ACTION
Refers to what the characters do in a dramatic or narrative work.
ALEXANDRINE
A twelve syllable (or six feet-hexameter) iambic line.
ALLEGORY
Refers to an extended narrative (can be a poem or prose narrative) in which the characters and
actions, and sometimes the setting as well, are contrived to make coherent sense on the "literal"
level and at the same time to signify a second, correlated order of characters, concepts and
events. In other words, an allegory carries a second meaning along with its surface story.
There are two main types of allegories:
1. Historical and political allegory - in which the characters and actions that are signified literally
represent, or "allegorize" historical personages and events.
2. The allegory of ideas, in which the literal characters represent abstract concepts and the plot
exemplifies a doctrine or thesis.
For example, Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene is said to be a political, religious and
moral allegory.
ALLITERATION
The repetition of a speech sound in a sequence of words. The term is usually applied only to
consonants and when the recurrent sound occurs in a conspicuous position at the beginning either
of a word or of a stressed syllable within a word.
ALLUSION
Is a reference, without explicit identification to a presumably familiar person, place event or to
another literary work or passage.
Example: In this passage, the author makes an allusion to Helen of Troy:
Brightness falls from the air,
Queens have died young and fair,
Dust hath closed Helen’s eyes. & nbsp; --Thomas Nashe “Litany in Time of Plague”
ANADIPLOSIS
A rhetorical figure that gives the same word the last position in one clause and the first (or near
the first) in the clause following.
Example:
My conscience hath a thousand several tongue,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain. --Shakespeare – Richard III, Act V Scene iii, Lines
193-5
ANAPESTIC FOOT (noun form: ANAPEST)
Consists of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable. Anapestic foot is usually
depicted with these symbols:
ANAPHORA
The most common rhetorical figure. An anaphora repeats a word at the beginning of a sequence
of clauses or sentences.
Example:
Then curs’d she Richard, then curs’d she Buckingham,
Then curs’d she Hastings.
--Shakespeare – Richard III, Act III, Scene iii, Lines 18-9
ANTAGONIST
The major character in opposition to the hero or protagonist of a narrative or drama.
ANTANACLASIS
A type of pun in which a repeated word shifts from one meaning to another.
Example:
O, cursed be the hand that made these holes!
Cursed be the heart that had the heart to do it!
Cursed be the blood that let his blood from hence!
--Richard III, Act I, Scene ii, Lines 13-5
ANTIMETABOLE
A rhetorical figure that repeats words but in an inverted order. See Also CHIASMUS.
Example:
Since every Jack became a gentleman,
There’s many a gentle person made a Jack. & nbsp;
--Richard III, Act I, Scene iii, Lines 71-2
APOSTROPHE
A direct and explicit address either to an absent person or to an abstract or non-human entity.
Many odes contain such an address.
Example:
Keats begins “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by apostrophizing the urn – “Thou still unravished bride of
quietness. . .”
ASSONANCE
Refers to the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, especially in stressed syllables – in a
sequence of nearby words.
Example: Notice the recurrent long “I” in the following lines:
Thou still unravished bride of quietness,
Thou foster child of silence and slow time
-- Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
ASTEISMUS
A type of pun in which a word is returned by the answer with an unlooked for second meaning.
Asteismus is very useful in drama.
B
BALLAD (also known as POPULAR BALLAD or FOLK BALLAD)
A narrative poem which is, or originally was, meant to be sung. Ballads are the narrative species
of folk songs, which originate, and are communicated orally, among illiterate and only partly
literate people. Typically, a ballad is dramatic, condensed and impersonal: the narrator begins
with the climactic episode, tells the story tersely by means of action and dialogue, and tells it
without self-reference or the expression of personal attitudes or feelings.
BALLAD STANZA
One of the oldest forms of a stanza. It consists of four lines, the second and fourth of which are
iambic trimeter and rhyme with each other. The first and third lines are iambic tetrameter and do
not rhyme. An example of a stanza pattern would be:
abcb
BALLADE
Refers to three stanzas of eight lines each and a half stanza of four lines (SEE ENVOY).
The meter is usually iambic or anapestic tetrameter, and the rhyme scheme is regularly as such:
Stanza 1
ababbcbc
Stanza 2
ababbcbc
Stanza 3
ababbcbc
Envoy:
bcbc
There is also a REFRAIN in the ballade.
