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Hand-out 1: Introduction/Review of Basic Literary Concepts

Introduction/Review of Basic Literary Concepts

A.
Meaning of Literature and its Importance
What is Literature?
the expression of mans thoughts, feelings and emotions in words of truth and beauty. It
is life itself. Truth applies to actuality, or to what is reality. Beauty is a quality that
delights the senses, or exalts the mind. It is one that gives aesthetic pleasure. Aesthetic
person is the one who is sensitive to beautiful.
the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at
once (Cyril Connoly, Enemies of Promise).
Literature in many of its branches is no other than the shadow of good talk (Robert Louis
Stevenson, Memories and Portraits).
the most seductive, the most deceiving, the most dangerous of professions (John
Viscount Morley, Critical Miscellanies)
the orchestration of platitudes (Thomas Mann)
LITERATURE, a body of written works related by subject-matter (e.g. the literature of
computing), by language or place of origin (e.g. Russian literature), or by prevailing cultural
standards of merit. In this last sense, 'literature' is taken to include oral, dramatic, and broadcast
compositions that may not have been published in written form but which have been (or deserve
to be) preserved.
Since the 19th century, the broader sense of literature as a totality of written or printed
works has given way to more exclusive definitions based on criteria of imaginative, creative, or
artistic value, usually related to a work's absence of factual or practical reference (see autotelic).
Even more restrictive has been the academic concentration upon poetry, drama, and fiction.
Until the mid-20th century, many kinds of non-fictional writingin philosophy, history,
biography, *CRITICISM, topography, science, and politicswere counted as literature; implicit in
this broader usage is a definition of literature as that body of works whichfor whatever reason
deserves to be preserved as part of the current reproduction of meanings within a given
culture (unlike yesterday's newspaper, which belongs in the disposable category of ephemera).
This sense seems more tenable than the later attempts to divide literatureas creative,
imaginative, fictional, or non-practicalfrom factual writings or practically effective works of
propaganda, *RHETORIC, or *DIDACTIC writing. The *RUSSIAN FORMALISTS' attempt to define
*LITERARINESS in terms of linguistic deviations is important in the theory of *POETRY, but has not
addressed the more difficult problem of the non-fictional prose forms.
-Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
B.
Types of Literary Genres
Function of Genre
Depending upon their types, different genres have different roles. For example, fiction and
dramatic genres help students and writers learn and improve their communication skills. A poetic
genre, on the other hand, enhances imaginative and emotional power of the readers. Nonfictional texts and essays help readers develop analytical and persuasive capabilities. However,
the major function of genre is to establish a code of behavior between the writers and audience,
and keep the readers informed about the topics discussed or the themes presented.
Genre Definition
Genre means the 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 nonfiction. All of these genres have particular features and functions that distinguish them from one
another. Hence, it is necessary on the part of readers to know which category of genre they are

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reading in order to understand the message it conveys, as they may have certain expectations
prior to the reading concerned.
Types of Genre
A. POETRY
Poetry is the first major literary genre. All types of poetry share specific characteristics. In
fact, poetry is a form of text that follows a meter and rhythm with each lines and syllables. It is
further subdivided into different genres such an epic poem, narrative, romantic, dramatic, and
lyric. Dramatic poetry includes melodrama, tragedy and comedy, while other poems include ode,
sonnet, elegy, ballad, song, and epics. Popular examples of epic poems are Paradise Lost by John
Milton, The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer and romantic poem includes, Red Red Rose by
Robert Burns etc. All these poetic forms share specific features such as they do not follow
paragraphs or sentences; they use stanzas and lines instead. Some forms follow very strict rules
of length and number of stanzas and lines such as villanelle, sonnet and haiku etc. While some
may be free like a free verse poem Feelings, Now by Katherine Foreman that is devoid of any
regular meter and rhyme scheme. Besides that, often poetry uses figurative language like
metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, and alliteration, etc. to create heightened effects.
Glossary of Terms in Poetry
Acrostic
A poem in which the first letter of each line spells out a word, name, or phrase when read
vertically.
Alexandrine
In English, a 12-syllable iambic line adapted from French heroic verse. The last line of each
stanza in Thomas Hardys The Convergence of the Twain and Percy Bysshe Shelleys To a
Skylark is an alexandrine.
Anagram
A word spelled out by rearranging the letters of another word; for example, The teacher
gapes at the mounds of exam pages lying before her.
Ars Poetica
A poem that explains the art of poetry, or a meditation on poetry using the form and
techniques of a poem. Horaces Ars Poetica is an early example, and the foundation for the
tradition. While Horace writes of the importance of delighting and instructing audiences,
modernist ars poetica poets argue that poems should be written for their own sake, as art for the
sake of art. Archibald MacLeishs famous Ars Poetica sums up the argument: A poem should
not mean / But be. See also Alexander Popes An Essay on Criticism, William Wordsworths
Prelude, and Wallace Stevenss Of Modern Poetry.
Aubade
A love poem or song welcoming or lamenting the arrival of the dawn. The form originated
in medieval France. See John Donnes The Sun Rising and Louise Bogans Leave-Taking.
Ballad
A popular narrative song passed down orally. In the English tradition, it usually follows a
form of rhymed (abcb) quatrains alternating four-stress and three-stress lines. Folk (or traditional)
ballads are anonymous and recount tragic, comic, or heroic stories with emphasis on a central
dramatic event; examples include Barbara Allen and John Henry. Beginning in the
Renaissance, poets have adapted the conventions of the folk ballad for their own original
compositions. Examples of this literary ballad form include John Keatss La Belle Dame sans
Merci, Thomas Hardys During Wind and Rain, and Edgar Allan Poes Annabel Lee. Browse
more ballads.

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Ballade
An Old French verse form that usually consists of three eight-line stanzas and a four-line
envoy, with a rhyme scheme of ababbcbc bcbc. The last line of the first stanza is repeated at the
end of subsequent stanzas and the envoy. See Hilaire Bellocs Ballade of Modest Confession
and Algernon Charles Swinburnes translation of Franois Villons Ballade des Pendus (Ballade
of the Hanged).
Bucolic
See pastoral poetry.
Canto
A long subsection of an epic or long narrative poem, such as Dante Alighieris Commedia (The
Divine Comedy), first employed in English by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene. Other
examples include Lord Byrons Don Juan and Ezra Pounds Cantos.
Canzone
Literally song in Italian, the canzone is a lyric poem originating in medieval Italy and
France and usually consisting of hendecasyllabic lines with end-rhyme. Early versions include
Petrarchs five to six-line stanzas plus an envoi, as well as Dantes modification: five twelve-line
stanzas with repeated end words, finished by a five-line envoi. The canzone influenced the
development of the sonnet and later writers such as James Merrill, W.H. Auden, and Ezra Pound
took up the form. See Daryl Hines Canzone and About the Canzone, by John Hollander.
Carol
A hymn or poem often sung by a group, with an individual taking the changing stanzas and the
group taking the burden or refrain. See Robert Southwells The Burning Babe. Many traditional
Christmas songs are carols, such as I Saw Three Ships and The Twelve Days of
Christmas.
Concrete poetry
Verse that emphasizes nonlinguistic elements in its meaning, such as a typeface that
creates a visual image of the topic. Examples include George Herberts Easter Wings and The
Altar and George Starbucks Poem in the Shape of a Potted Christmas Tree.

Sonnet in the Shape of a Potted Christmas Tree by GEORGE STARBUCK

*
O
furybedecked!
O glitter-torn!
Let the wild wind erect
bonbonbonanzas; junipers affect
frostyfreeze turbans; iciclestuff adorn
all cuckolded creation in a madcap crown of horn!
Its a new day; no scapegrace of a sect
tidying up the ashtrays playing Daughter-in-Law Elect;
bells! bibelots! popsicle cigars! shatter the glassware! a son born
now
now
while ox and ass and infant lie
3

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together as poor creatures will

and tears of her exertion still
cling in the spent girls eye
and a great firework in the sky
drifts to the western hill.
George Starbuck, Sonnet in the Shape of a Potted Christmas Tree from The Works: Poems Selected from Five
Decades. Copyright 2003 by the University of Alabama Press. Reprinted with the permission of the
University of Alabama Press.
Source: The Works: Poems Selected from Five Decades (The University of Alabama Press, 2003)

Couplet
A pair of successive rhyming lines, usually of the same length. A couplet is closed when
the lines form a bounded grammatical unit like a sentence (see Dorothy Parkers Interview:
The ladies men admire, Ive heard, /Would shudder at a wicked word.). The heroic couplet is
written in iambic pentameter and features prominently in the work of 17th- and 18th-century
didactic and satirical poets such as Alexander Pope: Some have at first for wits, then poets
passd, /Turnd critics next, and proved plain fools at last.

Porcupines BY MARILYN SINGER

Hugging you takes some practice.
So I'll start out with a cactus.
Marilyn Singer, "Porcupines" from Twosomes. Copyright 2011 by Marilyn Singer. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A.
Knopf, Inc. Source: Twosomes (Alfred A. Knopf, 2011)

Curtal sonnet. See Sonnet.

