Literary Criticism

Prose

A non-metrical composition

Verse

A metrical composition

Meter

The recurrence in poetry of a rhythmic pattern

Tragedy

The imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; a literary work recounting the fall of persons of high degree

Catharsis

The purgation of pity and fear

Plot

The arrangement of incidents in a literary work; the most important element of a tragedy

Peripeteia

The reversal of fortune for a protagonist

Stasimon

A choral ode without anapaests or trochaic tetrameters

Prologue

An introduction to a story, most frequently associated with drama

Episode

The part of a tragedy that occurs between two choruses

Exode

The part of a tragedy that has no choric song after it

Parode

The first undivided utterance of the chorus

Mimesis

The Greek term for imitation

Hamartia

The error or frailty through which the fortunes of the tragic hero are reversed

Hubris

Overweening pride or insolence that results in the misfortune of the protagonist of a tragedy

Deus ex Machina

The employment of some unexpected and improbable incident to make things turn out right

Anagnorisis

The discovery or recognition that leads to the Reversal (Peripeteia)

Complication

That part of the plot in which the entanglement is developed; the part that extends from the beginning of the action to the part which marks the turning point to good or bad fortune

Denouement

Literally “unknotting”; the final unraveling of a plot

Sublime/Sublimity

Characterized by nobility and grandeur

Apostrophe

A figure of speech in which someone, some abstract quality, or a nonexistent personage is directly addressed as though present

Asyndeton (pl. Asyndeta)

A condensed form of expression in which elements customarily joined by conjunctions are presented in a series without them

Polysyndeton

Use of extra conjunctions

Hyperbaton

A figure of speech in which normal sentence order is transposed or rearranged in a major way

Periphrasis

An indirect, abstract, roundabout way of stating ideas

Diction

The way words are used in discourse

Metaphor

An analogy identifying one object with another

Simile

A comparison that uses the terms “like” or “as'“

Hyperbole

Exaggeration

Decorum

What is proper to a character, subject, or setting

Red (purple) patch

A piece of showy, colorful, self-conscious writing which stands out from the writing around it

Sign

A thing used to signify something

Sonnet

A 14-line poem following one of several set rhyme schemes

Allegory

A form of extended metaphor in which objects persons, places, and actions in a narrative are equated with meanings outside of the narrative

Polysemous

Having several senses

Pastoral

A poetic treatment of shepherds and rustic life

Elegy

A sustained formal poem setting forward meditations on a solemn subject

Satire

A work or manner that blends a censorious attitude with humor and wit for improving human institutions or humanity

Comedy

Literary works marked by a happy ending and a less exalted style than that of tragedy; an imitation of the common errors of our life

Lyric

A brief subjective poem strongly marked by imagination, melody, and emotion and creating a single, unified impression

Heroic Verse

Poetry composed in heroic couplets

Sidney

An Apology for Poetry

Heroic Couplets

Iambic pentameter lines rhymed in pairs

Neoclassicism

A movement in literature characterized by a revival of classical style

Conceit

A fanciful notion, usually expressed through an elaborate analogy that points to a striking parallel between two different things

Alexandrine

A verse with six iambic feet; iambic hexameter

Poet

Anyone who writes

Poetry

The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; a record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds