RCHK A1 English Glossary of Literary Terms

Types of Poems and Poetic Form

Ballad: simple, narrative verse which tells a story to be sung or recited; the folk ballad is anonymously handed down, while the literary ballad has a single author. John Keats, La Belle Dame sans Merci Edward Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory William Butler Yeats, The Fiddler of Dooney Blank Verse: unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter. Robert Frost, Birches John Milton, Paradise Lost Theodore Roethke, I Knew a Woman William Shakespeare, Macbeth Robert Frost, Mending Wall Dramatic Monologue: a lyric poem in which the speaker tells an audience about a dramatic moment in his/her life and, in doing so, reveals his/her character. Robert Browning, My Last Duchess T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Elegy: a poem of lament, meditating on the death of an individual. W. H. Auden, In Memory of W. B. Yeats John Milton, Lycidas Theodore Roethke, Elegy for Jane Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam.A. H. H. Epic: a long, dignified narrative poem which gives the account of a hero important to his nation or race. Lord Byron, Don Juan John Milton, Paradise Lost Homer, The Iliad, The Odyssey Free Verse: unrhymed lines without regular rhythm. Walt Whitman, The Last Invocation William Carlos Williams, Rain, The Dance Richard Wilbur, Juggler Haiku: Japanese verse in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, often depicting a delicate image. Matsuo Basko, The lightning flashes! And slashing through the darkness, A night-herons screech. Idyll: lyric poetry describing the life of the shepherd in pastoral, bucolic, idealistic terms. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King William Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper Light Verse: a general category of poetry written to entertain, such as lyric poetry, epigrams, and limericks. It can also have a serious side, as in parody or satire. Vachel Lindsay, The Congo Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky Limerick: humorous nonsense-verse in five anapestic lines rhyming aabba, a-lines being trimeter and blines dimeter. Edward Lear, There was an old man at the Cape Who made himself garments of crape When asked Will they tear? He replied Here and there, But they keep such a beautiful shape! Lyric: subjective, reflective poetry with regular rhyme scheme and meter which reveals the poets thoughts and feelings to create a single, unique impression. Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach William Blake, The Lamb, The Tiger

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Emily Dickinson, Because I Could Not Stop for Death Langston Hughes, Dream Deferred Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress Walt Whitman, Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking Narrative: non-dramatic, objective verse with regular rhyme scheme and meter which relates a story or narrative. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan T. S. Eliot, Journey of the Magi Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Wreck of the Deutschland Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses Ode: elaborate lyric verse which deals seriously with a dignified theme. John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode, to the West Wind William Wordsworth, Ode: Intimations of Immortality Sonnet: a rigid 14-line verse form, with variable structure and rhyme scheme according to type: a. Shakespearean (English)three quatrains and concluding couplet i iambic pentameter, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg or abba cddc effe gg. The Spenserian sonnet is a specialized form with linking rhyme abab bcbc cdcd ee. Robert Lowell, Salem William Shakespeare, Shall I Compare Thee? b. Italian (Petrarchan)an octave and sestet, between which a break in thought occurs. The traditional rhyme scheme is abba abba cde cde (or, the sestet, any variation of c, d, e). Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How Do I Love Thee? John Milton, On His Blindness John Donne, Death, Be Not Proud Villanelle: a French verse form, strictly calculated to appear simple and spontaneous; five tercets and a final quatrain, rhyming aba aba aba aba aba abaa. Lines 1, 6, 12, 18 and 3, 9, 15, 19 are refrain. Theodore Roethke, The Walking Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

Meter
Meter is poetrys rhythm, or its pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, Meter is measured in units of feet; the five basic kinds of metric feet are indicated below. Bold marks indicate stressed or unstressed syllables. Type of Metric Foot Iambic (iamb) Trochaic (trochee) Anapestic (anapest) Dactyllic (dactyl) Spondaic (spondee) Accent/Stress Example unstressed-stressed stressed-unstressed unstressed-unstressed-stressed stressed-unstressed-unstressed stressed-stresses

bal-loon so-da con-tra-dict man-i-ac man-made

Metrical units are the building blocks of lines of verse; lines are named according to the number of feet they contain: Number of Metric Feet Type of Line one foot ................................ ....................... monometer two feet ................................ ....................... dimeter three feet ................................ ..................... trimeter four feet ................................ ....................... tetrameter five feet................................ ........................ pentameter six feet ................................ ......................... hexameter seven feet................................ .................... heptameter eight feet................................ ...................... octometer (rare) Scansion is the analysis of these mechanical elements within a poem to determine meter. Feet are marked off with slashes (/) and accented appropriately (stress, unstress).

