Jackie Sodano Mr.

Forman AP Literature 2010 September 3

Literary Terms and Devices List 1) Ambiguity Intentional ambiguity in literature is a device that leaves something undetermined in order to open up multiple possible meanings. It can also be used to reflect the complexity of an issue or to indicate the difficulty, perhaps the impossibility, of determining truth. o The title of the country song "Heaven's Just a Sin Away" is deliberately ambiguous; at a religious level, it means that committing a sin keeps us out of heaven, but at a physical level, it means that committing a sin (sex) will bring heaven (pleasure). o Hamlets statements to the king are also deliberately ambiguous to hide his real purpose from them. 2) Anaphora The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs. One of the devices of repetition, is in which the same phrase is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines. o I have seen it over and over, the same sea, the same, slightly, indifferently swinging above the stones, icily free above the stones, above the stones and then the world." o Martin Luther King Jr. I Have a Dream Speech 3) Anticlimax (also called bathos) A drop, often sudden and unexpected, from a dignified or important idea or situation to one that is trivial or humorous. It can also mean a sudden descent from something sublime to something ridiculous. In fiction and drama, this refers to action that is disappointing in contrast to the previous moment of intense interest. In rhetoric, the effect is frequently intentional and comic. A sentence in which the last part expresses something lower than the first. o Usama Bin Laden: Wanted for Crimes of War, Terrorism, Murder, Conspiracy, and Nefarious Parking Practices." o Ex 2/ the indigent protagonist finds a great amount of money for which (s)he has been intently searching and does nothing with it 4) Apocalyptic Literature an apocalypse originally referred to a mystical revelation of a spiritual truth, but has changed in twentieth-century use to refer specifically to mystical visions concerning the end of the world. o The most famous Apocalypse in the Christian tradition is the book commonly known to Protestants as Revelation in the New Testament. The apocalyptic literature of Judaism and Christianity embraces a considerable period, from the centuries following the exile down to the close of the middle ages.

5) Apostrophe The act of addressing some abstraction or personification that is not physically present: o John Donne commands, "Oh, Death, be not proud." King Lear proclaims, "Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend, / More hideous when thou show'st thee in a child / Than the sea-monster." Death, of course, is a phenomenon rather than a proud person, and ingratitude is an abstraction that hardly cares about Lear's opinion, but the act of addressing the abstract has its own rhetorical power. 6) Assonance Repeating identical or similar vowels (especially in stressed syllabes) in nearby words. Assonance in final vowels of lines can often lead to half-rhyme. Assonance is a common technique in the poetry of G. M. Hopkins, Dylan Thomasp, and more generally in popular ballads; an example appears in the second and fourth lines of this stanza from "Fair Annie": o Bind up, bind up your yellow hair, And tie it on your neck; And see you look as maiden-like As the day that first we met. 7) Aubade also called a dawn song- A genre of poetry in which a short poem's subject is about the dawn or the coming of the dawn, or it is a piece of music meant to be sung or played outdoors at dawn. o Examples include Browning's "The year's at the spring / And day's at the morn" from Pippa Passes or Shakespeare's "Hark! hark! the lark." 8) Characterization An author or poet's use of description, dialogue, dialect, and action to create in the reader an emotional or intellectual reaction to a character or to make the character more vivid and realistic. Careful readers note each character's attitude and thoughts, actions and reaction, as well as any language that reveals geographic, social, or cultural background. o The patient boy and quiet girl were both well mannered and did not disobey their mother. (Author directly tells audience about characters) 9) Chiasmus (from Greek, "cross" or "x") A literary scheme in which the author introduces words or concepts in a particular order, then later repeats those terms or similar ones in reversed or backwards order. It involves taking parallelism and deliberately turning it inside out, creating a "crisscross" pattern. o "By day the frolic, and the dance by night."

o The sequence is typically a b b a or a b c c b a. "I lead the life I love; I love the life I lead." "Naked I rose from the earth; to the grave I fall clothed."
10) Chorus The song or refrain that this group of singers sings. Originally a group of male singers and dancers (choreuti) who participated in religious festivals and dramatic performances by singing commenting on the deeds of the characters and interpreting the significance of the events within the play. o Shakespeare alters the traditional chorus by replacing the singers with a single figure--often allegorical in nature. For instance, "Time" comes on stage in The Winter's Tale to explain the passing years. Likewise, "Rumor" appears in Henry IV, Part Two to summarize the gossip about Prince Hal.

