Hn English 10 - Literary Terms

Alliteration

the repetition of sounds at the beginning of words

Allusion

a reference to a person, place, poem, book, event, ect., which is not part of the story

Anaphora

repetition of a word or group of words within a short section of writing

Assonance

in poetry, the repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in non-rhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other to be discernible

Couplet

Two successive rhyming lines of poetry, usually the same length

Foreshadowing

the use of hints or clues in a story to suggest what action is to come

Irony

a perception of inconsistency, sometimes humorous, in which the significance and understanding of a statement or event is changed by its context

Metaphor

a comparison of two things that are basically dissimilar in which one is described in terms of the other

Meter

the rhythmic structure of a line of poetry, which is created by a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables

Mood

the emotional aspect of the literary work, which contributes to the feeling the reader gets from the literary work

Narrator

the one who tells the story

Onomatopoeia

a word whose sound (the way it is pronounced) imitates its meaning

Paradox

a statement that is self contradictory on its surface

Personification

a figure of speech in which an object, abstract idea, or animal is given human characteristics

Rhyme Scheme

an alphabetical representation of the way a poem rhymes

Sensory Images

the use of details from any, some, or all five senses

Setting

when and where the story takes place

Stanza

a grouping of lines in a poem

Symbol

an object, person, or place that has a meaning in itself and that also stands for something larger than itself, usually an idea or concept

Syntax

the arrangement of words to form sentences

Theme

central or dominant idea behind the story; the most important aspect that emerges from how the book treats its subject

Tone

the atmosphere in a literary work or the attitude the author puts in a literary work

Unreliable Narrator

a narrator who may not be telling the truth or who may be telling only part-truths