A brief statement which expresses an observation on life, usually intended as a wise observation.

Aphorism

a noun or noun substitute placed next to

(in apposition to) another noun to be

described or defined

Appositive

An elaborate, usually intellectually ingenious poetic comparison or

image, such as an analogy or metaphor in which, say a beloved is

compared to a ship, planet, etc. The

comparison may be brief or extended.

Conceit

a poem that celebrates, in a continuous narrative, the

achievements of mighty heroes and heroines, usually in founding a

nation or developing a culture, and uses

elevated language and a grand, high style.

Epic

that part of the structure that sets the scene,

introduces and identifies characters, and

establishes the situation at the beginning of a

story or play. Additional exposition is often

scattered throughout the story.

Exposition

also called a Shakespearean sonnet; a sonnet form that divides the poem into three units of four lines each and a final unit of two lines

(4;PL4;PL4;PL2 structure). Its classic rhyme scheme is abab

cdcd efef gg,

English sonnet

the special language of a profession or group

Jargon

is grammatically correct before the period (Fair is

my love, and cruel as she’s fair.)

Loose Sentence

A crude, coarse, often bitter satire ridiculing

the personal appearance or character of a person.

Lampoon

a figure of speech which substitutes one term with

another that is being associated with that

term. A name transfer takes place to

demonstrate an association of a whole to a part or how two things are associated in some

way.

Metonymy

a word capturing or approximating the sound

of what it describes

Onomatopoeia

A repetition of sentences using the same structure.

Parallel Structure

is the use of a conjunction between each word, phrase, or

clause, creating a feeling of multiplicity, energetic

enumeration, and building up

Polysyndeton

a section of a poem demarcated by extra line

spacing

Stanza

One sensory experience described in terms of

another sensory experience

Synesthesia

The writer's attitude toward his readers and

his subject

Tone

A statement which lessens or minimizes the

importance of what is meant. The opposite is

hyperbole

Understatement

the way words are put together to form phrases,

clauses, and sentences

Syntax

A figure of speech wherein a part of

something represents the whole thing.

Synecdoche

a literary work that holds up human failings to ridicule and censure

Satire

treating an abstraction as if it were a person by

endowing it with humanlike qualities

Personification (or

prosopopeia)

A play on words wherein a word is used to convey

two meanings at the same time

Pun

a sentence grammatically correct only at the end

Periodic Sentence

A situation or a statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, does

not

Paradox

A poem in praise of something divine or

expressing some noble idea

Ode

A regular pattern of unstressed and stressed

syllables in a line or lines of poetry

Meter

a recurrent device, formula, or situation

Motif

The atmosphere or feeling created by a

literary work, partly by a description of the objects

or by the style of the descriptions

Mood

a sonnet form that divides the poem into one section of eight lines and

a second section of six lines, usually following the abbaabba cdecde

rhyme scheme

Italian sonnet

A character who sets off the main character or other characters by

comparison

Foil

a fictional character, often but not always a

minor character, who is relatively simple, who is presented as having few,

though sometimes dominant, traits, and who

thus does not change much in the course of a

story

Flat character

usually a formal lament on the death of a particular person

Elegy

a monologue that reveals a character’s innermost

thoughts and feelings set in a specific situation and spoken to an imaginary

audience

Dramatic monologue

a pleasant combination of sounds

Euphony

A mild word of phrase which substitutes for

another which would be undesirable because it is too direct, unpleasant, or

offensive

Euphemism

In literature, a word of phrase preceding or

following a name which serves to describe the

character

Epithet

A novel consisting of letters written by a character or several

characters

Epistolary novel

“the god from the machine” who usually

appears at the last moment to untangle,

resolves, or reveals some key to the plot

Deux ex machine

a very short, usually witty verse with a quick turn at

the end

Epigram

when a sentence or thought runs into the next couplet or line

without a pause at the end of the line; a run-on

line.

Enjambment

a direct and specific meaning

Denotation

might be called "reverse parallelism," since the

second part of a grammatical

construction is balanced or paralleled by the first

part, only in reverse order

Chiasmus

A pause metrical or rhetorical, within a line of poetry which may or

may not affect the metrical count

Caesura

consists of unrhymed lines in iambic

pentameter

Blank verse

an unpleasant combination of sounds

Cacophony

the word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers

Antecedent

the repetition of the same word or words at

the beginning of successive phrases,

clauses, or sentences

Anaphora

compares two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose

of explaining or clarifying some

unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar

one

Analogy

a reference—whether explicit or implied, to

history, the Bible, myth, literature, painting,

music, and so on--that suggests the meaning or generalized implication of details in the story,

poem, or play

Allusion

A figurative work in which a surface narrative

carries a secondary, symbolic or metaphorical

meaning

Allegory

A figure of speech wherein the speaker speaks directly to an

absent or dead person or to something nonhuman.

Apostrophe