BLANK VERSE
Any unrhyming verse (hence the name "blank"). Blank verse usually consists of lines of iambic
pentameter. Of all the English verse forms, it is the closest to the natural rhythms of English
speech. (Most of Shakespeare's plays are in blank verse).
BLUES
A form of folk or popular poetry. Graphic imagery and themes drawn from a wide range of
group and personal experiences distinguish blues lyrics. The blues can also exist as instrumental
and vocal music, as a psychological state, as a lifestyle and as a philosophical stance.
BURLESQUE
A work designed to ridicule attitudes, styles, or subject matter by either handling an elevated
subject in a trivial manner or a low subject with mock dignity. The burlesque may be written for
the sheer fun of it; usually, however, it is a form of satire.
See also: PARODY and SATIRE
C
CACOPHONY (Also known as DISSONANCE)
Refers to language which seems harsh, rough and unmusical – the discordancy is the combined
effect of meaning and difficulty of pronunciation as well as sound. (The opposite of
CACOPHONY IS EUPHONY).
CAESURA
A significant pause, usually grammatical, within a line. In scansion a caesura is indicated by a
double virgule (/ /).
CANTO
A major section of a long poem. For example, Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene is divided
into cantos.
CHARACTER
The persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work.
CHIASMUS
A sequence of two phrases or clauses which are parallel in syntax, but reverse in the order of
corresponding words. Examples of a chiasmus:
“Ask not what your country can do for you; Ask what you can do for your country.”
“Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds”(Shelly
– “Defence of Poetry”).
See Also ANTIMETABOLE.
CHORUS
Among the ancient Greeks the chorus was a group of people, wearing masks, who sang or
chanted verse while performing dancelike maneuvers at religious festivals. Choruses also served
as commentators on the characters and events who expressed traditional moral, religious and
social attitudes. During the Elizabethan Age the term “chorus” was applied to a single person
who spoke the prologue and epilogue to a play and sometimes introduced each at as well. For
example, Shakespeare’s Henry V employs a chorus.
Cliché
A time-worn expression which has lost its vitality and to some extent its original meaning.
Example: “Busy as bees”
CONCRETE POETRY (Also known as PATTERN POETRY)
Refers to the placement of words on the page so that a picture is formed containing the image of
the poem itself. Through this, concrete poetry is able to provide a multiple experience.
CONFESSIONAL POETRY
Refers to a type of narrative and lyric verse which deals with the facts and intimate mental and
physical experiences of the poet’s own life. In confessional poetry, the speaker often describes
his confused chaotic state, which becomes a metaphor for the state of the world around him.
Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton have written confessional poems.
CONNOTATION
The connotation of a word refers to the range of secondary or associated significances and
feelings which it commonly suggests or implies.
CONSONANCE
The repetition of a sequence of two or more consonants but with a change in the intervening
vowel.
Example: Live-love
Lean-alone
Pitter-patter
COUPLET
A pair of rhymed lines (of any specificable length or rhythm).
D
DACTYLIC FOOT (noun form: DACTYL)
Consists of a stressed syllable followed by to unstressed syllables. A dactylic foot is usually
depicted with these symbols:
DENOTATION
The denotation of a word is its primary significance or reference, such as a dictionary mainly
specifies.
DIALOGUE
The speeches of characters in a literary work (what they say).
DICTION
Refers to the choice and arrangements of words, phrases, sentence structures and figurative
language that constitute any work of literature.
DIRGE
A lyrical poem or song of lament for the death of a particular person. A dirge is similar to an
ELEGY by it is less formal and is supposed to be sung.
DRAMATIC IRONY
A situation in which the audience or reader shares with the author knowledge of present or future
circumstances of which a character is ignorant.
DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE
A poem in which a story is related by a single person (not the poet) speaking to one or more
persons; we know of the listener's presence and what they say and do only from clues in the
discourse of the speaker. In a dramatic monologue, the speaker utters the entire poem in a
specific situation at a critical moment.
See Also: MONOLOGUE, INTERIOR MONOLOGUE, and SOLILOQUY
E
ELEGY
A formal, meditative poem or lament for the dead.
ELLIPSIS
Omission of a word or phrase already implied by the context.
EMBLEM POETRY
See CONCRETE POETRY
END RHYME
The near duplication of sounds that takes place at the ends of lines. End rhyme is the most
common type of rhyme.
