AP Literature and Composition Literary Terms Project #2
Definition: When an author expresses a complex idea by joining two words with a conjunction. Example: Shakespeare, Hamlet- "But in the gross and scope of mine opinion" It is found in the words "gross and scope."
Hendiadys
Definition: A form of literature that can be defined as a poem or song in the form of elegiac couplets, written in honor of someone deceased. It typically laments or mourns the death of the individual. Example: In Memory of W. B. Yeats (By W. H. Auden) "With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse, Sing of human unsuccess In a rapture of distress; In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start, In the prison of his days Teach the free man how to praise."
Elegy
Definition: A literary device that is used in narratives to omit some parts of a sentence or event, which gives the reader a chance to fill the gaps while acting or reading it out. It is usually written between the sentences as a series of three dots, like this: "..." Example: Virginia Woolf's novel To the Lighthouse. This book involves two parts, one before the World War I was fought and won, and the latter accounts for the events occurring afterwards. All the events that occurred in between have not been mentioned in the book. Rather, it has left to the readers to deduce the events from the notable changes that have occurred in the characters' lives.
Ellipsis
Definition: A poetic device in which a pause comes at the end of a syntactic unit (sentence, clause, or phrase). This pause can be expressed in writing as a punctuation mark, such as a colon, semi-colon, period, or full stop. Example: Bright Star (By John Keats) "Bright Star, would I were as stedfast as thou art — Not in lone splendor hung aloft the night, And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite ..." These lines are very good example of end-stopped line. Each line ends with a punctuation mark, followed by a pause, which gives a sense of a separate unit. These pauses give rhythm and tempo to the poem.
End-stopped
Definition: Moving over from one line to another without a terminating punctuation mark. It can be defined as a thought or sense, phrase or clause, in a line of poetry that does not come to an end at the line break, but moves over to the next line. Example: Endymion (By John Keats) "A thing of beauty is a joy forever: Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and asleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing." Endymion is a famous example of enjambment. The first and last lines in the given poem have end marks, while the middle lines are enjambed. There is a flow of thought from one line to the next.
Enjambment
Definition: A rhetorical device used for listing details, or a process of mentioning words or phrases step by step. Example: Elegy for Jane (by Theodore Roethke) "I remember the neckcurls, limp and damp as tendrils; And her quick look, a sidelong pickerel smile; And how, once startled into talk, the light syllables leaped for her, And she balanced in the delight of her thought ... " In the above lines, the speaker recalls how Jane - a dead student - looked. He gives details by remembering her smile, her hair, and her beautiful spirit.
Enumeration
Definition: Repetition of the same words at the beginning and the end of a sentence. Example: One Art (By Elizabeth Bishop) "The art of losing isn't hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster... Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. The art of losing isn't hard to master though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster." In this example, the poet has repeatedly used the refraining line "The art of losing isn't hard to master" throughout the poem. This refraining line creates rhythm, and emphasizes the idea. Notice that this line, however, varies slightly in the final stanza, yet is still considered to be a refrain
Epanalepsis
Definition: a literary device in the form of a poem, quotation, or sentence - usually placed at the beginning of a document or a simple piece - having a few sentences, but which belongs to another writer. An epigraph can serve different purposes, such as it can be used as a summary, introduction, example, or an association with some famous literary work, so as to draw a comparison, or to generate a specific context for the piece. Example: Heart of Darkness (By Joseph Conrad) Many famous poems provide good examples of epigraph. For instance, "Mistah Kurtz, he dead," is a line from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, which was used in the famous poem The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot to describe how modern people have dead souls, like the character Kurtz of Heart of Darkness. It is because they have taken materialism as their demigod, and accepted its domination, submitting their spirits to it like Kurtz did.
Epigraph
Definition: A stylistic device that can be defined as the repetition of phrases or words at the ends of the clauses or sentences. Example: The Unnamable (By Samuel Beckett) "Where now? Who now? When now?" Examples of epistrophe abound in Beckett's works. In this excerpt, the word "now" is repeated three times to place emphasis, as well as making the line memorable. It also creates cadence and rhythm.
Epistrophe
Definition: A rhetorical device in which the words or phrases are repeated in quick succession, one after another, for emphasis Example: King Lear (By William Shakespeare) "And my poor fool is hanged! No, no, no life! Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life, And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more, Never, never, never, never!" Shakespeare has beautifully used this device in this paragraph. In the first line, he has emphasized "no," repeating it three times. Similarly, he has repeated "never" four times in quick succession without using any other word.
