Glossary of Literary Terms

      

Glossary of Literary Terms

lyric: subjective, reflective poetry with regular rhyme scheme and meter which reveals the poet's thoughts and feelings to create a single, unique impression.

narrative: nondramatic, objective verse with regular rhyme scheme and meter which relates a story or narrative.

sonnet: a highly formal and rigid14-line lyric verse form, with variable structure and rhyme scheme according to type. It usually occurs in iambic pentameter, and is written about one important subject (often love).

English (Shakespearean)--three quatrains and concluding couplet in iambic pentameter, rhyming abab, cdcd, efef, gg or abba, cddc, effe, gg. The Spenserian sonnet is a specialized form with linking rhyme abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee.

Italian (Petrarchan)--an octave and sestet, between which a break in thought occurs. The traditional rhyme scheme is abba, abba, cde, cde (or, in the sestet, any variation of c, d, e).

ode: elaborate lyric verse which deals seriously with a dignified theme.

blank verse: unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter.

free verse: unrhymed lines without regular rhythm.

epic: a long, dignified narrative poem which gives the account of a hero important to his nation or race.

dramatic monologue: a lyric poem in which the speaker tells an audience about a dramatic moment in her life and, in doing so, reveals her character.

elegy: a poem of lament, meditating on the death of an individual.

ballad: simple, narrative verse which tells a story to be sung or recited; the folk ballad is anonymously handed down, while the literary ballad has a single author.

idyll: lyric poetry describing the life of the shepherd in pastoral, bucolic, idealistic terms.

villanelle: a French verse form, strictly calculated to appear simple and spontaneous; five tercets and a final quatrain, rhyming aba, aba, aba, aba, aba, abaa. Lines 1, 6, 12, 18 and 3, 9, 15, 19 are refrain.

light verse: a general category of poetry written to entertain, such as lyric poetry, epigrams, and limericks. It can also have a serious side, as in parody or satire.

haiku: Japanese verse in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, often depicting a delicate image.

limerick: humorous nonsense-verse in five anapestic lines rhyming aabba; a-lines being trimeter and b-lines being dimeter.

meter: poetry's rhythm, or its pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Meter is measured in units of feet.

scansion: the analysis of the mechanical elements within a poem to determine meter. Feet are marked off with slashes ( / ) and accented appropriately as stressed or unstressed.

caesura: a pause in the meter or rhythm of a line.

enjambment: a run-on line, continuing into the next without a grammatical break.

rime: old spelling of rhyme, which is the repetition of like sounds at regular intervals, employed in versification, the writing of verse.

versification: the writing of verse.

end rhyme: rhyme occurring at the ends of verse lines; most common rhyme form.

internal rhyme: rhyme contained within a line of verse.

rhyme scheme: pattern of rhymes within a unit of verse; in analysis, each end rhyme-sound is represented by a letter (abab etc.)

masculine rhyme: rhyme in which only the last, accented syllable of the rhyming words correspond exactly in sound; most common kind of end rhyme (night/skies/bright/eyes).

feminine rhyme: rhyme in which two consecutive syllables of the rhyming words correspond, the first syllable carrying the accent; double rhyme (flying/dying).

half rhyme (slant rhyme): imperfect, approximate rhyme (sun/sea/scud/beaks).

assonance: repetition of two or more vowel sounds within a line.

consonance: repetition of two or more consonant sounds within a line.

alliteration: repetition of one or more initial sounds, usually consonants, in words within a line.

onomatopoeia: the use of a word whose sound suggests it meaning.

euphony: the use of compatible, harmonious sounds to produce a pleasing, melodious effect.

cacophony: the use of inharmonious sounds in close conjunction for effect; the opposite of euphony.

metaphor: a figure of speech which makes a direct comparison of two unlike objects by identification or substitution.

simile: a direct comparison of two unlike objects, using like or as.

conceit: an extended metaphor comparing two unlike objects with powerful effect. (It owes its roots to elaborate analogies in Petrarch and to the Metaphysical poets, particularly Donne.)

personification: a figure of speech in which objects and animals have human qualities.

apostrophe: an address to a person or personified object not present.

metonymy: the substitution of a word which relates to the object or person to be named, in place of the name itself.

synecdoche: a figure of speech in which a part represents the whole object or idea.

hyperbole: exaggeration for effect; overstatement.

litotes: a form of understatement in which the negative of an antonym is used to achieve emphasis and intensity.

irony: the contrast between actual meaning and the suggestion of another meaning:

verbal: meaning one thing and saying another.

dramatic: two levels of meaning--what the speaker says and what she means, and what the speaker says and what the author means.

situational: when the reality of a situation differs from the anticipated or intended effect; when something unexpected occurs.

symbolism: the use of one object to suggest another.

imagery: the use of words to represent things, actions, or ideas by sensory description.

paradox: a statement which appears self-contradictory, but underlines a basis of truth.

oxymoron: contradictory terms brought together to express a paradox for strong effect.

allusion: a reference to an outside fact, event, or other source.

tone: the author's attitude toward her audience and subject.

theme: the author's major idea or meaning.

dramatic situation: the circumstance of the speaker.

stanza: a section of a poem

aubade: a song written to praise the coming of dawn.

ballad: a simple poem, usually created for singing, dealing with a dramatic episode.

