Def: The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. In some allegories, for example, an author may intend the characters to personify an abstraction lie hope or freedom. The allegorical meaning usually deals with moral truth or a generalization about human existence.

Ex: “Animal Farm” George Orwell

Def: The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonants in tow or more neighboring words.

Ex:“The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

        The furrow followed free;

        We were the first that ever burst

         Into that silent sea.”

-Samuel Coleridge

Def: A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event,

book, myth, place, or work of art. Allusions can be historical, literary, religious, topical, or mythical. There

are many more possibilities, and a work may simultaneously use multiple layers of allusion.

Ex. “Plan ahead: it wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark” - Richard Cushing

Def: Anapest is a poetic device defined as a metrical foot in a line of a poem that contains three syllables wherein the first two syllables are short and unstressed followed by a third syllable that is long and stressed.

Ex: The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;

And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,

When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

(“The Destruction of Sennacherib” by Lord Byron)

Def: One of the devices of repetition, in which the same expression (word or words) is

repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences.

Ex: “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”

“They are masters who instruct us without rod or ferule, without angry words, without clothes or money.” –

Richard de Bury

Def: One of the devices of repetition, in which the same expression (word or words) is

repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences.

Ex:“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”

“They are masters who instruct us without rod or ferule, without angry words, without clothes or money.”

–Richard de Bury

Def: The adversary of the hero or protagonist of a drama or other literary work.

Ex: “Iago” in Shakespeare’s “Othello”

Def: Figure of balance in which two contrasting ideas are intentionally juxtaposed, usually

through parallel structure; a contrasting of opposing ideas in adjacent phrases, clauses, or sentences.

Ex: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” - Neil Armstrong

Def: A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction,

such as liberty or love. It is an address to someone or something that cannot answer. The effect is to give vent to or display intense emotion, which can no longer be held back/

Ex: William Wordsworth addresses John Milton as he writes, “ Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour:

/England hath need of thee.”

Def: An universal symbol, may be a character, a theme, a symbol or even a setting. Many literary critics are of the opinion that archetypes, which have a common and recurring representation in a particular human culture or entire human race, shape the structure and function of a literary work.

Ex: The Hero: He or she is a character who predominantly exhibits goodness and struggles against evil in order to restore harmony and justice to society e.g. Beowulf, Hercules, D’artagnan from “The Three Musketeers”

Def: The use of words that have the same or very similar vowel sounds near one another.

Ex: Carl Sandburg’s Early Moon: “Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far. It is among the oldest of living things. So old it is that no man knows how and why the first poems came.”

Def: consists of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. This can give

the effect of unpremeditated multiplicity, of an extemporaneous rather than a labored account. Asyndetic

lists can be more emphatic than if a final conjunction were used.

Ex: On his return he received medals, honors, treasures, titles, fame.

They spent the day wondering, searching, thinking, understanding.

Def: A writer's attitude toward his subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization.

Ex:

“I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

-Robert Frost The Road Not Taken

-Frost tells us about his past with a “sigh”

Def: A ballad is a type of poem that is sometimes set to music. Ballads have a long history and are found in many cultures. 

Ex:The Rime of the Ancient Mariner 

Def: A common stanza, consisting of a quatrain that alternates four-beat and three-beat:one and three are unrhymed iambic pentameter, and the and two and four are rhymed iambic pentameter.

Ex: The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,

        Merrily did we drop

        Below the kirk, below the hill,

        Below the lighthouse top.

Def: Blank verse is a literary device defined as un-rhyming verse written in iambic pentameter. In poetry and prose, it has a consistent meter with 10 syllables in each line (pentameter); where, unstressed syllables are followed by stressed ones and five of which are stressed but do not rhyme. 

Ex: 

But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,

So far from cheer and from your former state,

That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,

Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must…..

(Hamlet by William Shakespeare)

Def: A rhythmical pause in a poetic line or a sentence. It often occurs in the middle of a line, or sometimes at the beginning and the end. At times, it occurs with punctuation.

Ex:

It is for you we speak, || not for ourselves:

You are abused || and by some putter-on

That will be damn’d for’t; || would I knew the villain,

I would land-damn him. || Be she honour-flaw’d,

I have three daughters; || the eldest is eleven

(The Winter Tales by William Shakespeare)

Def: Caricature is a device used in descriptive writing and visual arts where particular aspects of a subject are exaggerated to create a silly or comic effect.

Ex:“Mr. Chadband is a large yellow man, with a fat smile, and a general appearance of having a good deal of train oil in his system. Mrs. Chadband is a stern, severe-looking, silent woman. Mr. Chadband moves softly and cumbrously, not unlike a bear who has been taught to walk upright. He is very much embarrassed about the arms, as if they were inconvenient to him.”