Epizeuxis
Definition: In rhetoric, ethos represents credibility, or an ethical appeal, which involves persuasion by the character involved. Example: Ethos examples in TV ads are not only expressed in words. For instance, in a commercial for toothpaste, an actor puts on a white lab coat and talks about how that particular toothpaste is good for teeth. By putting on a white lab coat, an actor looks like a doctor, and thus gains credibility as people consider a doctor's remarks to be more credible than an actor's.
Ethos
Definition: an idiomatic expression, which loses its literal meanings and refers to something else, in order to hide its unpleasantness. Example: Othello (By William Shakespeare) Examples of euphemism referring to sex are found in William Shakespeare's Othello. In Act 1, Scene 1, Iago tells Brabantio: "I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs." Here, the expression "making the beast with two backs" refers to the act of having sex.
Euphemism
Definition: A grammatical construction that starts with words like it, here, and there. This rhetorical device usually interrupts normal speech and lays emphasis on certain words. Example: The Nightingale and the Rose (By Oscar Wilde) "'Here indeed is the true lover,' said the Nightingale. 'What I sing of, he suffers - what is joy to me, to him is pain. Surely Love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals. Pearls and pomegranates cannot buy it, nor is it set forth in the marketplace. It may not be purchased of the merchants, nor can it be weighed out in the balance for gold.'" Look in this excerpt where Oscar Wilde has used the expletive word here, and the phrase it is at the beginning of their respective sentences.
Expletive
Definition: A literary device used to introduce background information about events, settings, characters, or other elements of a work to the audience or readers. Example: The Three Little Bears (By Robert Southey) An exposition is typically positioned at the beginning of a novel, movie, or other literary work, because the author wants the audience to be fully aware of the characters in the story. The famous children's story entitled The Three Little Bears applies this technique of exposition. "Once upon a time, there were three bears. There was a Daddy Bear, who was very big, a Mama Bear, who was middle-sized, and a Baby Bear, who was very small. They all lived together in a little cottage in the middle of the woods. Their favorite breakfast was porridge. One morning, after they made their porridge, Daddy Bear said, 'Let's go for walk in the woods until it cools.' Mama Bear and Baby Bear liked the idea, so off they went. While they were away, a little girl named Goldilocks came walking through the forest and smelled the porridge..." With the help of a single passage, the author of the story has given us an overview of the bear family, their residence, and information that sets the story in motion.
Exposition
Definition: A literary device that can be defined as a concise and brief story intended to provide a moral lesson at the end. Example: Animal Farm (By George Orwell) "Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies ... and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end ... No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery ..." Here, old Major is speaking to other animals. It is presented as the story of the development and emergence of Soviet communism, through an animal fable. He advises the animals to struggle against the humans, telling them that rebellion is the only feasible way out of their miserable situation.
Fable
Definition: A literary genre and type of comedy that makes use of highly exaggerated and funny situations aimed at entertaining the audience. Farce is also a subcategory of dramatic comedy, which is different from other forms of comedy as it only aims at making the audience laugh. Example: The Importance of Being Earnest (By Oscar Wilde) Oscar Wilde's novel, The Importance of Being Earnest, is one of the best verbal farces. Just like a typical farce that contains basic elements, such as mockery of the upper class, disgraceful physical humor, absurdity, and mistaken identities, this novel also demonstrates these features of a farce. The most absurd thing in tale is the fact that Miss Prism commits a blunder by leaving her manuscript in the pram, and puts her child into her handbag.
Farce
Definition: A phrase or word having different meanings than its literal meanings. It conveys meaning by identifying or comparing one thing to another, which has connotation or meaning familiar to the audience. Example: Personification- It occurs when a writer gives human traits to non-human or inanimate objects. It is similar to metaphors and similes that also use comparison between two objects. For instance, "Hadn't she felt it in every touch of the sunshine, as its golden finger-tips pressed her lids open and wound their way through her hair?" ("The Mother's Recompense" by Edith Wharton) In the above lines, the speaker is personifying sunshine as it has finger tips that wound their way into her hair. This is trait of using finger-tips in hair is a human one.
Figure of speech
Definition: A literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story. Foreshadowing often appears at the beginning of a story, or a chapter, and helps the reader develop expectations about the coming events in a story. Example: Romeo and Juliet (By Robert Francis) Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is rich with foreshadowing examples, one of which is the following lines from Act 2, Scene 2: "Life were better ended by their hate, Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love" In the balcony scene, Juliet is concerned about Romeo's safety as she fears her kinsmen may catch him. Romeo says, in the above lines, that he would rather have her love and die sooner, than not obtain her love and die later. Eventually, he gets her love and dies for her love, too.
