Glossary of
Literary Terms
Action What happens in a drama.
Alexandrine Iambic hexameter, a common
form in French poetry but relatively rare in
English poetry.
Allegorical figure or framework See
Allegory.
their private reading, expecting few readers to
understand them.
Ambiguity Device in which authors
intentionally evoke a number of possible
meanings of a word or grammatical structure by
leaving unclear which meaning they intend.
Anapest See Meter.
Allegory Story with two parallel and
consistent levels of meaning, one literal and
one figurative, in which the figurative level
offers a moral or political lesson; John
Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress and
Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman
Brown" are examples of moral allegory. An
allegorical figure has only one meaning
(for instance, it may represent good or evil),
as opposed to a symbol, which may suggest
a complex network of meanings. An
allegorical framework is the system of
ideas that conveys the allegory's message.
Alliteration Repetition of initial sounds in
a series of words, as in Blake's "The
Chimney Sweeper": "So your chimneys I
sweep, and in soot I sleep." Alliteration may
be reinforced by repeated sounds within and
at the ends of words.
Allusion Reference, often to literature,
history, mythology, or the Bible, that is
unacknowledged in the text but that the
author expects a reader to recognize. An
example of allusion in a title is Charles
Baxter's "Gryphon" (a mythical beast).
Some modern writers, notably T.S. Eliot
and James Joyce, use allusions drawn from
Antagonist Character who is in conflict with or
opposition to the protagonist; the villain.
Sometimes the antagonist may be a force or
situation (war or poverty) rather than a person.
Antihero Modern character who possesses the
opposite attributes of a hero. Rather than being
dignified and powerful, the antihero tends to be
passive and ineffectual. Willy Loman, the main
character in Death of a Salesman, is an antihero.
Apostrophe Figure of speech in which an
absent character or a personified force or object
is addressed directly, as if it were present or
could comprehend: "O Rose, thou art sick!"
Archetype Image or symbol that is so common or
significant to a culture that it seems to have a universal
importance. The psychologist Carl Jung believed that
because archetypes are an inherent part of psyches, we
recognize them subconsciously when we encounter them
and therefore give them a greater meaning than they
would otherwise possess. Many archetypes appear in
classical myths (for example, a journey to the
underworld).
Arena stage Stage on which the actors are surrounded
by the audience; also called theater in the round.
Aside Brief comment spoken by the actor to the
audience (such as, "Here she comes. I'll play a fine trick
on her now!") and assumed not to be heard by the
other characters. Chekhov's The Brute includes
asides.
Assonance Repetition of vowel sounds in a series
of words: "creep three feet."
Atmosphere Tone or mood of a literary work,
often established by the setting and language.
Atmosphere is the emotional aura that determines
readers' expectations about a workfor example, the
sense of doom established at the beginning of
Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Aubade Poem about morning, usually celebrating
the dawn-for example, Philip Larkin's "Aubade."
Ballad Narrative poem, rooted in an oral tradition,
usually arranged in quatrains rhyming abcb and
containing a refrain.
Ballad stanza See Stanza.
Beast fable Short tale, usually including a moral, in
which animals assume human characteristics-for
example, Aesop's "The Tortoise and the Hare."
Beginning rhyme See Rhyme.
Black comedy Comedy that relies on the morbid
and absurd. Often black comedies are so satiric that
they become ironic and tragic; examples are Joseph
Heller's novel Catch 22 and Edward Albee's play
The Sandbox.
Blank verse Lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter
in no particular stanzaic form. Because iambic
pentameter resembles the rhythms of ordinary
English speech, blank verse is often unobtrusive;
for instance, Shakespeare's noble characters usually
use it, though they may seem to us at first reading
to be speaking in prose. See Meter.
Blocking Decisions about how characters move
and where they stand on stage in a dramatic
production.
Box set A stage setting that gives the audience the
illusion of looking into a room.
Cacophony Harsh or unpleasant spoken sound created
by clashing consonants: "squawking chipmunks."
Caesura Strong or long pause in the middle of a poetic
line, created by punctuation or by the sense of the poem,
as in Yeats's "Leda and the Swan": "And Agamemnon
dead. Being so caught up. - - ."
Carpe diem "Seize the day"; the philosophy that gave
its name to a kind of seventeenth -century poetry
arguing that one should enjoy life today before it passes
one by, as seen in Herrick's "To the Virgins, to Make
Much of Time."
Catastrophe Traditionally, the moment in a tragedy
after the climax, when the rising action has ended and
the falling action has begun, when the protagonist
begins to understand the implications of events that will
lead to his or her downfall, and when such events
begin to occur.
