Literary Terms

Please add literary terms in alphabetical order.

A
Analogy (uh-nal-uh-jee) - A similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based.

Example: Changing a tire is like putting on your shoe

Allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, a place, event, literary work, myth, or work of art, either directly or by implication.

Example: I am no Prince Hamlet.

Assonance (as-uh-nuhns) - A resemblance of sounds. Also known as vowel rhyming.

Example: "Those images that yet,/ Fresh images beget,/ That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented seas." (W.B. Yeats, Byzantium)

Alliteration: An alliteration is a series of words all beginning with the same letter, with the exception of connecting words such as: "and", "the", "of", "a" etc...

Example: Peter parker picked a peck of purple peppers.

C
Connotation: are thought to color what a word "really means" with emotion or value judgments.

For example, a stubborn person may be described as being either strong-willed or pig-headed

Consonance: the repitition of the same consonant two or more times in short succession. For example: Pitter, patter or all mammals named Sam are clammy

D
Diction-style of speaking or writing as dependent upon choice of words

Example-this wiki rocks my socks or this wiki is a useful learning tool <--- same idea but different choice of words

Denotation - The exact meaning of a word without any emotions added in

E
End Rhyme: A rhyme that is found in the final syllable of a line or verse

(eg. Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”:) Whose woods these are I think I know, His house is in the village, though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow.

Enjambment: a literary technique in which one sentence carries over into another without pause.

Example:

A glooming peace this morning with it brings.''The sun for sorrow will not show his head.

-Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

F
Fallacy - A misconception due to false reasoning.

(Ex. Person A claims: Sunny days are good.

Argument Person B: ''If all days were sunny, we'd never have rain, and without rain, we'd have famine and death. Therefore, you are wrong.)''

H
Half Rhyme: is consonance on the ending consonants of the words that were involved. It has many other names likes slant,sprung, near rhyme, oblique rhyme, off rhyme of an imperfect rhyme. Many of the half rhymes are eye rhymes. Hlaf rhymes are also widely used in, Scottish, Irish and Welsh.

I
Internal Rhyme: A set of rhyming words which occur in the middle of a verse (usually in the middle of a line).

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 some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

Iambic Pentameter: a common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable

ex:

Image - A word, or phrase that creates a mental picture of sounds, smells, tastes feelings, or actions. They convey emotional feelings to the reader.

Ex. " The steak sizzled under the scorching summer sun" 

J
Juxtaposition: The state of being close together or side by side. Especially for comparison or contrast.

M
Macabre: gruesome and horrifying; ghastly; horrible.

ex.( Yet in Boston, where Poe was born 200 years ago this January, the master of the macabre is a faintly remembered footnote, all but "nameless here for evermore," as he famously penned in.)- Ryans Take

Microcosm:

1) a little world; a world in minature

2) anything that is regarded as a world in miniature

Mnemonic Devices: is method for enhancing memory. When using the term mnemonic device, most people are referring to a trick that one uses to help memorize something.

P
Paradox- a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.

Example:


 * A rich man is no richer than a beggar.
 * You can save money by spending it.
 * I'm a liar. How do you know if I'm telling the truth?
 * There's no such thing as equality.
 * I'm nobody.

R
Rhetoric: Using language effectively to please or persuade

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=rhetoric

Rhetorical Question:

-Noun

A question that requiers no answer. It can be used to make a point, creat dramatic effect or to emphasis.

Ex: "How dumb do you think I am?" or "Do you think i was born yesterday?".

S
Symbol (Sim-boll) - A word, or expression that represents something other than the object it refers to.

A rose may symbolize love, or a green light may symbolize hope.

Stanza: an arrangement of a certain number of lines, usually four or more, sometimes having a fixed length, meter, or rhyme scheme, forming a division of a poem.

"Do not go gentle into that good night,  Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light"  - Do not go Gentle into that Good Night by Dylan Thomas

T
A true ryhme is generally a literary term used in poetry meaning a rhyme that is EXACT with one another. (PAN and CAN)