Foreshadowing
Definition: A literary device that can be defined as poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm, and does not rhyme with fixed forms. Such poems are without rhythm and rhyme schemes, do not follow regular rhyme scheme rules, yet still provide artistic expression. Example: Come Slowly, Eden (By Emily Dickinson) "Come slowly, Eden Lips unused to thee. Bashful, sip thy jasmines, As the fainting bee, Reaching late his flower, Round her chamber hums, Counts his nectars—alights, And is lost in balms!" Emily Dickinson is famous as the mother of American English free verse. This poem does not have consistent metrical patterns, musical patterns, or rhyme. Rather, following the rhythm of natural speech, it gives an artistic expression to the ideas it contains.
Free verse
Definition: A type of art, literature, or music characterized by a specific form, content, and style. For example, literature has four main genres: poetry, drama, fiction, and non-fiction. All of these genres have particular features and functions that distinguish them from one another. Example: Fiction- Fiction has three categories that are, realistic, non-realistic, and semi-fiction. Usually, fiction work is not real and therefore, authors can use complex figurative language to touch readers' imaginations. Unlike poetry, it is more structured, follows proper grammatical pattern, and correct mechanics. A fictional work may incorporate fantastical and imaginary ideas from everyday life. It comprises some important elements such as plot, exposition, foreshadowing, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Popular examples of literary fiction include, James Joyce's novel A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.
Genre
Definition: A sermon or speech that a religious person or priest delivers before a group of people to offer them moral correction. The primary purpose of this speech is not doctrinal instruction, but spiritual edification. Simply, homily is a public discourse on a moral or religious subject. Example: Holy Bible, Matthew 24:42-51 (By Deacon Winton DeRosia) "There is a fable that tells of three apprentice devils who were coming to earth to finish their apprenticeship. They were talking with Satan, the chief of the devils, about their plans to tempt and to ruin humanity. The first said, "I will tell them there is no God." But Satan said, "That will not delude many, for they know there is a God ... The most dangerous of all delusions is that there is plenty of time." Deacon Winton DeRosia delivers this homily on a website "First Sunday in Advent." This sermon is about the temptations of Satan, and how he uses human beings for his purpose.
Homily
Definition: Is when extreme pride and arrogance shown by a character, which ultimately brings about his downfall. Example: Paradise Lost (By John Milton) In his famous epic Paradise Lost, John Milton portrays Satan as a character that suffers from hubris. His loses his glorious position through giving in to his excessive pride. It was his hubris that made him try to take control over Heaven. Although he failed miserably, his pride lasts: "Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n." The reason of his desire to rebel against his creator originates from his reluctance to accept the authority of God and His Son because he believed that angels are "self-begot, self-raised" and hence bringing his downfall in being thrown out of Paradise.
Hubris
Definition: Refers to an inversion in the arrangement of common words. It can be defined as a rhetorical device in which the writers play with the normal positions of words, phrases, and clauses in order to create differently arranged sentences, which still suggest a similar meaning. Hyperbaton is also known as a broader version of hypallage. Example: Measure for Measure (By William Shakespeare) "Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall ..." This is only one of the many hyperbaton examples found in Shakespeare's works. Here, he uses the unexpected word order, which is "some by virtue fall," instead of "some fall by virtue." This disordering of words helps in emphasizing the phrase "virtue fall."
Hyperbaton
Definition: A figure of speech that involves an exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis. Example: Babe the Blue Ox (American Folklore) In American folk lore, Paul Bunyan's stories are full of hyperboles. In one instance, he exaggerates winter by saying: "Well now, one winter it was so cold that all the geese flew backward and all the fish moved south and even the snow turned blue. Late at night, it got so frigid that all spoken words froze solid afore they could be heard. People had to wait until sunup to find out what folks were talking about the night before." Freezing of the spoken words at night in winter, and then warming them up in the warmth of the sun during the day are examples of hyperbole, which has been effectively used in this short excerpt from an American folktale.
Hyperbole
Definition: A figure of speech in which a writer raises a question, and then immediately provides an answer to that question. Example: Henderson the Rain King (By Saul Bellow) "What made me take this trip to Africa? There is no quick explanation. Things got worse and worse and worse and pretty soon they were too complicated." In this passage, the writer asks the question and immediately explains. This creates a rhetorical effect, which lies in providing the answer that readers might expect to be given by a writer.