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Emily Dickinsons Because I Could Not Stop for Death is scanned here: Be-cause / I could / not stop / for Death He kind- / ly stopped / for me The Car- / riage held / but just / our-selves And Im- / mor-tal- / i-ty. The feet in these lines are iambic. The first and third lines have four feet and can be identified as iambic tetrameter. The second and fourth lines, with three feet each, are iambic trimeter. Therefore, the basic meter is iambic tetrameter. Metric feet make up lines, which make up stanzas. A stanza is to a poem what a paragraph is to a narrative or essay. Stanzas are identified by the number of lines they contain: Number of Lines Type of Stanza 2 ................................ ........................... couplet 3 ................................ ........................... tercet 4 ................................ ........................... quatrain 5 ................................ ........................... cinquain 6 ................................ ........................... sestet 7 ................................ ........................... septet 8 ................................ ........................... octet (octave)

Rhyme and Structural Features

Caesura: a break or pause in a line of verse. I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there's a pair of us -- don't tell! They'd advertise -- you know! (Emily Dickinson, Im Nobody! Who Are You?) End Rhyme: rhyme occurring at the ends of verse lines; most common rhyme form. I was angry with my friend, I told my wrath, my wrath did end. (William Blake, A Poison Tree) End stop: in contrast with enjambment, an instance where the grammatical break coincides with the end of the line. The break is often marked by a punctuation mark, and the meaning of the line is complete in itself. As I in hoary winter's night stood shivering in the snow, Surprised I was with sudden heat, which made my heart to glow; And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near, A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear. (Robert Southwell, The Burning Babe) Enjambment: an instance where, because of its grammatical structure, verse runs on from one line to another. Two eyes serve a movement, that now And again now, and now, and now Sets neat prints into the snow Between trees, and warily a lame Shadow lags by stump and in hollow Of a body that is bold to come Across clearings, an eye,

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A widening deepening greenness, (Ted Hughes, The Thought-Fox) Feminine Rhyme: A stressed syllable rhyme followed by an unstressed syllable. Example: carrot and garret, sever and never. Forced Rhyme: An unnatural rhyme that forces a rhyme where it should not otherwise be. Half Rhyme (Slant Rhyme): imperfect, approximate rhyme. In the mustard seed sun, By full tilt river and switchback sea Where the cormorants scud, In his house on stilts high among beaks (Dylan Thomas, Poem on His Birthday) Internal Rhyme: rhyme contained within a line of verse. The splendour falls on castle walls And snowy summits old in story: The long light shakes across the lakes And the wild cataract leaps in glory. (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Blow, Bugle, Blow) Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. " 'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door; Only this, and nothing more. (Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven) Masculine Rhyme: Has a single stressed syllable rhyme. Example: fight and tight, stove and trove. Perfect Rhyme: The words are in complete aural correspondence. An example would be: Certain and Curtain. Rhyme Scheme: pattern of rhymes with a unit of verse; in analysis, each end rhyme-sound is represented by a letter. Take, O take those lips away,a That so sweetly were forsworn;b And those eyes, the break of day,a Lights that do mislead the morn:b But my kisses bring again, bring again;c Seals of love, but seald in vain, seald in vain.c (William Shakespeare, Take, 0 Take Those Lips Away) Rime: old spelling of rhyme, which is the repetition of like sounds at regular intervals, employed in versification, the writing of verse. Stanza: the blocks of lines into which a poem is divided (sometimes known as verses) Visual Rhyme: A rhyme that only looks similar, but when spoken sound different. Example: slaughter and laughter.

