RCHK Glossary of LIterary Terms GB 100823 Copy

8/6/2019 RCHK Glossary of LIterary Terms GB 100823 Copy

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RCHK A1 English Glossary of Literary Terms

RCHK Glossatry of Literary Terms v.100908 Page 1

Types of Poems and Poetic Form

Ballad: simple, narrative verse which tells a story to be sung or recited; the folk ballad is anonymouslyhanded down, while the literary ballad has a single author.

John Keats, La Belle Dame sans MerciEdward Arlington Robinson, Richard CoryWilliam Butler Yeats, The Fiddler of Dooney

Blank Verse: unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter.Robert Frost, BirchesJohn Milton, Paradise LostTheodore Roethke, I Knew a WomanWilliam Shakespeare, MacbethRobert Frost, Mending Wall

Dramatic Monologue: a lyric poem in which the speaker tells an audience about a dramatic moment inhis/her life and, in doing so, reveals his/her character.

Robert Browning, My Last DuchessT. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Elegy: a poem of lament, meditating on the death of an individual.W. H. Auden, In Memory of W. B. YeatsJohn Milton, Lycidas

Theodore Roethke, Elegy for JaneAlfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam.A. H. H.

Epic: a long, dignified narrative poem which gives the account of a hero important to his nation or race.Lord Byron, Don Juan

John Milton, Paradise LostHomer, The Iliad, The Odyssey

Free Verse: unrhymed lines without regular rhythm.Walt Whitman, The Last InvocationWilliam Carlos Williams, Rain, The DanceRichard Wilbur, Juggler

Haiku: Japanese verse in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, often depicting a delicate image.

Matsuo Basko, The lightning flashes!And slashing through the darkness,A night-herons screech.

Idyll: lyric poetry describing the life of the shepherd in pastoral, bucolic, idealistic terms.Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the KingWilliam Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper

Light Verse: a general category of poetry written to entertain, such as lyric poetry, epigrams, andlimericks. It can also have a serious side, as in parody or satire.

Vachel Lindsay, The CongoLewis Carroll, Jabberwocky

Limerick: humorous nonsense-verse in five anapestic lines rhyming aabba, a-lines being trimeter and b-

lines dimeter.Edward Lear, There was an old man at the Cape

Who made himself garments of crapeWhen asked Will they tear?He replied Here and there,But they keep such a beautiful shape!

Lyric: subjective, reflective poetry with regular rhyme scheme and meter which reveals the poetsthoughts and feelings to create a single, unique impression.

Matthew Arnold, Dover BeachWilliam Blake, The Lamb, The Tiger


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Emily Dickinson, Because I Could Not Stop for DeathLangston Hughes, Dream DeferredAndrew Marvell, To His Coy MistressWalt Whitman, Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking

Narrative: non-dramatic, objective verse with regular rhyme scheme and meter which relates a story ornarrative.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla KhanT. S. Eliot, Journey of the Magi

Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Wreck of the Deutschland Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses

Ode: elaborate lyric verse which deals seriously with a dignified theme.John Keats, Ode on a Grecian UrnPercy Bysshe Shelley, Ode, to the West WindWilliam Wordsworth, Ode: Intimations of Immortality

Sonnet: a rigid 14-line verse form, with variable structure and rhyme scheme according to type:a. Shakespearean (English)three quatrains and concluding couplet i iambic pentameter,rhyming abab cdcd efef gg or abba cddc effe gg. The Spenserian sonnet is a specialized formwith linking rhyme abab bcbc cdcd ee.

Robert Lowell, SalemWilliam Shakespeare, Shall I Compare Thee?

b. Italian (Petrarchan)an octave and sestet, between which a break in thought occurs. Thetraditional rhyme scheme is abba abba cde cde (or, the sestet, any variation of c, d, e).

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How Do I Love Thee?John Milton, On His BlindnessJohn Donne, Death, Be Not Proud

Villanelle: a French verse form, strictly calculated to appear simple and spontaneous; five tercets and afinal quatrain, rhyming aba aba aba aba aba abaa. Lines 1, 6, 12, 18 and 3, 9, 15, 19 are refrain.

