Quiz for Des Lauriers - 25 terms

Allegory

A narrative that uses symbolic figures, events, or settings to convey a deeper moral or political meaning, often illustrating complex ideas through simpler characters and storylines.

Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds in a series of words or phrases, often used for poetic effect or added emphasis.

Allusion

A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance, which is not elaborated on.

Analogy

A comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification, illustrating how they are similar in certain aspects, thereby enhancing understanding

Anaphora

The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences, often used for rhetorical effect.

Anastrophe

The inversion of the usual order of words or phrases, often used to create emphasis or a particular poetic effect, as seen in phrases like 'deep into that darkness peering'.

ANTITHESIS

Balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure.

APOSTROPHE

calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or thing, or a personified abstract idea. If the character is asking a god or goddess for inspiration it is called an invocation.

ASSONANCE

the repetition of vowel sounds within closely placed words, creating internal rhyming.

ASYNDETON

Commas used without conjunction to separate a series of words, thus emphasizing the parts equally: instead of X, Y, and Z... the writer uses X,Y,Z.... see polysyndeton.

CHIASMUS

In poetry, a type of rhetorical balance in which the second part is syntactically balanced against the first, but with the parts reversed

COLLOQUIALISM

A word or phrase used in informal conversation that is specific to a particular region or group.

CONCEIT

an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different. Often an extended metaphor

CONNOTATION

the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition.

DIDACTIC

form of fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking.

ELEGY

a poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died. A Eulogy is great praise or commendation, a laudatory speech, often about someone who has died.

EPANALEPSIS

device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated both at the beginning and at the end of the line, clause, or sentence.

EPIGRAM

A saying or remark that is pithy which conveys an idea that comes off as clever and amusing to the audience. They are usually short and paradoxical.

HYPERBOLE

a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement, for effect. “If I told you once, I’ve told you a million times….”

IRONY

a discrepancy between appearances and reality.

JUXTAPOSITION

poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit.

LITOTES

is a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form

METONYMY

a figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing, is referred to by something closely associated with it.

Polysyndeton

repetition of conjunctions in close succession (as in we have ships and men and money)

Synecdoche

A kind of metonymy when a whole is represented by naming one of its parts, or vice versa. “The cattle rancher owned 500 head.” “Check out my new wheels.”