Literary Vocabulary - Midterm (Quarters 1 & 2)

Juxtaposition

A contrast of two distinctly different ideas that encourages comparison

Anaphora

To begin lines in poetry with the same word/phrase

Polysyndeton

To use more conjunctions than necessary

Asyndeton

To restrict the amount of conjunctions in a sentence

Epistrophe

To end lines in poetry with the same word/phrase

Ballad

A traditional type of poetry with a certain rhyming scheme of ABCB and structure

Slant Rhyme

Words that sound similarly rhyme, but not exactly

Epigraph

A short quotation at the beginning of a book/chapter with the purpose of hinting at the theme

In Medias Res

To be dropped in the middle of the plot

Enjambment

Continuation of the sentence without pause after the end of a line, couplet, or stanza

Versimilitude

Something that appears to be real

Dilemma

A scenario with two different choices

Antecedent Scenario

The events that occur before the start of a poem

Apostrophe

Addressing something that can not respond

Motif

A recurring idea/image (a pattern)

Paradox

A self-contradicting statement/proposition that may prove to be true in some way

Synesthesia

To describe/blend one human sense through another

Hymnal Stanza

A quatrain with the rhyme scheme of ABAB

Assonance

A repetition of vowel sounds in words

Cacophany

A harsh sound/syllable in a word/phrase

Synecdoche

A word or phrase that represents the “whole” as a single “part”, or vice versa.

Sestain

A 6-line poem with the rhyme scheme AABCCB

Oxford Comma

A comma that goes before the conjunction in a list

Hamartia

A character's fatal flaw