Theodore Roethke, The WalkingDylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

Meter

Meter is poetrys rhythm, or its pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, Meter is measured in units

offeet; the five basic kinds of metric feet are indicated below. Bold marks indicate stressed orunstressed syllables.

Type of Metric Foot Accent/Stress ExampleIambic (iamb) unstressed-stressed bal-loonTrochaic (trochee) stressed-unstressed so-da Anapestic (anapest) unstressed-unstressed-stressed con-tra-dict

Dactyllic (dactyl) stressed-unstressed-unstressed man-i-acSpondaic (spondee) stressed-stresses man-made

Metrical units are the building blocks of lines of verse; lines are named according to the number of feetthey contain:

Number of Metric Feet Type of Lineone foot ................................ ....................... monometer

two feet ................................ ....................... dimeterthree feet ................................ ..................... trimeterfour feet ................................ ....................... tetrameterfive feet ................................ ........................ pentametersix feet ................................ ......................... hexameterseven feet ................................ .................... heptametereight feet ................................ ...................... octometer (rare)

Scansion is the analysis of these mechanical elements within a poem to determine meter. Feet aremarked off with slashes (/) and accented appropriately (stress, unstress).


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Emily Dickinsons Because I Could Not Stop for Death is scanned here:

Be-cause / I could / not stop / forDeath

He kind- / ly stopped / forme

The Car- / riage held / butjust / our-selves

And Im- / mor-tal- / i-ty.

The feet in these lines are iambic. The first and third lines have four feet and can be identified as iambic

tetrameter. The second and fourth lines, with three feet each, are iambic trimeter. Therefore, the basicmeter is iambic tetrameter.

Metric feet make up lines, which make up stanzas. A stanza is to a poem what a paragraph is to anarrative or essay. Stanzas are identified by the number of lines they contain:

Number of Lines Type of Stanza

2 ................................ ........................... couplet3 ................................ ........................... tercet4 ................................ ........................... quatrain5 ................................ ........................... cinquain6 ................................ ........................... sestet7 ................................ ........................... septet8 ................................ ........................... octet (octave)

Rhyme and Structural Features

Caesura: a break or pause in a line of verse.

I'm nobody! Who are you?Are you nobody, too?Then there's a pair of us -- don't tell!They'd advertise -- you know!(Emily Dickinson, Im Nobody! Who Are You?)

End Rhyme: rhyme occurring at the ends of verse lines; most common rhyme form.I was angry with my friend,

I told my wrath, my wrath did end.(William Blake, A Poison Tree)

End stop: in contrast with enjambment, an instance where the grammatical break coincides with theend of the line. The break is often marked by a punctuation mark, and the meaning of the line iscomplete in itself.

As I in hoary winter's night stood shivering in the snow,Surprised I was with sudden heat, which made my heart to glow;And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear.(Robert Southwell, The Burning Babe)

Enjambment: an instance where, because of its grammatical structure, verse runs on from one line to

another.

Two eyes serve a movement, that nowAnd again now, and now, and now

Sets neat prints into the snowBetween trees, and warily a lameShadow lags by stump and in hollowOf a body that is bold to come

Across clearings, an eye,


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A widening deepening greenness,(Ted Hughes, The Thought-Fox)

Feminine Rhyme: A stressed syllable rhyme followed by an unstressed syllable. Example: carrot andgarret, sever and never.

Forced Rhyme: An unnatural rhyme that forces a rhyme where it should not otherwise be.

Half Rhyme (Slant Rhyme): imperfect, approximate rhyme.

In the mustard seed sun,By full tilt river and switchback seaWhere the cormorants scud,In his house on stilts high among beaks(Dylan Thomas, Poem on His Birthday)

Internal Rhyme: rhyme contained within a line of verse.

The splendourfalls on castle wallsAnd snowy summits old in story:The long light shakes across the lakesAnd the wild cataract leaps in glory.(Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Blow, Bugle, Blow)

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door." 'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door;Only this, and nothing more.(Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven)

Masculine Rhyme: Has a single stressed syllable rhyme.Example: fight and tight, stove and trove.

Perfect Rhyme: The words are in complete aural correspondence.An example would be: Certain and Curtain.

Rhyme Scheme: pattern of rhymes with a unit of verse; in analysis, each end rhyme-sound is

represented by a letter.Take, O take those lips away,aThat so sweetly were forsworn;bAnd those eyes, the break of day,aLights that do mislead the morn:bBut my kisses bring again, bring again;cSeals of love, but seald in vain, seald in vain.c(William Shakespeare, Take, 0 Take Those Lips Away)

Rime: old spelling ofrhyme, which is the repetition of like sounds at regular intervals, employed inversification, the writing of verse.

Stanza: the blocks of lines into which a poem is divided (sometimes known as verses)

Visual Rhyme: A rhyme that only looks similar, but when spoken sound different.Example: slaughter and laughter.

Other Sound Features

Alliteration: the repetition of one or more initial sounds, usually consonants, in words within a line.Bright black-eyed creature, brushed with brown.(Robert Frost, To a Moth Seen in Winter)

He clasps the crag with crooked hands(Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Eagle)


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Assonance: repetition of two or more vowel sounds within a line, the effect of which is to provide anauditory reinforcement of the meaning of the words.

The crumbling thunder of seas(Robert Louis Stevenson)

Or hearold Triton blow his wreathed horn.

(William Wordsworth, The World is Too Much With Us)

Cacophony: the use of inharmonious sounds in close conjunction effect; opposite of euphony.Or, my scrofulous French novelOn grey paper with blunt type!Simply glance at it, you grovelHand and foot in Belials gripe;(Robert Browning, Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister)

But when loud surges lash the sounding shore(Alexander Pope, Sound and Sense)

Consonance: repetition of two or more consonant sounds within a line, the effect of which is to providean auditory reinforcement of the meaning of the words.

And all is seared with trade; bleared smeared with toil;And wears mans smudge and shares mens smell: the soil(Gerard Manley Hopkins, Gods Grandeur)

The moan of doves in immemorial elms,And murmuring of innumerable bees.(Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Come Down, O Maid)

Euphony: the use of compatible, harmonious sounds to produce a pleasing, melodious effect.I knew a woman, lovely in her bones,When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them.(Theodore Roethke, I Knew a Woman)And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows(Alexander Pope, Sound and Sense)

Onomatopoeia: the use of a word whose sound suggests its meaning.

The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard

(Robert Frost, Out, Out)

Veering and wheeling free in the open(Carl Sandburg, The Harbor)

Poetic Devices and Figurative Language

Analogy: a comparison made between two dissimilar things for the purpose of explanation orclarification.

An analogy is comparable to metaphor and simile in that it shows how two different things are similar,but its a bit more complex. Rather than a figure of speech, an analogy is more of a logical argument.The presenter of an analogy will often demonstrate how two things are alike by pointing out sharedcharacteristics, with the goal of showing that if two things are similar in some ways, they are similar inother ways as well.

Apostrophe: an address to a person or personified object not present.Little Lamb, who made thee?(William Blake, The Lamb)


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O loss of sight, of thee I most complain!(John Milton, Samson Agonistes)

Figure of Speech: Any way of saying something other than in an ordinary way.

Hyperbole: gross exaggeration for effect: overstatement.Love you ten years before the Flood,And you should, if you please, refuseTill the conversion of the Jews.

(Andrew Marvell, To his Coy Mistress)

Our hands were firmly cemented.(John Donne, The Ecstasy)

Imagery: the use of words to represent things, actions, or ideas by sensory description. The five kinds ofimagery each appeal to a different sense: visual (sight), auditory (sound), tactile (touch), olfactory (smell)

and gustatory (taste):

Night after NightHer purple trafficStrews the land with Opal BalesMerchantmenpoise upon HorizonsDipand vanish like Orioles!

(Emily Dickinson, This Is the Land Where Sunset Washes)

And the May month flaps its glad green leaves like wings(Thomas Hardy, Afterwards)

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;Close to the sun in lonely lands,Ringed with the azure world, he stands.The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;He watches from his mountain walls,And like a thunderbolt he falls.(Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Eagle)

Irony: the contrast between actual meaning and the suggestion of another meaning.

a. Verbalmeaning one thing and saying another.next to of course god america i love you (e.e. cummings)

b. Dramatictwo levels of meaningwhat the speaker says and what he/ she means, and whatthe speaker says and the author means.

I stood upon a high place,And saw, below, many devilsRunning, leaping,And carousing in sin.One looked up grinning,And said, Comrade! Brother!(Stephen Crane, I Stood Upon a High Place)

c. Situationalwhen the reality of a situation differs from the anticipated or intended effect;when something unexpected occurs.

What rough beast, its hour come round at last

Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?(William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming)(The second coming of Christ is intended, but a rough beast will come instead.)

Litotes: a form of understatement in which the negative of an antonym is used to achieve emphasisand intensity.

He accused himself, at bottom and not unveraciously, of a fantastic, a demoralized sympathywith her.(Henry James, The Pupil)

Metaphor: a figure of speech which makes a direct comparison of unlike objects


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All the worlds a stage(William Shakespeare, As You Like It)

Death is the broomI take in my handsTo sweep the world clean.(Langston Hughes, War)

Metonymy: the substitution of a word which relates to the object or person to be named, in place of thename itself.

The serpentthat did sting thy fathers life.Now wears his crown.(William Shakespeare, Hamlet)

A spotted shaftis seen (snake).(Emily Dickinson, A Narrow Fellow in the Grass)

Oxymoron: contradictory terms brought together to express a paradox for strong effect.Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!Dove-feathered raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!(William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)

All things counter, original, spare, strange;Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:Praise him.(Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty)

Paradox: a statement which appears self-contradictory, but underline basis of truth.

Elected silence, sing to me.(Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Habit of Perfection)

Were her first years the Golden Age; thats true,

But now shes gold oft-tried and ever-new.(John Donne, The Autumnal)

Personification: a figure of speech in which objects and animals have human qualities.When it comes, the landscape listens,Shadows hold their breath. (Emily Dickinson, A Certain Slant of Light)

Into the jaws of Death.Into the mouth of Hell.(Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Charge of the Light Brigade )

Pun: play on words hat deliberately exploits an ambiguity between similar-sounding words for humorousor rhetorical effect.

"There is nothingpunnyabout bad puns." original source unknown.

"Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York"(Son: play on "sun"; from Shakespeares Richard III)

Simile: a direct comparison of two unlike objects, using like oras.The holy time is quiet as a nun(William Wordsworth, On the Beach at Calais)

And like a thunderbolt he falls(Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Eagle)

Symbolism: the use of one object to suggest another, hidden object or idea.


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In Robert Frosts The Road Not Taken, the fork in the road represents a major decision in life,each road a separate way of life.In Alexander Popes The Rape of the Lock, Cupids flames symbolizes love.In Gerard Manley Hopkinss The Caged Skylark, a dare-gale skylark scanted in a dull cagesymbolizes the human spirit contained within the domains of society.

Synecdoche: a figure of speech in which a part represents the whole object or idea.Not a hairperished (person).(William Shakespeare, The Tempest)

And all mankind that haunted nighHad sought theirhousehold fire (homes).(Thomas Hardy, The Darkling Thrush)

Understatement: Saying less than what is meant for effect.

For example, in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, a suburban dinner party is invaded byDeath, who wears a long black cloak and carries a scythe. He is the Grim Reaper; the party isover; the guests must all go with him. "Well," says one party guest, "that's cast rather a gloomover the evening, hasn't it?"

In another scene, an Army officer has just lost his leg. When asked how he feels, he looks downat his bloody stump and responds, "Stings a bit."

Other Literary Terms

Abstract language refers to things that are intangilble, that is, which are perceived not through thesenses but by the mind, such as truth, God, education, vice, transportation, poetry, war, love.

Allegory: a narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface one. Sometimesconfused with an extended metaphor or a series of related symbols, allegory differs in that it presents asystem of related comparisons rather than one comparison drawn out. There is usually a one-to-onecorrespondence between the details and a single set of ulterior meanings. (p.99, Sound and Sense byArp & Johnson)

e.g. Animal Farm by George Orwell is an allegory of the Russian Revolution in which eachanimal character corresponds to a figure from the Revolution and the events mirror the eventsthat occurred during that time.

Allusion (Intertextuality): a reference to an outside fact, event, or other source, used to deepenmeaning through connecting ideas.

World-famous golden-thighed PythagorasFingered upon a fiddle-stick or stringsWhat a star sang and careless Muses heard(PythagorasGreek mathematician; Musesmythological goddesses of beauty and music)

(William Butler Yeats, Among School Children)

In Breughels great painting, The Kermess,the dancers go round, they go round and around(William Carlos Williams, The Dance)(from Ch. 2 ofThe Elements of Poetry)

Atmosphere: the prevailing mood created by a piece of writing.

Character: There are two meanings for the word character: 1) The person in a work of fiction. 2) The characteristics of a person.

Persons in a work of fiction - Antagonist and Protagonist Short stories use few characters. Onecharacter is clearly central to the story with all major events having some importance to this character -he/she is the PROTAGONIST. The opposer of the main character is called the ANTAGONIST.


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The Characteristics of a Person -In order for a story to seem real to the reader its characters mustseem real. Characterization is the information the author gives the reader about the charactersthemselves. The author may reveal a character in several ways: a) his/her physical appearance b)what he/she says, thinks, feels and dreams c) what he/she does or does not do d) what others sayabout him/her and how others react to him/her. Characters are convincing if they are: consistent,motivated, and life-like (resemble real people)

Characters are...

1. Individual - round, many sided and complex personalities. 2. Developing - dynamic, many sided personalities that change, for better or worse, bythe end of the story. 3. Static - Stereotype, have one or two characteristics that never change and areemphasized e.g. brilliant detective, drunk, scrooge, cruel stepmother, etc.

Concrete language identifies things perceived through the senses (touch, smell, sight, hearing, andtaste), such as soft, stench, red, loud, or bitter.

Conflict: Conflict is essential to plot. Without conflict there is no plot. It is the opposition of forces whichties one incident to another and makes the plot move. Conflict is not merely limited to open arguments,rather it is any form of opposition that faces the main character. Within a short story there may be onlyone central struggle, or there may be one dominant struggle with many minor ones.

There are two types of conflict:a. 1) External - A struggle with a force outside one's self.b. 2) Internal - A struggle within one's self; a person must make some decision, overcome

pain, quiet their temper, resist an urge, etc.

There are four kinds of conflict: c. 1) Man vs. Man (physical) - The leading character struggles with his physical strength

against other men, forces of nature, or animals.d. 2) Man vs. Circumstances (classical) - The leading character struggles against fate, or

the circumstances of life facing him/her.e. 3) Man vs. Society (social) - The leading character struggles against ideas, practices, or

customs of other people.f. 4) Man vs. Himself/Herself (psychological) - The leading character struggles with

himself/herself; with his/her own soul, ideas of right or wrong, physical

Connotation: the emotions, values, or images associated with a word. The intensity of emotions or thepower of the values and images associated with a word varies. Words connected with religion, politics,and sex tend to have the strongest feelings and images associated with them. For most people, theword mothercalls up very strong positive feelings and associations--loving, self-sacrificing, always there

for you, understanding; the denotative meaning, on the other hand, is simply "a female animal who hasborne one or more chldren." Of course connotative meanings do not necessarily reflect reality; forinstance, if someone said, "His mother is not very motherly," you would immediately understand thedifference between motherly(connotation) and mother(denotation).

Denotation: the literal meaning of a word; there are no emotions, values, or images associated withdenotative meaning. Scientific and mathematical language carries few, if any emotional or connotativemeanings.

Dialogue:Dialogue helps readers understand characters and to advance the action of the story i.e. the plot.

E.g. Youre not going to throw up? asked Lizzie.No, Im not going to throw up.Good, because if you were going to throw up, Id be sure to remind youthat youd best lean out over the side of the boat.

You have a real way about you, you know that, Lizzie?Thats what my granddaddy says: a real way about me.What else does your granddaddy say about you?


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That Im the closest thing to glory hell ever see on Gods earth. Whatdoes your daddy say about you? (p.59)

Diction:The writers choice of vocabulary, which adds depth of understanding and enables the reader to betterimagine a scene, the feelings of a character etc. Strong verbs and adjectives and precise nouns aresome examples.

E.g. The rain passed Turner, swept across Thayers hay-meadow, charged up Parker Head, and

swirled around First Congregation, ripping off some of the still-green maple leaves and sending them inwhirling cones against Mrs. Cobbs grandfathers fence and up on to Mrs. Hurds porch. (p.53)

Fallible (orUnreliable) Narrator: An unreliable narrator is a narrator, whether in literature, film, ortheatre, whose credibility has been seriously compromised. This narrative mode is one that can bedeveloped by an author for a number of reasons, usually to deceive the reader or audience. Unreliablenarrators are usually first-person narrators, but third-person narrators can also be unreliable.

The nature of the narrator is sometimes immediately clear. For instance, a story may open with thenarrator making a plainly false or delusional claim or admitting to being severely mentally ill, or the storyitself may have a frame in which the narrator appears as a character, with clues to his unreliability. Amore dramatic use of the device delays the revelation until near the story's end. This twist ending forcesthe reader to reconsider their point of view and experience of the story. In some cases the narrator'sunreliability is never fully revealed but only hinted at, leaving the reader to wonder how much the

narrator should be trusted and how the story should be interpreted.

E.g. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Foreshadowing: subtle hints pointing the reader toward the possible outcome of the story

Plot: the sequence of events in a story; actions within the plot are significant and relate to the meaningof the story

Exposition: the beginning of the story, which provides the key information necessary tounderstand the story (the setting, main characters etc.)

Complication: the catalyst, which begins the major conflict and starts the rising action.

Rising action: that part of the middle of the story in which suspense builds about how theconflict will be resolved

Climax: the turning point of the story that occurs when characters try to resolve thecomplication; at this point the action is at its most exciting and suspenseful

Falling action: that part of the story after the climax

Resolution: the set of events that bring the story to a close (also called the denouement); atwhich point the problem or conflict is usually (but not always e.g in a tragedy) resolved

Point of View: Point of view, or p.o.v., is defined as the angle from which the story is told.

1. Innocent Eye - The story is told through the eyes of a child (his/her judgment being

different from that of an adult)

2. Stream of Consciousness - The story is told so that the reader feels as if they areinside the head of one character and knows all their thoughts and reactions.

3. First Person - The story is told by the protagonist or one of the characters whointeracts closely with the protagonist or other characters (using pronouns I, me, we,etc). The reader sees the story through this person's eyes as he/she experiences it andonly knows what he/she knows or feels.


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4. Omniscient- The author can narrate the story using the omniscient point of view. Hecan move from character to character, event to event, having free access to thethoughts, feelings and motivations of his characters and he introduces informationwhere and when he chooses. There are two main types of omniscient point of view:

a) Omniscient Limited- The author tells the story in third person (using pronounsthey, she, he, it, etc). We know only what the character knows and what the authorallows him/her to tell us. We can see the thoughts and feelings of characters if the

author chooses to reveal them to us.

b) OmniscientObjective The author tells the story in the third person. It appears asthough a camera is following the characters, going anywhere, and recording only whatis seen and heard. There is no comment on the characters or their thoughts. Nointerpretations are offered. The reader is placed in the position of spectator without theauthor there to explain.

Repetition:Words and phrases repeated in a story have the effect of emphasizing an idea, and sometimes create a

mood.

E.g. Blue days, as the tide washed away the twin footprints Lizzie and Turner left alongthe beach. Blue days, as they walked among the sharp-edged mussels, prying open

their blue-black shells to tickle their orange tendons. Blue days, as they sprinted againstthe sea breeze and chased the gulls until Turner, finally, finally, finally touched a tailfeather. Blue days as they dangled their legs over the granite ledges and felt the giganticcontinent behind them. (p73)

Sentence and paragraph length:Changes in sentence length are used by writers to show many different things: to build suspense, tomake you feel what a character is feeling etc. For instance, a number of short sentences in a row mightshow that the action being described is tense or something exciting is happening. Longer sentences withlots of commas or long paragraphs with just a two or three full stops might suggest that things arehappening very slowly: for example, maybe a character is thinking about something difficult tounderstand or deal with. Consecutive sentences of even length and parallel structure may add intensityor create a monotonous, relentless effect or emphasize certain ideas.

E.g.Turner Buckminster had lived in Phippsburg for fifteen minutes shy of six hours. He haddipped his hand in its waves and licked the salt from his fingers. He had smelled the sharpresin of the pines. He had heard the low rhythm of the bells on the buoys that balanced onthe ridges of the sea. He had seen the fine clapboard parsonage beside the church wherehe was to live, and the small house set a ways beyond it that puzzled him some.

Turner Buckminster had lived in Phippsburg, Maine, for almost six whole hours.

He didnt know how much longer he could take it. (p.1)

Setting: The time and location in which a story takes place is called the setting. For some stories thesetting is very important, while for others it is not. There are several aspects of a story's setting toconsider when examining how setting contributes to a story (some, or all, may be present in a story):

a) place - geographical location. Where is the action of the story taking place?b) time - When is the story taking place? (historical period, time of day, year, etc)c) weather conditions - Is it rainy, sunny, stormy, etc?d) social conditions - What is the daily life of the character's like? Does the story contain localcolour (writing that focuses on the speech, dress, mannerisms, customs, etc. of a particularplace)?e) mood or atmosphere - What feeling is created at the beginning of the story? Is it bright andcheerful or dark and frightening

Structure: framework of a work of literature; the organization or over-all design of a work. The structureof a play may fall into logical divisions and also a mechanical division of acts and scenes.


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Style: manner of expression; how a speaker or writer says what he says.

Theme: The theme in a piece of fiction is its controlling idea or its central insight. It is the author'sunderlying meaning or main idea that he is trying to convey. The theme may be the author's thoughtsabout a topic or view of human nature. The title of the short story usually points to what the writer issaying and he may use various figures of speech to emphasize his theme, such as: symbol, allusion,simile, metaphor, hyperbole, or irony.

Some simple examples of common themes from literature, TV, and film are: - things are not always asthey appear to be - Love is blind - Believe in yourself - People are afraid of change- Don't judge abook by its cover

Tone: the writer's attitude toward the material and/or readers. Tone may be playful, formal, intimate,angry, serious, ironic, outraged, baffled, tender, serene, depressed, etc.

Rhetorical Devices

Anaphora: is the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses,or sentences, commonly in conjunction with climax and with parallelism:

Slowly and grimly they advanced, not knowing what lay ahead, not knowing what they

would find at the top of the hill, not knowing that they were so near to Disneyland.She stroked her kitty cat very softly, very slowly, very smoothly.

Anastrophe: Inversion of the normal word order of a sentence.Honesty we did not normally expect in a public official.

(Normally, We did not normally expect honesty in a public official. emphasizeshonesty.)

Can Times best jewel in Times chest lie hid?(Normally, Can Times best jewel lie hid in Times Chest? emphasizes the verb at theend of the line.)

Antithesis: establishes a clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining them together orjuxtaposing them, often in parallel structure. Human beings are inveterate systematizers and

categorizers, so the mind has a natural love for antithesis, which creates a definite and systematicrelationship between ideas:

To err is human; to forgive, divine. --PopeThat's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. --Neil Armstrong

Asyndeton: Omission of conjunctions.Self-schooled, self-scanned, self-honored, self-secure.

(This is also parallelism, anaphora and alliteration)

Climax (gradatio): consists of arranging words, clauses, or sentences in the order of increasingimportance, weight, or emphasis. Parallelism usually forms a part of the arrangement, because it offersa sense of continuity, order, and movement-up the ladder of importance. But if you wish to vary theamount of discussion on each point, parallelism is not essential.

