English 12

1
English 12

• Literary Terms

2
Literary Terms

• Allegory An extended narrative in prose or verse
  in which characters, events, and settings
  represent abstract qualities where the writer
  intends a second meaning to be read beneath the
  surface story
• Eg. The Faerie Queen by Edmund Spenser (written
  in 1590)
• Spenser only completed half of The Faerie Queene
  he planned. In a letter to Sir John Walter
  Raleigh, he explained the purpose and structure
  of the poem. It is an allegory, a story whose
  characters and events nearly all have a specific
  symbolic meaning. The poem's setting is a
  mythical "Faerie land," ruled by the Faerie
  Queene. Spenser sets forth in the letter that
  this "Queene" represents his own monarch, Queen
  Elizabeth.

3

• Allusion A passing reference to historical of
  fictional character, places, or events, or to
  other works that the writer assumes the reader
  will recognize.
• Eg. Bible
• From HAMLET by William Shakespeare
• O, my offence is rank it smells to heavenIt
  hath the primal eldest curse upon't,A brother's
  murder. Pray can I not,Though inclination be as
  sharp as willMy stronger guilt defeats my
  strong intentAnd, like a man to double business
  bound,I stand in pause where I shall first
  begin,And both neglect. What if this cursed
  handWere thicker than itself with brother's
  blood,Is there not rain enough in the sweet
  heavensTo wash it white as snow?(2.3)

The underlined section makes reference to the
slaying of Abel by Cain in the Bible
4

• AnalogyA comparison of similar things for the
  purpose of making something unfamiliar to seem
  familiar
• Eg. River system compared to a tree
• DIFFERS FROM METAPHOR AND SIMILE BECAUSE
• Metaphor and simile often make unexpected and
  creative comparisons

5

• Aphorism A statement of a principle or truth,
  usually an observation about life
• Eg. The happiest of women, like the happiest
  nations, have no history
• George Eliot Mary Ann Evans
• (22 November 1819 22 December 1880),
• better known by her pen name
• George Eliot, was an
• English novelist. Her most famous
• work is MIDDLEMARCH (1871-72),

6

• Apostrophe In poetry, when an absent person, an
  abstract concept, or an important object is
  directly addressed
• Eg. Paradise Lost by John Milton begins with an
  invocation to the heavenly muse
• Sing, Heavenly Muse

7

• Aside In drama, a convention by which actors
  speak briefly to the audience
• Eg. Shakespeares Hamlet A little more than
  kin, and less than kind (1.2. line 65)
• Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds but
  not consonant sounds as in consonance
• Eg. Fleet feet sweep by sleeping geeks.

8

• Ballad A form of narrative poetry that presents
  a single dramatic episode, which is often tragic
  or violent. Often meant to be sung.
• Folk ballad Composed anonymously and transmitted
  orally from generation to generationsung or
  recited. Dealt with common people rather than
  nobility and the supernatural played an important
  role
• Eg. Bonnie George Campbell
• Hie upon the Highlands, and laigh upon the
  Tay,Bonnie George Campbell rode, out on a
  day.He saddled, he bridled, and gallant rode
  he,And hame came his guid horse, but never cam
  he.Out cam his mother, dear, greeting fu
  sair,And out cam his bonnie bryde, riving her
  hair."The meadow lies green the corn is
  unshornBut bonnie George Campbell will never
  return.Saddled and bridled and booted rode
  he,A plume in his helment, a sword at his
  knee.but toom cam his saddle, all bloody to
  seeOh, hame cam his guid horse, but never cam he
  

9

• Ballads continued
• Literary Ballads More polished and consciously
  artful than folk ballads and contain more
  elevated language and poetric diction
• Eg. Samuel Taylor Coleridges
• Rime of the Ancient Mariner

10

• Ballad Stanza The stanza form of the ballad,
  usually four lines rhyming abcb
• The first and the third lines typically contain
  four accented syllables, the second and the
  fourth lines, three accented syllables
• A refrain (repeated line found elsewhere in the
  same position) at the end of the stanza is common

