Allegory

a story with underlying symbols that really represent something else

use of repeated consonant sound, usually at beginning of a series of words

Alliteration

Allusion

reference to another literary piece, person

placing a person or object in an inappropriate historical situation; may be deliberate or unintentional

Anachronism

Analogy

comparing something to something else Repetition of a word in front of a successive clause

Inversion of a sentence to suit rhyme scheme and metrical rhythm

Anaphora

Anastrophe

Anecdote

short narrative, story, tale major character opposing protagonist; usually the villain
assigning human attributes, such as emotions or physical characteristics, to nonhuman things; often used for attributing human characteristics to animals

Antagonist

Anthropomorphism

Antihero

Protagonist with villainous qualities A pairing of opposites to make a point

A speaker's direct address to either a) a nonhuman entity or b) an absent human
A relationship between two or more words or phrases in which the two units are grammatically parallel and have the same referent (e.g. the first US president, George Washington)

Antithesis

Apostrophe

Apposition

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds within words

Narrative poem, usually with a tragicomic tone, tend to be four lines long with an ABCBDEFE rhyme scheme

Ballad

Blank Verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter, often used by Renaissance playwrights

Concrete Poetry

Also called emblematic poetry, forms its words into pictures Repetition of consonant words within words Two consecutive rhyming lines in a poem

Consonance

Couplet

Diction

choice of words; can be incorrect if the wrong word is used; can be stilted or flowery; can set tone; choice of words are important; wrong words can be deliberately used to indicate a character's ignorance or humor; flowery words can reveal a character's pretension

Discursive Poem

A poem that expounds on a topic; an "idea" poem

A character that undergoes some kind of personal alteration mournful, melancholy poem or song; usually pays tribute to a dead person

Dynamic Character

Elegy

Enjambment

continuation of a sentence without a pause When a writer wants to appeal to ethics A passage that simply gives the audience information
story with a moral; usually with animals as main characters
language characterized by figures of speech such as metaphors and similes as well as elaborate expression through imagery

Ethos

Expository Work

Fable

Figurative Language

Foil

A character whose function is to emphasize the personality traits of some other character

Heroic Couplet

Rhyme as a couplet (AABBCCDD), but follows an iambic pentameter rhythm

Hyperbole

deliberate exaggeration Fancy way of saying "Exaggeration"

Metrical foot of two syllables, with the accent on the second syllable

Hyperbole

Iamb

Iambic Pentameter

Five iambs to a line.

A poem that is a pure image, neither telling a tale nor formulating a theme

Imagistic Poem

In medias res

Into the middle of a narrative

language that communicates what was expressed in the dialogue, without using a direct quotation

Indirect dialogue

Irony

Some unexpected but fitting twist, has three categories: verbal, situational and dramatic

Irony

expression of meaning that is opposite of literal meaning; stories can be ironic when they end in a way that is opposite of what is expected

Logos

When a writer wants to speak to one's logical mind A poem that's meter and rhyme give it a songlike quality comparison like simile; no like or as Set rhythm of a poem

Lyric Poem

Metaphor

Meter

Meter

rhythm of a poem

Metonymy

When a larger whole (usually an abstract) is represented by one of its parts

Narrative

literary representation of an event or a story; text itself

Narrative Poem

A poem that tells a story A newly coined word or expression Praises someone or something still in existence

Neologism

Ode

Paean

expression of joyful praise

Parable

story with a moral

phrase that appears to be contradictory but actually contains some basic truth that resolves apparent contradiction

Paradox

Parallelism

repetition of sounds, meanings, structures to create a certain style

When two or more items share a similar construction or treatment, has two categories: grammatical and thematic

Parallelism

Parody

literary work in which style of an author is imitated for comic effect or ridicule

Pastoral

work that deals with lives of people, especially shepherd, in the country or in nature (as opposed to city people)

Pathos

evokes feeling of pity or sympathy assigning human attributes to something nonhuman

Octave rhyming abbaabba OR sestet rhyming abcdcd or cdecde

Personification

Petrarchan Rhyme

Satire

ridicule of a subject; humorous and often intended to point out something about a serious subject

Sonnet

14 Lines of iambic pentameter and features a specific rhyme scheme

Static Character

A character that remains unchanged in a story When a part represents a specific, tangible whole main idea of a piece of literature
An idea or an observation set forth by the story as a universal truth

Synecdoche

Theme

Theme

Tone

manner of expression

Tragic Hero

Protagonist of a tragedy
A foot consisting of one long or stressed syllable followed by one short or unstressed syllable. (e.g., Think you he would not sigh, though he must leave me? "Sure he" would sigh; for he is a noble-natured..)

Trochee