Literary Terms

Question 1

the mingling of one metaphor with another immediately following with which the first is incongruous

Answer 1

mixed metaphors

Question 2

a non-dramatic poem which tells a story or presents a narrative, whether simple or complex, long or short. Epics and ballads are examples of narrative poems.

Answer 2

narrative poem

Question 3

an eight-line stanza

Answer 3

octave

Question 4

the use of words whose sounds suggest their meaning.

Answer 4

onomatopoeia

Question 5

a form of paradox that combines a pair of contrary terms into a single expression. This combination usually serves the purpose of shocking the reader into awareness

Answer 5

oxymoron

Question 6

a situation or action or feeling that appears to be contradictory but on inspection turns out to be true or at least to make sense

Answer 6

paradox

Question 7

a similar grammatical structure within a line or lines of poetry

Answer 7

parallelism

Question 8

a restatement of an idea in such a way as to retain the meaning while changing the diction and form

Answer 8

paraphrase

Question 9

a group of syllables in verse usually consisting of one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables associated with it

Answer 9

poetic foot

Question 10

a play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings.

Answer 10

pun

Question 11

close similarity or identity of sound between accented syllables occupying corresponding positions in two or more lines of verse.

Answer 11

rhyme

Question 12

usually a repeated grouping of three or more lines with the same meter and rhyme scheme

Answer 12

stanza

Question 13

the management of language for a specific effect.

Answer 13

strategy

Question 14

the mode of expression in language; the characteristic manner of expression of an author

Answer 14

style

Question 15

a form of metaphor which in mentioning a part signifies the whole. For example, we refer to “foot soldiers” for infantry and “field hands” for manual laborers who work in agriculture.

Answer 15

synecdoche

Question 16

the ordering of words into patterns or sentences. If a poet shifts words from the usual word order, you know you are dealing with an older style of poetry or a poet who wants to shift emphasis onto a particular word

Answer 16

syntax

Question 17

a kind of metaphor that gives inanimate objects or abstract ideas human characteristics.

Answer 17

personification

Question 18

a four-line stanza with any combination of rhymes.

Answer 18

quatrain

Question 19

a group of words forming a phrase or sentence and consisting of one or more lines repeated at intervals in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza

Answer 19

refrain

Question 20

a seven-line stanza of iambic pentameter rhymed ababbcc, used by Chaucer and other medieval poets.

Answer 20

rhyme royal

Question 21

the recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Answer 21

rhythm

Question 22

a type of irony in which a person appears to be praising something but is actually insulting it. Its purpose is to injure or to hurt.

Answer 22

sarcasm

Question 23

writing that seeks to arouse a reader’s disapproval of an object by ridicule.

Answer 23

satire

Question 24

a system for describing the meter of a poem by identifying the number and the type(s) of feet per line

Answer 24

scansion

Question 25

a directly expressed comparison; a figure of speech comparing two objects, usually with "like," "as," or "than."

Answer 25

simile

Question 26

normally a fourteen-line iambic pentameter poem.

Answer 26

sonnet

Question 27

the arrangement of materials within a work; the relationship of the parts of a work to the whole; the logical divisions of a work.

Answer 27

structure

Question 28

something that is simultaneously itself and a sign of something else.

Answer 28

symbol

Question 29

a stanza of three lines in which each line ends with the same rhyme.

Answer 29

tercet

Question 30

a three-line stanza rhymed aba, bcb, cdc,etc.

Answer 30

terza rima

Question 31

the main thought expressed by a work. In poetry, it is the abstract concept which is made concrete through its representation in person, action, and image in the work.

Answer 31

theme

Question 32

the manner in which an author expresses his or her attitude; the intonation of the voice that expresses meaning. (Remember that the "voice" need not be that of the poet.)

Answer 32

tone

Question 33

the opposite of hyperbole. It is a kind of irony that deliberately represents something as being much less than it really is

Answer 33

understatement

Question 34

a nineteen-line poem divided into five tercets and a final quatrain.The villanelle uses only two rhymes which are repeated as follows: aba, aba, aba,aba, aba, abaa. Line 1 is repeated entirely to form lines 6, 12, and 18, and line 3 is repeated entirely to form lines 9, 15, and 19; thus, eight of the nineteen lines arerefrain.

Answer 34

villanelle

Question 35

a six-line stanza.

Answer 35

sestet