11) Concrete Poetry Poetry that draws much of its power from the way the text appears situated on the page. The actual shape of the lines of text may create a swan's neck, an altar, a geometric pattern, or a set of wings, which in some direct way connects to the meaning of the words. Also called "shaped poetry" and "visual poetry,". The object here is to present each poem as a different shape. It may appear on the page, on glass, stone, wood, or other materials. The technique seems simple, but can allow great subtlety. o Example 12) Connotation and denotation Connotation- The extra tinge or taint of meaning each word carries beyond the minimal, strict definition found in a dictionary Denotation- The minimal, strict definition of a word as found in a dictionary, disregarding any historical or emotional connotation. o The term civil war, revolution and rebellion have the same denotation; they all refer to an attempt at social or political change. However, civil war carries historical connotations for Americans beyond that of revolution or rebellion. In the same way, the words house and home both refer to a domicile, but home connotes certain singular emotional qualities and personal possession in a way that house doesn't. I might own houses I rent to others, but I might call none of these my home, for example. Much of poetry involves the poet using connotative diction that suggests meanings beyond "what the words simply say."

13) Consonance the repetition, at close intervals, of the final consonants of accented syllables or important words , especially at the ends of words, o blank and think or strong and string or Lady lounges lazily and Dark deep dread. 14) Dactyl A three-syllable foot consisting of a heavy stress and two light stresses. o Examples of words in English that naturally constitute dactyls include strawberry, carefully, changeable, merrily, mannequin, tenderly, prominent, buffalo, glycerin, notable, scorpion, tedious, horrible, and parable. 15) Doggerel a light verse which is humorous and comic by nature - often viewed with disdain as containing little literary value. o To Banbury I came, O profane one! Where I saw a Puritane-one Hanging of his cat on Monday For killing of a mouse on Sunday. 16) Elision the poet takes a word that ends in a vowel, and a following word that begins with a vowel, and blurs them together to create a single syllable, the result is an elision. In linguistics, elision refers more generally to the omission of any sound in speech and writing. o Hallowe'en (from "All Hallows Evening") or in contractions like shan't (from "shall not") 17) Enjambment the continuation of a sentence or clause over a line-break. o from Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale (c. 1611) are heavily enjambed: I am not prone to weeping, as our sex Commonly are; the want of which vain dew Perchance shall dry your pities; but I have That honourable grief lodged here which burns Worse than tears drown. 18) Envoi the word envoi refers to a postscript added to the end of a prose writing or a short verse stanza (often using different meter and rhyme) attached to the conclusion of a poem. o An example appears at the end of Chaucer's "Clerk's Tale." 19) Epigram

(1) An inscription in verse or prose on a building, tomb, or coin. (2) a short verse or motto appearing at the beginning of a longer poem or the title page of a novel, at the heading of a new section or paragraph of an essay or other literary work to establish mood or raise thematic concerns. (3) A short, humorous poem, often written in couplets, that makes a satiric point. o 2- The opening epigram to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" is one such example. o 3-Coleridge once described this third type of epigram using an epigram himself: "A dwarfish whole, / Its body brevity, / and wit its soul."

20) Epistolary Novel Any novel that takes the form of a series of letters--either written by one character or several characters. The form allows an author to dispense with an omniscient point of view, but still switch between the viewpoints of several characters during the narrative. o C.S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters 21) Epode It is the third part of an ode, which followes the strophe and the antistrophe, and completes the movement o Epodes of Horace 22) Farce a form of low comedy designed to provoke laughter through highly exaggerated caricatures of people in improbable or silly situations. Traits of farce include (1) physical bustle such as slapstick, (2) sexual misunderstandings and mix-ups, and (3) broad verbal humor such as puns. Many literary critics (especially in the Victorian period) have tended to view farce as inferior to "high comedy" that involves brilliant dialogue. o Many of Shakespeare's early works, such as The Taming of the Shrew, are considered farces.

23) Feminine Rhyme In meter if a line ends in a lightly stressed syllable it is said to be feminine. o Masculine Ending: "'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse." Feminine Ending: "'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the housing, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mousing."

