Cambridge AS English Literature Chapters 1-5

Parallelism

A device in which parts of the wording of a sentence are the same, repeating, or paralleling each other for emphasis.

Imagists

A group of early 20th century poets who believed experience was most effectively communicated through images of the senses.

Stanza

An Italian word that means "room", a place to stop. Can be regular or irregular.

Figures Of Speech

Many words for figures of speech are unusual, often deriving from ancient Greek. This shows they have been an essential part of language since ancient times.

Imagery

The images of any of our senses produced in the mind by descriptive language. These images are often compared with something else.

Metaphor

A comparison in which unlike objects are identified with each other, so some element of similarity can be found between them. "Like" or "As" are not used.

Extended Metaphor

Where the identification of similar qualities is elaborated over a number of lines, and may run throughout a poem or paragraph of prose.

Simile

A figure of speech in which two things are compared using "like" or "as".

Personification

A form of metaphor in which human characteristics are transferred to non-human things or ideas. This "humanizes" them, and makes them easier to understand.

Hyperbole

An exaggeration or overstatement used for effect. It isn't used to disguise the truth, but instead to emphasize it.

Litotes

An understatement used for effect, often a double negative.

Antithesis/Contrast

Contrasting ideas are placed next to each other for effect. Often, they are in balanced phrases or clauses.

Climax

The point of highest significance which is gradually reached.

Bathos/Anti-Climax

A sudden undercut of the climax, sometimes in a humorous way.

Paradox

Two apparently contradictory ideas placed together which makes sense when examined closely.

Oxymoron

If the contradiction is expressed in words in close proximity.

Repetition

Could be parallelism, which is used for similar structures, or any other element adding emphasis.

Anaphora

Repetition of introductory phrases.

Irony

A discrepancy between what is said by a writer and what is meant. Or, what the reader expects and what is actually written.

Sarcasm

Irony in speech instead of writing in a mocking or scornful tone of voice.

Diction

The writer's choice of vocabulary.

Neologism

A newly coined word or expression, to draw attention to the meaning they are conveying.

Syntax

The arrangement of words into sentences, so the relationship of each word to the others can be appreciated.

Concrete Poem

A poem where the words on the page form a distinct, recognizable shape, which adds to the poem's meaning.

End-Stopped Line

A line that expresses a complete thought.

Open Line

The second line needs the third line to complete it.

Enjambment

A run-on line where the meaning crosses a line break.

Caesura

The slight natural pause in a line.

Verse

Regular unit of structure in a hymn, song, or rhymed poem.

Sonnet

A 14-line poem, with particular variations in rhyme, rhythm, and structure.

Volta

A change of idea or mood in a sonnet, usually at line 8 or line 12.

Scansion

The analysis of poems into stanzas, lines, and pauses.

Rhythm

The measured flow of words and phrases in verse or prose as determined by the relation of long and short or stressed and unstressed syllables.

Metre

The name for the organization of rhythms into regular and recurring patterns.

Foot

Where two or three syllables recur in a pattern to form a metrical unit of rhythm.

Trochee

A metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one.

Spondee

An occasional foot with two stressed syllables.

Iambus

A foot with rising rhythm.

Anapaest

Rising rhythm, but pattern has two unstresses syllables and a stressed one.

Dactyl

A foot with a falling rhythm.

Alexandrine Verse

A line of iambics with 6 feet and 12 syllables.

Blank Verse

Written in iambic pentameter but has no rhyme at the end of each line.

Pace

A word used to denote the speed at which a verse moves.

Rhyme

The agreement in sound between words and syllables.

Internal Rhyme

When words within the same line rhyme.

Feminine Rhyme

A rhyme on two syllables.

Masculine Rhyme

A rhyme on one syllable.

Ear-Rhyme

A true rhyme when spoken but looks like it shouldn't be.

Eye-Rhyme

A rhyme that looks like it rhymes, but it doesn't.

Half-Rhyme

Repeats the final consonant sound in words without the vowel sound corresponding.

Alliteration

The repetition of consonant sounds, especially at beginning of words.

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds within words with different consonants.

Consonance

Identical consonants but different vowels.

Onomatopoeia/Echoism

The sound seems to imitate the meaning or sense of the word.

Pathetic Fallacy

The term used to describe the literary presentation of inanimate objects in nature as reflecting human feelings. The writer uses it to link state of mind and weather.