edit compared to hard words MISC. VOCAB

Alternative History (“Allohistory”)

Fiction based on some major change in historical or geographical reality

Antinovel

Fiction that adheres as closely as possible to what is literally real, as opposed to abstract, subjective, or figurative writing; often has non-linear structure

• Ex: Robbe-Grillet’s Le Voyeur

Cloak and Dagger

Novel about spies or intrigue; secrets, uncertainty, enemies, romance

• Ex: Ian Fleming (James Bond novels) & John Buchan

Cloak and Sword

Spanish novels featuring cavaliers, beautiful women, adventure. English counterparts are pirates, gallant heroes in shady dealings, plot twists, courtly manners, & close calls.

Dime Novel

Cheaply published paperback. America’s version of the British Penny Dreadful.

Pastiche

French word for parody or imitation; copies the style of another writer or specific work with the intention of mocking, learning, or reference

Epistle

A letter, especially a formal letter written to a person or group far away; not chatty but with a definite purpose.

The term is most often used in reference to the epistles of the New Testament in the Bible.

Alexandrine

Verse in iambic hexameter

Aubade

A poem about dawn or morning, often featuring lovers parting ways

Blason

Poem of praise or blamee that lays out its “case” in a very organized manner

Canticle

Any poem with clear parallels to religious songs and poetry

Chain Verse

Poetry in which stanzas are connected together via rhyme scheme, word choice, or another type of repetition.

• Ex: If the last line of one stanza is repeated as the first line of the next

Chant Royal

60-line variation of a ballad with a highly specific subject & structure, French

Cinquain

Any five-lined stanza (previously a medieval form)

Companion Poems

Poems that are to complement one another

Counting-Out Rhyme or Song

Used to teach children how to count, often including some sort of hand motions

Doggerel

Bad attempt at poetry (monotonous rhyme/rhythm, trite subjects, & badly expressed sentiment)

Englyn

Quatrain Welsh verse

Epithalamium/Epithalamion

Poem to celebrate a wedding

Flyting

Lengthy, passionate discussion associated with Scottish writing in which two characters/two poets ridicule and tear each other down.

Originated in Old English poetry where warriors preparing for combat would have a boasting match.

Fourteeners

Verse with 14 syllables in iams, usually heptameter

Free Verse

Written without rhyme or meter

Blank Verse

Unrhymed but metrical

Haiku

A form of Japanese poetry that follows the three-line formula of five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables; concise and detailed picture that carries an insight or emotional picture

Senryu

Similar to the Haiku (17 syllables), but lighter

Lament

Poem of grief, more personal; called a Monody when expressed by a single mourner

Light Verse

Humorous poems in such forms of parody (including the limerick, epigram, clerihew, and nonsense verse)

Metaphysical Poetry

Psychological treatment of love and religion rather than the conventions of Elizabethan love poetry

Occasional Verse

A dignified poem written for a specific occasion

Sestina

A six 6-lined stanza with a 3-lined envoy, usually unrhymed

Ballad Stanza

4 lines (abcb) with the first and third in tetrameter, and the other two in trimester

Burns Stanza

Six lines (aaabab) that use tetrameter in the a-lines and dimeter or trimeter in the b-lines

Elegiac Stanza

Iambic pentameter quatrain, abab

Hardy Stanza

Eight lines in the pattern aaabcccb; tetrameter in lines 1, 3, 5-7; line 2 repeats the end of line 1 so you get dimeter; trimeter in lines 4 and 8

In Memoriam Stanza

Quatrain in iambic pentameter, abba

Long Measure

Four-line stanza in iambic pentameter, abab or abcb

Ottova Rima

Stanza of 8 iambic pentameter lines, abababcc

Rhyme Royal (or Rime Royal)

Seven-lined iambic pentameter stanza, ababbcc

Short Measure

Four lines, abab or abcb, with lines 1, 2, and 4 in iambic trimester and line 3 in iambic tetrameter

Spenserian Stanza

Nine iambic lines, the first eight in pentameter and the last in hexameter, ababbcbcc

Yeats Stanza

Eight-lined stanza, iambic throughout, pentameter in all but lines 4, 6, and 7, which are shorter (aabbcddc)

Tristich

3-lined stanza

Tercet, Triplet

3-lined stanza (all 3 lines rhyme)

Quatrain

4-lined stanza

Quintain

5-lined stanza

Hexastich, Sextain, Sixain

6-lined stanza

Heptastich or Septet

7-lined stanza

Octastich

8-lined stanza (distinct from an octave, which is more properly the 8-line section of the Italian Sonnet)

Douzain

12-lined stanza

Quatorzain

14-lined stanza (usually a 14-lined poem that is not a sonnet)

Decasyllabic

Line with 10 syllables

Hendecasyllabic

11 syllables

Acatelecic

Metrically complete

Anacrusis

Having one or more extra beats at the beginning of a line of verse before the regular rhythm starts