11
Iambic Meterthe stress in each line falls on
every other syllable
Rhyme Scheme
Q U A T R A I N
1st 3rd 8 syllables 2nd 4th 6 syllables
It was in and about the Martinmas timeWhen the
green leaves were a-falling, That Sir John
Graeme, in the West Country, fell in love with
Barbara AllanHe sent his men down through the
townTo the place where she was dwelling O
haste and come to my master dear,Gin ye be
Barbara AllanO hooly, hooly rose she up,To
the place where he was lyingAnd when she drew
the curtain by,Young man, I think youre
dying.O its Im sick, and very sick,And its
a for Barbara AllanO the better for me yes
never be,Though your hearts blood were a
spilling.
A B C B
Narrative Style
REPETITION
Language is Simple and straightforward
The young man is love sick
12

• Blank Verse A verse consisting of unrhymed lines
  of iambic pentameter.
• (ten syllables per line)
• Eg. Was this the face that launched a thousand
  ships
• And burned the topless towers of Illium?
• Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss
• Christopher Marlowes Dr. Faustus

13

• Caesura A pause within a line of poetry often
  resulting from the natural rhythm of language and
  not necessarily indicated by punctuation

14

• Caricature Descriptive writing that exaggerates
  specific features of appearance or personality,
  usually for comic effect

15

• Chorus A character whose role is to comment on
  the actions of the main character

16

• Comedy Any literary work that aims to amuse by
  dealing with humorous, familiar situations
  involving ordinary people speaking everyday
  language

17

• Conceit An elaborate figure of speech comparing
  two very dissimilar things.
• Eg. My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
  (Sonnet 130)   by William Shakespeare
• My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
• Coral is far more red than her lips' red
• If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun
• If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
• I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
• Consonance The close repetition of identical
  consonant sounds before and after differing vowel
  sounds. It is NOT necessarily (but can be)
  alliteration
• Eg. forever, over

18

• Couplet Two consectuive lines of poetry that
  rhyme and that are written in the same meter or
  pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
• Eg. Three be the things I shall have till I die
• Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye
• by Dorothy Parker from Inventory

19

• Denotation The dictionary definition of a work.
  Opposite of CONNOTATION.
• Dialect The version of a language spoken by
  people of a particular region or social group

20

• Diary A journal or personal reflection and
  record of the daily life of a person.
• Diction Word choice. Two basic standards
• Clear diction is both precise and concrete with
  strong verbs.
• Appropriate diction is diction at a levelformal,
  informal, colloquial, slangsuitable to the
  occasion

21

• Dissonance Words that are put together in such a
  way as to be awkward for effect.
• Dramatic Monologue A poem in which a single
  character, overheard speaking to a silent
  listener, reveals a dramatic situation.
• Eg. Robert Browning My Last Duchess

22

• Elegy A poem of sorrow or mourning for the dead.
• Eg. Thomas Grays Elegy Written in a Country
  Churchyard

23

• English or Shakepearean SonnetA fixed form
  consisting of fourteen lines of 5-foot iambic
  verse. Its arranged into three quatrains rhyming
  abab, cdcd, efef, followed by a rhyimg couplet
  gg, which sums up the poem.
• Epic A long narrative poem in loftyl style set
  in a remote time and place, and dealing with
  heroic character and deeds important in the
  legends and history of a nation or race.

24

• Epigram Any witty, pointed saying.
• Eg. She knows the cost of everything and the
  value of nothing.
• Figurative Language Language the contains the
  figures of speech such as metaphor, simile,
  personification and hyperbole.
• Foil A character who, by contrast, points up the
  qualities or characteristics of another
  character.
• Form The organizing principle that shapes a work
  of literature.

25

• Free Verse Poetry that doesnt follow a set form
  or rhyme scheme.
• Genre A type of literary work.
• Heroic Couplet A pair of rhyming iambic
  pentameter lines.
• Hyperbole Exaggeration for dramatic effect. Used
  to create humour OR emphasis.
• Eg. A section from Andrew Marvells To His Coy
  Mistress
• My vegetable love should growVaster than
  empires, and more slowAn hundred years should
  go to praiseThine eyes and on thy forehead
  gazeTwo hundred to adore each breast,But
  thirty thousand to the restAn age at least to
  every part,And the last age should show your
  heart.For, Lady, you deserve this state,Nor
  would I love at lower rate.

26

• Iambic Pentameter A poetic line of five iambic
  feet.

What is Iambic Pentameter? Ten syllables in each
line Five pairs of alternating unstressed and
stressed syllables The rhythm in each line
sounds like ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM /
ba-BUM If mu- / -sic be / the food / of love, /
play on Is this / a dag- / -ger I / see be- /
fore me?
27

• Image Language referring to something that can
  be perceived through one or more of the senses.
• Imagery The making of pictures in words, the
  pictorial quality of a literary work achieved
  through a collection of images.

