Amanda Ljajka Literary Vocab Terms

Accent

Emphasize or stress given a syllable in pronunciation. Emphasis a particular word in a sentence.

Alliteration

Repetition of consonant sounds in a sequence of words. Usually at the beginning of a word.

Allusion

Brief reference in a literary work to a person, place, thing, event, or an idea in history or other literary works. The most common are from the Bible or Greek mythology.

Ambiguity

Allows for two or more simultaneous interpretations of a word, phrase, action, or situation. All can be supported by the text in question.

Apostrophe

When a character in a story addresses someone who isn’t there, or an abstract entity. An address to someone who is absent, and therefore can not hear the speaker, or to something nonhuman that can not comprehend.

Assonance

Repetition of internal vowel sounds and nearby words that do not end the same. (Sleep under the tree)

Ballad

A narrative poem that is written in deliberate imitation of the traditional ballad. A traditional ballad is a song that tells a story. They are dramatic, condensed, and impersonal narrative.

Ballad Stanza

A four line-stanza (Quatrain) consisting of alternating eight and six syllable lines. Usually only the second and fourth lines rhyme. The first and third lines don’t rhyme and have four stresses each.

Blank Verse

Poetry written without rhyming, but with metered lines. Unrhymed iambic pentameter (Unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Ex: Untrue. 5 iambs per line). Closest to the natural rhythm of English speech. Most commonly used in traditional English narrative, like Shakesphere’s plays.

Cacophony

Discordant language (Ruckus), difficult to pronounce. Words that trip over themselves through the repetition and combinations of consonants within a group of words. Used deliberately to mirror the subject matter. Used to show confusion and chaos.

Caesura

A pause within a line of poetry that contributes to the rhythm of the line. Marked by two parallel lines when annotating.

Connotation

Associations and implications that go beyond the literal meaning of the word. Selection for its suggested meaning, not its literal one. Derived from how the word has been commonly used and the associations that people make with it.

Consonance

Common type of near rhyme that consists of identical consonant sounds, preceded by different vowel sounds (Ex: home and same). Repetition of consonant sounds within the words.

Couplet/Heroic Couplet

Two consecutive lines of poetry that usually rhyme and have the same meter/ A couplet ryhtmed in iambic pantameter.

Diction

A writer’s choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language which combine to help create meaning.

Elegy

Mournful, contemplative, lyric poem written to commemorate someone who is dead. Often ending in a consultation.

End-Stopped Line

Poetic line that has a pause at the end. Reflect normal speech patterns and are often marked by punctuation.

Enjambment

When one line ends in poetry without a pause and continues into the next line for its meaning. Continues until the punctuation mark to end the sentence.

Epic

Long narrative poem told in a formal elevated style. Focuses on a serious subject and chronicles heroic deeds and events important to a culture or nation.

Epigram

Brief, pointed, and witty poem that usually makes a satiric or humorous point. Most often written in couplets.

Euphony

Good sounds. Refers to language that is smooth and musically pleasant to the ear. Opposite of cacophony.

Fixed Form

Poem that may be categorized by the pattern of its lines, meter, rhythm, or stanzas. Examples: Sonnet, limerick, villanelles, ect. (Anything that has a defined structure)

Foot

Metrical unit by which a line of poetry is measured.
Most common ones:
Iamb (UI: away) Where the emphasis is when you say the word. Unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable
- Trochee (IU: lovely) Opposite of iamb. A stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable
- Dactyl (IUU: desperate) Stressed, unstressed, unstressed
- Anapest (UII: understand) Opposite of dactyl. Unstressed, stressed, stressed
- Spondee (II: dead set) Usually two words. Used for emphasis. Stressed followed by stressed.

Form

The overall structure or shape of a work. Frequently follows an established design. Can refer to a literary type (Narrative form, short story form). Can refer to fixed patterns (Stanzas, verse). Can be an open form, which does not have a regular set pattern.

Free Verse

Also called “Open Form Poetry”. Refers to poems characterised by their nonconformity to establish patterns of meter, rhyme, and stanza. Uses elements of speech patterns to decide line breaks. Usually does not rythme.

Hyperbole

Boldly exaggerated statement that adds emphasis without intending to be literally true.

Iambic Pentameter

A metrical pattern in poetry which consists of five iambic feet per line.

“But soft, /what light/ through yon/der win/dow breaks?
My on/ly love/ sprung from/ my on/ly hate.”- Shakesphere (Romeo and Juliet)

Imagery

Words, phrases, or figures of speech that address the senses. Suggests mental pictures of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings, or touches. Offers sensory impressions to the reader and conveys emotion and mood.

Lyric

A type of brief poem that expresses the personal emotions and thoughts of a single speaker. Varieties of lyric poetry include dramatic monlogue, elegy, haiku, ode, and sonnet.