Example:
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more. --Wordsworth "The Solitary Reaper," Lines 7-8.
END STOPPED LINES
A line in which a grammatical pause - such as the end of a phrase, clause or sentence - coincides
with the end of the line.
Example:
Meanwhile, declining from the noon of the day,
The Sun obliquely shoots his burning ray;
The hungry Judges soon sentence sign,
And wretches hang that jurymen may dine. -- "The Rape of the Lock," Pope
ENGLISH SONNET
See SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET
ENJAMBMENT
The continuation of the sense of one line to the next without any grammatical pause.
Enjambment is also referred to as a run-on line. The opposite of enjambment is an end-stopped
line.
Example:
his fingers leaned
forcefully against the neck --Haki Madhubuti, "Sun House," Lines 1-2.
ENVOY
Refers to a concluding stanza that is shorter than the preceding ones.
EPANALEPSIS
A rhetorical figure that repeats the same word at the beginning and end of the same line.
Example: Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures Kings.
--Richard III, Act V, Scene ii, Line 24
EPIC
A long narrative poem on a serious subject or action involving heroic characters. An epic is told
in a formal and elevated style.
EPIGRAM
Refers to a short pithy poem or saying of two or four lines containing a neatly expressed thought
that often ends with a surprising or witty turn of thoughts. Epigrams are often, but not always
comic or satirical.
Example: God bless the King - I mean the Faith's defender!
God bless (no harm in blessing) the Pretender!
But who pretender is or who is King God bless us all! that's quite another thing.
EPIPHANY
A term that refers to "a sudden spiritual manifestation." It is often used to describe the sudden
flare into revelation one may feel while perceiving an ordinary object or scene.
EPITHET
A descriptive phrase, a noun, or an adjective used to define a distinctive quality of a person or
thing.
Example: John Keats' "silver snarling trumpets" in "The Eve of St. Agnes" is an epithet.
EPISTROPHE
The same word ending a sequence of clauses.
Example:
And from the cross-row plucks the letter G,
And says a wizard told him that by G
His issue disinherited should be.
And, for my name of George begins with G,
It follows in his thought that I am he.
Richard III, Act I, Scene i, Lines 55-9
EPIZEUXIS
A more acute form of a ploce. An epizeuxis is where a word is repeated without any other word
intervening.
Example: O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou blood Prison.
--Richard III, Act III, Scene iii, Line 8
EUPHONY
Language which strikes the ear as smooth, pleasant, and musical.
(The opposite of EUPHONY is CACOPHONY).
EXPLICATION
A detailed analysis of a passage of prose or poetry. An explication would strive to explain how
all the elements in an individual poem or passage work; a critic would analyze the various parts
in order to interpret the poem. An explication is a step beyond paraphrase because it attempts to
discover the meaning of the work.
EYE RHYME
Rhyme in which the ending of words are spelled alike; in most instances were pronounced alike.
F
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Is a departure from what users of the language apprehend as the standard meaning of words, or
the standard order of words, in order to achieve some special meaning or effect. Figurative
language is also refered to as language that makes use of certain figures of speech or tropes.
FLAT CHARACTER
A character that is presented without much individualizing detail; one that is built around a
single idea or quality.
FOIL
A character in a work, who by sharp contrast, serves to stress and highlight the distinctive
temperament of the protagonist.
For instance, Laertes (a man of action) is a foil to Hamlet in Shakespeare's Hamlet.
FOOT
Is the combination of stressed and unstressed syllables, which make up the metric unit of a line.
The most commonly used feet are as follows: IAMBIC FOOT, ANAPESTIC FOOT,
TROCHAIC FOOT, and DACTYLIC FOOT.
FORCED RHYME
Occurs when the poet gives the effect of seeming to surrender helplessly to the exigencies of a
difficult rhyme.
Example: Farewell, Farewell, you old rhinocerous
I'll stare at something less prepocerous. - Ogden Nash
FREE VERSE
Refers to poetry that does not follow a prescribed form but is characterized by the irregularity in
the length of lines and the lack of a regular metrical pattern and rhyme. Free verse may use other
repetitive patterns instead (like words, phrases, structures).
Note: Free verse should not be confused with BLANK VERSE.