28

• In medias res Literally in the middle of. When
  a piece of literature begins in the middle of the
  action/story then using flashbacks in order to
  fill in the beginning of the story.
• Internal rhyme The rhyming of two or more words
  in the same line of poetry.
• Inversion Reversing the normal order of sentence
  partsusually to ask a question.

29

• Invocation At the beginning of an epic, an
  appeal to a god or godess for inspiration.
• Irony In the broadest sense, the recognition of
  the incongruity or difference between reality
  (what is) and appearance (what seems to be).
• Situational The difference between what is
  expected to happen and what actually occurs.
• Verbal Irony Contrast between what is said and
  what is actually meant. (Sarcasm is a harsh form
  of this)

30

• Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet A sonnet that is
  organized into two parts
• Octave consists of the first eight lines of the
  poem rhyming abba, abba
• Sestet the final six lines of the poem, rhyming
  cde, cde. The octave is the question and the
  sestet is the answer/resolve.

31

• Kenning A metaporic compound owrd or phrase used
  as a synony for a common noun.
• Eg. Beowulf ring bestower
• Lyric Poem A poem that expresses the emotions
  and thoughts of the author

32

• Metaphysical (poetry) A term applied to the
  poetry of John Donne and several other
  seventeenth-century poets such as Andrew Marvell.
  This poetry rebells against the conventional love
  poetry of the Elizabethans.
• Meter The fixed (or nearly fixed) pattern of
  accented and unaccented syllables in the lines of
  a poem that produces its pervasive rhythm. Basic
  unit of rhythm is the FOOT, consisting of at
  least one accented syllable and one or more
  unaccented syllables.

33

• Metonymy A figure of speech that substitutes the
  name of a related object, person, or idea for the
  subject at hand.
• Eg. Crownmonarchy
• White HousePresident of United States
• Shakespeareworks of Shakespeare
• Mock Epic A literary work that comically or
  satirically imitates the form and style of the
  epic, treating a trivial subject in a lofty
  manner.
• Eg. The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope

34

• Motif A recurring image, word, phrase, action,
  idea, object, or situation throughout a literary
  work
• A recounting of a series of actual or fictional
  events in which some connection between the
  events is established or implied.
• Octave See Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet

35

• Ode A long and elaborate lyric poem, usually
  dignified in tone and often written to praise
  someone or something or to mark an important
  occasion.
• Eg. Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Oxymoron A figure of speech in which two
  contradictory words or phrases are combined in a
  single expression, giving the effect of a
  condensed paradox.
• Eg. Wise Fool, Living death, cruel kindness

36

• Paradox A statement, while apparently
  self-contradictory, is nonetheless essentially
  true.
• Parallelism The technique of showing that words,
  phrases, clauses, or larger structures are
  comparable in content and importance by placing
  them side by side and making them similar in
  form.
• Eg. Halcyon Days by Walt Whitman
• Not from successful love alone,
• Nor wealth, nor honord middle age, nor
  victories of politics
• or war
• But as life wanes, and all the turbulent
  passions calm
• As gorgeous vapory, silent hues cover the
  evening sky,
• As softness, fulness, rest ,suffuse the frame,
  like fresher,
• balmier air,
• As the days take on a mellower light, and the
  apple at last
• Hangs really finishd and indolent-ripe on the
  tree,
• Then for the teeming quietest, happiest days of
  all!
• The brooding and blissful halcyon days!

37

• Parody A piece that ridicules another
  composition by imitating and exaggerating aspects
  of its content, structure and style.
• Pastoral A poem having to do with shepherds and
  rural life
• Pentameter See iambic pentameter

38

• Persona The voice or mask created by the author
  through which a story is told.
• Petrarchan or Italian Sonnet The basic meter of
  all sonnets in English is iambic pentameter.
  Divided into two sections by two different groups
  of rhyming sounds. The first 8 lines is called
  the octave and rhymes a b b a a b b a The
  remaining 6 lines is called the sestet and can
  have either two or three rhyming sounds, arranged
  in a variety of ways
• c d c d c dc d d c d cc d e c d ec d e c e dc
  d c e d cThe point here is that the poem is
  divided into two sections by the two differing
  rhyme groups. This change occurs at the beginning
  of L9 in the Italian sonnet and is called the
  volta, or "turn" the turn is an essential
  element of the sonnet form, perhaps the essential
  element. It is at the volta that the second idea
  is introduced.