Other Sound Features

Alliteration: the repetition of one or more initial sounds, usually consonants, in words within a line. Bright black-eyed creature, brushed with brown. (Robert Frost, To a Moth Seen in Winter) He clasps the crag with crooked hands (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Eagle)

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Assonance: repetition of two or more vowel sounds within a line, the effect of which is to provide an auditory reinforcement of the meaning of the words. The crumbling thunder of seas (Robert Louis Stevenson) Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. (William Wordsworth, The World is Too Much With Us) Cacophony: the use of inharmonious sounds in close conjunction effect; opposite of euphony. Or, my scrofulous French novel On grey paper with blunt type! Simply glance at it, you grovel Hand and foot in Belials gripe; (Robert Browning, Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister) But when loud surges lash the sounding shore (Alexander Pope, Sound and Sense) Consonance: repetition of two or more consonant sounds within a line, the effect of which is to provide an auditory reinforcement of the meaning of the words. And all is seared with trade; bleared smeared with toil; And wears mans smudge and shares mens smell: the soil (Gerard Manley Hopkins, Gods Grandeur) The moan of doves in immemorial elms, And murmuring of innumerable bees. (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Come Down, O Maid) Euphony: the use of compatible, harmonious sounds to produce a pleasing, melodious effect. I knew a woman, lovely in her bones, When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them. (Theodore Roethke, I Knew a Woman) And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows (Alexander Pope, Sound and Sense) Onomatopoeia: the use of a word whose sound suggests its meaning. The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard (Robert Frost, Out, Out) Veering and wheeling free in the open (Carl Sandburg, The Harbor)

Poetic Devices and Figurative Language

Analogy: a comparison made between two dissimilar things for the purpose of explanation or clarification. An analogy is comparable to metaphor and simile in that it shows how two different things are similar, but its a bit more complex. Rather than a figure of speech, an analogy is more of a logical argument. The presenter of an analogy will often demonstrate how two things are alike by pointing out shared characteristics, with the goal of showing that if two things are similar in some ways, they are similar in other ways as well. Apostrophe: an address to a person or personified object not present. Little Lamb, who made thee? (William Blake, The Lamb)

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O loss of sight, of thee I most complain! (John Milton, Samson Agonistes) Figure of Speech: Any way of saying something other than in an ordinary way. Hyperbole: gross exaggeration for effect: overstatement. Love you ten years before the Flood, And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews. (Andrew Marvell, To his Coy Mistress) Our hands were firmly cemented. (John Donne, The Ecstasy) Imagery: the use of words to represent things, actions, or ideas by sensory description. The five kinds of imagery each appeal to a different sense: visual (sight), auditory (sound), tactile (touch), olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste): Night after Night Her purple traffic Strews the land with Opal Bales Merchantmenpoise upon Horizons Dipand vanish like Orioles! (Emily Dickinson, This Is the Land Where Sunset Washes) And the May month flaps its glad green leaves like wings (Thomas Hardy, Afterwards) He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Eagle) Irony: the contrast between actual meaning and the suggestion of another meaning. a. Verbalmeaning one thing and saying another. next to of course god america i love you (e.e. cummings) b. Dramatictwo levels of meaningwhat the speaker says and what he/ she means, and what the speaker says and the author means. I stood upon a high place, And saw, below, many devils Running, leaping, And carousing in sin. One looked up grinning, And said, Comrade! Brother! (Stephen Crane, I Stood Upon a High Place) c. Situationalwhen the reality of a situation differs from the anticipated or intended effect; when something unexpected occurs. What rough beast, its hour come round at last Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born? (William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming) (The second coming of Christ is intended, but a rough beast will come instead.) Litotes: a form of understatement in which the negative of an antonym is used to achieve emphasis and intensity. He accused himself, at bottom and not unveraciously, of a fantastic, a demoralized sympathy with her. (Henry James, The Pupil) Metaphor: a figure of speech which makes a direct comparison of unlike objects

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All the worlds a stage (William Shakespeare, As You Like It) Death is the broom I take in my hands To sweep the world clean. (Langston Hughes, War) Metonymy: the substitution of a word which relates to the object or person to be named, in place of the name itself. The serpent that did sting thy fathers life. Now wears his crown. (William Shakespeare, Hamlet) A spotted shaft is seen (snake). (Emily Dickinson, A Narrow Fellow in the Grass) Oxymoron: contradictory terms brought together to express a paradox for strong effect. Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical! Dove-feathered raven! wolvish-ravening lamb! (William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet) All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise him. (Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty) Paradox: a statement which appears self-contradictory, but underline basis of truth. Elected silence, sing to me. (Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Habit of Perfection) Were her first years the Golden Age; thats true, But now shes gold oft-tried and ever-new. (John Donne, The Autumnal) Personification: a figure of speech in which objects and animals have human qualities. When it comes, the landscape listens, Shadows hold their breath. (Emily Dickinson, A Certain Slant of Light) Into the jaws of Death. Into the mouth of Hell. (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Charge of the Light Brigade) Pun: play on words hat deliberately exploits an ambiguity between similar-sounding words for humorous or rhetorical effect. "There is nothing punny about bad puns." original source unknown. "Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York" (Son: play on "sun"; from Shakespeares Richard III) Simile: a direct comparison of two unlike objects, using like or as. The holy time is quiet as a nun (William Wordsworth, On the Beach at Calais) And like a thunderbolt he falls (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Eagle) Symbolism: the use of one object to suggest another, hidden object or idea.