H
HAIKU (or HOKKU)
A poem of seventeen syllables arranged in three lines. The first and third lines contain five
syllables; the second line seven (5,7,5). The haiku is the shortest form in Japanese poetry. If
frequently expresses delicate emotion or presents an image (frequently one of a natural object or
scene).
Example: A bare pecan tree
slips a pencil shadow down
a moonlit snow slope. - Etheridge Knight
HEROIC COUPLET
Lines of iambic pentameter which rhyme in pairs: aa bb cc dd etc. The heroic couplet has been
the most popular and durable of the couplet forms.
HEROIC POEM
See EPIC
HYPERBOLE (Also known as an OVERSTATEMENT)
Refers to the extravagant exaggeration of a fact or of possibility; it may be used for serious,
ironic, or comic effect.
Example: "They were packed in the subway like sardines."
I
IAMBIC FOOT (noun form: IAMB)
Consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Iambic foot is usually depicted
with these symbols:
IMAGERY
Refers to the use of language to represent things, actions or abstract ideas descriptively. In its
most common use, imagery suggests visual pictures, but it can also denote other sensory
experiences (i.e. auditory).
IMPERFECT RHYME
Rhyme in which the vowels are either approximate or different; and occasionally, even the
rhymed consonants are similar rather than identical. Imperfect rhyme is also known as "Partial,"
"Near," or "Slant" rhyme.
INTERIOR MONOLOGUE
A monologue in which the speaker seems to be thinking thoughts rather than speaking to
someone. Interior monologue is a stream of consciousness which undertakes to present to the
reader, the course of consciousness precisely as it occurs in a character's mind.
INTERNAL RHYME
Involves rhyming sounds within the same line.
Example: Sister, my sister, O fleet sweet swallow. -Swinburn
IRONY
A device by which a writer expresses a meaning contradictory to the stated one. There are many
techniques for achieving irony. The writer may make it clear that the meaning he intends is the
opposite of his literal one, or he may construct a discrepancy between an expectation and its
fulfillment or between the appearance of a situation and the reality that underlies it. See Also:
DRAMATIC IRONY, STRUCTURAL IRONY, VERBAL IRONY
ITALIAN SONNET
See PETRACHAN SONNET
K
KENNING
The standard use of a descriptive phrase in place of the ordinary name for something.
L
LIGHT VERSE
A term applied t a great variety of poems that use an ordinary speaking voice and a relaxed
manner to treat their subjects gaily, or playfully, or with a good - natured satire. Its subjects may
be serious or petty; the defining quality is the tone of voice used and the attitude of the lyric or
narrative speaker towards the subject.
LINE
The sequence of words printed as a separate entity on the page
LITERAL MEANING
Refers to the standard meaning of a word or phrase. The opposite would be a word used
figuratively.
LITOTE
A form of meiosis in which an idea is expressed by the denial of its opposite.
Example: One could say: "He's not the brightest man in the world" meaning "He is stupid."
LYRIC
Any fairly short poem in which a speaker expresses intense personal emotion, a state of mind or
a process of perception, thought and feeling rather than describing a narrative or dramatic
situation. Originally, the term "lyric" designated poems meant to be sung but today, the term is
sometimes used to refer to any short poem.
Note: Although the lyric is uttered in the first person, the "I" in the poem need not be the
author.
M
MEIOSIS (also known as UNDERSTATEMENT)
A figure which deliberately represents something as much less in magnitude or importance than
it really is, or ordinarily considered to be.
METAPHOR
A figure of speech in which two unlike objects are compared by identification or by the
substitution of one for the other; without asserting a comparison. The TENOR is the subject that
the metaphor is applied to while the VEHICLE is the metaphorical term itself.
Here are a two types of metaphors:
1. DEAD METAPHOR
A metaphor that has been used so long and has become so common that we have ceased to be
aware of the discrepancy between the vehicle and tenor.
2. MIXED METAPHOR
A metaphor that combines two or more diverse metaphoric vehicles.
METER
The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables or the units of stress pattern.
METONYMY
The literal term for one thing that is applied to another with which it is closely associated
because of contiguity in common experiences.
For example: The writer and his work - "I have read all of Milton" can be used to signify the
writings of Milton.