24) Figurative Language Any language that goes beyond the literal meaning of words in order to furnish new effects or fresh insights into an idea or a subject. The most common figures of speech are simile, metaphor, and alliteration. o The wild and woolly walrus waits and wonders when we'll walk by o Her hair was silk o Her hair was as soft as silk o Buzz, hiss, roar, woof 25) Foil A character that serves by contrast to highlight or emphasize opposing traits in another character o In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Laertes the unthinking man of action is a foil to the intelligent but reluctant Hamlet. The angry hothead Hotspur in Henry IV, Part I, is the foil to the cool and calculating Prince Hal. 26) Formulae literature in which the storylines and plots have been reused to the extent that the narratives are predictable. o High Fantasy, Western Movies, Science Fiction, Space Opera 27) Free Verse Poetry based on the natural rhythms of phrases and normal pauses rather than the artificial constraints of metrical feet. This poetry often involves the counterpoint of stressed and unstressed syllables in unpredictable but clever ways. o Walt Whitman, E.E. Cummings o I shall go Up and down, In my gown. Gorgeously arrayed, Boned and stayed. And the softness of my body will be guarded from embrace By every button, hook, and lace. For the man who should loose me is dead, Fighting with the Duke in Flanders, In a pattern called a war. Christ! What are patterns for? Here, we find examples of rhythmical regularity such as the near-anapestic meter in one line ("and the SOFTness of my BOdy, will be GUARDed from em BRACE"). However, the poet

deviates from this regularity in other lines, which often vary wildly in length--in some passages approaching a prose-like quality. 28) Haiku literally means "starting verse." A hokku was the first starting link of a much longer chain of verses known as renga or linked verse. The hokku was traditionally three lines long, with a syllable count of 5/7/5 syllables in the three lines. o An old silent pond... A frog jumps into the pond, splash! Silence again. By Basho (1644-1694) 29) Heroic Couplet Two successive rhyming lines of iambic pentameter. The second line is usually end-stopped. It was common practice to string long sequences of heroic couplets together in a pattern of aa, bb, cc, dd, ee, ff (and so on). o Excerpt from Cooper's Hill by John Denham O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme! Though deep, yet clear, though gentle, yet not dull, Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full. 30) Horatian Ode A long, often elaborate stanzaic poem of varying line lengths and sometimes intricate rhyme schemes dealing with a serious subject matter and treating it reverently. The ode is usually much longer than the song or lyric, but usually not as long as the epic poem. Classical odes are often divided by tone, with Pindaric odes being heroic and ecstatic and Horatian odes being cool, detached, and balanced with criticism. o Andrew Marvell's "Upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland" is an example of a Horatian ode. 31) In medias res ("In the middle[s] of things") The classical tradition of opening an epic not in the chronological point at which the sequence of events would start, but rather at the midway point of the story. Later on in the narrative, the hero will recount verbally to others what events took place earlier. Usually in medias res is a technique used to heighten dramatic tension or to create a sense of mystery. o Star Wars 32) Kenning

A form of compounding in Old English, Old Norse, and Germanic poetry. In this poetic device, the poet creates a new compound word or phrase to describe an object or activity. Specifically, this compound uses mixed imagery to describe the properties of the object in indirect, imaginative, or enigmatic ways. The resulting word is somewhat like a riddle since the reader must stop and think for a minute to determine what the object is. Kennings may involve conjoining two types of dissimilar imagery, extended metaphors, or mixed metaphors. o The most famous example is hron-rade or hwal-rade ("whale-road") as a poetic reference to the sea. Other examples include "Thor-Weapon" as a reference to a smith's hammer, "battle-flame" as a reference to the way light shines on swords, "gore-bed" for a battlefield filled with motionless bodies, and "word-hoard" for a man's eloquence. In Beowulf, we also find Anglo-Saxon banhus ("bone-house") for body, goldwine gumena ("gold-friend of men") for generous prince, beadoleoma ("flashing light") for sword, and beaga gifa ("ring-giver") for a lord.

33) Litotes Understatement, the opposite of exaggeration: Litotes is a type of meiosis in which the writer uses a statement in the negative to create the effect: o "You know, Einstein is not a bad mathematician." (i.e., Einstein is a good mathematician.) 34) Melodrama A dramatic form characterized by excessive sentiment, exaggerated emotion, sensational and thrilling action, and an artificially happy ending. Melodramas originally referred to romantic plays featuring music, singing, and dancing, but by the eighteenth century they connoted simplified and coincidental plots, bathos, and happy endings. o These melodramatic traits are present in Gothic novels, western stories, popular films, and television crime shows. (Dead Poets Society, The Titanic) 35) Metonymy Using a vaguely suggestive, physical object to embody a more general idea. o Some examples of metonymy are using the metonym crown in reference to royalty or the entire royal family, or stating "the pen is mightier than the sword" to suggest that the power of education and writing is more potent for changing the world than military force. 36) Paean Among the earliest Greeks, the word paean signifies "a dance and hymn with a specific rhythm which is endued with an absolving in healing power" (Burkett 44). In later usage, any song of praise to a deity is called a paean.