Catharsis Aristotle's term for the emotional
reaction or "purgation" that takes place in an
audience watching a tragedy. Aristotle theorized
that when we see a good tragedy, we feel both pity
(and thus closeness to the protagonist) and fear (or
revulsion from the actions taking place on stage)
because we recognize in ourselves the potential for
similar action. The purging of these emotions we
experience by seeing the dramatic action unfold
before us is catharsis.
Character Fictional representation of a person,
usually but not necessarily in a psychologically
realistic way. E. M. Forster classified characters as
round (well developed, closely involved in the
action and responsive to it) or flat (static,
stereotypical, or operating as foils for the
protagonist). Characters can also be classified as
dynamic (growing and changing in the course of
the action) or static (remaining unchanged). Also, a
brief satirical sketch illustrating a type of
personality, popular in eighteenthcentury England.
Characterization Way in which writers develop
their characters and reveal those characters' traits to
readers.
Choragos See Chorus.
Chorus Group of actors in classical Greek
drama who comment in unison on the action
and the hero; they are led by the Choragos.
Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is a comedy of
manners.
Common measure See Stanza.
Classicism Attitude toward art that values
symmetry, clarity, discipline, and objectivity.
Neoclassicism, such as that practiced in
eighteenthcentury Europe, appreciated those
qualities as found in Greek and Roman art and
culture: Alexander Pope's poetry follows
neoclassical principles.
Conceit Extended or complicated metaphor,
common in the Renaissance, that is impressive
largely because it shows off an author's power to
manipulate and sustain a striking comparison
between two dissimilar items; John Donne's use of the
Cliche' Overused phrase or expression.
Concrete poem Poem whose typographical appearance
on the page reenforces its theme, as with George
Herbert's "Easter Wings."
Climax Point of greatest tension or importance,
where the decisive action of a play or story
takes place.
Closed form Type of poetic structure that has a
recognizable rhyme scheme, meter, or stanzaic
pattern; also called fixed form.
Closet drama Play meant to be read instead of
performed-for example, Shelley's Prometheus
Unbound.
Comedy Any literary work, but especially a
play, in which events end happily, a character's
fortunes are reversed for the better, and a
community is drawn more closely together,
often by the marriage of one or more
protagonists at the end.
compass metaphor in "A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning" is an example.
Conflict Struggle between opposing forces (protagonist
and antagonist) in a work of literature.
Connotation Meaning that a word suggests beyond its
literal, explicit meaning, carrying emotional
associations, judgments, or opinions. Connotations can
be positive, neutral, or negative. For example, family
has a positive connotation when it describes a group of
loving relatives; a neutral connotation when it describes
a biological category; and a negative connotation when
it describes an organization of criminals.
Convention See Literary convention.
Conventional symbol See Symbol.
Cosmic irony See Irony.
Couplet See Stanza.
Comedy of humours Comedy that focuses on
characters whose behavior is controlled by a
characteristic trait, or humour, such as Volpone
(1606) by Ben Jonson, who popularized the
form.
Comedy of manners Satiric comedy that
developed during the sixteenth century and
achieved great popularity in the nineteenth
century. This form focuses on the manners and
customs of society and directs its satire against
the characters who violate its social
conventions and norms. The Importance of
Crisis Peak or moment of tension in the action of a
story; the point of greatest tension is the climax.
Dactyl See Meter.
Denotation Dictionary meaning of a word; its explicit,
literal meaning.
Denouement See Resolution.
Deus ex machina "The god from the machine": any
improbable resolution of plot involving the intervention
of some force or agent hitherto extraneous to the story.
Dialect Particular regional variety of language,
which may differ from the more widely used
standard or written language in its pronunciation,
grammar, or vocabulary. Eliza Doolittle's cockney
dialect in the George Bernard Shaw play Pygmalion
is an example.
End rhyme See Rhyme.
End-stopped line Line of poetry that has a full pause at
the end, typically indicated by a period or semicolon.
Enjambment See Run-on line.
Dialogue Conversation between two or more
characters.
Diction Word choice of an author, which
determines the level of language used in a piece of
literature. Formal diction is lofty and elaborate
(typical of Shakespearean nobility); informal
diction is idiomatic and relaxed (like the dialogue
in John Updike's "A&P"). jargon is the specialized
diction of a professional or occupational group
(such as computer hackers). Idioms are the
colloquial expressions, including slang, of a
particular group or society.
Didactic poetry Poetry whose purpose is to make a
point or teach a lesson, particularly common in the
eighteenth century.
