A Glossary of Literary Terms

Allegory

A form of extended metaphor in which objects and persons in a narrative, either in prose or verse, are equated with meanings that lie outside the narrative itself.

Allegory

Animal Farm

Alliteration

The recurrence of initial consonant sounds

Alliteration

What a Delicious Day!

Allusion

A causal and brief reference to a famous historical or literary figure or event

Allusion

If you take his parking place, you can expect WWII all over again

Analogy

Comparison of two things which are alike in several aspects. Usually used to explain an idea in a different way.

Analogy

Life is a box of chocolates

Anaphora

Repetition of the same word/words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences

Anaphora

To think on death is a misery, to think on life is a vanity, to think on the world verily it is

Antithesis

Establishing a clear contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining them together

Antithesis

One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind

Apostrophe

The direct address of a person or personified thing, present or absent. Its purpose in prose is to display intense emotion which can no longer be held back.

Apostrophe

“With how sad steps, o Moon, thou climb’st the skies!”

Assonance

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven”

Assonance

The use of similar vowel sounds repeated in successive or proximate words containing different consonants.

Blank Verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter

Blank Verse

“But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”

Caesura

A pause, metrical, or rhetorical, occurring somewhere in a line of poetry. The pause may or may not be typographically indicated.

Caesura

“Two households // both alike in dignity”