Sun after the first simile in the poem. All of the similes in this poem share a sense of decay and burden, just like a dream that does not come to fruition. Example #4 The Radley Place fascinated Dill. In spite of our warnings and explanations it drew him as the moon draws water, but drew him no nearer than the light-pole on the corner, a safe distance from the Radley gate. (To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee) The classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee centers around the tragedy of Boo Radley, a man falsely accused for a crime. This evocative simile at the beginning of the novel somewhat foreshadows the main characters' relation to Boo: the children Scout and Jem are fascinated by him as well as terrified of him. This fascination and terror draws their friend Dill "as the moon draws water," an allusion to the way the presence of the moon changes the tides. Example #5 I wait, washed, brushed, fed, like a prize pig. (The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood) This simple example of simile in Margaret Atwood's dystopic novel The Handmaid's Tale is not so simple when looked at more closely. The protagonist of the novel is Offred, a woman whose sole purpose is to reproduce with the higher social classes. Women in this new society have had their rights entirely taken away, even to the point of their humanity. Therefore, Offred's comparison between herself and a prize pig shows that she is treated no differently than—and no better than—an animal.

paradox 2

Example #1 ----Before anyone crosses this bridge, he must first state on oath where he is going and for what purpose. If he swears truly, he may be allowed to pass; but if he tells a lie, he shall suffer death by hanging on the gallows there displayed, without any hope of mercy...Now it happened that they once put a man on his oath, and he swore that he was going to die on the gallows there—and that was all. After due deliberation the judges pronounced as follows: "If we let this man pass freely he will have sworn a false oath and, according to the law, he must die; but he swore that he was going to die on the gallows, and if we hang him that will be the truth, so by the same law he should go free." (Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra) liar's paradox. The prisoner who crosses the bridge tells the truth, and thus the judges feel required to let him go free on account of that. If he had lied he would have been hung on the gallows, but as that was already his fate the judges reverse his fortunes by honoring his truth telling. Example #2 JULIET: My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late! Prodigious birth of love it is to me, That I must love a loathèd enemy. (Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare) The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is based on a _______. Juliet expresses it in this quote, that her "only love sprung from [her] only hate." It is unexpected that love should spring from hate to the extent that it seems impossible. However, the story of Romeo and Juliet shows the deeper truth of love and hate—they are not so irreconcilable after all. Example #3 --->CECILY: To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up. (The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde) ------ Cecily complains about the difficulty of keeping up the "pose" of naturalness. Of course, posing is antithetical to being natural. However, the inner truth of this statement is that being natural is sometimes a state that we have to pretend at in that it doesn't always come easily. Example #4 There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. (Catch-22 by Joseph Heller) ------- World War II novel. It is a situation in which someone is in need of something that can only be had by not being in need of it. The two opposing needs in this situation are at odds with each other, and, as in most cases of catch-22 paradoxes, they are both completely logical. However, the two situations cancel out the possibility of either one occurring. Example #5 In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy. (1984 by George Orwell) ------The ruling party in 1984 stands by three paradoxical statements: "War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength." All of these paradoxes show the inner contradictions of this new society. Orwell shows, though, how the government and the citizens are able to internalize these paradoxes and make them into reality. The excerpt above describes in further detail how the Party requires everyone to believe in clearly illogical concepts. 2) George Orwell's Animal Farm, one part of the cardinal rule is the statement, "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others". Orwell points out a political truth. The government in the novel claims that everyone is equal but it has never treated everyone equally. It is the concept of equality stated in this paradox that is opposite to the common belief of equality. ______________________________________________________ Example #2 In the famous play of Shakespeare, Hamlet, the protagonist Hamlet says, "I must be cruel to be kind." However, Hamlet is talking about his mother, and how he intends to kill Claudius to avenge his father's death. This act of Hamlet will be a tragedy for his mother who is married to Claudius. Hamlet does not want his mother to be the beloved of his father's murderer any longer, and so he thinks that the murder will be good for his mother. Example #3 From Shakespeare's "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet": ---------"The earth that's nature's mother is her tomb; What is her burying grave, that is Rainbow in her womb; The contradictory ideas of the earth being the birthplace and a graveyard make these lines paradoxical. Example #4 "My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold", William Wordsworth remembers the joys of his past and says: "Child is father of the man" This statement has seemingly incorrect proposition but when we look deep into its meaning, we see the truth. The poet is saying that the childhood experiences become the basis for all adult occurrences. The childhood of a person shapes his life and consequently "fathers" or creates the grown-up adult. So, "Child is father of the man."

