Ballad
A song or poem that tells a lively or tragic story in simple language
using rhyming four line stanzas and a set meter.
elegy
A poem lamentation memorializing the dead or contemplating some
nuance of life's melancholy.
Diction
An author's or character's distinctive choice of words and style of expression
Satire
An artistic critique, sometimes heated, on some aspect of human
immorality or absurdity.
Synecdoche
a figure of speech that uses a piece or part of a thing to represent
the thing in its entirety
Connotation
The associations a word carries beyond its literal meaning
In medias res
In the middle of things
prosody
the analysis of a poem's rhythm and metrical structures
Foot
The smallest unit of measurement in poetic meter.
Anapest
A meter using 2 stressed syllables and 2 under stressed syllables
pyrrhic foot
A foot that has 2 under stressed syllables
monometer
A poetic meter compromising of one poetic foot.
Tetrameter
Poetic meter = 4 feet in each line
heptmeter
poetic meter= 7 feet in each line
couplet
two lines of poetry forming one unit of meaning. they often rhyme.
Run on line
A line of poetry that when read does not come to a natrul conclusion
where the line breaks
Assonance
A repetition of vowel sounds or patterns in neighboring words
Triplet
Tercet of 3 rhymed lines
Blank verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter, often used in Shakespeare's plays
Ode
An elevated formal lyric poem often written in ceremony to something
or someone.
Pastoral
Countryside is glorified
Denotation
Word's literal meaning
Paradox
Seeminingly contradictory statement that when examined has a deep
complicated meaning
Scansion
The process of determining the metrical pattern of a line of poetry
by marking its stresses and feet.
iamb
A poetic foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed syllable
Dactylic Meter
A meter in which the foot contains a stressed syllable followed by
two unstressed syllables
Dimeter
A poetic meter compromising of two poetic feet
Pentameter
A meter that consists of 5 feet in each line
Octameter
A poetic meter that consists of eight feet in each line
Causura
A pause, usually in the middle of the line that marks a kind of
rhythmic division
Quatrain
A 4 lined stanza
Figure of speech
Describe one thing in terms of another
Metonymy
Figure of speech using an emblem. Ex.: the power of the purse
Terza Rima
A tercet fixed form
aba, bcb, cdc, ded, etc.
Trochee
opposite of an Iamb
Spondee
poetic foot that has 2 stressed syllables
Sonnet
A poem of 14 lines of iambic pentameter. contains a volta, or turn,
in which the last lines resolve or change direction from the
controlling idea.
Refrain
Line or stanza that is repeated at regular intervals un a poem or song.
End stopped line
A line that ends in a full stop, or period
Alliteration
the repetition of the initial constant sounds of a sequence of words
Stanza
A unit of 2 or more lines, set off by a space, often rhyming or
sharing the same meter.
Theme
Underlying meaning of the story
Motivation
a character's reason for doing something
first person
narrated by the character in the story
Omniscient
third person character narrator that who observes the thoughts and
actions of multiple characters.
Objective point of view
story is told by observer who only relates facts
Allegory
Story in which major elements such as characters represent universal truths
Parable
A narrative that illustrates lessons using comparisons to familiar
characters and events.
Allusion
A reference to another work of art or literature, or to a person or
place outside the text.
Exposition
The narrative presentation of necessary information about the
character, setting, or character's history to begin the story.