Literary Terms
Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sounds; must be close to each other. Ex: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Analogy: a form of figurative language used to compare two unlike things in order to explain a more difficult
concept. Analogies tend to be about the size of a paragraph. Metaphors and similes are often used in them. Ex: Harrison Ford is like one of those sports cars that advertise acceleration from 0 to 60 m.p.h. in three or four seconds. He can go from slightly broody inaction to ferocious reaction in approximately the same time span. And he handles the tight turns and corkscrew twists of a suspense story without losing his balance or leaving skid marks on the film. But maybe the best and most interesting thing about him is that he doesn't look particularly sleek, quick, or powerful; until something or somebody causes him to gun his engine, he projects the seemly aura of the family sedan. -Richard Schickel, review of Patriot Games in Time magazine
Antagonist: The opponent tor enemy of the main character, or protagonist. Ex: The snakes Nag and Nagaina in “Rikki-tikki-tavi”
Allusion: a reference to a famous work from the past, such as a song, work of literature, or film.
Ex: In The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, Joetta mentions “Narcissy” (Narcissus, the Greek character).
Assonance: repetition of a vowel sound; often in the middle of words Ex: the apathy of the academy (“uh” sound)
Ballad: a song or poem typically narrating a story in short stanzas. Ex: “Greensleeves”—an old English ballad
Characterization: the means through which an author reveals a character’s personality
Direct characterization: the author states personality traits directly Ex: “Ben was a quiet, serious boy.”
Indirect characterization: character traits must be inferred by the reader by what the character says, thinks/feels, actions,
what others say about the character, appearance
Climax: the point in a story’s plot where the main problem of the story is resolved for better or for worse.
Conflict: a struggle between opposing force—man vs. man, man vs. himself, man vs. nature, man vs. society
Couplet: two lines of poetry, one after the other, whose ending words rhyme Ex: "Good nature and good sense must ever join;/To err is human,
to forgive, divine." --Alexander Pope
Dialogue: the conversation of characters in literature
Dynamic character: a character who undergoes significant change throughout the course of a story
Fiction: a made-up story; events can be based in reality, but they are not real events that actually happened
Figurative language: language that is used creatively to mean something other than its literal meaning. Examples include hyperbole, simile,
metaphor, and personification.
Foreshadowing: hints about future events
Free verse: poetry without a regular meter or rhyme scheme Ex: “The 1st” (p. 741 BG)
Hyperbole: a purposeful, non-literal exaggeration Ex: I’m crazy for you. (Assuming that’s an exaggeration, of course!)
Idiom: an everyday expression that is not to be taken literally Ex: Why are you feeling blue?
Imagery: An author’s use of the five senses Ex: See “The Highwayman” p. 161 BG for examples of imagery.
Irony: a contrast between expectation and reality; the opposite of what you’d expect (Many people mistakenly claim that things that are coincidental or fitting are “ironic.”) It can be verbal, situational, or dramatic in literary works. Ex: In Part 2 of “The Highwayman,” the reader feels an anxious sense of irony when King George’s men have Bess tied up. Although the highwayman doesn’t know it, we know that a trap is set for him.
Limerick: a short humorous poem with an AABBA thyme scheme
Ex: A notable Limerick - which won an Irish ‘Listowel Writers Week' prize in 1998 - exemplifies the structure:
Writing a Limerick's absurd
Line one and line five rhyme in word,
And just as you've reckoned
They rhyme with the second;
The fourth line must rhyme with the third.
Lyric poem: expresses emotion, typically spoken in the present tense
Ex: “How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways” (Sonnets from the Portuguese No. 43)
Metaphor: a comparison between two unlike things without using like or as Ex: He was a powerful locomotive.
Meter: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry
Ex: The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold. (underlined areas = stresses)
Metonymy: a way of referring to a thing (or a person) not by its own name, but by something else associated with it.
Ex: "The White House just announced that..." Here, we're referring to the President, but we say, "The White House." *Synecdoche* is a specific type of metonymy where a part of something is used to refer to
the whole, or vice versa. Ex: "We have 200 hungry mouths to feed." We clearly mean people, not just their mouths, but we use the part (mouth) to refer to the whole (a person). Also, "all hands on deck" is
synecdoche--you want all of them, not just their hands.
Mood: The overall emotion felt by a reader while reading a work of literature Ex: “The Highwayman” has a tense, somber mood.
Narrative poem: a poem that tells a story Ex: “The Highwayman”
Narrator: the person telling a story
Nonfiction: a true story or article of facts
Novel: a work of narrative prose that’s at least 100 pages in length
Novella: a short novel, about 20-99 pages
Ode: a poem dedicated to someone or something who the poet thinks is praiseworthy Ex: “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats
Onomatopoeia: words that simulate sounds Ex: Buzz
Personification: giving human qualities to a non-human thing Ex: The wind howled its objection.
Plot: the sequence of events in a narrative story: exposition/basic situation, inciting event and rising action, climax, resolution.
Point of view: the perspective from which a story is told: first person = character tells the story, second person = “you” perspective, third person
limited = an outside narrator follows the thoughts and feelings of one character, third person omniscient = the outside narrator describes
thoughts and feelings of multiple characters
Poetry: a special type of writing that encapsulates words and ideas in a special form
Prose: every type of text that isn’t poetry
Protagonist: the main character of the story or the hero; the reader usually sympathizes with this character most
Repetition: repeating a word or line, often for emphasis Ex: The chorus of a song is repeated; that’s an example of repetition.
Rhyme: the repetition of accented vowel sounds and all the sounds following them in words close together in a poem
approximate/slant: rhymes that are close but not perfect rhymes
end: rhymes at the end of lines
internal: rhymes found in the middle of lines
Ex: “I am Sam/Sam I am.” (end rhyme & internal rhyme)
Rhythm: a musical quality produced by the repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables or by the repetition of certain other sound patterns.
Ex: The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold. (underlined areas = stresses)
Setting: environment in which a story takes place—time period, place, physical surroundings
Short story: a work of narrative prose about 1-20 pages in length
Simile: a comparison of two unlike things using like or as Ex: She was as sneaky as a snake.
Speaker: the narrator or “voice” of a poem
Stanza: a poetry paragraph Ex: Look at any poem and observe any breaks—that is, extra spaces between lines.
Static character: a character who does not undergo significant change over the course of the story
Symbol: a thing that stands for something else, usually a much larger concept Ex: a dove a symbol of peace
Theme: the underlying message or life lesson of a work Ex: In “Annabel Lee,” the theme is that love can overcome even death.
Tone: The attitude an author takes toward his or her subject Ex: Limericks often have a humorous tone.