Literary terms
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- speaker
- in a poem, the voice that addresses the audience
- litote
- understatement for effect
- metaphor
- a comparison between two seemingly unlike things (without using the words like, as, than, or resembles)
- meter
- the repeated rhythmic pattern found in a given poem. There are a number of types including iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, and spondee
- assonance
- the repitition of similiar vowel sounds in a poem (ex. "Who knows if the moon's a balloon", Cummings)
- lyric poetry
- songlike poetry that expresses private, personal thoughts and emotions. This form is so common that modern readers often associate it with the term poetry itself.
- dissonance
- the use of harsh sounds or rythyms in order to achieve an effect ("I'd awake and hear the cold splintering, breaking", Hayden)
- alliteration
- the repitition of consonant sounds. (ex. "sessions of sweet, silent thought", shakespeare)
- allusion
- a reference, in a given poem, to a character, place, event, or other thing that is well known from another work of literature, or history, religion, myth, or some other field of knowledge (Yeats' "The Second Coming" refers to the birth of Christ)
- paradox
- an apparent contradiction that, upon further thought, is actually true
- poetry
- creative writing that uses compression, figures of speech, imagery, and other techniques to express strong thoughts and feelings
- oxymoron
- the combination of seemingly contradictory or opposing ideas or images
- epic
- a long narrative poem that tells of a great hero who embodies the values of a culture
- unity
- when the various components of a poem work together well
- style
- the distinctive and creative way that a writer uses language
- rythym
- the regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables
- Anastrophe
- the inversion of "normal" word order to achieve a "poetic" or distinctive effect
- free verse
- poetry that is relatively formless
- cacophony
- "harsh" to the ear
- diction
- a writer's or speaker's choice of words... it is often an important element of a writer's style
- apostrophe
- when a speaker in a poem directly addresses an absent or dead person, god/goddess, an abstract quality, or some nonhuman thing as if it were present and capable of responding
- symbol
- in creative literature, a person, place, thing or event that stands for itself and for something else. It doesn't have to seem like it is relevant to what it represents.
- personification
- when a nonhuman thing is given human characteristics
- euphony
- when poetry is pleasing to the ear
- theme
- the "lesson" that an author intends to teach
- imagery
- language that appeals to the senses
- onomatopoeia
- the word whose sound mimics or suggests its meaning
- form
- type of poetry- format (ex. sonnet)
- figurative language
- one thing literally, but another meaning is suggested
- simile
- a comparison between two seemingly different words using words like "like" or "as"
- criticism
- the comparison, analysis, evaluation and interpretation of works of literature. It is subjective and debatable; it can also be positive or negative
- hyperbole
- an exhaggeration for effect
- rhyme
- the repitition of sounds in a poem- often at the ends of lines and in specific schemes/patterns