METRIC LINE
A line named according to the number of feet composing it:
MONOMET
ER:
one foot
DIMETER:
two feet
TRIMETER:
three feet
TETRAMET
ER:
four feet
PENTAMET
five feet
ER:
HEXAMETE
R:
six feet
(See also ALEXANDRINE)
HEPTAMET
ER:
seven feet
OCTAMETE
R:
eight feet
MOCK EPIC (or MOCK HEROIC)
A poem that imitates the elaborate form and ceremonious style of the epic genre, but applies it to
a commonplace or trivial subject matter. Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock" is an example
of a mock epic poem.
Note: The term "mock heroic" is often applied to other dignified poetic forms which are
purposely mismatched to a lowly subject. Thomas Gray's "Ode on the Death of a favorite Cat" is
an example.
MONOLOGUE
A lengthy speech made by a single person.
See Also: INTERIOR MONOLOGUE, SOLILOQUY, and DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE
MOOD
Refers to the emotional tone pervading a section or the whole literary work, which fosters in the
reader expectations as to the course of events, whether happy or disastrous.
MOTIF
A theme, character, device, reference or verbal pattern which recurs in works of literature.
See Also: THEME
N
NARRATIVE
A story, whether in prose or verse, involving events, characters, and what the characters say and
do.
O
OCCASIONAL POEMS
A poem written in commemoration of a specific occasion such as a birthday, marriage, a death, a
military engagement or victory, the dedication of a public building or the opening performance
of a play.
Example: W.B. Yeats' "Easter, 1916" and Maya Angelou's "Inaugural Poem" are occasional
poems.
ODE
A long lyric poem that is serious in subject and treatment, elevated in style, and elaborate in its
stanzaic structure.
ONOMATOPOEIA (Sometimes called ECHOISM)
Refers to the use of words whose sounds seem to express or reinforce their meanings: "hiss,"
"buzz," "bang," etc. Ononmatopoeia is also applied to words or passages which seem to
correspond to, or to strongly suggest, what they denote in any way whatever - size, movement, or
force.
ORAL FORMULAIC POETRY
Poetry that is composed and transmitted by singers or reciters - includes both narrative forms
(epic and ballad) and lyric forms. There is no fixed version of an oral composition because each
performer tends to render it differently, and sometimes introduces differences between one
performance and the next.
OTTAVA RIMA
An Italian stanza form adapted to English as an eight-line stanza with the rhyme scheme:
abababcc
P
PALINODE
Refers to a poem or poetic passage in which the writer recants a statement made in a previous
poem.
PANEGYRIC
A panegyric is poetry that praises something.
See Opposite: SATIRE
PARADOX
A statement which seems on its face to be self-contradictory or absurd but yet turns out to make
good sense.
PARANOMASIA
A type of pun in which the repetition of a word is similar in source to a word that has already
been used.
PARAPHRASE
The restatement of a poem using words that are different but as equivalent as possible. Here is a
sample paraphrase:
Moving th'earth brings harms and fears;
Men reckon what it did and meant;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent. --Donne, "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning"
"An earthquake causes a great deal of destruction and arouses fear. Men assess the damage it did
and speculate about its significance. However, a movement of the heavenly bodies,though a
phenomenon far more vast, does not show itself so directly or appear to have such terrible
consequences."
PARODY
A type of high burlesque which imitates or exaggerates the serious manner and characteristic
features of a particular literary work, or the distinctive style of a particular author. Parody is a
device of satire.
PASTORAL
Poetry that describes the simple life of country folk, usually shepherds who live a timeless,
painless life in a world that is full of beauty, music and love. Other terms used synonymously
with pastoral are: Eclogue, Bucolic, or Idyll.
PATTERN POETRY
See CONCRETE POETRY
PERFECT RHYME
Rhyme in which the final accented vowels of the rhyming words and all succeeding sounds are
identical while preceding sounds are different. In perfect rhyme, the correspondence of rhymed
sounds is exact.
Perfect rhyme is also known as "Full" or "True" rhyme.
PERIPHRASIS
Circumlocution - using many words to express something which could be put more briefly. With
the help of this device, the writer may avoid commonplace terms and achieve an elevated style.
Example: In "The Rape of the Lock," Pope elaborates the statement "Hampton court is on the
Thames near Hampton":
Close by those meads, forever crowned with flowers,
Where Thames with pride surveys his rising towers,
There stands a structure of majestic frame,
Which for the neighb'ring Hampton takes its name.
