the fucking literary terms again

allegory

an extended narrative in prose or verse in which characters, events, 

and settings represent abstract qualities and in which the writer intends a second meaning to be read beneath the surface story; the underlying meaning may be moral, religious, political, social, or satiric

*Alliteration

 the repetition of initial sounds in successive or neighboring words (Ex. 

“while I nodded, nearly napping” 

*Allusion

a reference to something literary, mythological, or historical

Anaphora

 a rhetorical device of repeating the same word or words at the start 

of two or more lines of poetry or successive phrases or sentences in prose 

 Antithesis

 a rhetorical device contrasting words, clauses, sentences, or ideas, 

balancing one against the other in strong opposition. The contrast is reinforced by the similar grammatical structure

Aphorism

a concise statement which expresses succinctly a general truth or 

idea often using rhyme of balance 

Apostrophe

a rhetorical device in which an absent or imaginary person or an 

abstraction is directly addressed as though present (Ex. “Death, be not proud.”) 

Assonance

 the repetition of vowel sounds between different consonants, such 

as in neigh / fade 

 Blank Verse

unrhymed iambic pentameter (10 syllables alternating what is stressed in a line of poetry)

 Caesura

a pause in a line of poetry created not by the meter, but by the natural 

speaking rhythm, sometimes coinciding with punctuation 

Cacophony

harsh, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or 

prose; the opposite of euphony

Chiasmus

 a statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is 

structurally reversed (Ex. “Out went the taper as she hurried in.” 

 Colloquialism

informal words or expressions not usually acceptable in formal 

writing 

Complaint

 a lyric poem of lament, regret, and sadness which may explain the 

speaker’s mood, describe its cause, discuss remedies, and appeal for help 

Conceit

an elaborate figure of speech in which two seemingly dissimilar things or 

situations are compared 

*Connotation

the implied or associative meaning of a word (as opposed to 

denotation) 

Consonance

Though the final consonants in several stressed syllables agree, the 

vowel sounds that precede them are different. 

*Denotation

the literal meaning of a word (as opposed to connotation) 

*Diction

word choice

Dissonance

the grating of sounds that are harsh or do not go together 

Elegy

 a formal poem focusing on death or mortality, usually beginning with the 

recent death of a particular person 

Ellipsis

 the omission of a word or phrase which is grammatically necessary but 

can be deduced from the context (Ex. Kathleen wants to be a firefighter; Sara, a nurse.) 

 End-stopped line

 a line of poetry that ends when the grammatical unit ends. Its 

opposite is enjambment. 

 Enjambment

From the French meaning “a striding over,” this term describes a line of poetry in which the sense and grammatical construction continue on to the next line. In an enjambed line, the lack of completion creates pressure to move rapidly to the closure promised in the next line. 

 Epigram

 a concise, witty saying in poetry or prose that either stands alone or is 

part of a larger work; may also refer to a short poem of this type 

*Euphemism

an indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is 

considered unpleasant (ex. “laid to rest” for “buried”) 

 Euphony

 a succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose; the 

opposite of cacophony 

Exemplum

a brief tale used in medieval times used to illustrate a sermon or 

teach a lesson 

 *Foil

a character who, by contrast, highlights the characteristics of another 

character 

Free Verse

poetry that is written without a regular meter, usually without rhyme 

*Hyperbole

deliberate exaggeration in order to create humor or emphasis 

Idyll

a short descriptive narrative, usually a poem, about an idealized country 

life; also called a pastoral 

 Internal Rhyme

a rhyme occurring within a line of poetry, as in Edgar Allan Poe’s 

“The Raven”: While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping 

Irony

a situation or statement where the truth is the opposite of appearances 

Litotes

 a type of understatement in which something affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite (Ex. “The teacher was not overly impressed by the poor test results.”) 

Lyric

a type of melodious, imaginative, and subjective poetry that is usually short 

and personal, expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker rather than telling a story 

Metonymy

 a figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea 

to represent something with which it is associated, such as using “the crown” to refer to a monarch 

Motif

a standard theme or dramatic situation which recurs in various works 

*Mood

the atmosphere that pervades a literary work with the intention of 

evoking a certain emotion or feeling from the audience. 

non sequitur

an inference that does not logically follow from the premise(s) 

ode

a long lyric poem, usually serious and elevated in tone; often written to 

praise someone or something 

Onomatopoeia

 the formation of a word from the imitation of natural sounds, 

such as hiss and boom 

Oxymoron

 an expression in which two words that contradict each other are 

joined (ex. jumbo shrimp) 

Parable

a short tale that teaches a moral; similar to but shorter than an allegory 

*Paradox

a statement that seems to contradict itself but that turns out to have a 

rational meaning, as in this quotation from Henry David Thoreau: “I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.” 

Pastoral

a poem about idealized rural life, or shepherds, or both; also called an 

idyll 

Pathos

 the quality in a work that prompts the reader to feel pity or sorrow 

*Polysyndeton

the use of many conjunctions to achieve an overwhelming effect 

Stock Character

a standard character who may be stereotyped, such as the 

miser or the fool, or universally recognized, like the hard-boiled private eye in detective stories 

 Syllepsis

the linking of one word with two other words in two strikingly different 

ways (Ex. The migrants “exhausted their credit, exhausted their friends.”) 

*Symbol

 an object which is something in itself yet is used to represent something 

else 

Synecdoche

the use of one part of an object to represent the entire object, 

such as using “boards” to mean “a stage” or “wheels” to mean “a car” 

Synesthesia

 Describing one kind of sensation in terms of another, e.g., sound as 

color, color as sound, sound as taste, color as temperature 

Syntax

 the arrangement of words within a sentence – includes sentence length 

and complexity; the variety and pattern of sentence form; inversion of natural word order; unusual juxtaposition; repetition; parallelism; use of active or passive voice; level of discourse 

Tautology

needless repetition which adds no meaning or understanding 

(Ex. widow woman; free gift; close proximity) 

*Tone

the attitude of a writer, usually implied, toward the subject or audience 

(may be described with words such as sardonic, apologetic, light-hearted, or somber) 

*Understatement

the deliberate representation of something as less in 

magnitude than it really is