english - literary terms

Analogy

an extended comparison showing the similarities between two things

Apostrophe

someone talks to an imaginary person

Aside

words spoken by a character in a play, usually in an undertone and not intended

Conceit

A far-fetched simile or metaphor, a literary conceit occurs when the speaker compares two highly dissimilar things.

Couplet

two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

a humorous scene inserted into an otherwise serious drama

Dramatic Irony

a contrast between what the audience perceives and what a character does not know

Foil

a character totally opposite to another character

Iambic Meter

unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

Iambic Parameter

five verse feet with each foot an iamb (a total of ten syllables)

Metaphor

comparison between two unlike things with the intent of giving added meaning to one of them

Pun

The humorous use of a word or phrase to suggest two or more meanings at the same time

Prologue

A brief opening section to a play spoken by a single actor called the "chorus." In many plays, a prologue welcomes the audience and gives them a taste of the story.

Metonymy

a word or phrase that is used to stand in for another word.

Monolgue

a long, uninterrupted speech presented in front of other characters

Oxymoron

two contrary things put together

Personification

giving an inanimate object human characteristics

Soliloquy

a speech in which a character is alone on stage and expresses thoughts out loud

Sonnet

a fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in iambic pentameter, that has one of several rhyme schemes.