ballade: a French poem of three stanzas and an envoy, a four-line refrain recited to another person.

dirge: a poem or song of lament, usually a commemoration for the dead.

eclogue: a bucolic or pastoral poem such as Spenser's Shepheardes Calendar.

epithalamion: a poem written in celebration of marriage.

hymn: a poem of religious emotion usually written for singing.

monody: a poem similar to a dirge; a Greek poem of mourning sung by one person.

pastoral: many forms of literature fit this category; its setting is a created world marked by constant summer and fecund nature.

rondeau: a French poem for light topics; it has 15 lines, with short refrains at lines 9 and 15, rhymed aabba, aabc, aabbac.

rondel: a poem very similar to a rondeau, with 13 or 14 lines.

song: a poem for musical expression, usually brief, straightforward, and emotional.

threnody: a poem similar to a dirge; in Greek poetry it mourns the dead and is sung by a chorus.

vers de société: light verse, written in a congenial, witty, amorous way.

lyric poem: The lyric is the most widely used type of poem, so diverse in its format that a rigid definition is impossible. However, several qualities are common to all lyrics:

1. limited in length

2. intensely subjective

3. personal expressions of personal emotion

4. expresses thoughts and feelings of a single speaker

5. highly imaginative

6. has a regular rhyme scheme

narrative poem: The narrative poem tells a story, sometimes simple, sometimes complicated, sometimes brief, sometimes long (as in the epic). Because of the increasing acceptance of the novel and shorter forms of prose fiction, narrative verse appears less frequently today. Almost the opposite of the lyric, it can be characterized as follows:

1. highly objective

2. told by a speaker detached from the action

3. the thoughts and feelings of the speaker do not enter the poem

4. the rhyme scheme is regular

soliloquy: (literally one-speech)--a sustained moment where one character speaks his private thoughts aloud. Other characters cannot hear him, but the audience can.

aside: a brief moment where one character speaks his private thoughts aloud while in the middle of a conversation with other characters. Other characters cannot hear him, but the audience can.

ode: an exalted, complex, rapturous lyric poem written about a dignified, lofty subject.

blank verse: unrhymed verse, but each line is basically iambic pentameter. It is often used in plays, especially those of Shakespeare. The tone of blank verse tends to be serious. Today, critics employ the term to include many unrhymed metric forms, where iambic pentameter occurs but not constantly.

free verse (vers libre): it is free from the limitations of fixed meter and rhyme, but this is not to say that it lacks poetic techniques. Free verse is very rhythmic, often patterned after the spoken word. (The American poet Walt Whitman is one of its great practitioners).

dramatic monologue: Another form of the lyric, the dramatic monologue was brought to great heights by the Victorian poet Robert Browning. As the title suggests, it is a poem told by one speaker about a significant event. We enter the psyche of the speaker, and the skillful poet makes much of his own nature, attitudes and circumstances available in words to the reader who discerns the implications of the poem. The dramatic monologue differs from soliloquy in a play in that in drama time and place are developed before the character ascends the stage alone to make his remarks, whereas the dramatic monologue by itself establishes time, place and character. In the dramatic monologue, the speaker:

1. reveals in his own words some dramatic situation in which he is involved

2. demonstrates his character through the poem

3. addresses a listener who does not engage in dialogue but helps to develop the speech

elegy: a poem that mourns the death of an individual, the absence of something deeply loved, or the transience of mankind. A form of the lyric, the poem has a solemn, dignified tone as it laments the loss of something dear to the poet or to man. A particular subset is the Pastoral Elegy, a mourning poem with a joyous ending. The format involves a shepherd set in a pastoral world, a rustic, fertile environment marked by eternal summer and a fecund nature.

metric feet:

iambic: a light followed by a stressed syllable (balloon)

trochaic: a stressed followed by a light syllable (soda)

anapestic: two light followed by a stressed syllable (contradict)

dactylic: a stressed followed by two light syllables (maniac)

spondaic: two successive syllables with approximately equal strong stresses (man-made)

pyrrhic: two successive syllables with approximately equal light stresses

types of verse lines:

monometer/one foot

dimeter/two feet

trimeter/three feet

tetrameter/four feet

pentameter/five feet

hexameter/six feet (also called an Alexandrine)

heptameter/seven feet (also called a fourteener)

octometer/eight feet

figurative language: writing or speech not meant to be interpreted literally; it is language used to create vivid word pictures, to make writing emotionally intense and concentrated, and to state ideas in new and unusual ways

flashback: interruption of the narrative to show an episode that happened before that point in the story

foreshadowing: hint to the reader of what is to come

mood (atmosphere): feeling created in the reader by the passage

parable: short tale that teaches a lesson or illustrates a moral truth (The Pearl, "The Minister's Black Veil")

point of view: the vantage point from which a story is told:

first-person - the story is told by a character within the story

third-person - the story is told by a narrator outside the story

limited - the storyteller knows the internal state of one character

omniscient - the storyteller knows the internal states of all characters

rhythm: pattern of stressed or unstressed sounds in spoken or written language

sentence structure: varied length and arrangement of words to produce a desired effect

setting: time and place of action

structure: overall design or arrangement of material

style: mode of expression, the devices an author employs in his writing, the way the content is presented

syntax: arrangement of words to show their mutual relations

word choice (diction): particular choice of words for meaning and suggestion