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| the saying of one thing and meaning another. Sometimes this trope works by an extended metaphor ('the ship of state foundered on the rocks of inflation, only to be salvaged by the tugs of monetarist policy'). More usually it is used of a story or fable that has a clear secondary meaning beneath its literal sense. Orwell's Animal Farm, for example, is assumed to have an allegorical sense. |
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| The repetition of the same consonants (usually the initial sounds of words or of stressed syllables) at the start of several words or syllables in sequence or in close proximity to each other. |
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| A metrical foot consisting of three syllables. The first two are unstressed and the last is stressed: 'di di dum'. |
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| In rhetoric the word is used to describe a sudden address to a person or personification |
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| The word is usually used to describe the repetition of vowel sounds in nieghbouring syllables. The consonants can differ: so 'deep sea' is an example of assonance, whereas 'The queen will sweep past the deep crowds' is an example of internal rhyme. More technically it is used to describe the 'rhyming of one word with another in the accented vowel and those which follow, but not in the consonants, as used in the versification of Old French, Spanish, Celtic, and other languages' |
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| The omission of a conjunction from a list ('chips, beans, peas, vinegar, salt, pepper') |
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| It consists of an unrhymed iambic pentameter |
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| A pause or breathing-place about the middle of a metrical line, generally indicated by a pause in the sense. |
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| Couplet: a rhymed pair of lines, which are usually of the same length. If these are iambic pentameters it is termed a heroic couplet. |
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| A metrical foot consisting of three syllables, in which the first is stressed and the last two are unstressed. |
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| or lexis, or vocabulary of a passage refers to nothing more or less then its words. The words of a given passage might be drawn from one register, they might be drawn from one linguistic origin (e.g. Latin, or its Romance descendants Italian and French; Old English); they might be either very formal or very colloquial words. |
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| The omission of one or more letters or syllables from a word. This is usually marked by an apostrophe: as in 'he's going to the shops'. In early printed texts the elided syllable is sometimes printed as well as the mark of elision, as in Donne's 'She 'is all States, all Princes I'. |
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| verse in which the metre and line length vary, and in which there is no discernible pattern in the use of rhyme. |
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| words that sound exactly the same but have different meanings (made and maid) |
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| strictly a sub-set of allegory: irony not only says one thing and means another, but says one thing and means its opposite. The word is used often of consciously inappropriate or understated utterances (so two walkers in the pouring rain greet each other with 'lovely day!', 'yes, isn't it'). Irony depends upon the audience's being able to recognise that a comment is deliberately at odds with its occasion, and may often discriminate between two kinds of audience: one which recognises the irony, and the other which fails to do so. Dramatic irony occurs when an audience of a play know some crucial piece of information that the characters onstage do not know (such as the fact that Oedipus has unwittingly killed his father). |
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| the transfer of a quality or attribute from one thing or idea to another in such a way as to imply some resemblance between the two things or ideas: 'his eyes blazed' implies that his eyes become like a fire. |
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| The use of words or sounds which appear to resemble the sounds which they describe. Some words are themselves onomatopoeic, such as 'snap, crackle, pop. |
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| the attribution to a non-animate thing of human attributes. |
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| a comparison between two objects or ideas which is introduced by 'like' or 'as'. The literal object which evokes the comparison is called the tenor and the object which describes it is called the vehicle. |
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| a 14 line poem in iambic pentameter |
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reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature,
religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture. An indirect reference to
something (usually from literature, etc.). |
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Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more
sentences in a row. This is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer’s
point more coherent. |
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Brief story, told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something,
often shows character of an individual |
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Repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical
order.
Moliere: “One should eat to live, not live to eat.” In poetry, this is called chiasmus. |
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brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life,
or of a principle or accepted general truth. Also called maxim, epigram. |
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a word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal
writing but is inappropriate for formal situations.
Example: “He’s out of his head if he thinks I’m gonna go for such a stupid idea. |
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in general, a story that ends with a happy resolution of the conflicts faced by
the main character or characters |
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a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement,
for effect. |
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occurs when someone says one thing but really means
something else. |
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takes place when there is a discrepancy between
what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what
really does happen. |
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is so called because it is often used on stage. A
character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader
knows better. |
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Definition
poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas,
words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit.
Ezra Pound: “The apparition of these faces in the crowd;/ Petals on a wet, black bough.”
Juxtaposition is also a form of contrast by which writers call attention to
dissimilar ideas or images or metaphors.
Martin Luther King: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” |
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Definition
is a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through
the negation of a negative form: Hawthorne--- “…the wearers of petticoat and
farthingale…stepping forth into the public ways, and wedging their not unsubstantial
persons, if occasion were, into the throng…” |
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a poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or
thoughts of the speaker. |
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| a statement that appears self-contradictory, but that reveals a kind of truth. |
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