strategies and terms (verses, sentence levels & narratives, etc.)
Anadiplosis
When the end of one line is repeated to begin the next. (Ex: Wherein I die, not live; for life is straight, Straight as a line, and ever tends to Thee).
Alliteration
Words that start with the same letter or sound.
Anaphora
Repeating a word or phrase at the beginning of a series of clauses or sentences.
Anastrophe
Sentence is reversed/inverted of its normal order (not repeated though).
Asynartete
Poem or stanza with two different meters.
Asyndeton
A sentence that leaves out a conjunction, so it fits the poem’s meter.
Assonance
Repeated vowel sounds.
Bildungsroman
Coming of age story.
Chiasmus
Words or concepts repeated, purposefully inverted (Ex: Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.)
Congeries
Creating a list to emphasize a point or irony (Ex: Apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order, what have the Romans done for us?)
Conceit
Extended metaphor used by metaphysical poets.
Consonance
Repeated consonant sounds.
Denouement
Story’s resolution.
Didactic
Adjective describing types of literature, intended to impart a moral lesson.
Enallage
Substituting one grammatical form for another (Ex: She is to be wived.)
Epistrophe
Word or phrase repeated at the sentence’s end.
Epic Similie
Similie developed & explained across series of lines.
Epithet
A nickname used as an invective.
Epigram
Pithy saying or remark (Ex: An apple a day keeps the doctor away.)
Epigraph
Poem, quote, or sentence at the beginning of a piece that reveals theme/sets a tone.
Epiphany
Sudden realization or moment of clarity.
Epizeuxis
Repeating words of phrases in immediate succession in a sentence.
Erotesis
Question that expects an affirmative or negative response.
English/Shakespearian Sonnet
14 lines divided into 3 quatrains + a couplet
Enjambent
Continuation without a pause beyond the end (Ex: A sentence has a line brain, but continues)
Hyperbaton
Inversion of words differing from how they’re normally arranged (Ex: Object there was none.)
Irony
Signifying the opposite (Verbal = Opposite of what’s intended, Situational = Contrast from expected vs happened, Dramatic = reader knows more than characters)
Isocolon
2+ phrases have the same structure, rhythm, length (Ex: Veni, vidi, vici.)
Jeremiad
Long mournful, complaint or lamentation.
Joycean prose
Stream of consciousness, laden with wordplay
Kafkaesque
Surreal, nightmarish milieu producing disorder and resignation (concept from Franz Kafka)
Lacuna
Large gap or omission, sometimes used to indicate absense
Litotes
Understatement used to create ironic sentiment
Malapropism
Mistake of using one word to replace a similar sounding, yet more appropriate one (Ex: I am not to be truffled with.)
Metonymy
Term used for something similar to what’s intended
Mise en abyme
Story inside a story (framed)
Motif
Repeated element supporting a work’s theme
Onomatopoeia
Words sounding like what they’re referring (Ex: Click, clack, moo.)
Oxymoron
Two contradictory words describing one thing (Ex: Parting is such sweet sorrow.)
Parallelism
Similar ideas and words are arranged harmoniously to create a parallel (Ex: One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.)
Peripeteia
Sudden reversal of fortunes
Petrarchan Sonnet
14 lines divided into an octave and sestet
Polysyndeton
Repeating conjunctions in rapid succession (Ex: We have ships and men and money.)
Portmanteau
Two words combine to form a new one, referring to a single concept
Repetition
Repeating a word/phrase
Rhyme
Effect of having words with similar vowel sounds (Slant = Similar but not identical, Feminine = Stressed syllables followed by unstressed, Internal = Words in middle of lines, Eye = Similar spelling but not sound, Masculine = Final stressed syllable, Rich = Produced with vowels and consonants).
Synecdoche
Term used to represent an entirity
Tmesis
Separating a compound word with intervening words (Ex: Shove it back any-old-where in the pile:)
Tautology
Sentence/paragraph repeats a word or phrase, with the same idea twice (Ex: But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door.)
Telegraphic Sentence
Five or less words
Volta
“Turn” in a poem, tone suddenly shifts
Zeugma
Word applies to two others in different senses (Ex: John and his license expired last week.)
Light Verse
Poetry about trivial, amusing, unimportant things.
Free Verse
NO rules, but still contains some structure.
Blank Verse
Contains meter, lacks rhyme.
Alliterative Verse
Organizing principle for lines in alliteration.
Rhyming Verse
Meter & rhyme.
Prose
Not in verse, structure doesn’t matter. Book writing.
Foot
Unit of syllables in a poem.
Iamb
Unstressed, stressed.
Trochee
Stressed, unstressed.
Spondee
Stressed, stressed.
Common Meter
Line of iambic followed by a line of iambic trimeter.
Meter Lengths
Three feet = Trimeter. Four feet = Tetrameter. Five feet = Pentameter. Six feet = Hexameter. Seven feet = Heptameter. Eight feet= Octameter.
Couplet
Pairing of two lines.
Quatrain
Pairing of four lines.
Allegory
Narrative with characters & plots depicting abstract ideas/themes.
Allusion
Passing or indirect descriptive reference
Anachronism
Something happens or attributed to a different era than what actually existed. (Ex: Cassius said the clock struck three, but mechanical clocks weren’t invented yet).
Anthropomorphism
Literally applying human traits or qualities to non-human things.
Aphorism
Universally accepted truth in a pithy way (Ex: To err is human, to forgive divine)
Archetype
“Universal symbol” bringing familiarity and context to a story. Represents feeling and situations across cultures/time periods.
Colloquialism
Casual and informal language in writing, including slang
Deus Ex Machina
Impossible situation solved by appearance of an unexpected character/action/event
Euphemism
Indirect “polite” way of describing something too inappropriate or awkward to address directly
Exposition
Narrative provides background information in order to help reader understand what’s happening.
Flashback
Cut to previous events split up present-day scenes in a story.
Foreshadowing
Author hints at events yet to come.
Frame story
Story’s part that “frames” another
Hyperbole
Exaggerated statement emphasizes significance of statement’s actual meaning.
Imagery
Readers’ senses through highly descriptive language
In Media Res
“In the midst of things,” beginning a story without context.
Juxtaposition
Places dissimilar concepts side by side, profound contrast highlights their differences
Paradox
Statement that contradicts itself yet true (Ex: War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.)
Personification
Human traits applied to non-human things (metaphorically)
Point of View
Mode of narration in a story
Satire
Making fun of some aspect of human nature or society
Soliloquy
Character speaking their thoughts aloud to themselves
Tone
Writer’s attitude towards the subject
Zoomorphism
Animal traits and assigning them to something not an animal
Cliche
Idea used so often, it becomes unoriginal
Idiom
Uses figurative language whose meaning differs from what’s actually said (Ex: It’s raining cats and dogs)
Metonymy
Serves as a synonym and symbolizes things (Ex: “The crown” representing the monarchy).
Non Sequitur
Statements that don’t logically follow what precedes them, absurd and lend humor
Rhetorical Question
Asked to create an effect ratherthan to solicit an answer