Didactic poetry
Poetry that instructs, either in terms of morals or by providing knowledge of philosophy,
religion, arts, science, or skills. Although some poets believe that all poetry is inherently
instructional, didactic poetry separately refers to poems that contain a clear moral or message or
purpose to convey to its readers. John Milton's epic Paradise Lost and Alexander Pope's An Essay
on Man are famous examples. See also William Blakes A Divine Image, Rudyard Kiplings If,
and Alfred Lord Tennysons In Memoriam.
Dirge
A brief hymn or song of lamentation and grief; it was typically composed to be performed at a
funeral. In lyric poetry, a dirge tends to be shorter and less meditative than an elegy. See
Christina Rossettis A Dirge and Sir Philip Sidneys Ring Out Your Bells.
A Dirge BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
Why were you born when the snow was falling?
You should have come to the cuckoos calling,
Or when grapes are green in the cluster,
Or, at least, when lithe swallows muster
For their far off flying
From summer dying.
Why did you die when the lambs were cropping?
You should have died at the apples dropping,
When the grasshopper comes to trouble,
And the wheat-fields are sodden stubble,

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And all winds go sighing

For sweet things dying.
Doggerel
Bad verse traditionally characterized by clichs, clumsiness, and irregular meter. It is often
unintentionally humorous. The giftedly bad William McGonagall was an accomplished
doggerelist, as demonstrated in The Tay Bridge Disaster:
It must have been an awful sight,
To witness in the dusky moonlight,
While the Storm Fiend did laugh, and angry did bray,
Along the Railway Bridge of the Silvry Tay,
Oh! ill-fated Bridge of the Silvry Tay,
I must now conclude my lay
By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay,
That your central girders would not have given way,
At least many sensible men do say,
Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,
At least many sensible men confesses,
For the stronger we our houses do build,
The less chance we have of being killed.
Dramatic monologue
A poem in which an imagined speaker addresses a silent listener, usually not the reader.
Examples include Robert Brownings My Last Duchess, T.S. Eliots The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock, and Ais Killing Floor. A lyric may also be addressed to someone, but it is short and
songlike and may appear to address either the reader or the poet. Browse more dramatic
monologue poems.

Eclogue
A brief, dramatic pastoral poem, set in an idyllic rural place but discussing urban, legal,
political, or social issues. Bucolics and idylls, like eclogues, are pastoral poems, but in
nondramatic form. See Edmund Spensers Shepheardes Calendar: April, Andrew Marvells
Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her Fawn, and John Crowe Ransoms Eclogue.
Elegy
In traditional English poetry, it is often a melancholy poem that laments its subjects death
but ends in consolation. Examples include John Miltons Lycidas; Alfred, Lord Tennysons In
Memoriam; and Walt Whitmans When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd. More recently,
Peter Sacks has elegized his father in Natal Command, and Mary Jo Bang has written You Were
You Are Elegy and other poems for her son. In the 18th century the elegiac stanza emerged,
though its use has not been exclusive to elegies. It is a quatrain with the rhyme scheme ABAB
written in iambic pentameter.

Envoi (or Envoy)

The brief stanza that ends French poetic forms such as the ballade or sestina. It usually serves as
a summation or a dedication to a particular person. See Hilaire Bellocs satirical Ballade of
Modest Confession.
Epic
A long narrative poem in which a heroic protagonist engages in an action of great mythic
or historical significance. Notable English epics include Beowulf, Edmund Spensers The Faerie
Queene (which follows the virtuous exploits of 12 knights in the service of the mythical King
Arthur), and John Miltons
Paradise Lost, which dramatizes Satans fall from Heaven and
humankinds subsequent alienation from God in the Garden of Eden. Browse more epics.
Epigram
A pithy, often witty, poem. See Walter Savage Landors Dirce, Ben Jonsons On Gut, or
much of the work of J.V. Cunningham:
This Humanist whom no beliefs constrained
Grew so broad-minded he was scatter-brained.
An epigram is a concise, clever, and sometimes paradoxical statement or line of verse.
Adjective: epigrammatic. Also called, simply, a saying. A person who composes or uses epigrams
is an epigrammatist.
Examples and Observations
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws." - (Tacitus)
"There are no gains without pains." - (Benjamin Franklin, "The Way to Wealth")
"If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth
reading or do things worth the writing." - (Benjamin Franklin)
"The Child is father of the Man." - (William Wordsworth, "My Heart Leaps Up")
"The only way to have a friend is to be one." - (Ralph Waldo Emerson, "On Friendship")
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and
philosophers and divines." - (Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance")
"In Wildness is the preservation of the world." - (Henry David Thoreau, "Walking")
"The old believe everything: the middle-aged suspect everything: the young know everything." (Oscar Wilde, "Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young")
"All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his." - (Oscar
Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest)
"No one is completely unhappy at the failure of his best friend." - (Groucho Marx)
"The only 'ism' Hollywood believes in is plagiarism." - (Dorothy Parker)
Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about
other people.

"Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about
wine."
(Fran Lebowitz)
"Asked for his favorite epigram, Karl Marx responded, 'de omnibus disputandum,' i.e., 'doubt
everything.' - (Dan Subotnik, Toxic Diversity. NYU Press, 2005)
"Audiences are always better pleased with a smart retort, some joke or epigram, than with any
amount of reasoning." - (Charlotte Perkins Gilman)
"What is an epigram? A dwarfish whole, its body brevity, and wit its soul." (Samuel Coleridge)
"The art of newspaper paragraphing is to stroke a platitude until it purrs like an epigram." (Don
Marquis)
"A brilliant epigram is a solemn platitude gone to a masquerade ball." (Lionel Strachey)
"Three things must epigrams, like bees, have all: A sting and honey and a body small."
(Latin verse, quoted by J. Symonds, Studies of the Greek Poets, 1877)
Renaissance Epigrams: Gall, Vinegar, Salt, and Honey
"In the Renaissance, George Puttenham remarked that the epigram is a 'short and sweete'
form 'in which every mery conceited man might without any long studie or tedious ambage,
make his friend sport, and anger his foe, and give a prettie nip, or shew a sharpe conceit [i.e.,
idea] in few verses' (The Art of English Poesy, 1589). Epigrams of both praise and blame were a
popular Renaissance genre, notably in the poetry of Ben Jonson. The critic J.C. Scaliger in his
Poetics (1560) divided epigrams into four kinds: gall, vinegar, salt, and honey (that is, an
epigram could be bitterly angry, sour, salacious, or sweet)."
(David Mikics, A New Handbook of Literary Terms. Yale University Press, 2007)
The Lighter Side of Epigrams
Jeremy Usborne: Oh come on, mate. How am I going to see Nancy again if you don't give me a
pass? She clearly hates me.
Mark Corrigan: Well, maybe you should take that as a sign.
Jeremy Usborne: I'm not giving up that easily. Faint heart never won fair maid.
Mark Corrigan: Right. The epigram that starts the stalker's manifesto.
(Robert Webb and David Mitchell in "Gym." Peep Show, 2007)
http://grammar.about.com/od/e/g/epigramterm.htm
Epistle
A letter in verse, usually addressed to a person close to the writer. Its themes may be
moral and philosophical, or intimate and sentimental. Alexander Pope favored the form; see his
Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, in which the poet addresses a physician in his social circle. The epistle
peaked in popularity in the 18th century, though Lord Byron and Robert Browning composed
several in the next century; see Byrons Epistle to Augusta. Less formal, more conversational
versions of the epistle can be found in contemporary lyric poetry; see Hayden Carruths The
Afterlife: Letter to Sam Hamill or Dear Mr. Fanelli by Charles Bernstein.
Epitaph
A short poem intended for (or imagined as) an inscription on a tombstone and often
serving as a brief elegy. See Robert Herricks Upon a Child That Died and Upon Ben Jonson;
Ben Jonsons Epitaph on Elizabeth, L. H.; and Epitaph for a Romantic Woman by Louise
Bogan.
Upon Ben Jonson BY ROBERT HERRICK
Here lies Jonson with the rest
Of the poets; but the best.
Reader, wouldst thou more have known?
Ask his story, not this stone.
That will speak what this cant tell

Of his glory. So farewell.

Epithalamion
A lyric poem in praise of Hymen (the Greek god of marriage), an epithalamion often
blesses a wedding and in modern times is often read at the wedding ceremony or reception. See
Edmund Spensers Epithalamion.
Fixed and unfixed forms
Poems that have a set number of lines, rhymes, and/or metrical arrangements per line.
Browse all terms related to forms, including alcaics, alexandrine, aubade, ballad, ballade, carol,
concrete poetry, double dactyl, dramatic monologue, eclogue, elegy, epic, epistle, epithalamion,
free verse, haiku, heroic couplet, limerick, madrigal, mock epic, ode, ottava rima, pastoral,
quatrain, renga, rondeau, rondel, sestina, sonnet, Spenserian stanza, tanka, tercet, terza rima,
and villanelle.
Found poem
A prose text or texts reshaped by a poet into quasi-metrical lines. Fragments of found
poetry may appear within an original poem as well. Portions of Ezra Pounds Cantos are found
poetry, culled from historical letters and government documents. Charles Olson created his poem
There Was a Youth whose Name Was Thomas Granger using a report from William Bradfords
History of Plymouth Plantation.
There was a Youth Whose Name was Thomas Granger
1
From the beginning, SIN
and the reason, note, known from the start
says Mr. Bradford: As it is with waters when
their streames are stopped or damed up, wickednes
(Morton, Morton, Morton)
here by strict laws as in no more,
or so much, that I have known or heard of,
and ye same nerly looked unto
(Tom Granger)
so, as it cannot rune in a comone road of liberty
as it would, and is inclined,
it searches every wher (everywhere)
and breaks out wher it getts vente, says he
Rest, Tom, in your pit where they put you
a great & large pitte digged of purposs for them
of Duxbery, servant, being aboute 16. or 17. years of age
his father & mother living at the time at Sityate
espetially drunkennes & unclainnes
incontinencie betweene persons unmaried
but some maried persons allso
And that which is worse
(things fearfull to name)
HAVE BROAK FORTH OFTENER THAN ONCE
IN THIS LAND
2
indicated for ye same) with
a mare, a cowe, tow goats, five sheep, 2. calves
and a turkey (Plymouth Plantation)

Now follows ye ministers answers

3
Mr Charles Channcys a reverend, godly, very larned man
who shortly thereafter, due to a difference aboute baptising
he holding it ought only to be by diping
that sprinkling was unlawful, removed him selfe
to the same Sityate, a minister to ye church ther
in this case proved, by reference to ye judicials of Moyses
& see: Luther, Calvin, Hen: Bulin:. Theo: Beza. Zanch:
what greevous sin in ye sight of God,
by ye instigation of burning lusts, set on fire of hell,
to procede to contactum & fricationem ad emissionem seminis,
&c.,
& yt contra naturam, or to attempt ye grosse acts of
4
Mr Bradford: I forbear perticulers.
And accordingly he was cast by ye jury,
and condemned.
It being demanded of him
the youth confessed he had it of another
who had long used it in old England,
and they kept cattle together.
And after executed about ye 8. Of Septr, 1642.
A very sade spectakle it was; for first the mare,
and then ye cowe, and ye rest of ye lesser catle,
were kild before his face, according to ye law
Levit: 20.15.
and then he him selfe
and no use made of any part of them
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma99/kidd/resume/olson.html
Fourteener
A metrical line of 14 syllables (usually seven iambic feet). A relatively long line, it can be
found in narrative poetry from the Middle Ages through the 16th century. Fourteener couplets
broken into quatrains are known as common measure or ballad meter. See also Poulters
measure.
Galadriel's Song of Eldamar
J.R.R. Tolien
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew:
Of wind I sang, a wind there came and in the branches blew.
Beyond the Sun, beyond the Moon, the foam was on the Sea,
And by the strand of Ilmarin there grew a golden Tree.
Beneath the stars of Ever-eve in Eldamar it shone,
In Eldamar beside the walls of Elven Tirion.
There long the golden leaves have grown upon the branching years,
While here beyond the Sundering Seas now fall the Elven-tears.
O Lrien! The Winter comes, the bare and leafless Day;
The leaves are falling in the stream, the River flows away.
O Lrien! Too long I have dwelt upon this Hither Shore
And in a fading crown have twined the golden elanor.
But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?