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In Robert Frosts The Road Not Taken, the fork in the road represents a major decision in life, each road a separate way of life. In Alexander Popes The Rape of the Lock, Cupids flames symbolizes love. In Gerard Manley Hopkinss The Caged Skylark, a dare-gale skylark scanted in a dull cage symbolizes the human spirit contained within the domains of society. Synecdoche: a figure of speech in which a part represents the whole object or idea. Not a hair perished (person). (William Shakespeare, The Tempest) And all mankind that haunted nigh Had sought their household fire (homes). (Thomas Hardy, The Darkling Thrush) Understatement: Saying less than what is meant for effect. For example, in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, a suburban dinner party is invaded by Death, who wears a long black cloak and carries a scythe. He is the Grim Reaper; the party is over; the guests must all go with him. "Well," says one party guest, "that's cast rather a gloom over the evening, hasn't it?" In another scene, an Army officer has just lost his leg. When asked how he feels, he looks down at his bloody stump and responds, "Stings a bit."

Other Literary Terms

Abstract language refers to things that are intangilble, that is, which are perceived not through the senses but by the mind, such as truth, God, education, vice, transportation, poetry, war, love. Allegory: a narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface one. Sometimes confused with an extended metaphor or a series of related symbols, allegory differs in that it presents a system of related comparisons rather than one comparison drawn out. There is usually a one-to-one correspondence between the details and a single set of ulterior meanings. (p.99, Sound and Sense by Arp & Johnson) e.g. Animal Farm by George Orwell is an allegory of the Russian Revolution in which each animal character corresponds to a figure from the Revolution and the events mirror the events that occurred during that time. Allusion (Intertextuality): a reference to an outside fact, event, or other source, used to deepen meaning through connecting ideas. World-famous golden-thighed Pythagoras Fingered upon a fiddle-stick or strings What a star sang and careless Muses heard (PythagorasGreek mathematician; Musesmythological goddesses of beauty and music) (William Butler Yeats, Among School Children) In Breughels great painting, The Kermess, the dancers go round, they go round and around (William Carlos Williams, The Dance) (from Ch. 2 of The Elements of Poetry) Atmosphere: the prevailing mood created by a piece of writing. Character: There are two meanings for the word character: 1) The person in a work of fiction. 2) The characteristics of a person. Persons in a work of fiction - Antagonist and Protagonist Short stories use few characters. One character is clearly central to the story with all major events having some importance to this character he/she is the PROTAGONIST. The opposer of the main character is called the ANTAGONIST.