parody 2

Example #1 Shakespeare wrote "Sonnet 130" in ______ of traditional love poems common in his day. He presents an anti-love poem theme in a manner of a love poem mocking the exaggerated comparisons they made: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks;" Unlike a love-poem goddess, his mistress does not have eyes like the sun, she does not have red lips nor does she have a white complexion. Her cheeks do not have a rosy color and her hair is not silky smooth. All the cliché qualities are missing in his mistress. Such a description allows Shakespeare to poke fun at the love poets who looked for such impossible qualities in their beloved. Example #2 "Don Quixote" written by Miguel de Cervantes is a ________of romances written in his days. "Quixote" and his overweight sidekick "Sancho" delude themselves to think that they are knights of the medieval romances. They believe that they are entrusted with the obligation to save the world. Therefore, the adventure starts as an imitation of the real romances but of course, in a hilarious manner. We laugh at how Quixote was bestowed knighthood in his battle with the giants [windmills]. We enjoy how the knight helps the Christian king against the army of a Moorish monarch [herd of sheep]. These and the rest of the incidents of the novel are written in the style of Spanish romances of the 16th century to mock the idealism of knights in the contemporary romances. Example #3 Swift's "Gulliver's Travel" is a parody of ______ narratives as well as a satire on contemporary England. As the empire of England spread to far off lands, it became a center of navigation and exploration. Adventure and travel narratives telling stories of strange lands became popular. Example #4 Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe was a travel narrative. Swift adopted a similar mode to describe Gulliver's travels to the strange land of "Lilliput" and other such places where he meets "Lilliputians" and the giant "Brobdingnagians". He also meets other strange creatures like "Laputians" and "Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos". The parody for Swift was intended as a satire on English society. _________________________________________________ Example #1 FOOL: Why? For taking one's part that's out of favour. Nay, an thou canst not smile as the wind sits, thou'lt catch cold shortly. There, take my coxcomb! Why, this fellow hath banish'd two on's daughters, and did the third a blessing against his will. If thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb.- How now, nuncle? Would I had two coxcombs and two daughters! (King Lear by William Shakespeare) It has been noted by some scholars that the character of the Fool in William Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear is, in fact, a parody of the king himself. We see this is the way the Fool is introduced. In this introduction the Fool presents his coxcomb, an imitation of King Lear's crown. His role in the play is to combat the conventions of the day with truth, though in a way that he can be laughed at instead of seeming threatening. The Fool is important to King Lear in that he is endlessly faithful, and is also the only one can tell the king the truth, via parody. Example #2 Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing. (Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes) Cervantes's famous Don Quixote is an interesting example of parody because the entire epic work is based off of the tradition of the knight-errant. This was a popular tradition in Cervantes's day, and in the opening to Don Quixote we can see the beginnings of this parody. A man originally known as Alonso Quixano, takes on a new identity—that of "Don Quixote"—and sets out on a quest with his lance, ancient shield, skinny nag, and his friend Sancho Panza. His quests are mostly ridiculous, such as the famous scene in which he fights windmills. Cervantes used this parody to help usher in a new era of literature and rebrand these old chivalric tales as out-of-date. Example #3 He did not want to compose another Quixote —which is easy— but the Quixote itself. Needless to say, he never contemplated a mechanical transcription of the original; he did not propose to copy it. His admirable intention was to produce a few pages which would coincide—word for word and line for line—with those of Miguel de Cervantes. ("Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" by Jorge Luis Borges) The Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges created the concept of a parody in his short story, "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote." In the story, Borges imagines a writer who reconstructs Cervantes's novel Don Quixote word for word. Yet, due to the author's differing life experiences and era in which he's writing, the new Quixote is not a mere copy, but a far richer parody, full of meaning due to the time which has passed since the original Quixote was published. Borges's story is interesting in the way he examines what is truly "original," what is an imitation, and how parody can take on far more shades of meaning in the way that it comments on the original. Example #4 It is to be observed, that these ambassadors spoke to me, by an interpreter, the languages of both empires differing as much from each other as any two in Europe, and each nation priding itself upon the antiquity, beauty, and energy of their own tongue, with an avowed contempt for that of their neighbour; yet our emperor, standing upon the advantage he had got by the seizure of their fleet, obliged them to deliver their credentials, and make their speech, in the Lilliputian tongue. And it must be confessed, that from the great intercourse of trade and commerce between both realms [...] there are few persons of distinction, or merchants, or seamen, who dwell in the maritime parts, but what can hold conversation in both tongues. (Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift) Jonathan Swift was famous for his satires and parodies. In this excerpt from Gulliver's Travels, Gulliver comes upon a group of warring neighbors, the Lilliputians and the people of Blefuscu. These two groups stand in for England and France, and thus are a parody of the endless rivalries between those two countries. In a broader way, however, the entire novel is an excellent parody example, as it uses the conventions of travel narratives common in Swift's day.