Ai! lauri lantar lassi srinen,

Yni ntim ve rmar aldaron!
Yni ve lint yuldar avnier
mi oromardi lisse-miruvreva
Andn pella, Vardo tellumar
nu luini yassen tintilar i eleni
maryo airetri-lrinen.
S man i yulma nin enquantuva?
An s Tintall Varda Oiolosso
ve fanyar mryat Elentri ortan
ar ily tier undulv lumbul;
ar sindanriello caita morni
i falmalinnar imb met, ar hsi
untpa Calaciryo mri oial.
S vanwa n, Rmello vanwa, Valimar!
Namri! Nai hiruvaly Valimar.
Nail ely hiryva. Namri!
Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind,
long years numberless as the wings of trees!
The long years have passed like swift draughts
of the sweet mead in lofty halls beyond the West,
beneath the blue vaults of Varda wherein the stars
tremble in the song of her voice, holy and queenly.
Who now shall refill the cup for me?
For now the Kindler, Varda, the Queen of the Stars,
from Mount Everwhite has uplifted her hands like clouds,
and all paths are drowned deep in shadow;
and out of a grey country darkness lies
on the foaming waves between us, and mist
covers the jewels of Calacirya for ever.
Now lost, lost to those from the East is Valimar!
Farewell! Maybe thou shalt find Valimar.
Maybe even thou shalt find it. Farewell!
http://tolkien.cro.net/talesong/eldamar.html
Free verse
Nonmetrical, nonrhyming lines that closely follow the natural rhythms of speech. A regular
pattern of sound or rhythm may emerge in free-verse lines, but the poet does not adhere to a
metrical plan in their composition. Matthew Arnold and Walt Whitman explored the possibilities of
nonmetrical poetry in the 19th century. Since the early 20th century, the majority of published
lyric poetry has been written in free verse. See the work of William Carlos Williams, T.S. Eliot,
Ezra Pound, and H.D.
Genre
A class or category of texts with similarities in form, style, or subject matter. The definition
of a genre changes over time, and a text often interacts with multiple genres. A texts
relationship to a particular genrewhether it defies or supports a genres set of expectationsis
often of interest when conducting literary analysis. Four major genres of literature include poetry,
drama, nonfiction, and fiction. Poetry can be divided into further genres, such as epic, lyric,
narrative, satirical, or prose poetry. For more examples of genres, browse poems by type.
Georgic

A poem or book dealing with agriculture or rural topics, which commonly glorifies outdoor
labor and simple country life. Often takes the form of a didactic or instructive poem intended to
give instructions related to a skill or art. The Roman poet Virgil famously wrote a collection of
poems entitled Georgics, which has influenced poets since.
Ghazal
(Pronunciation: guzzle) Originally an Arabic verse form dealing with loss and romantic
love, medieval Persian poets embraced the ghazal, eventually making it their own. Consisting of
syntactically and grammatically complete couplets, the form also has an intricate rhyme scheme.
Each couplet ends on the same word or phrase (the radif), and is preceded by the couplets
rhyming word (the qafia, which appears twice in the first couplet). The last couplet includes a
proper name, often of the poets. In the Persian tradition, each couplet was of the same meter
and length, and the subject matter included both erotic longing and religious belief or mysticism.
English-language poets who have composed in the form include Adrienne Rich, John Hollander,
and Agha Shahid Ali; see Alis Tonight and Patricia Smiths Hip-Hop Ghazal.
Gnomic verse
Poems laced with proverbs, aphorisms, or maxims. The term was first applied to Greek
poets in the 6th century BCE and was practiced in medieval Germany and England. Robert
Creeley explored the genre in his contemporary Gnomic Verses.
Haiku (or hokku)
A Japanese verse form of three unrhyming lines in five, seven, and five syllables. It creates
a single, memorable image, as in these lines by Kobayashi Issa, translated by Jane Hirshfield:
On a branch
floating downriver
a cricket, singing.
(In translating from Japanese to English, Hirshfield compresses the number of syllables.)
See also Three Haiku, Two Tanka by Philip Appleman and Robert Hasss After the Gentle Poet
Kobayashi Issa. The Imagist poets of the early 20th century, including Ezra Pound and H.D.,
showed appreciation for the forms linguistic and sensory economy; Pounds In a Station of the
Metro embodies the spirit of haiku. Browse more haiku.
Heroic couplet. See couplet.
Horatian ode. See ode.
Hymn
A poem praising God or the divine, often sung. In English, the most popular hymns were
written between the 17th and 19th centuries. See Isaac Wattss Our God, Our Help, Charles
Wesleys My God! I Know, I Feel Thee Mine, and Thou Hidden Love of God by John Wesley.
Italian sonnet. See Sonnet.
Lament
Any poem expressing deep grief, usually at the death of a loved one or some other loss.
Related to elegy and the dirge. See A Lament by Percy Bysshe Shelley; Thom Gunns Lament;
and Edna St. Vincent Millays Lament.
Landays
A form of folk poetry from Afghanistan. Meant to be recited or sung aloud, and frequently
anonymous, the form is a couplet comprised of 22 syllables. The first line has 9 syllables and the
second line 13 syllables. Landays end on ma or na sounds and treat themes such as love,
grief, homeland, war, and separation. See Eliza Griswolds extensive reporting on the form in the
June 2013 issue of Poetry, in which she explains how the form was created by and for the more
than 20 million Pashtun women who span the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

When sisters sit together, they always praise their brothers.

When brothers sit together, they sell their sisters to others.
Ill make a tattoo from my lovers blood
and shame every rose in the green garden.
Your eyes arent eyes. Theyre bees.
I can find no cure for their sting.
limb to the brow of the hill and sight
where my darlings caravan will sleep tonight.
My love gave his life for our homeland.
Ill sew his shroud with one strand of my hair.
In battle, there should be two brothers:
one to be martyred, one to wind the shroud of the other.
Im tired of praising exotic flowers.
I miss Sangins gardens; they were poor but ours.
Separation brought this kind of grief:
it made itself a mullah and me the village thief.
May God destroy the Taliban and end their wars.
Theyve made Afghan women widows and whores.
*for an in-depth discussion on landays, visit http://www.poetryfoundation.org/media/landays.html
Light verse
Whimsical poems taking forms such as limericks, nonsense poems, and double dactyls.
See Edward Lears The Owl and the Pussy-Cat and Lewis Carrolls The Walrus and the
Carpenter. Other masters of light verse include Dorothy Parker, G.K. Chesterton, John Hollander,
and Wendy Cope.
Limerick
A fixed light-verse form of five generally anapestic lines rhyming AABBA. Edward Lear, who
popularized the form, fused the third and fourth lines into a single line with internal rhyme.
Limericks are traditionally bawdy or just irreverent; see A Young Lady of Lynn or Lears There
was an Old Man with a Beard. Browse more limericks.
Lyric
Originally a composition meant for musical accompaniment. The term refers to a short
poem in which the poet, the poets persona, or another speaker expresses personal feelings. See
Robert Herricks To Anthea, who May Command Him Anything, John Clares I Hid My Love,
Louise Bogans Song for the Last Act, or Louise Glcks Vita Nova.
Madrigal
A song or short lyric poem intended for multiple singers. Originating in 14th-century Italy,
it became popular in England in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. It has no fixed metrical
requirements. See Rosalinds Madrigal by Thomas Lodge.
Mock epic

