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| A construction in which elements are presented in a series without conjuctions. |
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| Cacaphony is an unpleasant combination of sounds. Euphony, the opposite, is a pleasant combination of sounds. These sound effects can be used intentionally to create an effect, or they may appear unintentionally. The cacaphony in Matthew Arnold's lines "And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know,/Self-school'd, self-scann'd, self-honor'd, self-secure,/Didst tread on earth unguess'd at," is probably unintentional. |
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| A pause within a line of poetry which may or may not affect the metrical count (see #62. meter). In scansion, a caesura is usually indicated by the following symbol (//). |
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| The implied or associative meaning of a word. |
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| A stanza of two lines, usually rhyming. |
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| The literal meaning of the word. |
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| A figure of speech wherein a comparison is made between two unlike quantities without the use of the words "like" or "as." |
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| A regular pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables in a line or lines of poetry (anapest, dactyl, iamb, spondee, trochee) |
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| A metrical pattern of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. |
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| The basic unit of measurement in a line of poetry. In scansion, a foot represents one instance of a metrical pattern and is shown either between or to the right or left of vertical lines. |
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| The atmosphere or feeling created by a literary work, partly by a description of the objects or by the style of the descriptions. A work may contain a mood of horror, mystery, holiness, or childlike simplicity, to name a few, depending on the author's treatment of the work. |
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| A combination of contradictory terms |
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| A situation or a statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, does not. |
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Definition
| A play on words wherein a word is used to convey two meanings at the same time |
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| A four-line stanza which may be rhymed or unrhymed |
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| A lyric poem of fourteen lines whose rhyme scheme is fixed. |
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| A major subdivision in a poem. A stanza of two lines is called a couplet; a stanza of three lines is called a tercet; a stanza of four lines is called a quatrain. |
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| Tone expresses the author's attitude toward his or her subject. Since there are as many tones in literature as there are tones of voice in real relationships, the tone of a literary work may be one of anger or approval, pride or piety-the entire gamut of attitudes toward life's phenomena. |
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