Double entendre Phrase or word with a deliberate
double meaning, one of which is usually sexual.
Envoi Three-line conclusion to a sestina that includes
all six of the poem's key words, three placed at the ends
of lines and three within the lines. See Sestina.
Epic Long narrative poem, such as the Iliad or the
Aeneid, recounting the adventures of heroes on whose
actions depend the fate of a nation or race. Frequently
the gods or other supernatural beings take active interest
in the events presented in the epic.
Epigram Short witty poem or phrase that makes a
pointed statement-for example, Dorothy Parker's
comment on an actress's performance, "She runs the
gamut of emotions from A to B."
Epiphany Term first applied to literature by James
Joyce and now used generally to describe a sudden
moment of revelation about the deep meaning inherent
in common things, such as the boy's realization at the
end of "Araby."
Double plot See Plot.
Euphemism Word consciously chosen for its pleasant
Connotations; often used for subjects like sex and
death whose frank discussion is somewhat taboo in our
society. For example, a euphemism for "to die" is "to
pass away" or "to go to one's reward."
Drama Literature written to be performed.
Dramatic irony See Irony.
Dramatic monologue Type of poem perfected by
Robert Browning that consists of a single speaker
talking to one or more listeners and often revealing
much more about the speaker than he or she seems
to intend; Browning's "My Last Duchess" is the
best known example of this form.
Euphony Pleasant spoken sound created by smooth
consonants such as "ripple" or "pleasure."
Exposition First stage of a plot, where the author
presents the information a reader or viewer will need to
understand the characters and subsequent action.
Dramatis personae Characters in a play.
Dynamic character See Character.
Elegy Poem commemorating someone's death,
usually in a reflective or mournful tone, such as A.
E. Housman's "To an Athlete Dying Young.
Op
Elision Leaving out an unstressed syllable or
vowel, usually in order to keep a regular meter in a
line of poetry ("o'er" instead of "over," for
example).
Expressionism Artistic and literary movement that
attempts to portray inner experience. It moves away
from realistic portrayals of life and is characterized by
violent exaggeration of objective reality and extremes of
mood and feeling. In drama, expressionistic stage sets
mirror the inner states of the character.
Extended metaphor See Metaphor.
Extended simile See Metaphor. Also see Conceit.
Eye rhyme See Rhyme.
Fable Short didactic story, often involving animals
or supernatural beings and stressing plot above
character development, whose object is to teach a
pragmatic or moral lesson. See Beast fable.
Fairy tale See Folktale.
Falling action Stage in a play's plot during which
the intensity of the climax subsides.
Falling meter Trochiac and dactylic meters, so
called because they move from stressed to
unstressed syllables. See Rising meter.
Fantasy Nonrealistic piece of literature that
depends on whimsical plot, supernatural or
mythical characters, and implausible actions,
usually with a happy ending.
through many different cultures. Folktales include fairy
tales, myths, and fables.
Foot See Meter.
Foreshadowing Presentation early in a story of
situations, characters, or objects that seem to have no
special importance but in fact are later revealed to have
great significance. For example, a casual mention of a
character's unusually accurate memory for faces may
become significant only when his or her fate turns out to
hinge on recognizing a person from the distant Past.
Form Structure or shape of a literary work; the way a
work's parts fit together to form a whole. In poetry, form
is described in terms of the presence (or absence) in a
particular work of elements like rhyme, meter, and
stanzaic pattern. See Open form and Closed form.
Formal diction See Diction.
Free verse See Open form.
Farce Comedy in which stereotypical characters
engage in boisterous horseplay and slapstick
humor, as in Chekhov's The Brute.
Feminine rhyme See Rhyme.
Fiction Form of narrative that is primarily
imaginative, though its form may resemble that of
factual writing like history and biography.
Figures of speech Expressions that describe one
thing in terms of something else. The primary
figures of speech are hyperbole, metaphor,
metonymy, personification, simile, synechdoche,
and understatement.
Flashback Variation on chronological order that
presents an event or situation that occurred before
the time in which the story's action takes place.
Freytag's pyramid The five parts of classic dramatic
plots: exposition, complication (the introduction of
elements that will lead to conflict and ultimately crisis),
climax, catastrophe, and resolution. In his Technique of
the Drama (1863) Gustav Freytag suggested that this
pattern resembles a pyramid, with rising action leading
to the climax and giving way to falling action.
Genre Category of literature. Fiction, drama, and poetry
are the three major genres; subgenres include the novel,
the farce, and the lyric poem.
