Shakespeare Drama and Poetry Terms Review

Aside

Characters talk to the audience or each other while others on stage "cannot" hear.

Dialogue

Characters' words that are addressed to one another.

Oxymoron

A descriptive phrase that includes two terms that seem contradictory

pun

Humorous use of a word/phrase to suggest two or more meanings at the same time.

Allusion

A reference to another literary work or historical event

Couplet

Two consecutive rhyming lines in poetry in iambic pentameter.

Dramatic Irony

Irony created when a character is unaware of something the audience knows

Monologue

One character's long speech directed toward others.

Soliloquy

A speech expressing one's thoughts aloud to oneself, not heard by other characters - allows audience to know their thoughts

Blank Verse

Lines in iambic pentameter but without rhyme

Imagery

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

Simile

A comparison of two unlike things using like or as

Metaphor

comparison not using like or as

Personification

the giving of human qualities to an animal, object, or idea

Hyperbole

extreme exaggeration for effect

Symbolism

A device in literature where an object represents an idea.

Apostrophe

a figure of speech in which one directly addresses an absent or imaginary person, or some abstraction

Understatement

the opposite of exaggeration. It is a technique for developing irony and/or humor where one writes or says less than intended.

Alliteration

the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.