PETRACHAN SONNET (or ITALIAN SONNET)
Fourteen lines of iambic pentameter rhyming in the octave (eight lines): a b b a a b b a, followed
by the sestet (six lines) rhyming: c d c d c d (or some variation thereof). The octave generally
contains the "problem" or theme which the sonnet will develop. Sometimes, an expression of
indignation, desire or doubt may occur in the opening lines which will be resolved in the sestet.
PLOCE
One of the most used figures of stress - Repeating a word within the smae line or clause.
Example:
Make war upon themselves - brother to brother
Blood to blood, self against self.
--Richard III, Act II, Scene iv, Lines 62-3
POEM (or POETRY)
Refers to a composition in which rhythmical, and usually metaphorical, language is used to
create and aesthetic experience. Elements such as meter, rhyme etc are usually but not
necessarily present.
POETIC DICTION
Includes words, phrasing, and figures not current in the ordinary discourse of time.
POETIC DRAMA
Drama in which the dialogue is written in the form of poetry.
POLYPTOTON
A type of figure which takes a word and echoes it with another word derived from the same root.
Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood! --Richard III, Act I, Scene ii, Line 7
PROSODY
Signifies the systematic study of versification in poetry; that is, a study of the principles and
practice of meter, rhyme and stanza forms. See Also METER
PUN
A play on words that are either identical in sound (homonyms) or very similar in sound, but are
sharply diverse in meaning. There are four types of puns: ANTANACLASIS, ASTEISMUS,
PARONOMASIA, SYLLEPSIS
Q
QUATRAIN
A four line stanza. Quatrains are most commonly seen in English verse.
See Also: BALLAD STANZA
QUINTET or QUINTAIN
A five line stanza.
R
REFRAIN
A line, or part of a line, or group of lines, which is repeated in the course of a poem, sometimes
with slight changes, usually at the end of each stanza. If the repetition is not verbatim, the
phenomenon is sometimes called incremental repetition. The refrain occurs in many ballads and
poems.
Example: The word "Nevermore" in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" functions as a refrain.
RENGA
Refers to Japanese linked poetry. A typical renga sequence comprised 100 stanzas composed by
about three poets at a single sitting of about three hours. Each stanza of a renga is like a link in a
chain.
RHETORIC
In its most general meaning, rhetoric refers to the principles governing the use of language for
effective speaking and writing.
RHETORICAL FIGURES (SCHEMES)
A specific arrangement of words for rhetorical emphasis. Unlike figures of speech such as
metaphors or personification, rhetorical figures do not alter the meaning of the words employed.
(The opposite of rhetorical figures is tropes/figures of speech).
RHYME
Refers to the repetition of similar sounds occurring at determined, or regular, intervals .
See Also: END RHYME, EYE RHYME, FORCED RHYME, IMPERFECT RHYME,
INTERNAL RHYME, and PERFECT RHYME
RHYME ROYAL (or RIME ROYAL)
A seven line, iambic pentameter stanza with the rhyme scheme a b a b b c c
RHYME SCHEME
The pattern of rhymed words. Stanzas are often linked by their rhyme scheme. Rhyme scheme is
lacking in some modern poetry.
RHYTHM
A variable pattern in the beat of stresses in the stream of sound. Rhythm can also be defined as
the sense of movement attributable to the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Although
rhythm is sometimes used to signify meter, it includes temp and the natural fluctuations of
movement.
ROUND CHARACTER
Refers to a character that is complex in temperament and motivation and is represented with
subtle particularity.
RUN ON LINES
See ENJAMBMENT
S
SATIRE
The literary art of diminishing or derogating a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking
toward to attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn or indignation.
Example: Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travel, especially Book IV, is a satire on the human
race.
SCANSION
The systematic analysis of metrical patterns of stress, syllable by syllable, sound unit by sound
unit.
SCHEMES
See RHETORICAL FIGURES
SESTET or SEXTAIN
A six line stanza.
SESTINA
A poem which consists of six six-line stanzas and a final three line stanza (called an ENVOY),
all unrhymed; the final word in each line of the first stanza becomes the final word in other
stanzas (but in a different specified pattern); the final stanza uses these words again in a specified
way, one in each half line.