Haiku Seventeen -syllable, threeline form of Japanese
verse that almost always uses concrete imagery and
deals with the natural world.
Hamartia Aristotle's term for the "tragic flaw" in
characters that eventually causes their downfall in Greek
tragedy.
Flat character See Character.
Foil Minor character whose role is to highlight the
main character by presenting a contrast with him or
her. In a modern comedic team, the "straight man"
can be seen as a foil for the other performer.
Hermeneutics Traditionally, the use of the Bible to
interpret other historical or current events; in current
critical theory, the principles and procedures followed to
determine the meaning of a text.
Heroic couplet See Stanza.
Folktale Contemporary version of an old, even
ancient, oral tale that can be traced back centuries
High comedy Term introduced in 1877 by George
Meredith to denote comedy that appeals to the
intellect, such as Shakespeare's As You Like It.
See Low comedy.
Hubris Tragic flaw of overwhelming pride that
exists in the protagonist of a tragedy.
Hyperbole Figurative language that depends on
intentional overstatement; Mark Twain often
used it to create humor; Jonathan Swift used it
for satire. lamb See Meter.
Imagery Words and phrases that describe the
concrete experience of the five senses, most
often sight. A pattern of imagery is a group of
related images developed throughout a work.
Synesthesia is a form of imagery that mixes the
experience of the senses (hearing something
visual, smelling something audible, and so on):
"He smelled the blue fumes of her scent."
Static imagery freezes tLhe moment to give it
the timeless quality of painting or sculpture.
Kinetic imagery attempts to show --notion or
change.
Imagism Movement in modern )oetry much
influenced by haiku, ,tressing terseness and
concrete magery. Imagists were a group of
kmerican poets in the early twentieth -entury,
such as Ezra Pound, William -arlos Williams,
and Amy Lowell, vho completely dispensed
with raditional principles of English
,ersification, creating new rhythms md meters.
mperfect rhyme See Rhyme.
n medias res Latin phrase !escribing works like
Homer's Iliad hat begin in the middle of the
action a order to catch a reader's interest.
nformal diction See Diction.
the protagonist). Situational irony exists when
what happens is at odds with what the story's
situation leads readers to expect will happen, as in
Browning's "Porphyria's Lover." Cosmic irony (or
irony of fate) exists when fate frustrates any effort a
character might make to control or reverse his or her
destiny.Verbal irony occurs when what is said is in
contrast with what is meant. It can be expressed as
understatement, hyperbole, or sarcasm.
]argon Specialized language associated with a
particular trade or profession.
Kinetic imagery Imagery that attempts to show
motion or change. See, for example, William Carlos
Williams's "The Great Figure."
Literary canon Group of literary works generally
acknowledged by critics and teachers to be the best
and most significant to have emerged from our
history. Until recently, the canon tended to be
conservative (it was difficult to add to or remove
works from it), and it reflected ideological positions
that were not universally accepted. Many
contemporary teachers and critics have attempted to
expand the canon to include works by women and
by writers of color.
Literary convention Something whose meaning is
so widely understood within a society that authors can
expect their audiences to accept and comprehend it
unquestioningly-for example, the division of plays into
acts or the fact that stepmothers in fairy tales are likely
to be wicked.
Literary criticism Descriptions, analyses,
interpretations, or evaluations of works of literature by
experts in the field.
Literary symbol See Symbol.
Internal rhyme See Rhyme. Irony Literary
device or situation that depends on the
existence of at least two separate and
contrasting levels of meaning or experience.
Dramatic or tragic irony, su~h as that found
in Oedipus the King, depends on the audience's
knowing something the protagonist has not yet
realized (and thus experiencing simultaneously
its own interpretation of the events and that of
Low comedy Introduced by George Meredith, it refers
to comedy with little or no intellectual appeal. Low
comedy is used as comic relief in Macbeth. See High
comedy.
Lyric Form of poetry, usually brief and intense, that
expresses a poet's subjective response to the world. In
classical times, lyrics were set to music. The Romantic
poets, particularly Keats, often wrote lyrics about
love, death, and nature.
Masculine rhyme See Rhyme.
Meditation Lyric poem that focuses on a physical
object-for example, Keats's "Ode on a Grecian
Urn"-- using this object as a vehicle for considering
larger issues.
Melodrama Sensational play that appeals
shamelessly to the emotions, contains elements of
tragedy but ends happily, and often relies on set
plots and stock characters.