Metaphor

Figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things without using like or as. Asserts that one thing is another.
- Extended Metaphor: Sustained comparison in which part or all of a poem consists of a series of related metaphors
- Synecdoche: A part of something is used to signify the whole
“Wagging tongue”
“Nice wheels”

"glorious lamp of heaven"

Meter

When a rhythmic pattern of stresses recurs in a poem, it is called___. Metrical patterns are determined by the type and number of feet in a line of verse. Combining the name of a line length, with the name of a foot, concisely describes the meter of the line.

Metonymy

Another kind of metaphor in which something closely associated with a subject is substituted for it. Example: “The Silver Screen”, “The Crown takes the throne” “Nice ride”

Narrative Poem

Poem that tells a story. Can be short or long, simple or complex. Examples: ballads and epics.

Octave

Stanza of eight lines usually forming one part of a sonnet (14 lines).

Ode

Relatively lengthy lyric poem that often expresses lofty emotions in a dignified style. Characterized by a serious topic such as truth, art, freedom, justice, ect. Tone tends to be formal. No prescribed metrical pattern.

Onomatopoeia

Term referring to the use of the word that resembles the sound it denotes. For example; crack, buzz, crack, sizzle, rattle, boom.

Open Form

Same thing as free verse. Does not conform to establish patterns in meter, rhyme, or stanza. Such poetry derives its rhythmic qualities from the repetition of words, phrases, or grammatical structures.

Oxymoron

Condensed form of paradox in which two contradictory words are used together. Example; “sweet sorrow”, “original copy”, “jumbo shrimp”

Paradox

Statement that initially appears to be contradictory but then, on closer inspection, turns out to make sense. For example: “Death, thou shall die.”- John Dunn. Arrest the reader’s attention by its stubborn refusal to make sense.

Parody

Humorous imitation of another usually serious work. Take any fixed or open form. Imitate the tone, shape, and structure of the original. Also used as a form of literary criticism to expose the defects of a work. Can become an affectionate acknowledgment.

Persona

Literally means a mask. A speaker created by a writer to tell a story or to speak in a poem. Not a character in a story or narrative nor does it directly reflect the author’s personal voice.

Personification

A form of metaphor in which human characteristics are attributed to non-human things. Offers the writer a way to give the world life and motion.

Prosody

Overall metrical structure of a poem. 

Pun

Play on words that rely on words having more than one meaning or sounding like another word. Example: Everything Mercutio says.

Quatrain

A four lined stanza. Can have any metrical pattern.

Rhyme

Slant: Almost rhyme. Sounds are almost, but not exactly a rhyme. Examples

* Emily Dickinson poems
* “Home” and “Same”
* “Worth” and “Breath”

Masculine: Describes the rhyming of single syllable words. Also occurs when rhyming words of more than one syllable, and the same sound occurs in the final syllable.

* “Grade” and “Shade”
* “Contend” and “Defend”
* “Potray” and “Away”

Feminine: Rhymed stressed syllables followed by one or more identical unstressed syllables.

* “Butter” and “Clutter”
* “Gratitude” and “Attitude”
* “Quivering” and “Shivering”

Rhythm

A term used to refer to the recurrence of stressed and unstressed sounds in poetry. Depending on the arrangement, it can be fast or slow, choppy or smooth. Poets use rhythm to create pleasurable sound patterns and to reinforce meanings.

Scansion

Process of measuring the stresses in a line or verse, in order to determine the metrical pattern of the line.

Sestet

A stanza consisting of exactly six lines.

Sestina

A type of fixed form poetry consisting of thirtysix lines of any length divided into six sestets and a three line concluding stanza called envoy. Six words at the end of the first sestets lines must also appear at the ends of the other five sestets and must also appear at the envoy.

Similie

Common figure of speech that makes an explicit comparison between two things by using words such as “like”, “as”, “than”, “appears”, and “seem”.

Sonnet

Fixed form of lyric poetry that consists of fourteen lines usually written in iambic pantemeter. Two types of sonnets:

English (Shakesearean)

* 3 quatrains and couplet (Most pronounced thematic break)
* More fluid in terms of the way the theme is structured

Italian (Petrarchan)

* Octave (Presents a situation or problem) and sestet (Resolves or comments on it)
* Have prescribed rhyme schemes

Spondee

A type of metrical foot. Consists of two stressed syllables.

Stanza

Refers to a grouping of lines set off by a space that usually has a set pattern of meter and rhyme.

Stress

Emphasis or accent given a syllable in pronunciation.

Symbol

A person, object, image, word, or event that evokes a range of additional meaning beyond and usually more abstract than its literal significance.

Synecdoche

Type of metaphor in which a part of something is used to signify a whole.

Tercet

Three line stanza.

Terza Rima

Interlocking three line rhyme scheme. 

* A B A
* B C B
* C D C
* D E D

Understatement

Opposite of hyperbole. Refers to a figure of speech that says less than is intended. Usually it has an ironic effect. Sometimes used for comic purposes.

* “Just a flesh wound.”

Villanelle

Fixed form of poetry consisting of nineteen lines divided into six stanzas of five tercets and a concluding quatrain. Elaborate rhyme sheme.