A poem that plays with the conventions of the epic to comment on a topic satirically. In
Mac Flecknoe, John Dryden wittily flaunts his mastery of the epic genre to cut down a literary
rival. Alexander Popes The Rape of the Lock recasts a petty high-society scandal as a
mythological battle for the virtue of an innocent.
Occasional poem
A poem written to describe or comment on a particular event and often written for a public
reading. Alfred, Lord Tennysons The Charge of the Light Brigade commemorates a disastrous
battle in the Crimean War. George Starbuck wrote Of Late after reading a newspaper account
of a Vietnam War protesters suicide. Elizabeth Alexanders Praise Song for the Day was written
for the inauguration of President Barack Obama. See also elegy, epithalamion, and ode.
Octave
An eight-line stanza or poem. See ottava rima and triolet. The first eight lines of an Italian
or Petrarchan sonnet are also called an octave.
Ode
A formal, often ceremonious lyric poem that addresses and often celebrates a person,
place, thing, or idea. Its stanza forms vary. The Greek or Pindaric (Pindar, ca. 552442 B.C.E.) ode
was a public poem, usually set to music, that celebrated athletic victories. (See Stephen Burts
article And the Winner Is . . . Pindar!) English odes written in the Pindaric tradition include
Thomas Grays The Progress of Poesy: A Pindaric Ode and William Wordsworths Ode:
Intimations of Immortality from Reflections of Early Childhood. Horatian odes, after the Latin
poet Horace (658 B.C.E.), were written in quatrains in a more philosophical, contemplative
manner; see Andrew Marvells Horatian Ode upon Cromwells Return from Ireland. The Sapphic
ode consists of quatrains, three 11-syllable lines, and a final five-syllable line, unrhyming but with
a strict meter. See Algernon Charles Swinburnes Sapphics.
The odes of the English Romantic poets vary in stanza form. They often address an intense
emotion at the onset of a personal crisis (see Samuel Taylor Coleridges Dejection: An Ode,) or
celebrate an object or image that leads to revelation (see John Keatss Ode on a Grecian
Urn,Ode to a Nightingale, and To Autumn).
Ottava rima
Originally an Italian stanza of eight 11-syllable lines, with a rhyme scheme of ABABABCC.
Sir Thomas Wyatt introduced the form in English, and Lord Byron adapted it to a 10-syllable line
for his mock-epic Don Juan.W.B. Yeats used it for Among School Children and Sailing to
Byzantium.
Palinode
An ode or song that retracts or recants what the poet wrote in a previous poem. For
instance, Geoffrey ChaucersThe Canterbury Tales ends with a retraction, in which he apologizes
for the works worldly vanitees and sinful contents.
Panegyric
A poem of effusive praise. Its origins are Greek, and it is closely related to the eulogy and
the ode. See Ben Jonsons To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare or
Anne Bradstreets In Honor of That High and Mighty Princess, Queen Elizabeth.
Pantoum
A Malaysian verse form adapted by French poets and occasionally imitated in English. It
comprises a series of quatrains, with the second and fourth lines of each quatrain repeated as

the first and third lines of the next. The second and fourth lines of the final stanza repeat the first
and third lines of the first stanza. See A.E. Stallingss Another Lullaby for Insomniacs.
Pastoral
Verse in the tradition of Theocritus (3 BCE), who wrote idealized accounts of shepherds
and their loves living simple, virtuous lives in Arcadia, a mountainous region of Greece. Poets
writing in English drew on the pastoral tradition by retreating from the trappings of modernity to
the imagined virtues and romance of rural life, as in Edmund Spensers The Shepheardes
Calendar, Christopher Marlowes The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, and Sir Walter Raleghs
response, The Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd. The pastoral poem faded after the European
Industrial Revolution of the 18th century, but its themes persist in poems that romanticize rural
life or reappraise the natural world; see Leonie Adamss Country Summer, Dylan Thomass
Fern Hill, or Allen Ginsbergs Wales Visitation.
Pattern poetry. See Concrete poetry.
Pindaric ode. See Ode.

Prose poem
A prose composition that, while not broken into verse lines, demonstrates other traits such
as symbols, metaphors, and other figures of speech common to poetry. See Amy Lowells Bath,
Metals Metals by Russell Edson, Information by David Ignatow, and Harryette Mullens [Kills
bugs dead.]
Quatrain
A four-line stanza, rhyming
-ABAC or ABCB (known as unbounded or ballad quatrain), as in Samuel Taylor Coleridges The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
-AABB (a double couplet); see A.E. Housmans To an Athlete Dying Young.
-ABAB (known as interlaced, alternate, or heroic), as in Thomas Grays Elegy Written in a
Country Churchyard or Sadie and Maud by Gwendolyn Brooks.
-ABBA (known as envelope or enclosed), as in Alfred, Lord Tennysons In Memoriam or John
Ciardis Most Like an Arch This Marriage.
-AABA, the stanza of Robert Frosts Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.
Refrain
A phrase or line repeated at intervals within a poem, especially at the end of a stanza. See
the refrain jump back, honey, jump back in Paul Lawrence Dunbars A Negro Love Song or
return and return again in James Laughlins O Best of All Nights, Return and Return Again.
Renga
A Japanese form composed of a series of half-tanka written by different poets. The opening
stanza is the basis of the modern haiku form.
Renga, meaning linked poem," began over seven hundred years ago in Japan to encourage the
collaborative composition of poems. Poets worked in pairs or small groups, taking turns
composing the alternating three-line and two-line stanzas. Linked together, renga were often
hundreds of lines long, though the favored length was a 36-line form called a kasen. Several
centuries after its inception, the opening stanza of renga gave rise to the much shorter haiku.
To create a renga, one poet writes the first stanza, which is three lines long with a total of
seventeen syllables. The next poet adds the second stanza, a couplet with seven syllables per

line. The third stanza repeats the structure of the first and the fourth repeats the second,
alternating in this pattern until the poems end.
Thematic elements of renga are perhaps most crucial to the poems success. The language is
often pastoral, incorporating words and images associated with seasons, nature, and love. In
order for the poem to achieve its trajectory, each poet writes a new stanza that leaps from only
the stanza preceding it. This leap advances both the thematic movement as well as maintaining
the linking component.
Contemporary practitioners of renga have eased the forms traditional structural standards,
allowing poets to adjust line-length, while still offering exciting and enlightening possibilities. The
form has become a popular method for teaching students to write poetry while working together.
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/renga-poetic-form
for examples:
http://www.ahapoetry.com/RENGA.HTM#orchid
Rhyme royal (rime royale)
A stanza of seven 10-syllable lines, rhyming ABABBCC, popularized by Geoffrey Chaucer
and termed royal because his imitator, James I of Scotland, employed it in his own verse. In
addition to Chaucers Troilus and Criseyde, see Sir Thomas Wyatts They flee from me and
William Wordsworths Resolution and Independence.
Romance
French in origin, a genre of long narrative poetry about medieval courtly culture and secret
love. It triumphed in English with tales of chivalry such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and
Geoffrey Chaucers The Knights Tale and Troilus and Criseyde.
Rondeau
Originating in France, a mainly octosyllabic poem consisting of between 10 and 15 lines
and three stanzas. It has only two rhymes, with the opening words used twice as an unrhyming
refrain at the end of the second and third stanzas. The 10-line version rhymes ABBAABc ABBAc
(where the lower-case c stands for the refrain). The 15-line version often rhymes AABBA AABc
AABAc. Geoffrey Chaucers Now welcome, summer at the close of The Parlement of Fowls is an
example of a 13-line rondeau.
A rondeau redoubl consists of six quatrains using two rhymes. The first quatrain consists
of four refrain lines that are used, in sequence, as the last lines of the next four quatrains, and a
phrase from the first refrain is repeated as a tail at the end of the final stanza. See Dorothy
Parkers Roudeau Redoubl (and Scarcely Worth the Trouble at That).
Rondel (roundel)
A poetic form of 11 to 14 lines consisting of two rhymes and the repetition of the first two
lines in the middle of the poem and at its end. Algernon Charles Swinburnes The Roundel is 11
lines in two stanzas.
Sapphic verse. See ode.
Sestet
A six-line stanza, or the final six lines of a 14-line Italian or Petrarchan sonnet. A sestet
refers only to the final portion of a sonnet, otherwise the six-line stanza is known as a sexain. The
second stanza of Emily Dickinsons The Soul has Bandaged Moments is a sexain. Sestina:
Like, by A.E. Stallings possesses several sexains. See also Sestina.
Sestina
A complex French verse form, usually unrhymed, consisting of six stanzas of six lines each
and a three-line envoy. The end words of the first stanza are repeated in a different order as end

words in each of the subsequent five stanzas; the closing envoy contains all six words, two per
line, placed in the middle and at the end of the three lines. The patterns of word repetition are as
follows, with each number representing the final word of a line, and each row of numbers
representing a stanza:
123456
615243
364125
532614
451362
246531
(6 2) (1 4) (5 3)
See Algernon Charles Swinburnes The Complaint of Lisa," John Ashberys Farm Implements
and Rutabagas in a Landscape," and David Ferrys The Guest Ellen at the Supper for Street
People.
Shakespearean sonnet
The variation of the sonnet form that Shakespeare usedcomprised of three quatrains and
a concluding couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef ggis called the English or Shakespearean sonnet
form, although others had used it before him. This different sonnet structure allows for more
space to be devoted to the buildup of a subject or problem than the Italian/Petrarchan form, and
is followed by just two lines to conclude or resolve the poem in a rhyming couplet. Learn more
about sonnet forms here.
Sijo
A Korean verse form related to haiku and tanka and comprised of three lines of 14-16
syllables each, for a total of 44-46 syllables. Each line contains a pause near the middle, similar
to a caesura, though the break need not be metrical. The first half of the line contains six to nine
syllables; the second half should contain no fewer than five. Originally intended as songs, sijo
can treat romantic, metaphysical, or spiritual themes. Whatever the subject, the first line
introduces an idea or story, the second supplies a turn, and the third provides closure. Modern
sijo are sometimes printed in six lines.
Slam
A competitive poetry performance in which selected audience members score performers,
and winners are determined by total points. Slam is a composite genre that combines elements
of poetry, theater, performance, and storytelling. The genres origins can be traced to Chicago in
the early 1980s. Since then, groups of volunteers have organized slams in venues across the
world. The first National Poetry Slam was held in 1990, and has become an annual event in which
teams from cities across the United States compete at events in a host city. For more on poetry
slams, see Jeremy Richardss series Performing the Academy. See also poets Tyehimba Jess,
Bob Holman, and Patricia Smith.
Sonnet
A 14-line poem with a variable rhyme scheme originating in Italy and brought to England
by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, earl of Surrey in the 16th century. Literally a little
song, the sonnet traditionally reflects upon a single sentiment, with a clarification or turn of
thought in its concluding lines. There are many different types of sonnets.
The Petrarchan sonnet, perfected by the Italian poet Petrarch, divides the 14 lines into
two sections: an eight-line stanza (octave) rhyming ABBAABBA, and a six-line stanza (sestet)
rhyming CDCDCD or CDEEDE. John Miltons When I Consider How my Light Is Spent and
Elizabeth Barrett Brownings How Do I Love Thee employ this form. The Italian sonnet is an
English variation on the traditional Petrarchan version. The octaves rhyme scheme is preserved,