Metaphor Concise form of comparison equating
two things that may at first seem completely
dissimilar, often an abstraction and a concrete
image-for example, "My love's a fortress." Some
people consider metaphor to be the essential
element of poetry. An extended metaphor, or
conceit, is a comparison used throughout a work; in
Tillie Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing," the mother
compares her daughter to a dress waiting to be
ironed, thus conveying her daughter's passivity and
vulnerability. See Simile.
Meter Regular pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables, each repeated unit of which is called a
foot: an anapest has three syllables, two unstressed
and the third stressed; a dactyl has three syllables,
the first stressed and the subsequent ones
unstressed. An iamb has two syllables, unstressed
followed by stressed; a trochee has a stressed
syllable followed by an unstressed one; a spondee
has two stressed syllables; and a pyrrhic has two
unstressed syllables. A poem's meter is described in
terms of the kind of foot (anapest, for example) and
the number of feet found in each line. The number
of feet is designated by the Greek prefix for the
number, so one foot per line is called monometer,
two feet is dimeter, followed by trimeter,
tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, and so on. The
most common meter in English is iambic
pentameter. See also Rising meter and Falling
meter.
Metonymy Figure of speech in which the term for
one thing can be applied to another with which it is
closely associated-for example, using "defend the
flag" to mean "defend the nation."
Mimesis Aristotle's term for the purpose of literature,
which he felt was "imitation" of life; literature
represents the essence of life and we are affected by it
because we recognize (perhaps in another form)
elements of our own experiences.
Monologue Extended speech by one character.
Mood Atmosphere created by the elements of a literary
work (setting, characterization, imagery, tone, and so
on).
Morality play Medieval Christian allegory.
Motivation Reasons behind a character's behavior that
make us accept or believe that character.
Mystery play Medieval play depicting biblical scenes.
Myth Anonymous story reflecting the religious and
social values of a culture or explaining natural
phenomena, often involving gods and heroes.
Narrative The "storytelling" of a piece of fiction; the
forward-moving recounting of episode and description.
When an event that occurred earlier is told during a later
sequence of events, it is called a flashback; suggesting
earlier in a narration something that will occur later on
is called foreshadowing.
Narrator Person who tells the story. See Point of view.
Naturalism Nineteenth-century movement whose
followers believed that life should not be idealized when
depicted in literature. Rather, literature should show that
human experience is a continual (and for the most part
losing) struggle against the natural world. Emile Zola,
Jack London, and Stephen Crane are important
practitioners of naturalism.
New Comedy Greek comedies of the fourth and third
centuries B.C. that followed the Old Comedies. They
were comedies of romance with stock characters and
conventional settings. They lacked the satire, abusive
language, and bawdiness of Old Comedies. New
Comedy originated in the works of the Greek dramatist
Meander and was further developed by the Roman
dramatists Plautus and Terence. See Old Comedy.
Novel Fictional narrative, traditionally realistic, relating
a series of events or following the history of a character
or group of characters through a period of time.
Novella Extended short story, usually concentrated
in episode and action (like a short story) but
involving greater character development (like a
novel); Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" is a
novella.
Octave See Sonnet.
Pastoral Literary work, such as Christopher Marlowe's
lyric poem "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love," that
deals nostalgically and usually unrealistically with a
simple, preindustrial rural life; the name comes from the
fact that traditionally pastorals feature shepherds.
Pastoral romance Prose tale set in an idealized rural
world; popular in Renaissance England.
Ode Relatively long lyric poem, common in
antiquity and adapted by the Romantic poets, for
whom it was a serious poem of formal diction,
often addressed to some significant object (such as
a nightingale or the west wind) that has stimulated
the poet's imagination.
Pathos Suffering that exists simply to satisfy the
sentimental or morbid sensibilities of the audience.
Old Comedy The first comedies, written in Greece
in the fifth century B.C., which heavily satirized the
religious and social issues of the day. The chief
practitioner of Old Comedy was Aristophanes. See
New Comedy.
Persona Narrator or speaker of a poem or story; in
Greek tragedy, a persona was a mask worn by an actor.
Onomatopoeia Word whose sound resembles what
it describes: "snap, crackle, pop." Lewis Carroll's
"Jabberwocky" uses onomatopoeia.
Open form Sometimes called free verse or vers
libre, open form poetry makes use of varying line
lengths, abandoning stanzaic divisions, breaking
lines in unexpected places, and even dispensing
with any pretense of formal structure. See Form.
Ottava rima See Stanza.
Oxymoron Phrase combining two seemingly
incompatible elements: "crashing silence."
Parable Story that uses analogy to make a moral
point, such as the parable of the prodigal son in the
New Testament.
Paradox Seemingly contradictory situation.