Quatrain 2

Example 1 He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there's some mistake. The only other sound's the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. (Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost) This poem contains four quatrains with different rhyme schemes, as this stanza rhymes as aaba, in which first and second lines rhyme with the last line. Frost has used iambic tetrameter, eight syllables in each line with regular rhythm, presenting a perfect example of Rubaiyat stanza that also consists of aaba rhyme scheme with four lines. Example 2 "Hope" is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all, (Hope is the Thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson) This entire poem is written in iambic trimeter pattern and has three quatrains; however, often it adds fourth stress at the end of the lines such as in the fourth line of this stanza. This stanza loosely rhymes with rhythmical flow in abab pattern. Example 3 O, my luve's like a red, red rose, That's newly sprung in June: O, my luve's like the melodie That's sweetly played in tune. (A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns) These lines embody an example of Hymnal Stanza in which we see the poet having written in alternating quatrain with iambics. First and third lines follow iambic tetrameter, while second and fourth lines follow iambic trimeter, using rhyme scheme of abcb. This alternating meter makes the poem more voiced and pronounced. Example 4 The worried efforts of the busy heap, The dirt, the imprecision, and the beer Produce a few smart wisecracks every year; Laugh if you can, but you will have to leap. (Look Before You Leap by W.H. Auden) This is an example of the envelope stanza, in which the quatrain follows the rhyme scheme of abba with iambic tetrameter. In this type of quatrain, first and fourth lines enclose second and third lines. Example 5 The tolls curfew the knell of parting day, The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea, The plowman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. (Elegy Written in Country Courtyard by Thomas Gray) This quatrain is presenting an example of elegiac stanza written in iambic pentameter with rhyme scheme abab. It is also referred as heroic stanza as its rhyme similar to heroic couplet. Example 6 So word by word, and line by line, The dead man touch'd me from the past, And all at once it seem'd at last The living soul was flash'd on mine. (In Memoriam A.H.H by Alfred Lord Tennyson) This gives example of memoriam stanza with rhyme scheme of abba and follows iambic tetrameter (each line contains four iambs) pattern. _______________________________________________ Many famous songs have verses with four lines in them. These are examples of quatrains, though in song form. Here are some lyrics that fall into a quatrain form: Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling From glen to glen, and down the mountain side The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying 'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide. ("Danny Boy," traditional Irish folk song) Who knows how long I've loved you You know I love you still Will I wait a lonely lifetime If you want me to, I will ("I Will" by The Beatles) Well, it's one for the money Two for the show Three to get ready Now go, cat, go ("Blue Suede Shoes" by Elvis Presley) The heart is a bloom Shoots up through the stony ground There's no room No space to rent in this town ("Beautiful Day" by U2)

parable 2

Example 1 The holy Quran 2ND chapter, Al Baqra 2: 259, in which a man happened to pass through hamlet - a place where people died centuries ago. The man doubted the power of God, and thought of how He would resurrect them on the Doomsday. Subsequently, God caused him to die, resurrected him after a hundred years, and asked him how long he slept to which he replied only a day. However, his food was still fresh, which he brought with him. This shows that God has control over all things and time. The traveler's donkey, on the other hand, was dead and became a skeleton. Then, God joined the bones, muscles, flesh and blood of the donkey again before that man and brought it back to life. Hence, this parable taught us a moral lesson in three ways; firstly, God can change time. Secondly, God has power over life, death, resurrection and no other can have this power. Finally, humans have no power, and they should put their faith only in God. Example 2 Good Samaritan: Gospel of Luke (10:29-37) describes that there was a traveler (may be a Jew), whom some people had robbed and beaten alongside the road and left him. A Levite and a priest passed through that way, but both ignored that man. Eventually, a Samaritan reached there and helped the injured and miserable man without thinking about his race or religious belief (generally, Samaritans despise Jews). The moral of this parable is to help all those who are in need, without having prejudice for anyone due to perceived differences. Example 3 Hans Christian Anderson "The Emperor's New Clothes" in a book "Fairy Tales Told for Children." ->The author tells about the life of a silly and vain emperor, whom two cheaters approached, pretending to be artists. They suggested him to wear their clothes, which they said, would make him invisible in front of incompetent and stupid people. The emperor agreed and paid them to make such clothes, as he enjoyed wearing fancy dresses. In fact, they did not make any fancy suit; however, people started admiring them, so that they might not be considered as useless and stupid. Therefore, emperor took off his clothes and wore the invisible dress but ended up moving around naked in the town. Nobody told him the truth except a young boy who screamed to see him. Thus, the moral of this parable is that people should have their own opinion, and they need not to depend upon others' opinions. Example 4 Luke (15:11-32), Jesus instructs about the love of God for humanity. In this parable, a rich father gives inheritance to his two sons before death and both leave him. But his younger son wastes the whole wealth and becomes miserable. Sooner that son understands that if he has to survive, then he would have to take the help of his wealthy father ,and father also sees his poor and miserable condition. Hence, he allows him to live with him again. When father dies, he leaves his remaining inheritance for the younger son. The tale conveys the symbolic message that God is like a fatherly figure, who loves humanity despite its rebellious nature, and those who follow His path, are welcomed by Him with rewards.