but the sestet rhymes CDDCEE. See Thomas Wyatts Whoso List to Hunt, I Know Where Is an
Hind and John Donnes If Poisonous Minerals, and If That Tree. Wyatt and Surrey developed
the English (or Shakespearean) sonnet, which condenses the 14 lines into one stanza of
three quatrains and a concluding couplet, with a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG (though
poets have frequently varied this scheme; see Wilfred Owens Anthem for Doomed Youth).
George Herberts Love (II), Claude McKays America, and Molly Peacocks Altruism are
English sonnets.
These three types have given rise to many variations, including:
-The caudate sonnet, which adds codas or tails to the 14-line poem. See Gerard Manley
Hopkinss That Nature Is a Heraclitean Fire.
-The curtal sonnet, a shortened version devised by Gerard Manley Hopkins that
maintains the proportions of the Italian form, substituting two six-stress tercets for two quatrains
in the octave (rhyming ABC ABC), and four and a half lines for the sestet (rhyming DEBDE), also
six-stress except for the final three-stress line. See his poem Pied Beauty.
-The sonnet redoubl, also known as a crown of sonnets, is composed of 15 sonnets that
are linked by the repetition of the final line of one sonnet as the initial line of the next, and the
final line of that sonnet as the initial line of the previous; the last sonnet consists of all the
repeated lines of the previous 14 sonnets, in the same order in which they appeared. Marilyn
NelsonsA Wreath for Emmett Till is a contemporary example.
-A sonnet sequence is a group of sonnets sharing the same subject matter and
sometimes a dramatic situation and persona. See George Merediths Modern Love sequence, Sir
Philip Sidneys Astrophel and Stella, Rupert Brookes 1914 sequence, and Elizabeth Barrett
Brownings Sonnets from the Portuguese.
-The Spenserian sonnet is a 14-line poem developed by Edmund Spenser in his
Amoretti, that varies the English form by interlocking the three quatrains (ABAB BCBC CDCD EE).
-The stretched sonnet is extended to 16 or more lines, such as those in George
Merediths sequence Modern Love.
-A submerged sonnet is tucked into a longer poetic work; see lines 235-48 of T.S. Eliots
The Waste Land.
Spenserian stanza
The unit of Edmund Spensers long poem The Faerie Queene, consisting of eight iambicpentameter lines and a final alexandrine, with a rhyme scheme of ABABBCBCC. Later uses of this
stanza form include John Keatss The Eve of St. Agnes, Percy Bysshe Shelleys Adonais, and
Alfred Lord Tennysons The Lotos-Eaters.
Stanza
A grouping of lines separated from others in a poem. In modern free verse, the stanza, like a
prose paragraph, can be used to mark a shift in mood, time, or thought.
Syllabic verse
Poetry whose meter is determined by the total number of syllables per line, rather than the
number of stresses. Marianne Moores poetry is mostly syllabic. Other examples include Thomas
Nashes Adieu, farewell earths bliss and Dylan Thomass Poem in October. Browse more
poems in syllabic verse.
Tanka
A Japanese form of five lines with 5, 7, 5, 7, and 7 syllables31 in all. See Philip Applemans
Three Haiku, Two Tanka. See also renga.
Tercet
A poetic unit of three lines, rhymed or unrhymed. Thomas Hardys The Convergence of the
Twain rhymes AAA BBB; Ben Jonsons On Spies is a three-line poem rhyming AAA; and Percy
Bysshe Shelleys Ode to the West Wind is written in terza rima form. Examples of poems in

unrhymed tercets include Wallace Stevenss The Snow Man and David Wagoners For a
Student Sleeping in a Poetry Workshop.
Terza rima
An Italian stanzaic form, used most notably by Dante Alighieri in Commedia (The Divine
Comedy), consisting of tercets with interwoven rhymes (ABA BCB DED EFE, and so on). A
concluding couplet rhymes with the penultimate line of the last tercet. See Percy Bysshe
Shelleys Ode to the West Wind, Derek Walcotts The Bounty, and Omeros, and Jacqueline
Osherows Autumn Psalm.
Triolet
An eight-line stanza having just two rhymes and repeating the first line as the fourth and seventh
lines, and the second line as the eighth. See Sandra McPhersons Triolet or Triolets in the
Argolid by Rachel Hadas.
Verse
As a mass noun, poetry in general; as a regular noun, a line of poetry. Typically used to refer to
poetry that possesses more formal qualities.
Verse paragraph
A group of verse lines that make up a single rhetorical unit. In longer poems, the first line is often
indented, like a paragraph in prose. The long narrative passages of John Miltons Paradise Lost
are verse paragraphs. The titled sections of Robert Pinskys Essay on Psychiatrists demarcate
shifts in focus and argument much as prose paragraphs would. A shorter lyric poem, even when
broken into stanzas, could be considered a single verse paragraph, insofar as it expresses a
unified mood or thought; see Gail Mazurs Evening.
Villanelle
A French verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain, with the first and
third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas. These two refrain
lines form the final couplet in the quatrain. See Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by
Dylan Thomas, Elizabeth Bishops One Art, and Edwin Arlington Robinsons The House on the
Hill.
Browse more villanelles.
DRAMA
Drama is a form of text that is performed in front of an audience. It is also called a play. Its
written text contains dialogues, and stage directions. This genre has further categories such as
comedy, tragedy, tragicomedy etc. William Shakespeare is known as the father of English drama.
His well-known plays include Taming of the Shrew, Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet, while Greek
playwrights were the pioneers in this field such as Sophocles masterpiece is Oedipus Rex and
Antigone, while modern dramas include Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller etc.
Glossary of Dramatic Terms
Act:
A major division in a play. An act can be sub-divided into scenes. (See scene). Greek plays were
not divided into acts. The five act structure was originally introduced in Roman times and
became
the convention in Shakespeares period. In the 19th century this was reduced to four acts and
20th
century drama tends to favour three acts.
Antagonist:
A character or force against which another character struggles.
Examples: Creon is Antigone's antagonist in Sophocles' play Antigone; Tiresias is the antagonist
of Oedipus in Sophocles' Oedipus the King.
Apron:

The part of a proscenium stage that sticks out into the audience in front of the proscenium arch.
Aside:
Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, but not "heard" by the other characters on
stage during a play.
Example: In Shakespeare's Othello, Iago voices his inner thoughts a number of times as
"asides" for the audience.
Blocking:
Movement patterns of actors on the stage. Usually planned by the director to create meaningful
stage pictures.
Box set:
A set built behind a proscenium arch to represent three walls of a room. The absent fourth wall
on the proscenium line allows spectators to witness the domestic scene. First used in the early
nineteenth century.
Catharsis:
The purging of the feelings of pity and fear. According to Aristotle the audience should
experiences catharsis at the end of a tragedy.
Character:
An imaginary person that inhabits a literary work. Dramatic characters may be major or minor,
static (unchanging) or dynamic (capable of change).
Example: In Shakespeare's Othello, Desdemona is a major character, but one who is static.
Othello is a major character who is dynamic, exhibiting an ability to change.
Chorus:
A traditional chorus in Greek tragedy is a group of characters who comment on the action of a
play without participating in it. A modern chorus (any time after the Greek period) serves a
similar function but has taken a different form; it consists of a character/narrator coming on
stage and giving a prologue or explicit background information or themes.
Example 1: Traditional Chorus The majority of Sophocles' plays.
Example 2: Modern Chorus The Prologue in Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet, which gives the
background to the action. The protagonist in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie who
introduces the themes of the play.
Climax:
The turning point of the action in the plot of a play and the point of greatest tension in the
work. (See Appendix 1: Freytags Pyramid)
Example: The final duel between Laertes and Hamlet in Shakespeares Hamlet.
Comedy:
A dramatic work in which the central motif is the triumph over adverse circumstance, resulting
in a successful or happy conclusion. (Taken from: http://dictionary.reference.com). Comedy can
be divided into visual comedy or verbal comedy. Within these 2 divisions there are further
subdivisions.
For example visual comedy includes farce and slapstick. Verbal Comedy includes satire,
black comedy and comedy of manners.
Comic Relief:
Comic relief does not relate to the genre of comedy. Comic relief serves a specific purpose: it
gives the spectator a moment of relief with a light-hearted scene, after a succession of
intensely
tragic dramatic moments. Typically these scenes parallel the tragic action that they interrupt.
Comic relief is lacking in Greek tragedy, but occurs regularly in Shakespeare's tragedies.
Example: The opening scene of Act V of Hamlet, in which a gravedigger banters with Hamlet.
Conflict:
There is no drama without conflict. The conflict between opposing forces in a play can be
external (between characters) or internal (within a character) and is usually resolved by the end
of the play.
Example: Lady Gregory's one-act play The Rising of the Moon exemplifies both types of
conflict as the Policeman wrestles with his conscience in an inner conflict and confronts an
antagonist in the person of the ballad singer.
Complication:

An intensification of the conflict in a play

Convention:
Literary conventions are defining features or common agreement upon strategies and/or
attributes of a particular literary genres.
Examples: The use of a chorus was a convention in Greek tragedy. Soliloquies, (which are not
realistic) are accepted as part of the dramatic convention.
Denouement / Resolution:
Literally the action of untying. A denouement (or resolution) is the final outcome of the main
complication in a play. Usually the denouement occurs AFTER the climax (the turning point or
"crisis"). It is sometimes referred to as the explanation or outcome of a drama that reveals all the
secrets and misunderstandings connected to the plot. (See Appendix 1: Freytags Pyramid)
Example: In Shakespeares Othello, the climax occurs when Othello kills his wife. The
denouement occurs when Emilia, proves to Othello that his wife was in fact honest, true, and
faithful to him. (Taken from and adapted:www.uncp.edu)
Deus Ex Machina:
When an external source resolves the entanglements of a play by supernatural intervention. The
Latin phrase means, literally, "a god from the machine." The phrase refers to the use of artificial
means to resolve the plot of a play.
Examples: Many of Euripides plays have gods coming to rescue the day. In Medea a
dragondrawn
chariot is sent by Apollo, the Sun-God, to rescue Medea who has just murdered her
children. In Joe Ortons classic play, What the Butler Saw (1969) the deus ex machina comes in
the form not of a god but of a policeman who saves the day.
Dialogue:
The conversation of characters in a literary work. In plays, characters' speech is preceded by
their
names. (See Appendix 2 for discussion on what is dialogue in dramatic terms.)
Diction:
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, diction is the manner in which words are pronounced.
Diction, however, is more than that: it is a style of speaking. In drama diction can (1) reveal
character, (2) imply attitudes, (3) convey action, (4) identify themes, and (5) suggest values. We
can speak of the diction particular to a character.
Example: Iago's and Desdemona's very different ways of speaking in Othello.
Dramatic Irony:
A device in which a character holds a position or has an expectation reversed or fulfilled in a way
that the character did not expect but that the audience or readers have anticipated because
their
knowledge of events or individuals is more complete than the characters. (Taken from and
adapted: http://www.wwnorton.com)
Example: In Shakespeares Othello Othello blames Desdemona for cheating on him. The
audience knows that she is faithful and Iago deceives him.
Dynamic Character:
Undergoes an important change in the course of the play- not changes in circumstances, but
changes in some sense within the character in question -- changes in insight or understanding or
changes in commitment, or values.
Exodos:
The final scene and exit of the characters and chorus in a classical Greek play.
Exposition:
The first stage of a fictional or dramatic plot, in which necessary background information is
provided (highered.mcgraw-hill.com). (See Appendix 1: Freytags Pyramid). In most drama the
characters have to expose the background to the action indirectly while talking in the most
natural way. What any person says must be consistent with his character and what he knows
generally. Exposition frequently employs devices such as gestures, glances, asides etc. (See
Prologue for explicit exposition).
Example: Ibsen's A Doll's House, begins with a conversation between the two central characters.
This dialogue gives the audience details (in the most natural way) of what has occurred before

the play began, details, of importance to the development of the plot.

Falling Action:
This is when the events and complications begin to resolve themselves and tension is released.
We
learn whether the conflict has or been resolved or not.
Flashback:
An interruption of a play's chronology (timeline) to describe or present an incident that occurred
prior to the main time-frame of the play's action.
Examples: In Shakespeares Othello, Othello recalls how he courted Desdemona.
Flat Characters:
Flat characters in a play are often, but not always, relatively simple minor characters. They tend
to be presented though particular and limited traits; hence they become stereotypes. For
example,
the selfish son, the pure woman, the lazy child, the dumb blonde, etc. These characters do not
change in the course of a play. (Taken from and adapted: http://www.wwnorton.com)
Foil:
A secondary character whose situation often parallels that of the main character while his
behavior or response or character contrasts with that of the main character, throwing light on
that particular characters specific temperament.
Examples: In Hamlet, Laertes, father is murdered. His situation parallels Hamlets situation
but his response is very different. In Othello, Emilia and Bianca are foils for Desdemona.
Foreshadowing:
Anton Chekhov best explained the term in a letter in 1889: "One must not put a loaded rifle on
the stage if no one is thinking of firing it." Chekhov's gun, or foreshadowing is a literary
technique that introduces an apparently irrelevant element is introduced early in the story; its
significance becomes clear later in the play. (Taken from and adapted: Wikipedia on Chekhov)
Examples: At the beginning of the Ibsen's A Doll's House, the protagonist Nora goes against
the wishes of her husband in a very minor way. This action foreshadows her later significant
rebellion and total rejection of her husband. In Synge's Riders to the Sea the mothers vision of
her recently drowned son foreshadows the death of her remaining son.
Fourth Wall:
The imaginary wall that separates the spectator/audience from the action taking place on stage.
In a traditional theatre setting (as opposed to a theatre in the round) this imaginary wall has
been
removed so that the spectator can peep into the fictional world and see what is going on. If the
audience is addressed directly, this is referred to as breaking the fourth wall.
Gesture:
The physical movement of a character during a play. Gesture is used to reveal character, and
may
include facial expressions as well as movements of other parts of an actor's body.
Example: Most modern playwrights explicitly mention both bodily and facial gestures,
providing detailed instructions in the play's stage directions.
Hubris:
The Greek term hubris is difficult to translate directly into English. This negative term implies
both arrogant, excessive self-pride or self-confidence, and a lack of some important perception or
insight due to pride in one's abilities. This overwhelming pride inevitably leads to a downfall.
(Taken from http://web.cn.edu)
Example: In Sophocles Oedipus, Oedipus refusal to listen to anyone illustrates hubris. He
believes he knows best even better than the prophet Tiresias and his refusal to listen leads
to his downfall.
Linear Plot:
A traditional plot sequence in which the incidents in the drama progress chronologically; in other
words, all of the events build upon one another and there are no flashbacks. Linear plots are
usually based on causality (that is, one event "causes" another to happen) occur more commonly
in

comedy than in other forms. (Taken from and adapted: www.wwnorton.com)

Monologue:
A speech by a single character without another character's response. The character however, is
speaking to someone else or even a group of people. (see soliloquy below)
Examples: Shakespeares plays abound with characters talking with no one responding. A clear
example of how a monologue addresses someone occurs when Henry V delivers his speech to
the English camp in the Saint Crispin's Day speech. He wants to inspire the soldiers to fight
even though they are outnumbered. This is a monologue because (a) he alone speaks (b) he is
addressing other characters.
Motivation:
The thought(s) or desire(s) that drives a character to actively pursue a want or need. This want
or
need is called the objective . A character generally has an overall objective or long-term goal in a
drama but may change his or her objective, and hence motivation, from scene to scene when
confronted with various obstacles. (Taken from and adapted: www.wwnorton.com)
Example: In the play Othello, Iagos objective is Othellos downfall.
Point of attack:
The point in the story at which the playwright chooses to start dramatizing the action.
Plot:
The sequence of events that make up a story. According to Aristotle, The plot must be a whole
with a beginning, middle, and end (Poetics, Part VII). A plot needs a motivating purpose to drive
the story to its resolution, and a connection between these events.
Example: The king died and then the queen died. Here there is no plot. Although there are
two events one followed by the other there is nothing to tie them together. In contrast,
The king died and then the queen died of grief, is an example of a plot because it shows one
event (the kings death) being the cause of the next event (the queens death). The plot draws
the reader into the characters lives and helps the reader understand the choices that the
characters make. (Taken from and adapted: http://english.learnhub.com)
Plot Structure: See Appendix 1: Freytags Pyramid
Point of attack: The point in the story of a play where the plot begins. This may occur in the
first scene, or it may occur after several scenes of exposition. The point of attack is the main
action by which all others will arise. It is the point at which the main complication is introduced.
Point of attack can sometimes work hand in hand with a plays inciting incident, which is the
first incident leading to the rising action of the play. Sometimes the inciting incident is an
event that occurred somewhere in the characters past and is revealed to the audience through
exposition.
Proscenium Arch:
An architectural element separating the performance area from the auditorium in a theatre. The
arch functions to mask stage machinery and helps create a frame for the stage action. First
used
in Europe during the Renaissance, the arch developed throughout the 18th and 19th centuries
into the picture frame stage of the late 19th century.
Prologue: (1) In original Greek tragedy, the prologue is either the action or a set of introductory
speeches before the first entry of the chorus. Here, a single actor's monologue or a dialogue
between two actors would establish the play's background events. (2) In later literature, the
prologue serves as explicit exposition introducing material before the first scene begins. (Taken
from and adapted: http://web.cn.edu). The prologue is performed/delivered by the chorus. (See
Chorus)
Examples: A chorus gives a prologue with the background information as to the feud between
the families in Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet. Tom, one of the protagonists in Williams A
Glass Menagerie gives a prologue both of the background of the play and the characters
philosophy.
Props:
Articles or objects that appear on stage during a play. Props can also take on a significant or even
symbolic meaning.
Examples: The Christmas tree in Ibsens A Doll's House and Laura's collection of glass animals

in Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie.

Protagonist:
The main character of a literary work.
Recognition:
See denouement.
Repertory: A system of producing plays in which a company of actors is assembled to stage a
number of plays during a specific period of time. The repertory company included actors, each of
whom played roles in several plays throughout a theatrical season and who often specialized in a
specific type of role
Resolution:
The sorting out or unraveling of a plot at the end of a play, novel, or story. (See Appendix 1:
Freytags Pyramid)
Reversal or Peripeteia:
The point at which the action of the plot turns in an unexpected direction for the
protagonist- from failure to success or success to failure.
Examples: Oedipus's and Othello's moments of enlightenment are also reversals. They learn
what they did not expect to learn.
Rising Action:
An event, conflict or crisis or set of conflicts and crises that constitute the part of a play's plot
leading up to the climax. (See Appendix 1: Freytags Pyramid)
Example: The result of Othello promoting Cassio rather than Iago sets in motion everything
else that follows.
Round Characters:
A round character is depicted with such psychological depth and detail that he or she seems like
a
"real" person. The round character contrasts with the flat character who serves a specific or
minor literary function in a text, and who may be a stock character or simplified stereotype. If
the round character changes or evolves over the course of a narrative or appears to have the
capacity for such change, the character is also dynamic. In longer plays, there may be several
round characters. (http://web.cn.edu).
Satire:
A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies.
Example: Joan Littlewoods Oh! What a Lovely War about World War I. Even the title indicates
this is a satire.
Scene:
A traditional segment in a play. Scenes are used to indicate (1) a change in time (2) a change in
location, (3) provides a jump from one subplot to another, (4) introduces new characters (5)
rearrange the actors on the stage. Traditionally plays are composed of acts, broken down into
scenes. (Adapted from: www.wwnorton.com)
Scenery:
The physical representation of the play's setting (location and time period). It also emphasizes
the
aesthetic concept or atmosphere of the play. (Taken from and adapted: www.wwnorton.com)
Strophe (& Antistrophe): A portion of a choral ode in Greek tragedy followed by a metrically
similar portion, the antistrophe. The words mean turn and counter-turn, suggesting
contrasting movements of the chorus while the ode was being sung. These two parts are
sometimes followed by an epode, during which the chorus may have remained stationary
Soliloquy
A speech meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the stage (as
opposed
to a monologue which addresses someone who does not respond). In a soliloquy only the
audience
can hear the private thoughts of the characters.
Example: Hamlet's famous "To be or not to be" speech.
Stage Direction:
A playwright's descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (as well as actors and

