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Allegory
A story illustrating an idea or moral principle in which objects take on symbolic meaning.
Bildungsroman
A special type of novel that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the main character from youth to adulthood, usually battling with society until they gain acceptance.
Indirect Characterization
The author reveals to the reader what the character is like by showing the character in action.
Direct Characterization
The author explicitly tells the reader what the character is like.
Flat Character
Only has one to two personality traits.
Flashback
A reference to an event that took place prior to the beginning.
Memento Mori
“Remember, all will die.” Targeted at the wealthy.
Reflexive Narrative
A story where the narrator reflects back on the story.
Alliteration
Repetition of the initial sounds of several words in a group.
End-Stopped
A line with a pause at the end.
Enjambment
Continuation of the sense and grammatical structure from one line to the next.
Feminine Rhyme (Double Rhyme)
A rhyme of two syllables, one stressed and one unstressed. Ex: waken, forsaken, audition, rendition.
Lyric Poem
A short poem that presents a single speaker who expresses thoughts and feelings. Sonnets and odes fall in this category.
Masculine Rhyme
Rhyme that falls on the stressed and concluding syllables of the rhyme words. Ex: keep, sleep, glow, no, spell, impel.
Narrative Poem
A poem that tells a story and told by a narrator who participates in the action. Ballads and epics fall in this category.
Apostrophe
A figure of speech where a character speaks to something non-human.
Imagery
Description that appeals to the five senses.
Mood
The atmosphere created by a literary work.
Onomatopoeia
A literary device where the sound of a word echoes the sound it represents.
Paradox
A situation that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, it does not.
Personification
A figure of speech where something nonhuman is given human characteristics.
Symbolism
A device where an object represents an idea.
Synthesia
One sensory experience described in terms of another sensory experience.
Asyndeton
A stylistic device used to remove conjunctions between phrases yet maintain grammatical accuracy.
Colloquial
Informal language characterized by conversational tone or slang.
Polysyndeton
A stylistic device used to add conjunctions between phrases.
Balanced Sentence (Parallelism)
A sentence in which two parallel elements are set off against each other.
Cumulative Sentence (Loose Sentence)
Begins with independent clause, and adds subordinate elements.
Periodic Sentence
When the main idea of the sentence is not completed until the end.
Note 
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