literary terms

Question 1

– Characters, actions, and setting symbolically represent an idea, moral, or political or religious principles.

Answer 1

Allegory

Question 2

Repetition of the same consonant sounds in two or more words.

Answer 2

Alliteration

Question 3

A direct or indirect reference to a person, place, thing, event, or idea in literature.

Answer 3

Allusion

Question 4

a balanced statement; opposite meanings are balanced against each other.

Answer 4

Antithesis

Question 5

to turn away from the general audience of a work to address a specific person by oh, o

Answer 5

Apostrophe

Question 6

The repetition of vowel sounds in stressed syllables.

Answer 6

Assonance

Question 7

– A narrative poem that tells a story

Answer 7

Ballad

Question 8

Iambic pentameter without rhyme. closest to the natural rhythms of English speech.

Answer 8

Blank Verse

Question 9

– A pause occurring in a line of poetry. notate a caesura with the “double pipe” sign: ||

Answer 9

Caesura

Question 10

An inversion of the second of two parallel phrases

Answer 10

Chiasmus

Question 11

An expression that has lost its freshness or appeal due to overuse.

Answer 11

Cliché

Question 12

moment of greatest intensity or emotional tension, usually marks a turning point in the plot.

Answer 12

Climax

Question 13

– sets up an unusual, exaggerated, or elaborate parallel between two different things.

Answer 13

Conceit

Question 14

The struggle or tension within the plot between opposing forces.

Answer 14

Conflict

Question 15

the outcome or resolution of the plot.

Answer 15

Denouement

Question 16

A writer’s specific choice of words which combine to create meaning.

Answer 16

Diction

Question 17

story or play that focuses on and resolves some universal problem or situation.

Answer 17

Drama

Question 18

• the repetition of key words, sounds, syllables, lines or ideas for effect.

Answer 18

Echo

Question 19

A formal poem lamenting about the dead.

Answer 19

Elegy

Question 20

a natural pause indicated by punctuation such as a period or comma at the end of a line.

Answer 20

End-stop

Question 21

when a sentence ‘steps over’ a line break into the next line without pause.

Answer 21

Enjambment

Question 22

A long narrative poem about the deeds of a hero, often set in a past

Answer 22

Epic

Question 23

Originally a brief poem, usually solemn, short poem with a cutting remark at the end.

Answer 23

Epigram

Question 24

Mild or indirect words replacing harsher or more direct words

Answer 24

Euphemism

Question 25

describe something as one thing when it is another; opposite of literal language.

Answer 25

Figures of Speech

Question 26

the basic unit of rhythm in poetry consisting of a group of two or three syllables.

Answer 26

Foot

Question 27

flowing lines, usually unrhymed, that vary in length and with no fixed meter.

Answer 27

Free Verse

Question 28

A type of literature

Answer 28

Genre

Question 29

Two lines of rhyming iambic pentameter.

Answer 29

Heroic Couplet

Question 30

Exaggeration or overstatement used to emphasize a point.

Answer 30

Hyperbole

Question 31

Descriptive sensory words and specific details that illustrate or “paint a picture” for readers.

Answer 31

Imagery

Question 32

a contrast between the intent and the literal meaning of words or action.

Answer 32

Irony

Question 33

a type of understatement which uses a double negative as a form of understatement.

Answer 33

Litotes

Question 34

good guys against bad guys in scenes of sensational action but ends happily.

Answer 34

Melodrama

Question 35

A figure of speech that draws implicit comparison between two unlike things

Answer 35

Metaphor

Question 36

– the sound a poem makes based on patterns of syllables and stresses in each line.

Answer 36

Meter

Question 37

a phrase or word is substituted for one which is closely related to it.

Answer 37

Metonymy

Question 38

emotional response that the writer wishes to evoke in the reader through a story

Answer 38

Mood

Question 39

A lyrical poem of high emotions.

Answer 39

Ode

Question 40

The use of words or passages that imitate sounds.

Answer 40

Onomatopoeia

Question 41

combines two contradictory terms in a surprising and descriptive way.

Answer 41

Oxymoron

Question 42

A statement that seems self-contradictory or even absurd, but is used to demonstrate a truth.

Answer 42

Paradox

Question 43

inanimate objects or abstract concepts are given human qualities.

Answer 43

Personification

Question 44

The ordinary language of speaking or writing, without meter.

Answer 44

Prose

Question 45

representation of objects, actions, or social conditions as they really are.

Answer 45

Realism

Question 46

using syllables more than once. unify both poetry and prose. structure a literary work.

Answer 46

Repetition

Question 47

Repetition of the same sound in words or lines.

Answer 47

Rhyme

Question 48

occurs when the last sound in the line rhymes

Answer 48

End-rhyme

Question 49

occurs when sounds within the line rhyme

Answer 49

Internal rhyme

Question 50

the pattern of the end-rhymes in a poem or stanza.

Answer 50

Rhyme scheme

Question 51

refers to words that sound similar, but do not fully rhyme

Answer 51

Near or slant rhyme

Question 52

words that look like they should rhyme because of spelling, but do not

Answer 52

Eye rhyme

Question 53

is a rhyme of syllables where stressed and the following unstressed

Answer 53

Feminine rhyme

Question 54

a rhyme of syllables where the final syllables are stressed

Answer 54

Masculine rhyme

Question 55

pair of successive lines with end-rhymes; unit of verse has 2 lines with same rhyme and meter.

Answer 55

Couplet

Question 56

– An unsophisticated or heavy-handed form of verbal irony

Answer 56

Sarcasm

Question 57

irony, sarcasm, wit, and ridicule to expose and criticize the follies and vices

Answer 57

Satire

Question 58

A figure of speech that draws an explicit comparison between two unlike things by using words

Answer 58

Simile

Question 59

A poem typically consisting of fourteen lines.

Answer 59

Sonnet

Question 60

a unit of structure in a poem separated by blank space; paragraphs of a poem.

Answer 60

Stanza

Question 61

represents or stand in; concrete image can express an emotion or abstract idea

Answer 61

Symbol/Symbolism

Question 62

a part represents the whole or the whole represents a part.

Answer 62

Synecdoche

Question 63

central meaning or dominant idea of a work. unifying point around elements are developed.

Answer 63

Theme

Question 64

– the attitude in which an author expresses his idea.

Answer 64

Tone

Question 65

Generally, the structural form of a verse, as revealed by scansion. Identification of verse structure includes the name of the metrical type and the name designating number of feet:

Answer 65

Versification