37) Paradox (also called oxymoron): Using contradiction in a manner that oddly makes sense on a deeper level. Common paradoxes seem to reveal a deeper truth through their contradictions o "Without laws, we can have no freedom." o Shakespeare's Julius Caesar also makes use of a famous paradox: "Cowards die many times before their deaths" (2.2.32). 38) Parallel Structure When the writer establishes similar patterns of grammatical structure and length. o For instance, "King Alfred tried to make the law clear, precise, and equitable." The previous sentence has parallel structure in use of adjectives. However, the following sentence does not use parallelism: "King Alfred tried to make clear laws that had precision and were equitable." 39) Paradox (See above) 40) Parody (Greek: "beside, subsidiary, or mock song") A parody imitates the serious manner and characteristic features of a particular literary work in order to make fun of those same features. The humorist achieves parody by exaggerating certain traits common to the work, much as a caricaturist creates a humorous depiction of a person by magnifying and calling attention to the person's most noticeable features. Often the subject-matter of a parody is comically inappropriate, such as using the elaborate, formal diction of an epic to describe something trivial like washing socks or cleaning a dusty attic. o Caricature o the King Arthur spoof Monty Python and the Holy Grail 41) Pindaric Ode An ode in the form used by Pindar, consisting of a series of triads in which the strophe and antistrophe have the same stanza form and the epode has a different form. More heroic and ecstatic than Horatian Odes. o Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" 42) Poetic Justice Thomas Rymer coined the phrase and the idea in the late 1600s. He claimed that a narrative or drama should distribute rewards and punishments proportionately to the virtues and villainies of each character in the story. Thus, when a particularly vicious character meets a despicable end appropriate for his crimes, we say it is "poetic justice." o Dante's Divine Comedy reads like a compendium of examples of poetic justice.

o Almost every episode of The Twilight Zone features poetic justice, usually due to an ironic twist.
43) Pyrrhic In classical Greek or Latin poetry, this foot consists of two unaccented syllables--the opposite of a spondee. o ^ ^ / / ^ ^ / / And the white breast of the dim sea, 44) Rhyme Royal A seven-line stanzaic form invented by Chaucer in the fourteenth century and later modified by Spenser and other Renaissance poets. In rhyme royal, the stanzas are writen in iambic pentameter in a fixed rhyme scheme (ABABBCC). An example follows below from Wordsworth's Resolution and Independence: o There was roaring in the wind all night; The rain came heavily and down in floods; But now the sun is rising calm and bright. The birds are singing in the distant woods; Over his own sweet voice the stockdove broods; The jay makes answer as the magpie chatters; And the air is filled with pleasant noise of waters. 45) Romance Gothic- type of romance wildly popular between 1760 up until the 1820s that has influenced the ghost story and horror story. The stories are designed to thrill readers by providing mystery and blood-curdling accounts of villainy, murder, and the supernatural. Historical- A narrative that takes a small episode or group of episodes from some ancient or famous chronicle and then independently develops those events in much greater detail. (Pride and prejudice) Modern- In contrast with medieval and Renaissance romance, the meaning of a modern romance has become more restricted in the 20th century. Modern nonscholarly speakers refer to romances when they mean formulaic stories recounting the growth of a passionate sexual relationship. The conventional plotline involves a third-person narrative or a first-person narrative told from the viewpoint of a young woman between the ages of eighteen and her late twenties. She encounters a potential paramour in the form of a slightly older man. The two are prevented from forming a relationship due to social, psychological, economic, or interpersonal constraints. The primary plot involves the two overcoming these constraints through melodramatic efforts. The story conventionally ends happily with the two characters professing their love for each other and building a life together. (The Tempest, The Winters Tale)

Medieval- In medieval use, romance referred to episodic French and German poetry dealing with chivalry and the adventures of knights in warfare as they rescue fair maidens and confront supernatural challenges. (Romance of the Rose) Renaissance - The original medieval genre metrical romances gradually were replaced by prose works in the 1500s. At that point, the meaning of a "romance" expanded to include any lengthy French or Spanish story written in the 1500s and 1600s involving episodic encounters with supernatural or exciting events. The connotations were of wild adventures rather than romantic longing as in the modern meaning of romance. Comedy- Sympathetic comedy that presents the adventures of young lovers trying to overcome social, psychological, or interpersonal constraints to achieve a successful union (Sex and the City)

46) Satire An attack on or criticism of any stupidity or vice in the form of scathing humor, or a critique of what the author sees as dangerous religious, political, moral, or social standards. o Popular cartoons such as The Simpsons and televised comedies like The Daily Show make use of it in modern media. Conventionally, formal satire involves a direct, first-person-address, either to the audience or to a listener mentioned within the work. Horatian satire tends to focus lightly on laughter and ridicule, but it maintains a playful tone. Generally, the tone is sympathetic and good humored, somewhat tolerant of imperfection and folly even while expressing amusement at it. In contrast, Juvenalian satire also uses withering invective, insults, and a slashing attack. 47) Sestet (1) The last part of an Italian or Petrarchan sonnet, it consists of six lines that rhyme with a varying pattern. Common rhyme patterns include CDECDE or CDCCDC. See sonnet, below. (2) Any six-line stanza or a six-line unit of poetry. o Matthew Arnolds the Better Part o So answerest thou; but why not rather say: "Hath man no second life? - Pitch this one high! Sits there no judge in Heaven, our sin to see? More strictly, then, the inward judge obey! Was Christ a man like us? Ah! let us try If we then, too, can be such men as he!" 48) Sestina is a highly structured poem consisting of six six-line stanzas followed by a tercet (called its evoi) for a total of thirty-nine lines. The same set of six words ends the lines of each of the six-line stanzas, but in a different order each time;

o if we number the first stanza's lines 123456, then the words ending the second stanza's lines appear in the order 615243, then 364125, then 532614, then 451362, and finally 246531 o By Pam White The Concord Art Association Regrets
49) Spondee In scansion, a spondee is a metrical foot consisting of two successive strong beats. The spondee typically is "slower" and "heavier" to read than an iamb or a dactyl. o Examples of such spondees include football, Mayday, shortcake, plop-plop, fizz-fizz, dumbbell, drop-dead, goof-off, race track, bathrobe, breakdown, dead man, black hole, and love song. 50) Synecdoche rhetorical trope involving a part of an object representing the whole, or the whole of an object representing a part. o For instance, a writer might state, "Twenty eyes watched our every move." Rather than implying that twenty disembodied eyes are swiveling to follow him as he walks by, she means that ten people watched the group's every move. When a captain calls out, "All hands on deck," he wants the whole sailors, not just their hands. When a cowboy talks about owning "forty head of cattle," he isn't talking about stuffed cowskulls hanging in his trophy room, but rather forty live cows and their bovine bodies. When La Fontaine states, "A hungry stomach has no ears," he uses synecdoche and metonymy simultaneously to refer to the way that starving people do not want to listen to arguments. o likewise, when Christians pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," they aren't asking God for bread alone, but rather they use the word as a synecdoche for all the mundane necessities of food and shelter. 51) Synesthesia A rhetorical trope involving shifts in imagery. It involves taking one type of sensory input (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste) and commingling it with another separate sense in an impossible way. In the resulting figure of speech, we end up talking about how a color sounds, or how a smell looks. o When we say a musician hits a "blue note" while playing a sad song, we engage in synaesthesia. When we talk about a certain shade of color as a "cool green," we mix tactile or thermal imagery with visual imagery the same way. When we talk about a "heavy silence," we also use synaesthesia. Examples abound: "The scent of the rose rang like a bell through the garden." "I caressed the darkness with cool fingers." 52) Tanka

A genre of Japanese poetry similar to the haiku. A tanka consists of thirty-one syllables arranged in five lines. The lines contain five / seven / five / seven / seven syllables. o condemned bridge the icy arches on fire with sunset tomorrow soon enough to pull it down byYvonne Hardenbrook

53) terza Rima (Italian, "third rhyme"): A three-line stanza form with interlocking rhymes that move from one stanza to the next. The typical pattern is ABA, BCB, CDC, DED, and so on. Dante chose terza rima's tripartite structure as the basic poetic unit of his trilogy, The Divine Comedy. An English example is found in Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind." Here are two sample stanzas: o Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is: What if my leaves are falling like its own! The tumult of thy mighty harmonies Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone, Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce, My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one! 54) Trochee A two-syllable unit or foot of poetry consisting of a heavy stress followed by a light stress. o Many words in English naturally form trochees, including happy, hammer, Pittsburgh, nugget, double, incest, injure, roses, hippie, Bubba, "beat it," clever, dental, dinner, shatter, pitcher, Cleveland, chosen, planet, chorus, widow, bladder, cuddle, slacker, and so on. 55) Villanelle A genre of poetry consisting of nineteen lines--five tercets and a concluding quatrain. The form requires that whole lines be repeated in a specific order, and that only two rhyming sounds occur in the course of the poem. o Here is an example of an opening stanza to one poem by W. E. Henley: A dainty thing's the Villanelle, Sly, musical, a jewel in rhyme. It serves its purpose passing well. A double-clappered silver bell, That must be made to clink in chime, A dainty thing's the Villanelle.

And if you wish to flute a spell, Or ask a meeting 'neath the lime, It serves its purpose passing well. Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night."