Basic Figures/Tropes and Meters/Feet

Prosody

The structural/ theoretical side of the verse

Meter

Units of segments of organized rhythm in prosody

Foot

Unit of repetition that defined a prosodic rhythm

Acatalectic

A line of a verse that has the full number of syllables

Alexandrine

A line of a verse that has six iambic feet

Catalectic

A line of verse that lacks a syllable in the last metrical foot

Hypercatalectic

A line of poetry having an extra syllable or syllables at the end of the last metric foot

Couplet

A stanza consisting of two successive lines of verse

Ballad Stanza

A four line stanza often used in ballads rhyming in the second and fourth lines and having four metrical feet in the first and third lines

Iamb

^ /

Trochee

/ ^

Spondee

/ /

Phyric

^ ^

Anapest

^ ^ /

Dactyl

/ ^ ^

Amphibranch

^ / ^

Monometer

One foot/line

Dimeter

Two feet/line

Trimeter

3 foot/line

Tetrameter

Four feet/line

Pentameter

Five feet/line

Hexameter

Six feet/line

Heptameter

Seven feet/line

Octameter

Eight feet/line

Iambic Pentameter

a) iambic-foot made up of short (unstressed) followed by a long (stressed) syllable b) Pentameter-line of five metrical feet

Metaphor

Trope or figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of its resemblance to another thing.

Simile

Something is likened to another, specifically through the use of ‘like’ or ‘as’

Symbol

A figure in which one object represents another object.

Metonymy

A basic trope or figure of speech in which the name OR an attribute of an object is given to the object itself.

Hyperbole

Figure of speech that involves exaggeration, excess or extravagance.

Synedoche

A rhetorical figure whereby a part stands for a whole.

Allegory

A narrative which- through allusion, metaphor, symbolism, etc. — can be read not simply on its own terms but as telling another quite different story at the same time.

Irony

Saying one thing and meaning another.

Chiasmus

Rhetorical figure involving repetition and reversal or two sides of a conceptual opposition is shown to be reversible and paradoxically to be present and functionally active in it’s opposite.

Alliteration

Repeated consonant sounds, usually at the beginning of words.

Assonance

Correspondence or rhyming of vowel sounds.

Anaphora

Repetition of the same word at the beginning of a successive clause or verse.

Personification

The endowment of animals, objects or abstract ideas with human qualities.

Apostrophe

Speaker addresses something that isn’t present for rhetorical effect.

Analogy

Figure related to metaphor in which resemblance between two or more things can be extended or repeated. (Day is to month as minute is to hour)

Synesthesia

Together or blended sensorial experience

Paradox

A apparent self-contradiction or absurd statement which, on closer expectation, is somewhat truthful regardless of conflicting opposites.

Oxymoron

Combines incongruous and apparently contradictory words and meanings for special effect.

Onomatopoeia

Verbal sounds that are meant to mimic thing imaginatively heard in the world.

Pathos

Bringing strong emotions w/ pity or sympathy for someone or something.

Bathos

The emotional appeal that evokes laughter rather than pathos, and which sinks rather then soars.

Paronomasia

Punning

Enigma

A riddle

Enjambment

When a line of poetry extends beyond its original line without pause.

Catharsis

(Pathos and Phobos) releasing strong emotions of emotional pity and fear.

Hamartia

A tragic flaw or error

Anagnorsis

The discovery of knowledge of themselves or someone else.

Peripeteia

Reversal; sudden reversal of Fortune

Satire

Poetry where vices or follies look ridiculous or are held up to be ridiculed.

Antithesis

An opposition between two things (small step for man, one giant leap for man kind)

Lampoon

Publicly criticized by using irony, ridicule, or sarcasm

Dramatic irony

Readers knowledge that extends more then the the protagonist’s, difference between appearance and reality

Ekphrasis

A description of art in words

Anacruisis

Extra syllable or syllables proceeding the first full foot on a line.

Picaresque Novel

Early format of novel, first person, usually about adventures of a lowborn or rogue as they drift from place to place to survive

Gothic Romance

Combines romantic marriage plot with conventions of gothic horror novels.

Melodrama

Novel characterized by hyperbolic plot and characters meant to bring a strong emotional response.

Autodidact

Self Teaching

Narrative Frame

A technique in which a story in contained in another story or series of stories.

Gothic

Characterized by dark, often supernatural elements, and a focus on mystery, suspense, and terror, often set in gloomy, decaying locations like castles or monasteries.

Bildungsroman

Protagonist develops morally and psychologically