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Allegory

a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds

Allusion

A reference to another work of literature, person, or event

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds

Asyndeton

omission of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words

blank verse

Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

Conceit

A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects.

Connotation

an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.

Denotation

The dictionary definition of a word

Diction

word choice

dramatic irony

Irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters.

English sonnet rhyme scheme

ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Enjambment

the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.

Epanalepsis

repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause

extended metaphor

A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work.

Flashback

A method of narration in which present action is temporarily interrupted so that the reader can witness past events

Hyperbole

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

Imagery

Description that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)

Inversion

inverted order of words in a sentence (variation of the subject-verb-object order)

Metaphor

A comparison without using like or as

Metonomy

A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as "crown" for "royalty").

Onomatopoeia

A word that imitates the sound it represents.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase.

Personification

A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes

refrain

A line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem.

rhetorical question

figure of speech in the form of a question posed for rhetorical effect rather than for the purpose of getting an answer

Scansion

The process of marking lines of poetry to show the type of feet and the number of feet they contain

Simile

A comparison using "like" or "as"

Symbol

A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword).

Theme

a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work

Tone

A writer's attitude toward his or her subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization on the sentence and global levels.

understatement (litotes)

restraint or lack of emphasis in expression, as for rhetorical effect

verbal irony

irony in which a person says or writes one thing and means another, or uses words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of the literal meaning.

iambic foot

unstressed, stressed

trochaic foot

stressed, unstressed

anapestic foot

unstressed, unstressed, stressed

dactylic foot

stressed, unstressed, unstressed

spondaic foot

stressed, stressed

Monometer

one foot per line

Dimeter

two feet per line

Trimeter

3 feet per line

Tetrameter

4 feet per line

Pentameter

5 feet per line

Hexameter

6 feet per line