*means exclusively poetry

Allegory: a story within a story that delivers difficult messages in easy-to-read stories that are always rich in symbolism

Alliteration: repeated consonant first sounds in words in a row or in close proximity, about the sound not the letter

Allusion: a reference (presumption on behalf of the writer that we know it)

Anachronism: something that doesn’t fit with the timeline

Antagonist: does the goating, pocking, prodding, not always cut and dry who the antagonist is

Anthropomorphism: when non-human things exhibit human traits but it’s not weird bc they are the characters and have replaced humans, not to be confused with personification

Anti-hero: comes in the way of the hero, the villain, or the roadblock

Apostrophe: when a speaker in a poem or character in prose pauses to address someone or something that’s either not there or not human and able to respond.

Assonance: repeated vowel sounds in words in any part of the words

*Ballad: a poem that is always arranged in quatrains (4-line stanza) rhyme scheme is always either ABAB of ABCB

Connotation: the interpretation/implication/vibe/feel

Consonance: repeated consonant sounds at the ends or middles of words in a row or close together

Declarative: a statement of a fact

Denotation: the literal meaning (dictionary definition)

Diction: word choice

*Dramatic Monologue: a type of poem often times with quotes at the very beginning and end to tell the audience someone is doing the talking, usually very serious, dramatic, or a confession, Robert Browning is the grandfather of this

Dynamic Character: a character that undergoes appreciable change

*Elegy: a poem that serves as a tribute or memorial usually to a dead person (positive) but they can also be about a concept like time or childhood

Ellipsis: a technique of omitting words

*Enjambment: verses carry into next line, there’s no period

*Epic: a long narrative poem, usually a male hero, supernatural abilities, supernatural foe

Epistolary Novel: a novel written as letters, diary installments, or journal installments

Epithet: a descriptive phrase that can replace a name

Fiction: Fake, made-up

First Person: I, me, my

Flat Character: a character that doesn’t undergo appreciable change

*Foot: iamb (unstressed followed by stressed syllable) a unit of syllables in poetry

Frame Story: a story within a story

*Free Verse: poetry that is void of consistent rhyme and meaning

Genre: category

Hero: usually male, embodies all of the traits that a culture values

Hyperbole: overstatement (numbers or words like all and every)

Imperative: a command often ending with !

Interrogative: a question

Kenning: a subset of an epithet, an epithet that consists of 2 nouns exp water witch or moon candle

Literary Criticism: to analyze/pick apart literature there are many forms it’s fluid, main are formal criticism (new criticism no I, me, my, the work stands alone) and reader response (i, me, my)

Literary History: looking at writings from time frames, seeing comparisons, and giving it a name exp renaissance

Litotes: ironic understatement

*Lyric Poem: shorter poem “roses are red violets are blue” linger on a single concept

*Madrigal: a poetic form largely used only in the renaissance, an obscure poem usually about love, meant to be spoken aloud in a round

Metaphor: a comparison

*Meter: rhythm, consistent pattern of syllables

Metonymy: a type of metaphor where something closely related w/something serves as a stand-in for it exp the pen is mightier than the sword

Motif: a recurring element

*Narrative Poem: long poems that offer characters and activity and a story arc

Onomatopoeia: words that give off the sound, they appeal to auditory sense

*Paean: a song of joyful praise, most commonly abt war, always paying a tribute to someone

Parallelism: symmetrical weighted or balanced quality to a phrase, sentence, or line

Personification: giving human emotions, traits, and characteristics to non-human things

Plot Structure: the way a story is told/its structure

Protagonist: hero, can be flawed, the character you’re rooting for

*Rhyme Scheme: pattern of end rhyme, always charted with letters

Round Character: a character that undergoes appreciable change

Satire: humor with an agenda

Second Person: you, hardly ever written in except for how-to manuals

Setting: time, place, social conditions

Simile: a metaphor that uses as, like, or than

*Slant Rhyme: rhyme with similar but not quite the same words

*Sonnet: short lyric poem about love

*Speaker: the narrator/voice of a poem

Static Character: a character that doesn’t undergo appreciable change

*Stanza: a unit of lines in a poem, 2 line stanza is a couplet, 4 line is a quatrain

Stream-of-Consciousness: word vomit, forgoes the shackles of punctuation and rules of grammar just to get the ideas down

Synecdoche: type of metaphor when a part represents the whole like nice wheels, all hands on deck, I’m keeping an eye on you, or Cleveland won 9-5 (Cleveland baseball team).

*Syntax: phrasing

Theme: talked about in a whole sentence, it is what you think the author is trying to convey, what the point, message, or driving force is

Third Person: he, she, they, outside objective voice, 2 types, limited and omniscient, omniscient knows all and can look into many ppl, limited only follows one person

Titular Character: a character whose name is in the title

*Verse: poetry