Grade 11 Poetry and Short Story
Terms
Definitely test/quiz material – please take notes!
Alliteration
 The repetition of consonant sounds at the begninning
of words (two or more words that are close to each
other).
 Example: life’s fitful fever
 Example: the kite crashed into the car
Allusion
 An indirect reference to something.
 Example: She had found her Romeo.
 Example: He was hit by Cupid’s arrow.
Anachronism
 An event, object or person that is out of place.
 Example: Cars in a story about ancient Rome (cars did
not exist yet)
 Example: Abraham Lincoln carrying around a stereo
Apostrophe
 Directly addressing (speaking to) someone who is not
actually there, or to a personified thing.
 Example: Twinkle twinkle little star / how I wonder
what you are.
 Example: Then come, sweet death, and rid me of this
grief.
 Example: God, deliver me from fools.
Assonance
 The repetition of vowel sounds in words that are near
each other.
 Example: Rage rage against the dying of the light
 Example: Hear the mellow wedding bells
Ballad
 Narrative poem (tells a story)
 Usually song-like
 Usually short stanzas with rhyme scheme (quatrains)
Blank Verse
 Poetry with meter but no rhyme. Usually this is seen as
iambic pentametre (a line with ten syllables in pairs of five
– this is common in Shakespearean verse).
 Example:
Shall I compare the to a summer’s day?
Thou art so lovely and so temperate.
Conflict
 The opposition of characters or forces that make up the
problems in a story and keep the plot moving forward.
 Conflict may be internal or external
 Internal: Man* vs. Self
 External: Man vs. Man; Man vs. Nature; Man vs. Society
*“Man” being used universally, refers to women as well.
Connotation
 Things that come to mind, or are commonly associated
with, a particular idea or word.
 Example: The word “home” often implies safety,
warmth, family, etc.
Consonance
 The repetition of nearby consonant sounds in the
middle or ends of words.
 Example: The cat sat in the cart.
 Example: A peach was resting on the bird’s perch.
Couplet
 Two lines of poetry that rhyme, and typically share the
same meter.
 Example:
I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.
Denotation
 The literal, dictionary definition of a word.
 We learned that “home” has the connotation of warmth,
safety, and family; however, home also has the
denotation of the place where one lives (this is the
dictionary definition of “home”).
Diction
 Word choice
 Whereas a personal essay may have a colloquial, or
conversational, type of diction, a literary essay for a
college application would likely have much more formal
diction.
Didactic
 Writing that is intended to teach a lesson or have a
moral.
 Example: The story of the hare and the tortoise is meant
to teach kids that “slow and steady wins the race”.
Dramatic Monologue
 A speech where a singular (hence monologue) character
reveals a dramatic situation to a silent listener.
 Example: Act I scene V of Macbeth when Lady
Macbeth reveals her intent to have Duncan killed in
order to make Macbeth king.
Elegy
 A poem of reflection, typically about the dead.
Epic
0 A long narrative poem that deals with heroic
characters.
Epitaph
0 An inscription on a tombstone
Eulogy
 A speech that praises someone, and is usually written for
someone who has just died.
 A kind of speech that you would expect to be read at a
funeral.
Euphemism
 Using a less offensive term in place of a more offensive
or graphic term.
 Example: Saying that your grandfather “passed away”
instead of saying that he died.
 Example: Calling someone “elderly” instead of “old”.
 Example: Saying that someone was “let go” instead of
“fired”.
Fable
 A brief narrative, often with animal characters,
illustrating a moral truth (didactic!).
 Example: The Hare and the Tortoise
 Example: The Lion and the Mouse
Flashback
 When the narrator jumps from the present to recall a
story from the past (i.e. a jump back in time).
Foreshadowing
0 A hint or indication of something that is going to
happen
0 Example: the witches predictions in Macbeth
Free Verse
 Poetry that does not rhyme or have regular meter.
 Example:
Fog
BY CARL SANDBURG
THE fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
Hyperbole (Hi-per-bully)
 An extreme exaggeration meant for emphasis or
humour.
 Example: I’ve done this a million times.
 Example: He was hungry enough to eat a horse.
 Example: I feel like I could move mountains.
Imagery
 Descriptive language that
plays on the five senses:
sight, touch, taste, smell,
and sound
 Example from Edwin John
Pratt’s “The Shark”:
He seemed to know the harbour,
So leisurely he swam;
His fin,
Like a piece of sheet-iron,
Three-cornered,
And with knife-edge,
