Literary Glossary
Terms
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- poetic devices
- words with harmonious sounds including assonance
- couplet
- a pair of rhyming lines in the same meter.
- ellipsis
- three periods signifying the omission of one or two more words
- antagonist
- a character, instiution, group, or force that is in conflict with the protagonist.
- repetition
- poetic devices taht uses the repeating of words, sounds, phrases or sentences
- personification
- figure of speech that attributes human qualities to an inanimate object
- essay
- a short nonfiction work about a specific subject, narrative, persuasive, descriptive, expository or arguementive
- epic
- long narrative poem about the adventures of gods or a hero
- sensory imagery
- langauge that evokes images and triggers memories in the reader of the five senses
- consonance
- the repetition of a consonant at the end of two or more words.
- onomatopeia
- figure of speech that uses words to imitate sound
- rising action
- path of the plot leading to the climax
- irony
- opppsite of what is expected
- protagonist
- main character
- denouement
- falling action or final revelations in the plot
- assonance
- repetition of vowel sounds in two or more words that do not ryhme
- extended metaphor
- a metphor that is elaboratied on and developed in several phrases or sentences.
- epitaph
- a word or phrase describing a qualify of a person, place, or thing that is repeated throughout the work
- pun
- play on words
- myth
- fictional tale about gods or heros; allusions to Greek, Roman, Norse, and Celtic myths are common in English literature
- alliteration
- repetition of initial consonant or vowel sounds in two or more successive or nearby words.
- hyperbole
- figure of speech that uses exaggeration
- analogy
- comparison of two things that are somewhat alike.
- archetypes
- primordial images and symbols that occur in literature, myth, religion, and folklore.
- metaphor
- figure of speech in which one thing is said to be another
- climax
- the high point in the plot, after which there is fall action, may coincide with crisis.
- foil
- a character who, through contrast reveals the characteristics of another character
- conflict
- struggle between characters and other characters, forces of nature, or outside forces beyond their control, internal conflict within a character who struggles with moral choices and matters of conscience.
- allusion
- a referance to a well-known person, place, event, work of art, myth, or religion.
- simile
- figure of speech that compares two things that are not alike, using the words like, as, or than
- figurative language
- use of figures of speech to express ideas
- ryhme
- words with identical sounds, but different spellings