Catalexis/Acatalexis

The last foot of a line is incomplete

Counterpoint Rhythm

The insertion of a different rhythm in a poem than the one already being used

Distributed/Hovering/Resolved Stress

2 syllables “share” a stress in the meter

Compound Rhyme

A sort of double rhyme that rhymes the primary and secondary stressed syllables (ex: childhood & wildwood; wear rags & bear bags)

Cross-Compound Rhyme

Compound Rhyme with an abba pattern (ex: tender & ferment)

Feminine Rhyme/Double Rhyme

Rhyming stressed syllable is followed by an identical unstressed syllable (ex: swallow & follow)

Masculine Rhyme

Rhyme on the stressed, final syllable of the line (ex: frank & bank)

Half/Near/Slant/Oblique Rhyme

Imperfect rhyme, usually accompanied by consonance (ex: poncho & crunchy)

Identical/Redundant Rhyme/Rime Riche

Rhyming words with the same sounds but different meanings (ex: bear & bare)

Internal Rhyme

Rhyme that takes place within a line of poetry

Interlocking Rhyme

Rhyme pattern in which one’s rhyme carries into the next stanza (ex: terza rima)

Burlesque

A comedy drama that relies on extreme exaggeration or treating serious subjects flippantly; over the top singing, dancing, and acting

Closet Drama

A play written to be read instead of actually performed, or a play that is better when it is ready instead of performed

Domestic Tragedy

Tragic drama about the lives of common people

Drawing Room Comedy

Form of Comedy of Manners dealing with high society, often set indoors (as in a drawing room)

Farce

Originally a funny, unscripted addition to play, today it is a drama with outlandish situations, mocking, and horseplay; there is no attention given to plot or characterization

Melodrama

A play with a romantic plot, little character developed, and heavy appeal to the audience’s emotions

Catharsis

A “breakthrough” for a character, or the tragic character experiencing resolution of relief; also interpreted as the audience member seeing the character as a scapegoat for their emotions to be attached and sent away

Anachronism

The use of an object, reference, or person set in the wrong time (ex: Plato with an iPhone)

Anacoluthon

When a sentence does not end according to its original structure (ex: a statement that ultimately turns into a question)

Circumlocution/Periphrasis

Similar to an aphorism, but unnecessarily wordy (ex: happier vs. more happy)

Four Major Tropes

Kenneth’s Burke’s group name for metaphor (perspective), metonymy (reduction), synecdoche (representation), and irony (dialectic)

Antiphrasis

Satirical expression that says the opposite of what the author or speaker really means (ex: “take your time, we’ve got all day”)

Kenning

Figurative wording to describe something, usually with a picturesque metaphor (ex: “red badge of courage” for “wound”)

Dead Metaphor

A metaphor that has been around so long, the image that it conveys is forgotten because the meaning and comparison are synonymous (ex: “kicking the bucket”; “falling in love)

Cacophony

A combination of sounds with an unpleasant effect, similar to dissonance

Euphony

Sounds arranged to be pleasing to the ear

Anastrophe

Changing the expected or usual order of words in a sentence (ex: “blonde long hair”; “ready are you?”)

Carmen Figuratum

A poem that is arranged (by line placement and length) so that the poem itself takes on the shape of the subject (distinct from Concrete Poetry)

Eye Dialect

Intentional misspelling of words to capture a dialect or accent

Homoteleuton

Same or similar word endings in close proximity to each other (ex: he’s the maddest, baddest, and saddest person ever)

Portmanteau Words

Words created by combining two words to create a new one (ex: smoke + fog = smog)

Spoonerism

Swapping the beginning sound of words in close proximity to each other (ex: “blushing crow” instead of “crushing blow”)

Auteur Theory

A way of critiquing a film based on its success in expressing the director’s point of view or philosophy of life (the filmmaker is an artist)

Cross-Cutting

Film Criticism term to describe repetition of movement from one subject to another, within a single sequence; created suspense, common in chase scenes

Deep Focus

A film shot or scene in which objects near and far are all in focus

Film Noir

1940s - 1960s American crime film with flashbacks, urban, contrast, and themes of corruption, etc

Allonym

A pseudonym that uses a real person’s name as the author’s “pen’s name”

Belles-Lettres

Imaginative writing and literature, like drama, poetry, essays, and fiction, as opposed to scientific or intellectual writing

Harangue

A lengthy and intense speech, lecture, or spoken attack; a diatribe

Cockney School

London-based Romantic poets, including Keats, Hunt, & Shelley

Kailyard School

19th century Scottish movement characterized by the idealization of humble village life

Spasmodic School

Victorian era British poets; psychological dramas, extravagant imagery, etc

Eponym

A word that comes from the proper name of a person or place

Putative Author

The author of a work as defined in the work rather than the actual author

Grundyism

Excessive or affected modesty