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The Characteristics of a Person - In order for a story to seem real to the reader its characters must seem real. Characterization is the information the author gives the reader about the characters themselves. The author may reveal a character in several ways: a) his/her physical appearance b) what he/she says, thinks, feels and dreams c) what he/she does or does not do d) what others say about him/her and how others react to him/her. Characters are convincing if they are: consistent, motivated, and life-like (resemble real people) Characters are... 1. Individual - round, many sided and complex personalities. 2. Developing - dynamic, many sided personalities that change, for better or worse, by the end of the story. 3. Static - Stereotype, have one or two characteristics that never change and are emphasized e.g. brilliant detective, drunk, scrooge, cruel stepmother, etc. Concrete language identifies things perceived through the senses (touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste), such as soft, stench, red, loud, or bitter. Conflict: Conflict is essential to plot. Without conflict there is no plot. It is the opposition of forces which ties one incident to another and makes the plot move. Conflict is not merely limited to open arguments, rather it is any form of opposition that faces the main character. Within a short story there may be only one central struggle, or there may be one dominant struggle with many minor ones. There are two types of conflict: a. 1) External - A struggle with a force outside one's self. b. 2) Internal - A struggle within one's self; a person must make some decision, overcome pain, quiet their temper, resist an urge, etc. There are four kinds of conflict: c. 1) Man vs. Man (physical) - The leading character struggles with his physical strength against other men, forces of nature, or animals. d. 2) Man vs. Circumstances (classical) - The leading character struggles against fate, or the circumstances of life facing him/her. e. 3) Man vs. Society (social) - The leading character struggles against ideas, practices, or customs of other people. f. 4) Man vs. Himself/Herself (psychological) - The leading character struggles with himself/herself; with his/her own soul, ideas of right or wrong, physical Connotation: the emotions, values, or images associated with a word. The intensity of emotions or the power of the values and images associated with a word varies. Words connected with religion, politics, and sex tend to have the strongest feelings and images associated with them. For most people, the word mother calls up very strong positive feelings and associations--loving, self-sacrificing, always there for you, understanding; the denotative meaning, on the other hand, is simply "a female animal who has borne one or more chldren." Of course connotative meanings do not necessarily reflect reality; for instance, if someone said, "His mother is not very motherly," you would immediately understand the difference between motherly (connotation) and mother (denotation). Denotation: the literal meaning of a word; there are no emotions, values, or images associated with denotative meaning. Scientific and mathematical language carries few, if any emotional or connotative meanings. Dialogue: Dialogue helps readers understand characters and to advance the action of the story i.e. the plot. E.g. Youre not going to throw up? asked Lizzie. No, Im not going to throw up. Good, because if you were going to throw up, Id be sure to remind you that youd best lean out over the side of the boat. You have a real way about you, you know that, Lizzie? Thats what my granddaddy says: a real way about me. What else does your granddaddy say about you?

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That Im the closest thing to glory hell ever see on Gods earth. What does your daddy say about you? (p.59) Diction: The writers choice of vocabulary, which adds depth of understanding and enables the reader to better imagine a scene, the feelings of a character etc. Strong verbs and adjectives and precise nouns are some examples. E.g. The rain passed Turner, swept across Thayers hay-meadow, charged up Parker Head, and swirled around First Congregation, ripping off some of the still-green maple leaves and sending them in whirling cones against Mrs. Cobbs grandfathers fence and up on to Mrs. Hurds porch. (p.53) Fallible (or Unreliable) Narrator: An unreliable narrator is a narrator, whether in literature, film, or theatre, whose credibility has been seriously compromised. This narrative mode is one that can be developed by an author for a number of reasons, usually to deceive the reader or audience. Unreliable narrators are usually first-person narrators, but third-person narrators can also be unreliable. The nature of the narrator is sometimes immediately clear. For instance, a story may open with the narrator making a plainly false or delusional claim or admitting to being severely mentally ill, or the story itself may have a frame in which the narrator appears as a character, with clues to his unreliability. A more dramatic use of the device delays the revelation until near the story's end. This twist ending forces the reader to reconsider their point of view and experience of the story. In some cases the narrator's unreliability is never fully revealed but only hinted at, leaving the reader to wonder how much the narrator should be trusted and how the story should be interpreted. E.g. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Foreshadowing: subtle hints pointing the reader toward the possible outcome of the story Plot: the sequence of events in a story; actions within the plot are significant and relate to the meaning of the story Exposition: the beginning of the story, which provides the key information necessary to understand the story (the setting, main characters etc.) Complication: the catalyst, which begins the major conflict and starts the rising action. Rising action: that part of the middle of the story in which suspense builds about how the conflict will be resolved Climax: the turning point of the story that occurs when characters try to resolve the complication; at this point the action is at its most exciting and suspenseful Falling action: that part of the story after the climax Resolution: the set of events that bring the story to a close (also called the denouement); at which point the problem or conflict is usually (but not always e.g in a tragedy) resolved Point of View: Point of view, or p.o.v., is defined as the angle from which the story is told. 1. Innocent Eye - The story is told through the eyes of a child (his/her judgment being different from that of an adult) 2. Stream of Consciousness - The story is told so that the reader feels as if they are inside the head of one character and knows all their thoughts and reactions. 3. First Person - The story is told by the protagonist or one of the characters who interacts closely with the protagonist or other characters (using pronouns I, me, we, etc). The reader sees the story through this person's eyes as he/she experiences it and only knows what he/she knows or feels.