omniscient narrator

Example 1 The narrator in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, - scrutinizes the characters and narrates the story in a way that shows the readers that he has more knowledge about characters than they have knowledge about themselves. (but subjective narrator, meaning the readers form their own opinions about the things that take place.) Example 2 Dan Brown in his novel, Da Vinci Code, - provides information about the background and related knowledge that characters are unaware of. Example 3 "Margaret, the eldest of the four, was sixteen, and very pretty, being plump and fair, with large eyes, plenty of soft brown hair, a sweet mouth, and white hands, of which she was rather vain. Fifteen-year-old Jo was very tall, thin, and brown, and reminded one of a colt...Elizabeth, or Beth, as everyone called her, was a rosy, smooth-haired, bright-eyed girl of thirteen, with a shy manner, a timid voice, and a peaceful expression, which was seldom disturbed..." (An excerpt from "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott) -disembodied voice knowing everyone's feelings and thoughts, exploring all characters from inside and outside. Here the narrator gives description about the March sisters. Example 4 "Harry had taken up his place at wizard school, where he and his scar were famous ...but now the school year was over, and he was back with the Dursleys for the summer, back to being treated like a dog that had rolled in something smelly...The Dursleys hadn't even remembered that today happened to be Harry's twelfth birthday. Of course, his hopes hadn't been high?" (An Excerp from "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" by J.K. Rowling) -readers see what Harry observes, and know what he feels and thinks. They, however, are unable to follow what Dursleys feel or think about Harry, though can clearly see what Harry thinks and feels about them. Example 5 _______limited :Katherine Anne Porter's short story, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall. the readers only know about the feelings and thoughts of Granny Weatherall. Porter begins this novel by showing Granny lying sick on the bed. As the readers proceed, they her perspective.

Pathetic Fallacy

Faulty reasoning that inappropriately ascribes human feelings to nature or nonhuman objects ("imparting emotions to something else". ) Ex. ""But when the melancholy fit shall fall Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud..." The feeling of melancholy has been described by attributing a human emotion "weeping" to the "clouds".

onomatopoeia 2

Machine noises—honk, beep, vroom, clang, zap, boing Animal names—cuckoo, whip-poor-will, whooping crane, chickadee Impact sounds—boom, crash, whack, thump, bang Sounds of the voice—shush, giggle, growl, whine, murmur, blurt, whisper, hiss Nature sounds—splash, drip, spray, whoosh, buzz, rustle ______ The buzzing bee flew away. The sack fell into the river with a splash. The books fell on the table with a loud thump. He looked at the roaring sky. The rustling leaves kept me awake. The different sounds of animals Meow Moo Neigh Tweet Oink Baa _______________________________________________ Example #1 "The moan of doves in immemorial elms, And murmuring of innumerable bees..." ('Come Down, O Maid' by Alfred Lord Tennyson) Example #2 "Hark, hark! Bow-wow. The watch-dogs bark! Bow-wow. Hark, hark! I hear The strain of strutting chanticleer Cry, 'cock-a-diddle-dow!'" (Ariel in William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act One, scene 2) Example #3 "He saw nothing and heard nothing but he could feel his heart pounding and then he heard the clack on stone and the leaping, dropping clicks of a small rock falling." (For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway) Example #4 "It went zip when it moved and bop when it stopped, And whirr when it stood still. I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will." ("The Marvelous Toy" by Tom Paxton) Example #5--- "I'm getting married in the morning! Ding dong! the bells are gonna chime." ("Get Me to the Church on Time," by Lerner and Loewe)

Point of View

The relation in which a narrator or speaker stands to the story ot subject matter of a poem. Ex. A story told in the first person has an "internal" of this term An observer uses an "external" of this term

Onomatopoeia

The use of words whose sounds suggest their meaning Ex. bubbling, murmuring brooks

ode 2

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, The earth, and every common sight To me did seem Apparelled in celestial light, The glory and the freshness of a dream. It is not now as it hath been of yore;- (______ on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood by William Wordsworth) _____________________________________________________ Row after row with strict impunity The headstones yield their names to the element, The wind whirrs without recollection; In the riven troughs the splayed leaves Pile up, of nature the casual sacramen To the seasonal eternity of death... (Ode to the Confederate Dead by Allen Tate) Example 3 Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? (Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley)