New Version

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom headed a group of educational psychologists who developed a classification of levels of intellectual behavior important in learning. During the 1990's a new group of cognitive psychologists, lead by Lorin Anderson (a former student of Bloom), updated the taxonomy to reflect relevance to 21st century work. The two graphics show the revised and original Taxonomy. Note the change from nouns to verbs associated with each level.

Note that the top two levels are essentially exchanged from the traditional to the new version.

Old Version

Remembering: can the student recall or remember the information?

define, duplicate, list, memorize, recall, repeat, reproduce state

Understanding: can the student explain ideas or concepts?

classify, describe, discuss, explain, identify, locate, recognize, report, select, translate, paraphrase

Applying: can the student use the information in a new way?

choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write.

Analyzing: can the student distinguish between the different parts?

appraise, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test.

Evaluating: can the student justify a stand or decision?

appraise, argue, defend, judge, select, support, value, evaluate

Creating: can the student create new product or point of view?

assemble, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, write.

Mr. Harris

The Evolution of English � � � � � � � � � � � � � �

Old English (ca. 449-1100) Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, Beowulf (composed ca. 700)

Middle English (1100-1485)

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of march hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour Of which vertu engendred is the flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (began in 1386) Early Modern English (1485-1650) It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain; No medicine in the world can do thee good; In thee there is not half an hour of life; The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, Unbated and envenom'd: the foul practise Hath turn'd itself on me lo, here I lie, Never to rise again: thy mother's poison'd: I can no more: the king, the king's to blame.

William Shakespeare, Hamlet (written in 1600)

Modern English

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. Jane Austen, Emma (published in 1816)

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Following are a handful of techniques you can use to perform a close reading on a poem. Using one or a combination will jumpstart your thinking when preparing to write an essay. Not all of these skills will work for you on every poem you read, but if you memorize these, one or more of them should assist you in figuring out just about any poem put in front of you.!

SOAPS!!!

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SOAPS is handy as a general introduction to a poem. If you are having a tough time getting any meaning at all from a poem, SOAPS will lead you to at least a basic understanding.!

Subject—the general topic, content, and ideas in the poem.

Occasion—the time and place of the poem. Try to understand the context that encouraged the poem to be written.

Audience—To whom is the poem written?

Purpose—What is the reason behind the writing of the poem?

Speaker—What can you say about the voice speaking the poem?

After reading the poem through once, take a moment to write a few complete thoughts regarding each of the above subjects.

DIDLS!!!

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Consider the tone of the poem. Use DIDLS to establish how the author creates tone.!

Diction—the connotation of the word choice

Consider the following when discussing diction

· monosyllabic/polysyllabic

· colloquial/informal/formal

· denotative/connotative

· euphonious/cacophonous

Images—vivid appeals to understanding through the senses

Details—facts that are included or omitted

Language—the overall use of language—formal, colloquial, clinical, jargon, etc...

Sentence Structure—how structure affects the reader’s attitude

After reading the poem, consider each carefully. As with SOAPS, spend some time writing down your thoughts.

TP-CASTT Analysis!!!

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This is possibly the most effective of the techniques listed here. While rather general compared to DIDLS, analyzing a poem in this way will give you something to say. !

Title—Ponder the title before reading the poem.

Paraphrase—Translate the poem into your own words

Connotation—Contemplate the poem for meaning beyond the literal.

Attitude—Observe both the speaker’s and the poet’s attitude (tone).

Shifts—Note shifts in speakers and attitudes.

How to discover shift

· Key words (but, yet, however, although)

· Punctuation (dashes, periods, colons, ellipsis)

· Stanza divisions

· Changes in line or stanza length, or both

· Irony (sometimes irony masks a shift)

· Structure

· Changes in sound or rhythm

· Changes in diction (ex. slang to formal language)

Title—Examine the title again, this time on an interpretive level.

Theme—Determine what the poet is saying.

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alazon a braggart who pretends to be more than he or she is allegory the expression of truths about human nature through symbolism alliteration the repetition of initial consonant sounds in stressed syllables allusion an indirect reference to a well-known person, event, statement, or theme found in literature, the other arts, history, myths, religion, or popular culture amphimacer a metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable

and one stressed syllable anapest a metrical foot consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable anaphora the deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive verses,

clauses, or paragraphs

antagonist the character pitted against the protagonist—the main character—of a work. An evil or cruel antagonist is a villain; however, the antagonist is not necessarily a villain

antithesis the use of strongly contrasting words, images, or ideas amphibrach a metrical foot consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable and one unstressed syllable aphorism a short, concise statement expressing a wise or clever observation or general truth apostrophe a figure of speech in which the speaker directly and often emotionally addresses a person who

is dead or otherwise not physically present, an imaginary person or entity, something inhuman, or a place or concept (usually an abstract idea or ideal). The speaker addresses the object of the apostrophe as if this object were present and capable of understanding and responding.

aside a convention in drama whereby a character onstage addresses the audience to reveal some inner thought or feeling that is presumed inaudible to any other characters onstage who might be in earshot. It is as if a character delivering an aside has momentarily stepped outside of the world of the play and into the world of the audience in order to provide it with illuminating information. assonance the repetition of vowel sounds in unrhymed, stressed syllables (e.g., “batter these ramparts”) blank verse unrhymed iambic pentameter

caesura a rhythmic break in the middle of lines where the reciter could pause for breath carpe diem Latin for “seize the day,” a phrase referring to the age-old literary theme that we should

enjoy the moment before it is gone, before youth passes away. catalog long list characterization the various means by which an author describes and develops characters in a literary

work

chiasmus a reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases (e.g., “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”).

climax the point of greatest tension or emotional intensity in a plot; point at which central conflict reaches its greatest height and the crisis, or turning point in the action, occurs

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colloquialism the everyday language we use in conversation. It is sometimes ungrammatical, and it may contain slang words and phrases. It varies from place to place and among ethnic groups.

conceit an extended metaphor that links objects or ideas not commonly associated, often mixing abstract ideas and emotional matters

consonance the repetition of similar final consonant sounds in stressed syllables with dissimilar

vowel sounds (e.g., “a frightful fiend / Doth close behind . . .”)

couplet a pair of lines, in succession, that rhyme dactyl a metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables dead metaphor a phrase that—although a metaphor—is no longer recognized as such because it has

become so familiar. “Getting the hang of things” is a common phrase that few people think of as a metaphor today.

dialect the form of language spoken by people in a particular region or group. Each one differs from all others in the details of its vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.

diction word choice direct characterization the use of direct statements about a character’s personality as opposed to indirect characterization. See also characterization. direct discourse a style of narration that relates the thoughts and utterances of individuals and literary characters to the reader unfiltered by a narrator speaking from a third- person point-of-view. (“Take me home this instant!” she insisted.) double rhyme See feminine rhyme. dramatic irony a form of situational irony in which there is a discrepancy between a character’s

perception and what the reader or audience knows to be true eiron one who is more than he or she pretends to be elegiac of or relating to a category of poetry that laments the deaths of loved ones and the loss of the past. end-rhyme rhyme that occurs at the end of lines in verse. In end-rhyme, the most common type of

rhyme, the last word of a line rhymes with the last word of another line. End rhyme is distinguished from internal rhyme, which occurs within a line of verse.

end-stopped line a line of poetry in which a grammatical pause (as indicated by some form of

punctuation) and the physical end of the line coincide. The meaning or sense of the line is also complete in itself. End-stopped lines are distinguished from lines exhibiting enjambement (run-on lines).

English (or Shakespearean) sonnet sonnet form consisting of three quatrains followed by a couplet. The typical rhyme scheme is abab/cdcd/efef/gg. Usually the couplet comments epigrammatically on the problem/situation presented in the three quatrains.

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enjambement French for “striding over,” a poetic (see poetry) expression that spans more than one line. Lines exhibiting enjambement (or enjambment) do not end with grammatical breaks, and their sense is not complete without the following line(s). Such lines are also commonly referred to as run-on lines and are distinguished from end-stopped lines. (e.g., “It is a beauteous evening, calm and free, / The holy time is quiet as a Nun / Breathless with adoration; the broad sun / Is sinking down in its tranquility.”)

epic a long, heroic poem (see poetry). A distinction is generally made between traditional (or folk or

primary) epics and literary (or art or secondary) epics. Traditional epics are derived from oral tradition and are not the invention of those who first commit them to writing, whereas literary epics are the work of a single poet, written in conscious imitation of the traditional style

epistolary of, relating to, or suitable to a letter !epigram from the Greek “inscription,” a short poem in which the writer strives for brevity, clarity,

and permanence. Epigrams may include short lines with bouncy rhythms, paradoxical twists, and parallel phrases or clauses.

estates satire a work that satirizes (see satire) the three traditional estates—clergy, nobility,

commons! ethos an appeal that is linked to the audience’s perception of the trustworthiness and moral character

of the speaker or writer

extended metaphor a sustained comparison that consists of a series of related metaphors external conflict the external problem that is standing in the way of the character and his or her goals eye-rhyme words that appear to rhyme due to their spelling but that do not rhyme when actually

pronounced (e.g., laughter and slaughter, bough, cough, and dough, demon and lemon) feminine ending (light ending) a line ending that is characterized by an extra, unstressed syllable. This

extrametrical syllable, which usually concludes an iambic or anapestic line, often provides rhythmical variety and movement. (e.g., Why, there’s scarcely a huddle of log-huts and shanties . . .”)

feminine rhyme rhyme in which rhyming stressed syllables are followed by identical unstressed syllables. A feminine rhyme that extends over two syllables is called double rhyme, and one extending over three syllables is called triple rhyme. Slaughter and daughter constitute a double rhyme. Bantering and cantering constitute a triple rhyme. The American poet Trumbull Stickney typically alternates feminine and masculine rhyme. In the first stanza of “The Violin” (1902), he alternates double feminine rhyme with an eye-rhyme that is masculine (how and bow): “You came to teach me how the hardened fingers / Must drop and nail the music down, and how / The sound then drags and nettled cries, then lingers / After the dying bow.”

firsthand narrative account a narrative account created by a person who lived through a significant historical event foil a character that, by contrast with the main character, serves to accentuate that character’s distinctive qualities or characteristics folk ballad a narrative poem, intended to be sung and without a known author. Ballads include some or all of the following characteristics: four-line stanzas in which the second and fourth lines rhyme, repeated key phrases or a regularly repeated section, called a refrain, dialogue, and humor.

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foot the unit of rhythm in a line of poetry

foreshadowing the technique of introducing into a narrative material that prepares the reader or audience for future events, actions, or revelations

frame story a story that contains another story or stories. This creates the narrative structure of a story- within-a-story. Usually, the frame story explains why the interior story or stories are being told.

free indirect discourse a style of third person narration which combines some of the characteristics of third person with first person. The combination includes shifts that change without signal. It is often unclear as to whether the thoughts of the narrator or the thoughts of a character are being conveyed, allowing a flexible and sometimes ironic interaction of internal and external perspectives. Even though the speaker is not named, it is often possible to infer his or her identity by examining the statements and using clues of characterization.

free verse the style of poetry that lacks a regular meter, does not rhyme, and uses irregular (and sometimes very short) line lengths gothic a style that emphasizes horror, suspense, doom, mystery, passion, and the grotesque and

supernatural half-rhyme (or slant-rhyme or off-rhyme) a rhyme that is close, but not perfect

heroic couplet a pair of rhymed lines written in iambic pentameter. Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to compose verse using heroic couplets, but their use did not become widespread until the seventeenth century. heroic ideal term used to refer to the bravery, loyalty, and generosity Anglo-Saxon warriors owed to their king or lord. These retainers are obliged to fight for their lord to the death, and if he is slain, to avenge him or die in the attempt. Everlasting shame awaits those who fail to live up to this sacred duty. heroic (poetry) of or relating to a category of poetry in the form of narrative verse that is elevated in mood and uses a dignified, dramatic, and formal style to describe the deeds of aristocratic warriors and rulers humours a physiological theory subscribed to during ancient times, the Medieval Period, and the

Renaissance that held that the relative amounts of or balance between the four main fluids (humours) of the body—blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile—determined an individual’s state of health and even general personality. The four humours were also associated with the four elements: blood with air (hot and moist), phlegm with water (cold and moist), yellow bile with fire (hot and dry), and black bile with earth (cold and dry). The term humour comes from the Latin humor, meaning “moisture.”

Adherents of this popular theory believed that the humours emitted vapors that rose to the brain, thus affecting both behavior and health. As long as the humours were in balance, the individual supposedly exhibited a perfect temperament and no illness, but an imbalance affected behavior in a very specific way. That is, an excess of blood produced a sanguine (happy) personality, phlegm a phlegmatic (cowardly, passive) personality, yellow bile a choleric (argumentative, stubborn) personality, and black bile a bilious (melancholy) one. Just as an imbalance produced a distinct behavioral effect, so would it produce illness and disease.

This theory was so commonly accepted that it made its way into popular culture and literature. Individuals (or literary characters) came to be classified according to their humour, and the word humour itself came to signify a variety of things from disposition or mood to peculiarity or affectation, particularly in Elizabethan times. Many works of literature even relied on this theory or characterization and to provide convincing motivation for the characters’ actions.

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hyperbole (or overstatement) exaggeration for effect iamb a metrical foot consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. The iamb is the most common metrical foot in English.

iambic pentameter the metrical pattern (see meter) which has the iamb as the dominant foot and lines with more or less five of them.

idiolect an individual system of speech patterns and pronunciation imagery a term used to refer to: (1) the actual language that a writer uses to create or represent any

sensory experience and (2) the use of figures of speech, often to express abstract ideas in a vivid and innovative way

indirect characterization the use of actions, thoughts, and dialogue to reveal a character’s personality,

as opposed to direct characterization. See also characterization.

indirect discourse a style of narration that relates the thoughts and utterances of individuals and

literary characters to the reader without directly quoting the speaker or including quotation marks. (She told him to take her home immediately.) See direct discourse and free indirect discourse.

in medias res Latin for “in the middle of things,” the technique of beginning a narrative in the

middle of the action. Crucial events that occurred before the point at which the narrative actually begins are related at some appropriate later time, generally through one or more flashbacks.

interior monologue a type of monologue in which the inner thoughts and workings of a character’s

mind are revealed or represented

internal conflict conflict involving the inner divisions or turmoil of a single character. Conflicts of this sort may result from the character’s attempt to decide between multiple alternatives for action or between opposing attitudes or beliefs.

internal rhyme rhyme within a line of poetry (e.g., With heavy thump, a lifeless lump, . . .”)

irony a contradiction or incongruity between appearance or expectation and reality. See dramatic, situational, and verbal irony.

Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet a sonnet consisting of an octave followed by a sestet. The octave is

almost always rhymed abbaabba; the sestet’s rhyme scheme is either cdecde, cdccdc, or cdedce. Often the octave states a problem, and the sestet resolves it.

kenning a compound renaming of people, places, and things in Old English and Old Norse poetry (e.g.,

whale’s home for ocean).

litotes from the Greek for “simple” or “meager,” a form of understatement (meiosis) that involves making an affirmative point by denying its opposite (e.g., “not a bad idea” and “not many”).

local color literature works that emphasize the setting, customs, dialects, and other features peculiar to

a given region logos an appeal that builds a well-reasoned argument based on evidence such as facts or statistics lyric of or relating to a category of poetry that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings, often in a

songlike style or form

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masculine ending a line of verse ending with a stressed syllable is said to have a masculine ending. masculine rhyme rhyme involving stressed, single-syllable words (e.g., The first and second (Jill / hill), as

well as the fourth and fifth (down / crown), lines of this nursery rhyme contain masculine rhyme: “Jack and Jill / Went up the hill / To fetch a pail of water. / Jack fell down / And broke his crown / And Jill came tumbling after.”

metaphor a figure of speech that associates two distinct things. See extended metaphor and dead

metaphor. The image (or activity or concept) used to represent or “figure” something else is the vehicle of the figure of speech; the thing represented is called the tenor. For instance, in the sentence, “That child is a mouse,” the child is the tenor, whereas the mouse is the vehicle. The image of a mouse is being used to represent the child, perhaps to emphasize his or her timidity.

metaphysics (metaphysical – adj.) - In modern philosophical terminology, metaphysics refers to the studies of what cannot be reached through objective studies of material reality. As such, it is concerned with explaining the features of reality that exist beyond the physical world and our immediate senses. Metaphysics might include the study of the nature of the human mind, the definition and meaning of existence, or the nature of space, time, and/or causality. metaphysical poetry a term that can be applied to any poetry that deals with philosophical or

spiritual matters and but that is generally limited to works written by a specific group of seventeenth-century poets who wrote in the manner of the poet John Donne. This poetry is characterized by a high degree of intellectualism.

meter the typical rhythmic pattern of a poem. By scanning (see scansion) the lines of a poem, one

arrives at its meter. The meter of a poem whose dominant foot is the iamb, and whose lines typically have five feet, is iambic pentameter. Names of lengths of poetic lines are monometer (1 foot), dimeter (2 feet), and trimester, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, heptameter, and octameter, respectively. A line of two trochees would be trochaic dimeter, six dactyls, dactylic hexameter, and so on.

metonymy a figure of speech in which one thing is used to refer to something with which it is commonly associated; for example, “bottle” is a metonym for “liquor.”

mood the emotions that a piece of literature creates in a reader monologue an extended narrative, oral or written, delivered uninterrupted and exclusively by one person (although it may be heard or witnessed by others) motif a unifying element in an artistic work, especially any recurrent image, symbol, theme, character

type, subject, or narrative detail muckraker/muckraking works works that expose corrupt business practices and corrupt politics narrative account a work that tells the story of real-life events

octave a group of eight lines linked by their end-rhymes, subject matter, or both ode a relatively long, serious, and usually meditative lyric poem that treats a noble or otherwise elevated subject in a dignified and calm manner oral tradition! the passing of songs, stories, and poems from generation to generation by word of

mouth Over-Soul According to transcendentalists, God, nature, and humanity are united in the Over-Soul.

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parable a simple, usually brief, story that teaches a moral lesson!

paradox an image or description that appears self-contradictory but that reveals a deeper truth

parallelism (or parallel structure) the repetition of a grammatical structure pathos an appeal that attempts to arouse the audience’s emotions personification a figure of speech that attributes human qualities to something that is not human picaresque novel a novel recounting the adventures of a roguish hero that is usually episodic plot the events that make up a story poetry generally said to be one of the three or four major literary genres, a term defined and described in so

many different ways that one might easily argue that there are as many ways to characterize it as there are people. However, there is general agreement about what poetry is not.

First, poetry is frequently distinguished from verse—broadly speaking, any rhythmical or metrical composition. Poetry is a subset of verse, from which it is distinguished (and to which it is considered superior) by virtue of its imaginative quality, intricate structure, serious or lofty subject matter, or noble purpose.

Second, poetry is often contrasted with fiction. This distinction, however, has proved more problematic because some poetry and literary historians have characterized poetry as fiction (or even as the “supreme fiction”), as that which is not essentially tied to fact, to history. Seen from this angle, any imaginative artistic work might be called poetic.

Third, poetry has frequently been contrasted with prose. Aside from the obvious difference in form, many critics argue that, although it is possible to restate the meaning of a prose passage, the meaning of a poetic passage cannot be so easily paraphrased. While poetry can be approached intellectually, it is equally an emotional experience; one might even say that poetry is meant to be experienced rather than simply read. Poetry is rich with a suggestiveness born from the interplay of words and sounds. The connotations of words and the relationships among words, phrases, and ideas all add to the purely denotative meanings of the poet’s language, giving it a richness greater than that found in most prose. Furthermore, auditory elements—the sounds and rhythms of letters, words, phrases, and lines—are key aspects of the poem and play a large role in how that poem is read and understood.

Although rhythm is an essential, in fact an indispensable, element of poetry, rhyme is not. Prose, too, may have rhythm, but without the marked regularity and integral importance found in poetry. A poem typically contains some basic rhythmic pattern; variations on the pattern create auditory interest but also may introduce a new or different idea or viewpoint. Rhyme is often used, perhaps because it is a chief contributor to establishing rhythm. When used unskillfully, however, rhyme can detract from poetry since it can easily sound singsongy or contrived. Although rhyme was often used in Romance- and English-language poetry in the last several centuries, much twentieth-century poetry dispensed with rhyme. Modern poets have similarly dispensed with poetic diction, the special “poetic” vocabulary used heavily in the past (for example, thou as a form of address, even to an old Grecian urn, or the use of ere for before), and instead write poems in the language and cadences of everyday speech.

The care with which poets choose their words also distinguishes poetry from prose. This is not to say that authors writing in prose choose their words carelessly; rather, prose authors can afford to be more discursive than poets since prose works are typically much longer than poems. Since poets must be more economical, each word in a poem tends to be packed with meaning. The brevity of poetry, in contrast to prose, affords it a particular intensity.

Finally, poetry tends to be more concrete, replete with specific and detailed images. The suggestive essence of poetry means that poets commonly make use of figurative language and symbolism. Tropes, such as metaphor, metonymy, personification, simile, and synecdoche, as well as other figures of speech, such as allegory and conceit, enhance both the imagery and the sensory impact of the poem.

There are also differing schools of thought regarding the aim of poetry, though everyone agrees that poetry has a special meaning or significance for humanity. Some see a didactic purpose, an aim to instruct. Others argue that poetry provides a special, even unique, insight not possible in

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prose. In many ways, these differing conceptions of what poetry is and what purpose it serves reflect differing views of what poetry should be.

Poetry appears to have originated as a collective endeavor, or at least for a collective purpose. Many of the earliest literary (and often religious) works are poems. Notably, poetry played a major role in religious and other ceremonial events and helped to preserve a tribe’s or a group’s history and its traditions, which were often passed down orally from generation to generation—a process that continues in some groups even today.

Over time, however, the collective use of poetry diminished. Poetry became the vehicle for drama and then specifically for individual expression. Today, poetry is seen as a highly individualistic endeavor; perhaps no other form of expression is deemed so intensely personal, and therefore unique. No subject is off-limits to the poet. To call poetry a discipline seems limiting in itself, but poetry is surely the one literary area in which anything goes, as long as the poet’s emotions have been aroused.

prose from the Latin for “straightforward,” ordinary written or spoken expression; as applied

specifically to literature, nonpoetic expression, that is, expression that exhibits purposeful grammatical (including syntactic) design but that is not characterized by deliberate or regular rhythmic or metrical patterns.

The development of prose has generally followed that of verse. Poets tend to innovate; prose writers, by contrast, tend to imitate, making belated use of those poetic innovations that can be adapted to the prose environment. The more “artful” or “literary” the work of prose, the more it tends to employ poetic devices, such as rhythm, imagery, and sonority (achieved through alliteration, assonance, consonance, etc.). Nonfiction prose writers such as Walter Pater and fiction writers such as D. H. Lawrence and, more recently, Toni Morrison and Graham Swift have written poetic prose. Some creative prose writers adopt traditional poetic devices to such a great extent that the line between prose and poetry becomes blurred, hence the designation prose poem.

protagonist the most important or leading character in a work; the protagonist is in primary conflict

with the antagonist pun a play on words that capitalizes on a similarity of spelling and/or pronunciation between words that have different meanings or one word that has multiple meanings pyrrhic a metrical foot consisting of two unstressed syllables quatrain a group of four lines linked by their end-rhymes, subject matter, or both

repetition the restatement of an idea using the same words

restatement the expression of the same idea in different words rhetorical question a question asked without the expectation of an answer

rhyme scheme the pattern of end-rhymes in a poem or stanza romantic realism a term applied to literature that draws on both romanticism and realism. Romantic realists presented their subject matter accurately but wrote only about subject matter that was pleasant or positive. run-on line See enjambement.

sarcasm an intentional, cutting remark generally directed at another person and intended to hurt or insult.

It involves stating the opposite of what is meant to achieve the intended effect. Sarcasm can also be used to draw attention to something being mocked or made humorous and is not always blatant. For example, when a lazy, annoying co-worker says, “Well, I better get to work,” you respond, “Okay. Don’t work too hard.”

satire a work that pokes fun at society or human behavior with the aim of improving it.

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scansion the division of verse into feet to determine the meter scop an Old English bard or poet secondhand narrative account a narrative account created by a person who did not directly

experience an historical event

sestet a group of six lines linked by their end-rhymes, subject matter, or both setting where and when a story takes place simile a figure of speech that associates two distinct things using the words like or as, as opposed to

metaphor, which associates two distinct things, but without the use of a connective word. To say, “That child is like a cyclone” is to use a simile, whereas to say, “That child is a cyclone” is to use a metaphor.

single effect one, overall feeling a short story creates. According to Edgar Allan Poe, every

character, incident, and detail in a short story should contribute to the single effect. situational irony a discrepancy between expectation and reality soliloquy in a play, a monologue delivered by a character while alone onstage that reveals inner thoughts, emotions, or some other information that the audience needs to know sonnet a fourteen-line, lyric poem with a single theme written in iambic pentameter. The sonnet was invented by Italian poet Francesco Petrarch. Sonnets follow definite forms. The form is determined by the type of sonnet. sonnet sequence a group of sonnets linked by theme or person addressed Spenserian sonnet sonnet form invented by English poet Edmund Spenser. It consists of three quatrains followed by a couplet. The rhyme scheme is abab/bcbc/cdcd/ee. spondee a metrical foot consisting of two stressed syllables stanza a group of lines set off by themselves in a poem. Properly speaking, all stanzas in a poem have the same number of lines; if they don’t, they should be called irregular stanzas, sections, or even verse paragraphs. stream of consciousness a literary technique which seeks to describe an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes. Stream-of-consciousness writing is strongly associated with the modernist movement. Stream-of-consciousness not only presents reality from the minds of characters, but it presents how they arrive from thought to thought. It presents thoughts as they occur and can give greater insight into how a character arrives at conclusions and makes decisions. This technique, from both topical and structural standpoints, provides authentic representations of psychological reality. style a writer’s characteristic way of writing substitution using a foot which is different from the one typically used in a certain line or stanza. A

trochee, for example, used in an iambic pentameter line, would be a substitution.

symbolism term applied when a person, place, or thing stands for itself and something else

Terms – H English III, H English IV Page 10 of 10

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synecdoche a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to refer to the whole, as in saying, “Nice wheels,” in reference to a car. The term can also refer to occasional situations in which the whole is used to represent the part. theme a broad idea in a story, or a message conveyed by a work. This message is usually about life,

society, or human nature. Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. Themes are usually implied rather than explicitly stated.

theocracy a government ruled by or subject to religious authority theocrat 1. a ruler of a theocracy 2. a believer in theocracy tone the writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward the audience or subject tragedy a serious and often somber drama, written in prose or verse, that typically ends in disaster and that focuses on a character that undergoes unexpected personal reversals tragic flaw a character trait in a tragic hero or heroine that brings about his or her downfall Transcendentalism an intellectual movement founded by Ralph Waldo Emerson. According to

Transcendentalism, there is a spiritual relationship between humanity and nature, no institution should be as powerful as the individual, and the creative imagination gives humans god-like powers. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature is considered its unofficial statement of belief. See Over-Soul.

triple rhyme See feminine rhyme.

trochee a metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable

turn a change in tone in a poem Uncle Charles Principle style of narration similar to free indirect discourse except that the narrator’s

words are “contaminated” by the characteristics of a character, instead of the work completely shifting to a character’s thoughts. This technique was named after a character in a work by James Joyce. Such characters are so distinctive in the way they act, the words they use, and the terms they use that they are easy to detect. Because of a lack of consensus on a clear distinction, free direct discourse and Uncle Charles Principle can be used interchangeably.

understatement (or meiosis, from the Greek for “lessening”) a figure of speech that consists of

saying less than what is really meant or saying something with less force than is appropriate. See also litotes.

verbal irony the most common type of irony, characterized by a discrepancy between what a

speaker or writer says and what he or she believes to be true vernacular a language or dialect native to a region or country rather than a literary, cultured, or foreign language wyrd Old English for “fate”—term that embodies the concept of inevitability in Old English poetry

Murfin, Ross, and Supryia M. Ray. The Bedford Glossory of Critical and Literary Terms. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St.

Martin’s, 2003. Print.