General Types of Literature and Poetry — Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key terms from the notes on literature, poetry, and figures of speech.

Prose

Literature written in the ordinary flow of sentences and paragraphs, not in verse.

Poetry

Expression in verse with measure and rhyme, lines and stanzas, often with a melodious tone.

Novel

A long narrative divided into chapters; events drawn from real-life stories and spanning a long period.

Short Story

A narrative with one or more characters, one plot, and a single impression.

Play

Presented on stage; divided into acts; each act has many scenes.

Legends

Fictitious narratives about origins; events are imaginary and entertaining.

Fables

Fictitious stories with animals or inanimate things that can speak; intended to enlighten children.

Anecdotes

Brief imaginative stories whose main aim is to teach a lesson; may involve animals or children.

Folktales

Orally transmitted stories about life, adventure, love, horror, and humor; convey lessons; origins hard to trace.

Essay

Expresses the writer’s viewpoint or opinion about an event or problem.

Biography

Tells the life of a person, about himself or another.

News

A report of everyday events in society, government, science, industry, and accidents, local or global.

Oration

A formal public speech intended to be spoken; appeals to intellect, will, or emotions.

Narrative Poetry

Poetry that describes important events in life, real or imaginary.

Epic

An extended narrative about heroic exploits, often involving heroes and gods.

Metrical Tale

A narrative in verse, classified as ballad or metrical romance, with possible supernatural elements or moral purpose.

Ballads

Shortest and simplest narrative in verse; simple structure; tells a single incident; various subtypes.

Lyric Poetry

Poems expressing emotions; originally meant to be sung, usually short and simple.

Folksongs

Short poems meant to be sung; common themes include love, despair, grief, joy, hope.

Sonnets

Lyric poem of 14 lines; two types: Italian and Shakespearean.

Elegy

Lyric poem that expresses grief and melancholy, often about death.

Ode

A dignified poem of noble feeling; no definite syllable/line/stanza pattern.

Psalms

Songs praising God or the Virgin Mary; convey a philosophy of life.

Songs (Awit)

Poems with 12-syllable lines (dodecasyllabic), sung slowly with guitar or banduria.

Corridos

Poems with eight-syllable lines (octosyllabic), recited to a martial beat.

Dramatic Poetry

Poetry intended for performance; includes dialogue and action.

Comedy

Light, amusing drama from Greek komos; usually has a happy ending.

Melodrama

Musical or dramatic work with heightened emotion; usually sad but often ends with a happy outcome for the lead.

Tragedy

Hero struggles against powerful forces and ends in death or ruin; lacks satisfaction for the protagonist.

Farce

Exaggerated comedy intended to provoke laughter; ridiculous situations and caricatured characters.

Social Poems

Poems depicting contemporary life, sometimes aiming to provoke social change.

Line

A single line of poetry.

Stanza

A group of verses forming a unit within a poem.

Rhythm

The arrangement of words so that accented syllables occur at regular intervals.

Meter

The regular recurrence of accented and unaccented syllables.

Feet

Groups of regularly recurring accented and unaccented syllables.

Rhyme

Similarity of sound, usually at the end of lines.

Assonance

Vowel rhyme; similarity of vowel sounds.

Alliteration

Repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of nearby words.

Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate the sounds they describe.

Free verse

Poetry that does not follow a regular pattern of rhythm.

Sonnet

A poem of fourteen iambic pentameter lines.

Simile

Figure of speech that compares using like or as.

Metaphor

A condensed simile; an implied comparison without using like or as.

Personification

Giving human attributes to inanimate objects or abstract ideas.

Apostrophe

Addressing a person or thing absent as if present, or inanimate as if human.

Metonymy

Substitution of a related term for the thing meant.

Antithesis

A contrast of words or ideas, often with parallel structure.

Hyperbole

Exaggeration not meant to deceive, often for humor or emphasis.

Synecdoche

A part represents the whole.