39

• Point of view The view from which as story is
  told.
• 1st Person Uses I
• Omniscient God-like narrator. Knows thoughts
  and feelings of all characters
• Limited omniscient/third person God-like
  narrator that only follows one character
• Dramatic or objective A play
• Second Person Uses you

40

• Protagonist The main character of a story. Can
  be an anti-hero (bad guy)
• Pun A play on words
• Quatrain Four line stanza
• Refrain A group of words repeated at intervals
  during a poemusually at the end of a stanza
• Rhyme similar sound between two words.
• Rhyme Scheme patterns of rhymes in a stanza or
  poem. Usually indicated by letters of the
  alphabet (abba)

41

• Rhythm The patterned flow of sound in poetry and
  prose
• Romanticism Movement in art and literature in
  18th 19th centuries in revolt against
  neoclassicism. Literature depicting emotional
  matter in an imaginative form.
• Satire Literature that uses ironic humour and
  wit with criticism for the purpose of ridiculing
  folly, vice for the purpose of making positive
  change.

42

• Sestet See Italian/petrarchan sonnet
• Setting The time and place of a story
• Shakespearean/English sonnet See English sonnet
• Simile Comparison using like or as
• Soliloquy A dramatic convention in which a
  character in a play, alone of stage, speaks his
  or her thoughts aloud.
• Eg. To be or Not to be speech in Hamlet
• Sonnet 14 line lyric poem

43

• Speaker The voice of a poem. The poet may be
  speaking as him/herself or take on a mask.
• Spenserian Stanza A stanza pattern, creatied by
  Edmund Spenser that consists of nine lines in
  iambic meter rhyming ababbcbcc.
• Stanza A paragraph or section of poetry
• StyleA writers characteristic way of saying
  things. It may be the arrangement of ideas, word
  choice, use of lit decvices, sentence structure,
  rhythm etc.

44

• Repetition The repeating of a word or phrase for
  dramatic effect.
• Synecdoche A figure of speech in which a part of
  something stands for the whole thing.
• Eg. Ive got wheels (wheelscar), The sails were
  seen on the horizon (sailsboats).
• Syntax The arrangement and grammatical relation
  of words, phrases and clauses in sentences.

45

• Tercet A three line stanza.
• Terza rima A form of verse composed of tercets
  linked by rhyme abc, bcb, cdc, ded and so on.
• Tetrameter A line of poetry compsed of four
  metrical feet (eight syllables).
• Tone The reflection in a work of the authors
  attitude toward his or her subject, characters,
  and readers.
• Eg. Brusque, friendly, teasing etc.

46

• Theme The central or dominating ideas, the
  message implicit in a work. (Remember that when
  you are writing about theme, you must create a
  theme statement!)
• Tragedy In simplest termsthe protagonist dies
  due to a fatal flaw/error in judgment/twist of
  fate.
• Trimeter A line of poetry consisting of three
  metrical feet (six syllables/line)

47

• Villanelle A lyric poem made up of five stanzas
  of three lines plus a final stanza of four lines.
  Aba, abaa.
• Eg. Do not go gentle into that good night by
  Dylan Thomas
• Voice A term to identify the sense a written
  work conveys to a reader of its writers
  attitude, personality, and character.
• Volta Also called a turn, a volta is a sudden
  change in thought, direction, or emotion near the
  conclusion of a sonnet.

48

• Wit The ability to make brilliant, imaginative,
  or clever connections between ideas.
• Proverb A short saying that expresses some
  commonplace truth or bit of folk wisdom
  concerning some aspect of practical life.
• Eg. A friend in need is a friend indeed
• A rolling stone gathers no moss
• Thesis The topic sentence that states the
  central argument of a piece of writing

49

• Jargon Language specific to a particular
  profession.
• Eg. Medical jargon
• Colloquial Language A word or phrase in everyday
  use in conversation and informal writing, but
  sometimes inappropriate in formal writing.
• Eg. Carol wont let on, but I know shes down in
  the dumps.

50

• Euphemism A kinder, gentler way of saying
  something thats negative.
• Eg. He passed on (instead of he died)
• Direct presentation When the author states what
  a character is like.
• Indirect presentation When the author asks the
  reader to deduce from his/her actions what a
  character is like.