Adrienne Rich's "A Woman Mourned by
Daughters" uses paradox.
Parody "Take-off " or exaggerated imitation of a
serious piece of literature for humorous effect.
Shakespeare's "My Mistress' Eyes are Nothing Like
the Sun" is a parody of traditional Renaissance love
poetry.
Pattern of imagery See Imagery.
Perfect rhyme See Rhyme.
Personif ication Endowing inanimate objects or
abstract ideas with life or human characteristics: "the
river wept."
Petrarchan sonnet See Sonnet.
Picaresque Episodic, often satirical work about a rogue
or rascal-for example, Cervantes's Don Quixote. The
form emerged in sixteenthcentury Spain.
Picture-frame stage Stage that looks like a room with a
missing fourth wall through which the audience views
the play. The proscenium arch separates the audience
from the play.
Plot Way in which the events of the story are arranged.
When there are two stories of more or less equal
importance, the work has a double plot; when there is
more than one story but one string of events is clearly
the most significant, the other stories are called
subplots. Plot in fiction often follows the pattern of
action in drama, rising to a climax and then falling to a
resolution.
Poetic rhythm See Rhythm.
Point of view Perspective from which a story is told.
The storyteller may be a character in the story
(firstperson narrator) or someone who does not figure
in the action (third-person narrator), in which case he
or she may know the actions and internal doings of
everyone in the story (omniscient narrator) or some part
of these (limited omniscient narrator). Rarely, there may
be a second-person narrator who uses
imperative mood throughout the story.
14you"
and the
The narrator may be an observer or a participant. If
be or she is untrustworthy (stupid or bad, for
instance), one has an unreliable narrator; narrators
who are unreliable because they do not understand
what they are reporting (children, for instance) are
called naive narrators. If the perspective on the
events is the same as one would get by simply
watching the action unfold on stage, the point of
view is dramatic or objective.
Popular fiction Works aimed at a mass audience.
Prologue First part of a play (originally of a Greek
tragedy) in which the actor gives the background or
explanations that the audience needs to follow the
rest of the drama.
Props (short for properties) Pictures, furnishings,
and so on that decorate the stage for a play.
Proscenium arch Arch that surrounds the
opening in a pictureframe stage; through this
arch the audience views the performances.
Prose poem Open form poem whose long lines
appear to be prose set in paragraphs-for example,
Walt Whitman's "Cavalry Crossing a Ford."
ietoric Organization, strategy, d development of
literary works, ided by an eye to how such ments
will further the writer's ended effect on the reader.
tyme Repetition of concluding ~nds in different
words, often ?ntionally used at the ends of ,tic
lines. In masculine rhyme o called rising rhyme)
single ables correspond. In feminine ,me (also
called double rhyme or ling rhyme) two syllables
espond, the second of which is ;sed. In triple
rhyme, three tbles correspond. Eye rhyme
occurs when words look as though they should rhyme
but are pronounced differently ("cough/ tough"). In
perfect rhyme the corresponding vowel and
consonant sounds of accented syllables must be
preceded by different consonants-for example, the b
and h in "born" and "horn." Imperfect rhyme, also
called near rhyme, off rhyme, or slant rhyme, occurs
when consonants in two words are the same but
intervening vowels are different-for example,
"pick/pack," "lads/lids." The most common type of
rhyme within a poem is end rhyme, where the
rhyming syllables are placed at the end of a rhyme.
Internal rhyme consists of rhyming words found
within a line of poetry. Beginning rhyme occurs in
the first syllable or syllables of the line.
Rhyme royal See Stanza.
Protagonist Principal character of a drama or
fiction; the hero. The tragic hero is the noble
protagonist in classical Greek drama who falls
because of a tragic flaw.
Pyrrhic See Meter.
juatrain See Stanza.
lealism Writing that stresses areful description
of setting and the rappings of daily life,
psychological )robability, and the lives of
ordinary ,eople. Its practitioners believe they re
presenting life "as it really is"; )sen's A Doll
House is an example.
esolution Also called the mouement, this is the
final stage in e plot of a drama or work of
fiction. ,re the action comes to an end and
maining loose ends are tied up.
Rhythm Regular recurrence of sounds in a poem.
Ordinarily rhythm is determined by the arrangement
of metrical feet in a line, but sometimes an alternate
form of "sprung" rhvthm, introduced by Gerard
Manley Hopkins, is used. In this type of rhythm the
number of strong stresses in a line determines the
rhythm, regardless of how many weak stresses there
might be.
Rising action Stage in a play's plot during which the
action builds in intensity. See Freytag's pyramid.