Hypophora
Definition: A figure of speech in which what should come last is put first Example: "He began to walk barefoot across the meadow, but the sharp dry grass hurt his feet. He sat down to put on his shoes and socks." (Iris Murdoch, Nuns and Soldiers, 1980)
Hysteron-proteron
Definition: The use of figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses. Example: Romeo and Juliet (By William Shakespeare) Imagery of light and darkness is repeated many times in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Consider an example from Act I, Scene V: "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear ..." Romeo praises Juliet by saying that she appears more radiant than the brightly lit torches in the hall. He says that at night her face glows like a bright jewel shining against the dark skin of an African. Through the contrasting images of light and dark, Romeo portrays Juliet's beauty.
Imagery
Definition: It usually describes a narrative that begins, not at the beginning of a story, but somewhere in the middle-usually at some crucial point in the action. Example: The advantage of starting a story in the middle, or even at the end, and then doubling back to the same point is the ability to hook the audience immediately, without any exposition, plopping him down right in the middle of the action. Some of the earliest uses of in medias res are still the most formidable. Homer's Iliad makes use of the technique, but The Odyssey is an even better example. If you recall, it starts with most of Odysseus' journey already finished. The story up to that point is then told through flashbacks as we learn about all the fantastic characters he met along the way.
In medias res
Definition: Generally employed in both poetry and prose, to reiterate the significance of the deeply felt emotions of the writer. Example: Gulliver's Travels (By Jonathan Swift) "I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth." Swift's quote above highlights the use of some fascinating and impressive invective.
Invective
Definition: A literary technique in which the normal order of words is reversed, in order to achieve a particular effect of emphasis or meter. Example: Romeo and Juliet (By William Shakespeare) It was a common practice in the days of William Shakespeare to use inversions. Look at an example of inversion from Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5: "Her mother is the lady of the house, And a good lady, and wise and virtuous. I nursed her daughter that you talked withal. I tell you, he that can lay hold of her, Shall have the chinks."
Inversion
Definition: A figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. It may also be a situation that ends up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated. Example: Romeo and Juliet (By William Shakespeare) We come across the following lines in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene V: "Go ask his name: if he be married. My grave is like to be my wedding bed." Juliet commands her nurse to find out who Romeo was, and says if he were married, then her wedding bed would be her grave. It is a verbal irony because the audience knows that she is going to die on her wedding bed.
Irony (three types)
Definition: A literary device that can be defined as a statement, sentence, or argument used to convince or persuade the targeted audience by employing reason or logic. Example: The Art of Rhetoric (By Aristotle) "All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal." Aristotle is using syllogistic arguments here, where some of the arguments or assertions remain unstated. Since Socrates is a man therefore, he is mortal; all men are mortal so eventually they will die. This is the logic presented here.
Logos
Definition: A figure of speech that employs an understatement by using double negatives or, in other words, a positive statement expressed by negating its opposite expressions. Example: A Tale of a Tub (By Jonathan Swift) "I am not unaware how the productions of the Grub Street brotherhood have of late years fallen under many prejudices." Now just see how Swift has used double negatives to emphasize the point that he is totally aware of it. The irony is that he is aware, but he is saying it as if he is unaware that he is not.
Litotes
Definition: Amistake in reasoning. Example: PRINCE OF MOROCCO: "Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire." Why, that's the lady. All the world desires her. From the four corners of the earth they come To kiss this shrine, this mortal breathing saint. (The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare) There are interesting fallacy examples in William Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. One of the central pieces of drama is the riddle of the three caskets. Princes from around the world come to try to win the hand of Portia; they must do so by choosing the correct of three caskets. The first two princes reason incorrectly and choose the wrong caskets. Here we see the Prince of Morocco choose the golden casket by way of an unwarranted assumption. He reads the clue, proclaiming that inside the golden casket it "what many men desire," and thus must be Portia's portrait. He is disproved when he opens the casket and reads the famous line, "All that glisters is not gold."