directors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play. Modern playwrights
tend to include substantial stage directions, while earlier playwrights typically use them more
sparsely, implicitly, or not at all. (See gesture).
Staging:
The spectacle a play presents in performance, including the position of actors on stage, the
scenic
background, the props and costumes, and the lighting and sound effects.
Static Character:
A literary or dramatic character who undergoes little or no inner change; a character who does
not grow or develop.
Suspension of Disbelief:
Samuel Taylor Coleridge first used the term in 1817. Basically the term means that you accept
something as real or representing the real when it obviously is not real. In drama this is a crucial
condition, as you have to put aside put aside your disbelief and accept the premise as being
real
for the duration of the story (from http://www.mediacollege.com)
Example: The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage,
can this cockpit [stage] hold
The vast fields of France?
O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
Attest in little place a million;
And let us, ,
On your imaginary forces work.
Shakespeare, Prologue Henry V
Shakespeare says it most clearly in the speech above. On entering the theatre, the audience let
their imagination take them into another world and they ignore their literal surroundings. For
example, they accept that the few actors playing soldiers represent the thousands that took part
in the battle.
Stock Character:
A recognizable character type found in many plays. Comedies have traditionally relied on such
stock characters as the miserly father, the beautiful but nave girl, the trickster servant. (Taken
from and adapted: www.wwnorton.com)
Subplot:
A subsidiary or subordinate or parallel plot that coexists with the main plot.
Example: The story of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern forms a subplot within the overall plot
of Hamlet.
Theatre of the Absurd: A type of drama and performance that conveys a sense of life as
devoid
of meaning and purpose. The term was coined by the critic Martin Esslin, who described and
analyzed a group of mid-twentieth-century play in his book, The Theatre of the Absurd, including
the work of Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco.
Tragedy
A type of drama in which the characters experience reversal of fortune, usually for the worse. In
tragedy, suffering awaits many of the characters, especially the hero. See Appendix 4 on
Tragedy.
Tragic flaw:
A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero.
Example: Othello's jealousy and too trusting nature is his tragic flaw.
Tragic hero:
A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and/or fate, suffers
a fall from a higher station in life into suffering.
Example: Sophocles' Oedipus.
Unity of time, place, and action ("the unities"):
limiting the time, place, and action of a play to a single spot and a single action over the
period of 24 hours.

Sources
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nadrama/content/review/glossary/welcome.aspx)
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072405228/student_view0/drama_glossary.html
http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/general/glossary.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov's_gun
http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_H.html
PROSE
It is a kind of written text different from poetry in that it has complete sentences organized
into paragraphs. Unlike poetry, prose focuses on characters and plot than focusing on sounds. It
includes short stories and novels, while fiction and non-fiction are its sub genres. Prose is further
categorized into essays, speeches, sermons and interpretations.
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 imagination. 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. The popular examples of literary fiction
include, James Joyces novel A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, Charles Dickens A Tale of
Two Cities, Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice, and Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird, etc.
Exploring the Different Types of Fiction
By Sarah Parsons Zackheim and Adrian Zackheim from Getting Your Book Published For
Dummies
Fiction is a general term used to describe an imaginative work of prose, either a novel,
short story, or novella. Recently, this definition has been modified to include both nonfiction
works that contain imaginative elements, like Midnight in the Garden Of Good and Evil by John
Berendt (Random House, 1994) and Dutch by Edmund Morris (Random House, 1999), and novels
consisting largely of factual reporting with a patina of fictionalization, such as Memoirs of a
Geisha by Arthur Golden (Knopf, 1997). However, in the truest sense, a work of fiction is a
creation of the writer's imagination.
The two main types of fiction are literary and commercial.
Commercial fiction attracts a broad audience and may also fall into any subgenre, like mystery,
romance, legal thriller, western, science fiction, and so on. For example, The Bridges of Madison
County by Robert James Waller (Warner, 1992) was a hugely successful commercial novel
because the book described the fulfillment of a romantic fantasy that is dear to the heart of
millions of readers. Written in a short, easy-to-read style, the book was as mesmerizing to 15year-olds as it was to 100-year-olds. Other blockbuster commercial fiction authors include John
Grisham, Sidney Sheldon, Danielle Steele, and Jackie Collins.
Literary fiction tends to appeal to a smaller, more intellectually adventurous audience. A work of
literary fiction can fall into any of the subgenres described in the following sections. What sets
literary fiction apart, however, is the notable qualities it contains excellent writing, originality
of thought, and style that raise it above the level of ordinary written works. A recent work of
literary fiction that enjoyed wide popularity was Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (Atlantic
Monthly Press, 1997). Other popular authors of literary fiction include Toni Morrision, Barbara
Kingsolver, John LeCarre, and Saul Bellow.
Mainstream fiction is a general term publishers and booksellers use to describe both commercial
and literary works that depict a daily reality familiar to most people. These books, usually set in
the 20th or present-day 21st century, have at their core a universal theme that attracts a broad
audience. Mainstream books deal with such myriad topics as family issues, coming of age

initiations, courtroom dramas, career matters, physical and mental disabilities, social pressures,
political intrigue, and more. Regardless of original genre or category, most of the novels that
appear on the bestseller list are considered mainstream, whether the author is Sue Grafton,
Arundhati Roy, Michael Crichton, or David Guterson.
In addition to mainstream fiction, more narrowly defined categories of popular fiction appeal to
specific audiences. These different fiction categories, which are described briefly in the sections
that follow, are classed as a group as genre fiction. Each type of genre fiction has its own set of
rules and conventions. So, if you want to try your hand at writing fiction, start with what you like
to read. A solid grounding in the conventions of your chosen genre helps a great deal, so the
more familiar you are with the books in it, the better.
If, for example, you're a voracious reader of mysteries, look closely at the conventions in the
work of Agatha Christie, P.D. James, or whoever your favorite mystery writer is. If you can't get
enough of Jennifer Wilde's historical romances, that may be where you start. Likewise, if the
thrillers of Le Carre or the westerns of Louis Lamour are on your bedside table, make those your
model as you embark on writing your novel.
Mystery
Mystery is a popular genre, boasting a huge established audience. All mysteries focus on a
crime, usually murder. The action tends to center on the attempts of a wily detective-type to
solve the crime. And the climax usually occurs near the end, in a leisurely setting where all the
elements of the mystery are neatly assembled for the reader's convenience. The solution,
complete with surprises, is then delivered to the characters and the reader alike.
Mystery subgenres include spy, detective, and crime stories. You can find a vast network of
mystery writers associations, conventions, and conferences, as well as publications to help
mystery writers pursue their craft. For information, contact Mystery Writers of America.
Great practitioners in this genre include Arthur Conan Doyle, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell
Hammett, and Earle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason. Present day giants include Carl
Hiaason, James Ellroy, Robert Parker, James Lee Burke, and Elmore Leonard.
Romance
Romance is a huge category aimed at diverting and entertaining women. In romance novels, you
have elements of fantasy, love, navet, extravagance, adventure, and always the heroic lover
overcoming impossible odds to be with his true love. Many romances, especially the gothic
romance, have an easy-to-follow formula a young, inexperienced girl living a somewhat
remote existence is courted or threatened by an evil man and then rescued by a valiant one.
Other subgenres include historical, contemporary, fantasy romance, and romantic suspense. If
historical detail and settings interest you, try writing a regency or historical romance. If you enjoy
a dash of mystery or intrigue, then romantic suspense novels are for you. However, if you're
interested in more modern stories with sexual candor, then consider writing a contemporary
romance.
Certainly, you have lots of opportunity in the field of romance writing, which is the largest, most
diverse, and most popular of the commercial genres. And romance writers' organizations can
provide exact writing guidelines. To receive a set of guidelines, contact Romance Writers of
America.
First-class romance writers include Jude Deveraux, Victoria Holt, Judith McNaught, Daphne Du
Maurier, Jennifer Greene, and Nora Roberts.

Women's fiction
It's common knowledge in the publishing industry that women constitute the biggest bookbuying segment. So, it's certainly no accident that most mainstream as well as genre fiction is
popular among women. For that reason, publishers and booksellers have identified a category
within the mainstream that they classify as Women's Fiction. And its no surprise that virtually all
the selections of Oprah's Book Club are in this genre.
From a writer's perspective, some key characteristics of these books include a focus on
relationships, one or more strong female protagonists, women triumphing over unbearable
circumstances, and the experiences of women unified in some way. The field includes such
diverse writers as Barbara Taylor Bradford, Anne Rivers Siddons, Alice McDermott, Judith Krantz,
Anne Tyler, Rebecca Wells, and Alice Hoffman.