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4. Omniscient- The author can narrate the story using the omniscient point of view. He can move from character to character, event to event, having free access to the thoughts, feelings and motivations of his characters and he introduces information where and when he chooses. There are two main types of omniscient point of view: a) Omniscient Limited - The author tells the story in third person (using pronouns they, she, he, it, etc). We know only what the character knows and what the author allows him/her to tell us. We can see the thoughts and feelings of characters if the author chooses to reveal them to us. b) Omniscient Objective The author tells the story in the third person. It appears as though a camera is following the characters, going anywhere, and recording only what is seen and heard. There is no comment on the characters or their thoughts. No interpretations are offered. The reader is placed in the position of spectator without the author there to explain. Repetition: Words and phrases repeated in a story have the effect of emphasizing an idea, and sometmes create a i mood. E.g. Blue days, as the tide washed away the twin footprints Lizzie and Turner left along the beach. Blue days, as they walked among the sharp-edged mussels, prying open their blue-black shells to tickle their orange tendons. Blue days, as they sprinted against the sea breeze and chased the gulls until Turner, finally, finally, finally touched a tail feather. Blue days as they dangled their legs over the granite ledges and felt the gigantic continent behind them. (p73) Sentence and paragraph length: Changes in sentence length are used by writers to show many different things: to build suspense, to make you feel what a character is feeling etc. For instance, a number of short sentences in a row might show that the action being described is tense or something exciting is happening. Longer sentences with lots of commas or long paragraphs with just a two or three full stops might suggest that things are happening very slowly: for example, maybe a character is thinking about something difficult to understand or deal with. Consecutive sentences of even length and parallel structure may add intensity or create a monotonous, relentless effect or emphasize certain ideas. E.g. Turner Buckminster had lived in Phippsburg for fifteen minutes shy of six hours. He had dipped his hand in its waves and licked the salt from his fingers. He had smelled the sharp resin of the pines. He had heard the low rhythm of the bells on the buoys that balanced on the ridges of the sea. He had seen the fine clapboard parsonage beside the church where he was to live, and the small house set a ways beyond it that puzzled him some. Turner Buckminster had lived in Phippsburg, Maine, for almost six whole hours. He didnt know how much longer he could take it. (p.1) Setting: The time and location in which a story takes place is called the setting. For some stories the setting is very important, while for others it is not. There are several aspects of a story's setting to consider when examining how setting contributes to a story (some, or all, may be present in a story): a) place - geographical location. Where is the action of the story taking place? b) time - When is the story taking place? (historical period, time of day, year, etc) c) weather conditions - Is it rainy, sunny, stormy, etc? d) social conditions - What is the daily life of the character's like? Does the story contain local colour (writing that focuses on the speech, dress, mannerisms, customs, etc. of a particular place)? e) mood or atmosphere - What feeling is created at the beginning of the story? Is it bright and cheerful or dark and frightening Structure: framework of a work of literature; the organization or over-all design of a work. The structure of a play may fall into logical divisions and also a mechanical division of acts and scenes.

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Style: manner of expression; how a speaker or writer says what he says. Theme: The theme in a piece of fiction is its controlling idea or its central insight. It is the author's underlying meaning or main idea that he is trying to convey. The theme may be the author's thoughts about a topic or view of human nature. The title of the short story usually points to what the writer is saying and he may use various figures of speech to emphasize his theme, such as: symbol, allusion, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, or irony. Some simple examples of common themes from literature, TV, and film are: - things are not always as they appear to be - Love is blind - Believe in yourself - People are afraid of change - Don't judge a book by its cover Tone: the writer's attitude toward the material and/or readers. Tone may be playful, formal, intimate, angry, serious, ironic, outraged, baffled, tender, serene, depressed, etc.