Romance Type of narrative that deals with love and
adventure in a nonrealistic way, most popular in the
Middle Ages but sometimes used by more modern
authors, such as Hawthorne, to separate themselves
from the drabness of ordinary life.
Romantic comedy Comedy such as
Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing in which
love is the main subject and idealized lovers
endure great difficulties until the inevitable happy
ending is reached.
Romanticism Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century
literary movement that valued subjectivity,
individuality, the imagination, nature, excess, the
exotic, and the mysterious.
Shakespearean sonnet See Sonnet.
Short story Fictional narrative centered on one climatic
event and usually developing only a single character in
depth; its scope is narrower than that of the novel, and it
often uses setting and characterization more directly to
make its theme clear.
Simile Comparison of two seemingly unlike things
using the words like or as: "My love is like an arrow
through my heart." See Metaphor.
Round character See Character.
Situational irony See Irony.
Run-on line Line of poetry that ends with no
punctuation or natural pause and consequently runs
over into the next line; also called enjambment.
Sarcasm Form of irony in which apparent praise is
used to convey strong, bitter criticism.
Satire Literary attack on folly or vanity by means
of ridicule; usually intended to improve society.
Scansion Process of determining the meter of a
poem by analyzing the strong and weak stresses in
a line to find the unit of meter (each recurring
pattern of stresses) and the number of these units
(or feet) in each line.
Scrim Curtain that when illuminated from the front
appears solid but when lit from the back becomes
transparent.
Sentimental comedy Reaction against the comedy
of manners. This type of comedy relies on
sentimental emotion rather than on wit or humor to
move an audience and dwells on the virtues of life.
Soliloquy Convention of drama in which a character
speaks directly to the audience, revealing thoughts and
feelings which other characters present on stage are
assumed not to hear. By convention, a soliloquy is taken
to reflect a character's sincere feelings and beliefs.
Sonnet Fourteen-line poem, usually a lyric in iambic
pentameter (see Meter). It has a strict rhyme scheme in
one of two forms: the Italian, or Petrarchan sonnet (an
octave rhymed abba/abba with a sestet rhymed cdc/cdc
or a variation) and the English, or Shakespearean
sonnet (three quatrains rhymed abab/cdcd/efef with a
concluding couplet rhymed gg). The English sonnet
developed partly because the Italian rhyme scheme was
so difficult to achieve in English, where end rhymes are
less frequent than they are in Italian. Modern poets often
exploit the rigorous sonnet form by contrasting its
restraints with violent content or imagery, as in Yeats's
"Leda and the Swan."
Speaker See Persona.
Spenserian stanza See Stanza.
Sestet See Sonnet.
Spondee See Meter.
Sestina Poem composed of six six-line stanzas and
a three-line conclusion called an envoi. Each line
ends with one of six key words. The alternation of
these six words in different positions-but always at
the ends of lines-in the poem's six stanzas creates a
rhythmic verbal pattern that unifies the poem.
Stage business Actions or movements of an actor
onstage-for example, lighting a cigarette, leaning on a
mantel, straightening a picture.
Setting Background against which the action of a
piece of literature takes place: the historical time,
locale, season, time of day, interior decoration, and
so on. See Context.
Stage directions Words in a play that describe an actor's
role apart from the dialogue, dealing with movements,
attitudes, and so on.
Stage setting (set) In the production of a play, scenery
and props. In expressionist stage settings, scenery and
props are exaggerated and distorted to reflect the
workings of a troubled, even abnormal mind.
Surrealistic stage settings are designed to mirror
the uncontrolled images of dreams or nightmares.
See Staging.
Staging Overall production of a play in
performance: the sets, costumes, lighting, sound,
music, and so on.
Stanza Group of lines in a poem that forms a
metrical or thematic unit. Each stanza is usually
separated from others by a blank space on the page.
Some common stanzaic forms are the couplet (two
lines), tercet (three lines), quatrain (four lines),
sestet (six lines), and octave (eight lines). The
heroic couplet, first used by Chaucer and
especially popular throughout the eighteenth
century, as in Alexander Pope's poetry, consists of
two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter, with a
weak pause after the first line and a strong pause
after the second. Terza rima, a form used by
Dante, has a rhyme scheme (aba, bcb, ded) that
creates an interlocking series of stanzas. The ballad
stanza alternates lines of eight and six syllables.
Typically only the second and fourth lines rhyme.
