Language Arts 12: Literary Terms 2.1

Vocabulary terms and definitions from Language Arts 12 Literary Terms 2.1.

Black comedy

Literature having elements of comedy and tragedy, often involving gloomy or morbid satire.

Blazon

A poetic mode wherein the speaker uses metaphor, simile and hyperbole to describe the parts of his or her lover's body.

Chiasmus

A reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases.

Closed couplet

A rhyming couplet with end-stopped lines that is logically or grammatically complete.

Ethos

Ethical appeal, means to convince an audience of the author's credibility or character.

Euphemism

A mild or pleasant word or phrase that is used instead of one that is unpleasant or offensive.

Logos

Appeal to logic, means to convince an audience by use of logic or reason.

Metaphysical poetry

Highly intellectualized poetry marked by bold and ingenious conceits, incongruous imagery, complexity and subtlety of thought, frequent use of paradox, and often by deliberate harshness or rigidity of expression.

Pathos

Emotional appeal, means to persuade an audience by appealing to their emotions.

Rationalism

A philosophy that emphasized the role of reason rather than sensory experience or faith in answering basic questions of human existence.

Rhetoric

Language that is intended to influence people and that may not be honest or reasonable.

Satiric mode

Works in a very large variety of genres that are devoted to the more or less savage attack on social ills.

Tone

A quality, feeling, or attitude expressed by the words that someone uses in speaking or writing.

Verbal irony

Uses words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of the literal meaning.