Science fiction/fantasy
Science fiction/fantasy novels depict distant worlds and futuristic technologies that whirl readers
far away from the here and now and yet provoke contemplation of contemporary issues.
Imaginative, thoughtful, and other-worldly, this robust category is made even more popular by
the Star Wars and Star Trek series. Leading science fiction and fantasy writers include Ray
Bradbury, Arthur Clarke, Isaac Asimov, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as the current, multibest-selling, young adult author J.K. Rowling.
To obtain professional assistance in this genre, contact the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of
America.
Suspense/thriller
Suspense novels and thrillers are tense, exciting, often sensational works with ingenious plotting,
swift action, and continuous suspense. In this genre, a writer's objective is to deliver a story with
sustained tension, surprise, and a constant sense of impending doom that propels the reader
forward. Unlike mysteries, thrillers are dominated by action in which physical threat is a constant
companion, and a hero (James Bond, for example) is pitted against a nefarious villain.
This genre includes the great espionage writers, including John Le Carre, Len Deighton, Ian
Fleming, Clive Cussler, and Frederick Forsythe. It also includes the police procedurals of Patricia
Cornwell, Tony Hillerman, and Lawrence Sanders, as well as the courtroom bestsellers of Scott
Turow, Richard North Patterson, Steve Martini, and John Grisham, and the military thrillers of Tom
Clancy and Stephen Koontz.
Western
Known simply as westerns, these novels about life on America's post Civil War western frontier
usually involve conflicts between cowboys and outlaws, cowboys and Native Americans, or
Easterners and Westerners. While this category still has a mass-market audience and a thriving
regional market, it's not the popular genre it was 25 years ago.
If you're interested in writing a western, contact the Western Writers of America
Zane Grey and Louis Lamour, both deceased, are still among the popular western writers.
Horror

Filled with gut-wrenching fear, this popular genre keeps readers turning the blood-filled pages.
From a writer's perspective, the defining characteristic is the intention to frighten readers by
exploiting their fears, both conscious and subconscious: fears of supernatural forces, alien
visitations, madness, death, dismemberment, and other terrifying notions.
Tracing its roots back to the classic tales of Edgar Allan Poe, the horror genre today is dominated
by Stephen King, whose vast output of bestsellers under his name as well as his alter-ego
Richard Bachman has dominated the bestseller lists for nearly 25 years. Other major horror
writers include Mary Shelley, Roald Dahl, Clive Barker, Peter Straub, Dean Koontz, and Anne Rice.
While horror isn't science fiction, the SFWA provides a great deal of information and community
services aimed at horror writers. To obtain its professional assistance, contact the Science Fiction
and Fantasy Writers of America.
Young adult
This genre includes any type of novel with a protagonist in the 12 to 16 age range that speaks to
the concerns of teenagers. Currently, J.K. Rowling and her amazing Harry Potter (Scholastic
Press) books are dominating the field. Rowling's accomplishment a truly universal story,
brimming with magic and fantasy as well as likable characters that readers identify with is an
amazing feat. Watch out for all the Harry Potter wannabes in the coming year.
Success stories in this genre share many of the qualities evident in the Harry Potter books: a
memorable voice (J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, Little Brown, 1951), believable characters
(Golding's Lord of the Flies, Perigee, 1959), and a willingness to write about the disturbing
subjects that preoccupy teens and preteens (Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume,
Dell Yearling, 1972, or Holes by Louis Sachar, FSG, 1998).
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/exploring-the-different-types-of-fiction.html
NON-FICTION
Non-fiction is a vast category that also has sub-genres; it could be creative like personal
essay, and factual like scientific paper. It may also use figurative language, however, not
abundantly like poetry, or fiction has. Sometimes, it may tell a story like autobiography, or
sometimes it may convey the information to the readers. Other examples of non-fiction include
biographies, diaries, memoirs, journals, fantasies, mysteries and romances. The popular example
of non-fiction genre is Michael Pollans highly celebrated book, The Omnivores Dilemma: A
Natural History of Four Meals, which is an account about eating habits of Americans.
Types of Nonfiction
Personal Essay-conveys personal experiences in a convincing way to the reader, and in this
way is related to rhetoric and composition, which is also persuasive; students find it relatively
easy to pick a topic that interests them, and to follow their associative train of thoughts, with the
freedom to digress and circle back
Example
Why do I fast? I do not mean, why do I fast now? I have settled that in terms of continuing conflict. But why
do I fast at all? Why have I, at any given time, suddenly decided---I must now do without food for some
time? Perhaps I ought to settle that in my mind before I am trapped in a fatal demand of my own selfindulgence.
Yes, self-indulgence. A sensual self-indulgence. It is important to separate the area of will-power from the
drugged immersion in rainbow-tinted ether. For I suspect that it is the truly sensual that take easily to
fasting.
Were these new kingdoms which that sage hermit sought, the kingdoms of nothing? Or did he speak, as
being replete in his own being, spurning all exterior augmentation.
-Wole Soyinka's (Nigerian Nobel Laureate) Why Do I Fast?

Memoir-heavier than the personal essay, and it mines the past to shed light on the present. The
memoir seeks to make sense of an individual life.

Personal Essay
Can be about almost anything
Relatively light reflection about whats
going on in your life right now
Explores, free from any need to
interpret

Memoir
Tends to discuss pa
Focuses more on striking or life
changing events
Interprets, analyzes, and seeks the
deeper meaning beneath the surface
experience of particular events

Memoir
From the French word memoire
(memory)
A type of autobiography, written by the
person who lived the experience
Focuses on a brief period of time or
series of related events; Captures
highlights and meaningful moments

True Narrative
A real life account told as a compelling
(must read!) story
Has the "drama" of fiction and the force
of fact
Is presented in a variety of formats,
including
memoir,
diary/journal,
personal essay, biography, journalistic
reporting, etc.

Reflective and emotional

Memoir
Covers one specific aspect of the
writers life
If I wrote a book about the winter of my
sophomore year in high school where I
got my tongue stuck to an icy pole

Autobiography
focuses on the chronology of the
writers entire life
I chose to write about my complete life
up to this point

Literary Journalism
-the creative nonfiction form that comes closest to newspaper and magazine writing.
-sometimes called immersion journalism
-should be well-researched, focus on a brief period of time, and concentrate on what is
happening outside of the writers small circle of personal experience and feelings
Example
It is only because of this that the starved countries of Asia and Africa are accepted as tourist resorts. No
one would think of running cheap trips to the Distressed Areas. But where the human beings have brown
skins their poverty is simply not noticed. What does Morocco mean to a Frenchman? An orange-grove or a
job in Government service.
-Orwell, Marrakech

Lyric Essay
a new, hybrid form that combines poetry with essay
Example

"He (my captor) gave me a biscuit, which I put in my pocket, and not daring to eat it, buried it under a log,
fearing he had put something in it to make me love him.
From the narrative of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson who was taken captive when the Wampanoag destroyed
Lancaster, Massachusets, in 1676.
"I remember your name, Mary Rowlandson. I think of you now, how necessary you have become. Can you
hear me, telling this story within uneasy boundaries, changing you into a woman leaning against a wall
beneath a HANDICAPPED PARKING ONLY sign, arrow pointing down directly at you? Nothing changes,
neither of us knows exactly where to stand and measure the beginning of our lives. Was it 1676 or 1976 or
1776 or yesterday when the Indian held you tight in his dark arms and promised you nothing but the
sound of his voice?"

Autobiography
The writer composes his/her life story, from birth to the present, using the first person I. An
Autobiography gives the history of a persons life, written or told by that person. Often written in
Narrative form of their persons life.
Travel Writing/Travelogue
The writer crafts articles or essays about travel using literary devices.

Profiles
The writer constructs biographies or essays on real people using literary devices (examples:
biography, character sketch, etc.). A Biography is a written account of another persons life.
Narrative Nonfiction is information based on fact that is presented in a format which tells a
story.
Essays are a short literary composition that reflects the authors outlook or point. A short literary
composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic,
speculative, or interpretative.
Speech is the faculty or power of speaking; oral communication; ability to express ones
thoughts and emotions by speech, sounds, and gesture. Generally delivered in the form of an
address or discourse.
Finally there is the general genre of Nonfiction. This is Informational text dealing with an
actual, real-life subject. This genre of literature offers opinions or conjectures on facts and reality.
This includes biographies, history, essays, speech, and narrative non fiction. Nonfiction opposes
fiction and is distinguished from those fiction genres of literature like poetry and drama which is
the next section we will discuss.
***in another reference:
Genres of literature
Poetry is verse and rhythmic writing with imagery that evokes an emotional response from the
reader. The art of poetry is rhythmical in composition, written or spoken. This genre of literature
is for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts.
Drama is the genre of literature thats subject for compositions is dramatic art in the way it is
represented. This genre is stories composed in verse or prose, usually for theatrical performance,
where conflicts and emotion are expressed through dialogue and action.
Fantasy is the forming of mental images with strange or other worldly settings or characters;
fiction which invites suspension of reality.
Humor is the faculty of perceiving what is amusing or comical. Fiction full of fun, fancy, and
excitement which meant to entertain. This genre of literature can actually be seen and contained
within all genres.
A Fable is a story about supernatural or extraordinary people Usually in the form of narration
that demonstrates a useful truth. In Fables, animals often speak as humans that are legendary
and supernatural tales.
Fairy Tales or wonder tales are a kind of folktale or fable. Sometimes the stories are about
fairies or other magical creatures, usually for children.
Science Fiction is a story based on impact of potential science, either actual or imagined.
Science fiction is one of the genres of literature that is set in the future or on other planets.
Short Story is fiction of such briefness that is not able to support any subplots.
Realistic Fiction is a story that can actually happen and is true to real life.
Folklore are songs, stories, myths, and proverbs of a person of folk that was handed down by
word of mouth. Folklore is a genre of literature that is widely held, but false and based on
unsubstantiated beliefs.
Historical Fiction is a story with fictional characters and events in a historical setting.
Horror is an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by literature that is frightfully shocking,
terrifying, or revolting. Fiction in which events evoke a feeling of dread in both the characters and
the reader.
A Tall Tale is a humorous story with blatant exaggerations, swaggering heroes who do the
impossible with an here of nonchalance.
Legend is a story that sometimes of a national or folk hero. Legend is based on fact but also
includes imaginative material.
Mystery is a genre of fiction that deals with the solution of a crime or the unraveling of secrets.
Anything that is kept secret or remains unexplained or unknown.
Mythology is a type of legend or traditional narrative. This is often based in part on historical
events, that reveals human behavior and natural phenomena by its symbolism; often pertaining

to the actions of the gods. A body of myths, as that of a particular people or that relating to a
particular person.
Fiction in Verse is full-length novels with plot, subplots, and themes, with major and minor
characters. Fiction of verse is one of the genres of literature in which the narrative is usually
presented in blank verse form.
The genre of Fiction can be defined as narrative literary works whose content is produced by the
imagination and is not necessarily based on fact. In fiction something is feigned, invented, or
imagined; a made-up story.