English 11

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. Voltaire: “Common sense is not so common.”

EPIC-a long narrative poem, written in heightened language, which recounts the deeds of a heroic character who embodies the values of a particular society.

EPIGRAPH-a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme.

EPISTROPHE-Device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated at the end of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences (it is the opposite of anaphora).

EPITHET-an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality. “Father of our country” and “the great Emancipator” are examples. A Homeric epithet is a compound adjective used with a person or thing: “swift-footed Achilles”; “rosy-fingered dawn.”

ESSAY-a short piece of nonfiction prose in which the writer discusses some aspect of a subject.

FARCE-a type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved in silly, far-fetched situations.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE-Words which are inaccurate if interpreted literally, but are used to describe. Similes and metaphors are common forms.

FLASHBACK-a scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time.

FOIL-A character who acts as a contrast to another character. Often a funny sidekick to the dashing hero, or a villain contrasting the hero.

FORESHADOWING-the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot.

FREE VERSE-poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme.

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….”

HYPOTACTIC-sentence marked by the use of connecting words between clauses or sentences, explicitly showing the logical or other relationships between them. (Use of such syntactic subordination of just one clause to another is known as hypotaxis. I am tired because it is hot.

IMAGERY-the use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person, a thing, a place, or an experience.

INVERSION- the reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase.

IRONY-a discrepancy between appearances and reality.