poetry and prose terms
Terms
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- meter
- a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry
- paradox
- an apparent contradiction which proves, upon examination to be true; a statement that doesnt seem true but really is
- dimeter
- 2 feet per line
- assonance
- the similarity or repetition of vowel sounds in two or more words with different consonant sounds
- ballad
- a type of poem that is actually meant to be sung and is both lyric and narrative in nature
- technical climax
- the turning point in the plot at which the outcome of the action is determined; often protagonist has opportunity to change but doesnt
- trimeter
- 3 feet per line
- octave
- an 8 line stanza
- narrative
- a long story told in verse form, an epic
- antagonist
- the principal opponent of the main character
- dactylic foot
- 3 syllables with the stress on the first syllable
- extended metaphor
- a metaphor that is developed over several lines of writing
- foil character
- a character that contrasts in some important way with a more important character
- perfect rhyme
- rhyme involving sounds that are exactly the same
- resolution
- the events following the technical climax in which the outcome is actually worked out
- narrator
- teller of the story
- situational irony
- a discrepancy between the expected outcome of a situation and the actual outcome
- antithesis
- the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in parallel grammatical structures; contrasting one thing against another affect
- dramatic irony
- when the reader knows something that the character doesnt
- character
- a fictional personality created by an author
- alliteration
- the repetition of the initial consonant sound in two or more words in a line of verse
- dramatic climax
- is the point of greatest interest or intensity to the story
- metonymy
- the substitution of one word for another closely associated word
- anapestic foot
- 3 syllables with the stress on the last syllable
- atmosphere
- describes the general feeling of a story itself
- hexameter
- 6 feet per line
- theme
- the controlling idea of a literary work that is a general truth or commentary about people, life, the world that is brought out in the story
- simile
- two dissimilar things that are compared using words sucha as "like" "as" "than" or "resembles"
- conflict
- the interplay between opposing elements
- plotless short story
- is pleasurable to read as it describes characters in a situation but doesnt employ the resolution of a conflict
- motivation
- the reasons that cause characters to act as they do
- internal rhyme
- rhyme between words that occurs within a single line of poetry
- pyrric foot
- 2 unstressed syllables; this type of foot is rare and is found in between other types of feet
- stanza
- a group of consecutive lines in a poem that form a single unit
- quatrain
- a 4 line stanza
- foot
- a unit of meter; can consist of 2 or 3 syllables; lines of poetry are classified according to the number of feet in a line
- rhymed verse
- consists of a verse with end rhyme and regular meter
- eye rhyme
- rhyme that depends on spelling rather than sound; words that look like they should rhyme but dont
- spondaic foot
- 2 stressed syllables
- exposition
- background information on the characters, setting, and other events necessary for understanding the story are given
- synecdoche
- using a part of something to represent the whole time
- quintet
- a 5 line stanza
- dynamic character
- a character who grows, learns, or changes in some significant way throughout a story
- rhythm
- the pattern of stresses and unstressed syllables in words in a line of poetry
- plot
- a sequence of events in a narrative that is carefully constructed by the author for artistic purpose
- onomatopoeia
- the use of words that imitate the sounds they define
- third person objective
- the narrator is not a character in the story and reports only what can be seen and heard
- iambic foot
- a 2 syllable foot with the stress on the second syllable; the most common foot in English
- stock character
- a type of character that is usually found in a particular literary form
- stereotyped character
- a character created according to widely held, often narrow-minded ideas
- complication
- the conflict is developed, suspense is created, and foreshadowing may be used
- repitition
- repeating a word or a phrase within a poem
- flat character
- a character who is not well developed in a story, but who represents a type rather than an individual
- first person
- the narrator is a character in the story
- monometer
- one foot per line
- dramatic
- showing the reader what a character is like through descriptions of thought, dialogue, action, etc.
- static character
- a character who resists change or refuses to change during the story
- implied metaphor
- suggests comparison without using "is"
- poetry
- rythmic, compressed language that uses figures of speech and imagery to appeal to emotion and imagination
- third person limited omniscient
- the narrator is not a character in the story and reports not only what can be seen and heard, but also the thoughts and feeling of a few characters
- literary allusion
- a reference to a person, place, or thing from previous literature
- tetrameter
- 4 feet per line
- rhyme scheme
- the pattern or sequence in which end rhyme occurs throughout the poem
- imperfect rhyme
- rhyme involving words that sound similar, but are not exactly the same
- heptameter
- 7 feet per line
- style
- the distinctive handling of language by a writer through the purposeful selection of words and sentence structure, helps indicate tone
- triplet
- a 3 line stanza
- figure of speech
- a word or phrase that describes one thing in terms of another and is not meant to be taken on a literal level
- tone
- the author or speakers attitude toward the characters, events, or audience
- round character
- a character who is well described and whose thoughts and actions are revealed during the development of the story
- consistent character
- a character whose speech, thoughts, and actions are what the reader has been lead to expect from that particular character
- hyperbole
- using exaggeration for emphasis, not taken literally; overstatement
- mood
- describes the readers state of mind after finishing the story
- sestet
- a 6 line stanza
- point of view
- the physical and psychological relationship between the narrator and the story's characters and events
- apostrophe
- addressing something nonhuman as if it were human
- third person omniscient
- the narrator is not a character in the story and report that can seen and heard, along with the thoughts and feelings of all the characters
- octameter
- 8 feet per line
- trochaic foot
- a 2 syllable foot with the stress on the first syllable
- free verse
- consists of lines of poetry that do not have a regular rhythm and do not rhyme
- end rhyme
- rhyme that occurs between words found at the ends of 2 or more lines in a poem
- characterization
- the technique a writer uses to create and characters in a work of fiction
- setting
- the represented time and place of events in a literary work
- poetry
- a pattrned form of verbal or written expression of ideas in concentrated, imaginative, and rhythmical terms
- pentameter
- 5 feet per line
- personification
- giving human or animate qualities to nonhuman or inanimate things
- lyric
- a brief, personal poem that is especially musical and filled with emotion, a sonnet
- consonance
- the repetition of consonant sounds that are not at the beginning of words in a line of verse
- rhyme
- the similarity or likeness of sound in 2 or more words
- blank verse
- consists of unrhymed iambic pentameter
- expository
- telling the reader about a character in a straightforward manner
- scansion
- the process of marking lines of poetry to show the type of feet and the number of feet they contain
- refrain
- the repetition of one or more phrases or lines at definite intervals in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza
- protagonist
- the central character in a work of fiction about whom the audience is most concerned
- verbal irony
- a discrepancy between the literal meaning of a word and the meaning actually conveyed; sarcasm
- conclusion
- the final event of a story's plot
- direct metaphor
- directly compares two things with a verb such as "is"
- metaphor
- two dissimilar things are compared without using words such as "like" "as" "than" or "resembles"
- irony
- contrast between the way things are and the way they appear
- septet
- a 7 line stanza
- couplet
- a 2 line of stanze
- symbolism
- the use of something concrete to represent something abstract