Stirred not a bubble
As it moved
With its base-line on the water.
His body was tubular
And tapered
And smoke-blue,
And as he passed the wharf
He turned,
And snapped at a flat-fish
That was dead and floating.
And I saw the flash of a white throat,
And a double row of white teeth,
And eyes of metallic grey,
Hard and narrow and slit.
Then out of the harbour,
With that three-cornered fin
Shearing without a bubble the water
Lithely,
Leisurely,
He swam—
That strange fish,
Tubular, tapered, smoke-blue,
Part vulture, part wolf,
Part neither—for his blood was cold.
Irony
 When something is said or done that is the opposite of what
is meant or expected.
 There are three types: dramatic, situational, and verbal.
 Dramatic: Something happens that the audience/reader is
aware of that a character is unaware of.
 Situational: An event occurs that is the opposite of what
one would expect.
 Verbal: Something is said that is the opposite of what one
means.
Lyric
 A poem that expresses emotions of the speaker.
Metaphor
 A direct comparison without using “like” or “as”
 Her hair is silk.
Meter
 The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry
lines.
Narrative
 Writing that tells a story, featuring elements of plot and
character.
Ode
 A long and elaborate poem written to praise someone or
something.
Onomatopoeia
 Words that imitate the sounds that they represent.
 Example: The bacon sizzled.
 Example: The wind whooshed by.
 Example: The tree branched made a cracking sound.
 Example: The crackle of the fire was mesmerizing.
Oxymoron
 Two contradictory, or opposite, words are combined in
one expression or phrase
 Examples: jumbo shrimp; wise fool; same difference;
Great Depression; pretty ugly.
Paradox
 A statement that seems illogical, but also reveals some
truth.
 Example: Parental punishment is a form of love.
 Example from Macbeth: “Fair is foul and foul is fair”
Pastoral
 Poetry that is related to life in the country, meadows,
forests, etc.
Pathetic Fallacy
 When nature/setting reflects the mood or events in a
poem/story.
 Example: a thunderstorm during an argument
 Example: a sunset during a romantic scene
 Example: fireworks during a first kiss
Personification
 Giving human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract
ideas. You could think of it as giving human qualities to
things that wouldn’t ordinarily have human qualities.
 Example: The wind whistled.
 Example: The branches reached their arms to the sky.
 Example: The stars danced playfully.
Plot
 The actions and events in the story.
Climax
Rising
Action
Introduction
Falling
Action
Conclusion
Point of View
 The perspective from which a story is told
 Four types:
 First person – uses “I”
 Third person objective – “he” or “she”; like a video camera
 Third person omniscient – “he” or “she” and we know what the
characters are thinking/feeling
 Third person limited omniscient – “he” or “she” and we know
what one of the characters is thinking/feeling
Pun
 Word play involving either a word with two different
meanings or homonyms (same spelling, different
meanings).
 Example: My orthopedic surgeon is quite hip.
 Example: If you throw a cat out a car window, does it
become kitty litter?
Quatrain

A rhyming stanza with four lines.

The most common rhyme schemes are AAAA, AABB, and ABAB.

Example:
O, my luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June:
O, my luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly played in tune.
Rhetoric
 The art of persuasion in speaking or writing
Satire
 The use of humor, and often sarcasm, to make social
commentary, or highlight certain problems.
 Example: The Colbert Report
Simile
 A comparison using “like” or “as”.
 Example: Her hair was as soft as silk.
 Example: The rain was like a warm shower.
Sonnet
 A 14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme.
 The most common type of sonnet is the Shakespearean
sonnet with the following rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD
EFEF GG.
Suspense
 A technique a writer uses to create tension or
anticipation in a story.
Symbolism
0 A device where one thing stands for, or represents,
something else.
0 Example: In “The Possibility of Evil”, the roses
represented evil hidden within something beautiful or
pleasant.
Synecdoche
 Most commonly, when part of an object is referred to in
place of the whole object, as intended.
 Example: I’ve got wheels (meaning a whole car)
 Example: All hands on deck (not just hands)
 Example: We have mouths to feed (people)
Theme
 The writer’s purpose or message, usually a comment on
some aspect of human nature or human life.
 Example: In “The Possibility of Evil”, one of the themes
is that evil could be present anywhere.