The concerto was applauded at the house of Baron von Schnooty, it was praised highlyat court, it was voted best concerto of the year by the Academy, it was considered byMozart the highlight of his career, and it has become known today as the best concertoin the world.

At 6:20 a.m. the ground began to heave. Windows rattled; then they broke. Objectsstarted falling from shelves. Water heaters fell from their pedestals, tearing outplumbing. Outside, the road began to break up. Water mains and gas lines werewrenched apart, causing flooding and the danger of explosion. Office buildings begancracking; soon twenty, thirty, forty stories of concrete were diving at the helplesspedestrians panicking below.


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To have faults is not good, but faults are human. Worse is to have them and not seethem. Yet beyond that is to have faults, to see them, and to do nothing about them. Buteven that seems mild compared to him who knows his faults, and who parades themabout and encourages them as though they were virtues.

In addition to arranging sentences or groups of short ideas in climactic order, you generally should alsoarrange the large sections of ideas in your papers, the points in your arguments, and the examples foryour generalizations climactically; although in these cases, the first item should not be the very least

important (because its weakness might alienate the reader). Always begin with a point or proofsubstantial enough to generate interest, and then continue with ideas of increasing importance. Thatway your argument gets stronger as it moves along, and every point hits harder than the previous one.Ellipsis: Omission of words for brevity, emphasis, ambiguity, or grace.

One of the defendants was sentenced to sixty days; the other, to life imprisonment.(The second was sentenced is omitted.)

Epistrophe(the opposite of anaphora) Repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of lines, clauses,sentences.

Most of the errors you make in this essay are unacceptable. Comma splices areunacceptable. Fragments are unacceptable. Inconsistencies in tense, person andnumber are unacceptable. IN short, almost every word you have written is in some way

unacceptable!

Parallelism:is recurrent syntactical similarity. Several parts of a sentence or several sentences areexpressed similarly to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance. Parallelismalso adds balance and rhythm and, most importantly, clarity to the sentence.

Any sentence elements can be paralleled, any number of times (though, of course, excess quicklybecomes ridiculous). You might choose parallel subjects with parallel modifiers attached to them:

Ferocious dragons breathing fire and wicked sorcerers casting their spells do their harmby night in the forest of Darkness.

Or parallel verbs and adverbs:I have always sought but seldom obtained a parking space near the door.Quickly and happily he walked around the corner to buy the book.

Or parallel verbs and direct objects:He liked to eat watermelon and to avoid grapefruit.

Or just the objects:This wealthy car collector owns three pastel Cadillacs, two gold Rolls Royces, and tenassorted Mercedes.

Or parallel prepositional phrases:He found it difficult to vote for an ideal truth but against his own self interest.The pilot walked down the aisle, through the door, and into the cockpit, singing "Up, Up,and Away."

Parenthesis:Any insertion that interrupts the normal sentence structure.

Since, spite of him, Ill live in this poor rhyme.Those children selfish, deceitful, and sadistic were evidence of their parentsmuddled sense of values.

Polysyndeton: Use of many conjunctions.Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea. (Sonnet 65)

Simple sentence:A sentence with a single independent clause

Understatement: Saying less than what is meant for effect. Not to be confused with euphemism, where a politephrase is used in place of a harsher or more offensive expression.Understatement is a staple of humor in English-speaking


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cultures, especially in British humor. For example, in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, a suburban dinner party is invadedby Death, who wears a long black cloak and carries a scythe. He is the Grim Reaper; the party is over; the guests must all gowith him. "Well," says one party guest, "that's cast rather a gloom over the evening, hasn't it?" In another scene, an Army o fficerhas just lost his leg. When asked how he feels, he looks down at his bloody stump and responds, "Stings a bit."

Zeugma: a device that joins together tow apparently incongruous things by applying a verb or adjectiveto both which only really applies to one of them.

Kill the boys and the luggage (Shakespeare, HenryV)

NOTE:A more extensive list of rhetorical devices can be found at: http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.html

RCHK Glossary of LIterary Terms GB 100823 Copy

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