Rhetorical Devices
Anaphora: is the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly in conjunction with climax and with parallelism: Slowly and grimly they advanced, not knowing what lay ahead, not knowing what they would find at the top of the hill, not knowing that they were so near to Disneyland. She stroked her kitty cat very softly, very slowly, very smoothly. Anastrophe: Inversion of the normal word order of a sentence. Honesty we did not normally expect in a public official. (Normally, We did not normally expect honesty in a public official. emphasizes honesty.) Can Times best jewel in Times chest lie hid? (Normally, Can Times best jewel lie hid in Times Chest? emphasizes the verb at the end of the line.) Antithesis: establishes a clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining them together or juxtaposing them, often in parallel structure. Human beings are inveterate systematizers and categorizers, so the mind has a natural love for antithesis, which creates a definite and systematic relationship between ideas: To err is human; to forgive, divine. --Pope That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. --Neil Armstrong Asyndeton: Omission of conjunctions. Self-schooled, self-scanned, self-honored, self-secure. (This is also parallelism, anaphora and alliteration) Climax (gradatio): consists of arranging words, clauses, or sentences in the order of increasing importance, weight, or emphasis. Parallelism usually forms a part of the arrangement, because it offers a sense of continuity, order, and movement-up the ladder of importance. But if you wish to vary the amount of discussion on each point, parallelism is not essential. The concerto was applauded at the house of Baron von Schnooty, it was praised highly at court, it was voted best concerto of the year by the Academy, it was considered by Mozart the highlight of his career, and it has become known today as the best concerto in the world. At 6:20 a.m. the ground began to heave. Windows rattled; then they broke. Objects started falling from shelves. Water heaters fell from their pedestals, tearing out plumbing. Outside, the road began to break up. Water mains and gas lines were wrenched apart, causing flooding and the danger of explosion. Office buildings began cracking; soon twenty, thirty, forty stories of concrete were diving at the helpless pedestrians panicking below.

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To have faults is not good, but faults are human. Worse is to have them and not see them. Yet beyond that is to have faults, to see them, and to do nothing about them. But even that seems mild compared to him who knows his faults, and who parades them about and encourages them as though they were virtues. In addition to arranging sentences or groups of short ideas in climactic order, you generally should also arrange the large sections of ideas in your papers, the points in your arguments, and the examples for your generalizations climactically; although in these cases, the first item should not be the very least important (because its weakness might alienate the reader). Always begin with a point or proof substantial enough to generate interest, and then continue with ideas of increasing importance. That way your argument gets stronger as it moves along, and every point hits harder than the previous one. Ellipsis: Omission of words for brevity, emphasis, ambiguity, or grace. One of the defendants was sentenced to sixty days; the other, to life imprisonment. (The second was sentenced is omitted.) Epistrophe (the opposite of anaphora) Repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of lines, clauses, sentences. Most of the errors you make in this essay are unacceptable. Comma splices are unacceptable. Fragments are unacceptable. Inconsistencies in tense, person and number are unacceptable. IN short, almost every word you have written is in some way unacceptable! Parallelism:is recurrent syntactical similarity. Several parts of a sentence or several sentences are expressed similarly to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance. Parallelism also adds balance and rhythm and, most importantly, clarity to the sentence. Any sentence elements can be paralleled, any number of times (though, of course, excess quickly becomes ridiculous). You might choose parallel subjects with parallel modifiers attached to them: Ferocious dragons breathing fire and wicked sorcerers casting their spells do their harm by night in the forest of Darkness. Or parallel verbs and adverbs: I have always sought but seldom obtained a parking space near the door. Quickly and happily he walked around the corner to buy the book. Or parallel verbs and direct objects: He liked to eat watermelon and to avoid grapefruit. Or just the objects: This wealthy car collector owns three pastel Cadillacs, two gold Rolls Royces, and ten assorted Mercedes. Or parallel prepositional phrases: He found it difficult to vote for an ideal truth but against his own self interest. The pilot walked down the aisle, through the door, and into the cockpit, singing "Up, Up, and Away." Parenthesis: Any insertion that interrupts the normal sentence structure. Since, spite of him, Ill live in this poor rhyme. Those children selfish, deceitful, and sadistic were evidence of their parents muddled sense of values. Polysyndeton: Use of many conjunctions. Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea. (Sonnet 65) Simple sentence: A sentence with a single independent clause Understatement: Saying less than what is meant for effect. Not to be confused with euphemism, where a polite phrase is used in place of a harsher or more offensive expression.Understatement is a staple of humor in English-speaking

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cultures, especially in British humor. For example, in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, a suburban dinner party is invaded by Death, who wears a long black cloak and carries a scythe. He is the Grim Reaper; the party is over; the guests must all go with him. "Well," says one party guest, "that's cast rather a gloom over the evening, hasn't it?" In another scene, an Army o fficer has just lost his leg. When asked how he feels, he looks down at his bloody stump and responds, "Stings a bit." Zeugma: a device that joins together tow apparently incongruous things by applying a verb or adjective to both which only really applies to one of them. Kill the boys and the luggage (Shakespeare, Henry V) NOTE: A more extensive list of rhetorical devices can be found at: http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.html

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