Literacy and Poetic Terms Review

Allusion

A reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or some other branch of culture.

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds.

Characterization

The process by which a writer reveals the personality of a character.

Conflict

External: A class of opposing forces.

Internal: A clash of opposing forces that exists within a person’s mind.

Hyperbole

Exaggertion

Imagery

Refers to the language that appeals to our senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.

Inversion

The words of a sentence or phrase are wrenched out of normal English syntax or out of order.

Irony

A discrepancy between what is expected and what happens.

Metaphor

A figure of speech that describes two different things without using “like” or “as”

Meter

Where the rhythmic structure of a line of a verse is created by the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllabless

Onomatpoeia

The use of language to imitate sounds

Personification

The use of giving human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, or concepts.

Repetition

The repeated use of the same sound, word, image, or to enhance a poems meaning effect idea to enhance a poem’s meaning and overall effect.

Rhyme

The alliteration of stressed and unstressed syllables in oral and written language

Rhythm

The alliteration of stressed and unstressed syllables in oral and written language.

Satire

Using mocking humor to mock and criticize the way things are.

Setting

The time and location in which occur or which characters are placed

Speaker

The person (or thing) addressing the reader correctly using the pronoun I

Symbol

A person, place, or thing, an event that has meaning in itself and also stands for something much more than itself

Theme

The insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work