Common measure is a four-line stanzaic pattern
closely related to the ballad stanza. It differs in that
its rhyme scheme is abab rather than abcb. Rhyme
royal is a seven-line stanza (ababbcc) set in iambic
pentameter. Ottava rima is an eight-line stanza
(abababcc) set in iambic pentameter. The
Spenserian stanza is a nineline form (ababbcbcc)
with the first eight lines in iambic pentameter and
the last line in iambic hexameter.
Static character See Character.
Static imagery Imagery that freezes a moment to
give it the timeless quality of painting or sculpture.
Much visual imagery is static.
Stock character Stereotypical character who
behaves consistently and whom the audience of a
play can recognize and classify instantly: the town
drunk, the nerd, and so on.
Stream of consciousness Form of narration
controlled not by external events but by the
thoughts and subjective impressions of the narrator,
commonly found in modern literature, such as the
work of Virginia Woolf and James Joyce.
Stress Accent or emphasis, either strong or weak, given
to each syllable in a piece of writing, as determined by
conventional pronunciation (cdrp~t, not cdrp~t) and
intended emphasis ("going doWn, d6wn, d6wn t6 th~
b6ttorh 6f th~ 6c~an"). Strong stresses are marked with
a ' and weak ones with a '; stress can be an important
clue in helping to determine a poet's intended emphasis.
Structure Formal pattern or arrangement of elements to
form a whole in a piece of literature.
Style Way an author selects and arranges words to
express ideas and, ultimately, theme.
Subplot See Plot.
Surrealism Literary movement that allows
unconventional use of syntax; chronology;
juxtaposition; and bizarre, dreamlike images in prose
and poetry.
Symbol Person, object, action, or idea whose meaning
transcends its literal or denotative sense in a complex
way. For instance, if someone wears a rose in a lapel to
a dance, the rose may simply be a decoration, but in
Blake's "The Sick Rose" it becomes a symbol because it
takes on a range of paradoxical and complementary
meanings. A symbol is invested with significance
beyond what it could carry on its own: A swastika, for
instance, is a powerful and frightening symbol as a
result of Hitler's Nazism. Universal symbols, such as
the grim reaper, may be called archetypes;
conventional symbols, such as national flags, evoke a
general and agreed-upon response from most people.
There are also private symbols, such as the "gyre"
created by Yeats, which the poet himself invested with
extraordinary significance.
Synechdoche Figure of speech in which a part of
something is used to represent the whole-for example,
"hired hand" represents a laborer.
Synesthesia See Imagery.
Tale Short story often involving mysterious atmosphere
and supernatural or inexplicable events, such as "The
Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe.
Tercet See Stanza.
Terza rima See Stanza.
Theater in the round See Arena stage.
Theater of the absurd Type of drama that discards
conventions of plot, character, and motivation in
order to depict a world in which nothing makes
sense. Albee's The Sandbox is an example.
Theme Central or dominant idea of a piece of
literature, made concrete by the details and
emphasis in the work itself.
Thrust stage Stage that juts out into the audience
so the action may be viewed from three sides.
Tone Attitude of the speaker or author of a work
toward the subject itself or the audience, as can be
determined from the word choice and arrangement
of the piece.
Tragedy Literary work, especially a play, that
recounts the downfall of an individual. Greek
tragedy demanded a noble protagonist whose fall
could be traced to a tragic personal flaw.
Shakespearean tragedy also treats noble figures, but
the reasons for their tragedies may be less clear-cut
than in Greek drama. Domestic or modern tragedy
tends to deal with the fates of ordinary people.
Tragic irony See Irony.
Tragicomedy Type of Elizabethan and Jacobean
drama that uses elements of both tragedy and
comedy.
Triple rhyme See Rhyme.
Trochee See Meter.
Understatement Intentional downplaying of a
situation's significance, often for ironic or
humorous effect, as in Mark Twain's famous
comment on reading his own obituary, "The reports
of my death are greatly exaggerated."
Unities Rules that require a dramatic work to be
unified in terms of its time, place, and action.
Oedipus the King illustrates the three unities.
Universal symbol See Symbol.
Verbal irony See Irony.
Villanelle First introduced in France in the Middle
Ages, a nineteen line poem composed of five tercets and
a concluding quatrain; its rhyme scheme is aba aba aba
aba aba abaa. Two different lines are systematically
repeated in the poem: line 1 appears again in lines 6, 12,
and 18, and line 3 reappears as lines 9, 15, and 19. Thus
each tercet concludes with an exact (or close)
duplication of either line 1 or line 3, and the final
quatrain concludes by repeating both line 1 and line 3.
Wagons Sets mounted on wheels, which make possible
rapid changes of scenery.