Logical Fallacy
Definition: A form of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. Example: real rise While she open up her eyes Sun start to appear in the sky Feel her fragrance in growing flower Feel long-lasting fragrance in your life She not inspire only flowers She also inspire sun to look on earth She is not the beauty of earth She is beauty of paradise For a unique kind purpose She do appear on the surface of earth Her each deference make her unite Her beauty do superb work She give shape to each dream And inspiration to go accomplish She is zeal of real sunshine She give birth to real rise
Lyric poetry
Definition: The use of understatement to highlight a point, or explain a situation, or to understate a response used to enhance the effect of a dramatic moment. Example: King Lear (By William Shakespeare) "I am a very foolish fond old man, Fourscore and upward, not an hour more or less; And, to deal plainly, I fear I am not in my perfect mind..." Shakespeare has used meiosis in these lines to create humor. Although it is undoubtedly clear that the king has gone mad, his reaction that "I fear I am not in my perfect mind" is an example of an understatement.
Meiosis
Definition: A subgenre of drama, which is an exaggerated form of this genre. Melodramas deal with sensational and romantic topics that appeal to the emotions of the common audience. Originally, it made use of melody and music, while modern melodramas may not contain any music at all. In fact, a melodrama gives preference to a detailed characterization where characters are simply drawn, one-dimensional, or stereotyped. Typically, melodrama uses stock characters including a heroes, heroines, and villains Example: Now Voyager (By Olive Higgins Prouty) Based on the novel Now Voyager, by Olive Higgins Prouty, this melodrama tells the story of a woman, Charlotte Vale, who suffers a lifetime repression due to her domineering mother, who finally breaks her free at the request of Charlotte's psychiatrist. Thus, she takes a voyage where she encounters Jerry Durrance, a loyal father and loveless husband, whose wife is manipulative and jealous. Charlotte pulls back Jerry's emotionally disturbed daughter from the brink. She then enters into another relationship, but could not push Jerry out of her mind. By the end, though Charlotte could not get her desired man, she becomes self-assured and more confident.
Melodrama
Definition: A rhetorical term for the act of self-correction in speech or writing. Also known as correctio or the figure of afterthought. Example: "You might have heard a pin fall—a pin! a feather—as he described the cruelties inflicted on muffin boys by their masters . . .." (Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, 1839)
Metanoia
Definition: A figure of speech that makes an implicit, implied, or hidden comparison between two things that are unrelated, but which share some common characteristics. Example: The Sun Rising (By John Donne) "She's all states, and all princes, I ..." John Donne, a metaphysical poet, was well-known for his abundant use of metaphors throughout his poetical works. In his well-known work, The Sun Rising, the speaker scolds the sun for waking him and his beloved. Among the most evocative metaphors in literature, he explains "She is all states, and all princes, I." This line demonstrates the speaker's belief that he and his beloved are richer than all states, kingdoms, and rulers in the entire world because of the love that they share.
Metaphor
Definition: A stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse, or within the lines of a poem. Stressed syllables tend to be longer, and unstressed shorter. Example: Twelfth Night (By William Shakespeare) "If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. That strain again! it had a dying fall: O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound, That breathes upon a bank of violets ..." This is an example of iambic pentameter, which contains an unstressed syllable first, and a stressed syllable second. Shakespeare has played around with iambic pentameter a lot to create different effects. Here you can see each line consists of accented and unaccented syllables underlined.
Meter
Definition: A figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it is closely associated. Example: Julius Caesar (By William Shakespeare) The given lines are from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act I: "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears." Mark Anthony uses "ears" to say that he wants the people present to listen to him attentively. It is a metonymy because the word "ears" replaces the concept of paying attention.
Metonymy
Definition: A literary element that evokes certain feelings or vibes in readers through words and descriptions Example: Pickwick Papers (By Charles Dickens) Charles Dickens creates a calm and peaceful mood in his novel Pickwick Papers: "The river, reflecting the clear blue of the sky, glistened and sparkled as it flowed noiselessly on." The depiction of idyllic scenery imparts a serene and non-violent mood to the readers.
Mood
Definition: Can be seen as an image, sound, action, or other figure that has a symbolic significance, and contributes toward the development of a theme. Motif and theme are linked in a literary work, but there is a difference between them. In a literary piece, a motif is a recurrent image, idea, or symbol that develops or explains a theme, while a theme is a central idea or message. Example:
Motif
Definition: A word which imitates the natural sounds of a thing. It creates a sound effect that mimics the thing described, making the description more expressive and interesting. Example: Come Down, O Maid (By Alfred Lord Tennyson) "The moan of doves in immemorial elms, And murmuring of innumerable bees..."
Onomatopoeia
Definition: A figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect. The common oxymoron phrase is a combination of an adjective proceeded by a noun with contrasting meanings, such as "cruel kindness," or "living death". Example:
Oxymoron