Example: In the diagram, each letter represents the terminal word of a verse and each line
represents a stanza:
Stanza 1:
abcdef
Stanza 2:
faebdc
Stanza 3:
cfdabe
Stanza 4:
ecbfad
Stanza 5:
deacfb
Stanza 6:
bdfeca
Envoy:
eca
SETTING
The locale, historical time, and social circumstances in which the action of a narrative or
dramatic work occurs.
SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET (or ENGLISH SONNET)
A sonnet (fourteen lines of iambic pentameter) divided into three quatrains and a concluding
couplet with the following rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg.
SIMILE
A comparison between two distinctly different thing using the word "like" or "as."
Example: Robert Burns' "O my love's like a red, red rose."
SOLILOQUY
Refers to an extended speech in which a character, alone on stage, expresses his thoughts. A
soliloquy may reveal the private emotions, motives and state of mind of the speaker. For
instance, Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech is a soliloquy.
SONNET
A lyric poem consisting of a single stanza of fourteen iambic pentameter lines linked by an
intricate rhyme scheme.
See also: PETRACHAN SONNET and SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET
SPENSARIAN SONNET
A variation of the Shakespearean sonnet in which Spenser links each quatrain to the next with a
continuing rhyme:
abab
bcbc
cdcd
ee
SPENSARIAN STANZA
The Spensarian stanza was revised by Edmund Spenser for The Faerie Queene. It consists of
nine lines, in which the first eight are iambic pentameter; the last line is an iambic hexameter (an
ALEXANDRINE) rhyming a b a b b c b c c
STANZA
A group of lines which form a division of a poem. Stanzas are usually set off from one another
by a space. The distinguishing characteristics of stanzas are the number of lines, the number of
feet in each line and the rhyme scheme. However, some unrhymed poems are divided into
stanzas.
For some definitions of some of the most common forms of stanzas see: RHYME ROYAL,
SPENSARIAN STANZA, TERZA RIMA, BALLAD STANZA, ALEXANDRINE, OTTAVA
RIMA.
Also see stanzas with no official names that are designated by the number of lines: TRIPLET,
QUATRAIN, QUINTET, SESTET
STRESS
A term applied to the emphasis placed on a syllable in a word. A synonym for stress is "accent."
STRUCTURAL IRONY
Irony in which the author introduces a structural feature which seres to sustain a duplicity of
meaning and evaluation throughout the work.
See Also: IRONY and VERBAL IRONY
SYLLEPSIS
A type of pun that uses a word having two different meanings without repeating the word.
Example: Here, the word "lie" could mean to go to prison or to tell a lie:
". . .your imprisonment shall not be long, I will deliver or else lie for you."
--Richard III, Act I, Scene i, Line 115
SYMBOL
In the broadest sense, a symbol is anything which signifies something. In literature, however, the
term is applied to a word or phrase that signifies an object or event.
SYNECDOCHE
A figure of speech in which a part represents the whole object or idea or (more rarely) the whole
is used to signify a part.
Example: "Ten hands" can be used to signify ten workers and "a hundred sails" can be used to
signify ships.
T
TERZA RIMA
Composed of tercets that are interlinked. Each tercet is joined to the one following by a common
rhyme:
aba, bcd, cdc, ded, etc.
THEME
Theme is sometimes used to indicate the subject of a work, frequently employed to designate its
central idea or thesis. A theme may be stated directly or indirectly.
TONE
Refers to the expression of a literary speaker's "attitude to his listener." The tone of a work can
be happy, sad, reflective, etc.
TRIPLET
A stanza of three lines usually with a single rhyme.
TROCHAIC FOOT (noun form: TROCHEE)
Consists of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. Trochaic foot is usually
depicted with these symbols:
TROPES (also known as FIGURES OF SPEECH)
Involves a change or transference of a word's meaning and from the literal to the imaginative
plane.
U
UNDERSTATEMENT
See MEIOSIS
V
VERBAL IRONY
A statement in which the meaning that the speaker implies differs sharply from the meaning that
is clearly expressed.
See Also: IRONY and STRUCTURAL IRONY
VERSE
Refers to either a single line of poetry or to metrical poetry in general.
Note: Verse is not to be confused with a stanza.
VILLANELLE
A poem that consists of five tercets and a quatrain, all on two rhymes. The opening line is
repeated at the end of tercets two and four; the final line of the first tercet concludes the third and
fifth stanza. The two refrain lines are repeated at the end of the quatrain.