-Charles Dickens

Def: Chiasmus is a figure of speech in which two successive phrases or clauses are parallel in syntax, but reverse the order of the analogous words.

Ex: “The land was ours before we were the land’s” - Robert Frost

Def: The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing. Not generally

acceptable for formal writing, colloquialisms give a work a conversational, familiar tone. Colloquial expressions in writing include local or regional dialects.

Ex: 

John Donne uses colloquialisms in his poem “The Sun Rising”:

“Busy old fool, unruly Sun,

Why dost thou thus,

Through windows, and through curtains, call on us?

Must to thy motions lovers’ seasons run?

Saucy pedantic wretch,”

Def: A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects. A conceit displays intellectual cleverness as a result of the unusual comparison being made.

Ex:  Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet:

“Thou counterfeit’st a bark, a sea, a wind;

For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,

Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is,

Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, thy sighs;

Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them,

Without a sudden calm, will overset

Thy tempest-tossed body.”

Def: Connotation refers to a meaning that is implied by a word apart from the thing which it describes explicitly. Words carry cultural and emotional associations or meanings in addition to their literal meanings or denotations.

Ex: “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day” _ Shakespeare

Def: Consonance refers to repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase.

Ex: Shall I Wasting in Despair”by George Wither.

Great, or good, or kind, or fair,

I will ne’er the more despair;

If she love me, this believe,

I will die ere she shall grieve;

If she slight me when I woo,

I can scorn and let her go;

For if she be not for me,

What care I for whom she be?

Def: A couplet is a literary device which can be defined as having two successive rhyming lines in a verse and has the same meter to form a complete thought. It is marked by a usual rhythm, rhyme scheme and incorporation of specific utterances.

Ex:One of the commonly used couplet examples are these two lines from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

“The time is out of joint, O cursed spite

That ever I was born to set it right!”

Def: A metrical foot, or a beat in a line, containing three syllables in which first one is accented followed by second and third unaccented syllables (accented/unaccented/unaccented) 

Ex:

Out of the cradle, endlessly rocking

Out of the mockingbird’s throat, the musical shuttle

Out of the Ninth-month midnight,

(Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking by Walt Whitman)

Def: enotation is generally defined as literal or dictionary meanings of a word in contrast to its connotative or associated meanings.

Ex:An example of denotation literary term can be found in the poetic work of Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall”:

“And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.”

In the above lines, the word “wall” is used to suggest a physical boundary which is its denotative meaning but it also implies the idea of “emotional barrier”.

Def: The final resolution of the main conflict in a play or story. It generally follows the climaz.

Ex:“They’re a rotten crowd,” I shouted across the lawn. “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together…..”

(The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Def: The language used by the people of a specific area, class, district or any other group of people. The term dialect involves the spelling, sounds, grammar and pronunciation used by a particular group of people and it distinguishes them from other people around them.

Ex:Walter: Reckon I have. Almost died first year I come to school and et them pecans — folks say he pizened ‘em and put ‘em over on the school side of the fence.

(To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee)

Def: Related to style, diction refers to the writer’s word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness.

Ex: “ A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

Def:  A monologue set in a specific situation and spoken to an imaginary audience.

Ex: "To be or not to be" Hamlet by Shakespeare

Def:  A form of literature which can be defined as a poem or song in the form of elegiac couplets, written in honor of someone deceased. It typically laments or mourns the death of the individual.

Ex: O Captain! My Captain!, by Walt Whitman

Def: The continuation of a sentence from one line or couplet of a apoem to the next. 

Ex:

A thing of beauty is a joy forever:

Its loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness but still will keep

A bower quiet for us, and asleep

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.”

(Endymion by John Keats)

Def: The word epic is derived from the Ancient Greek adjective, “epikos”, which means a poetic story. In literature, an epic is a long narrative poem, which is usually related to heroic deeds of a person of an unusual courage and unparalleled bravery. In order to depict this bravery and courage, the epic uses grandiose style.

Ex: Beowulf by anonymous

Def: Exposition is a literary device used to introduce background information about events, settings, characters etc.

Ex: usually the the first few paragraphs of a story.

Def:  a comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem. It is often comprised of more than one sentence and sometimes consists of a full paragraph.

Ex:“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.”

(Shakespeare’s As You Like It)

Def:  Fable is a literary device which can be defined as a concise and brief story intended to provide a moral lesson at the end.

Ex:

Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies… and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end…. No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery….”

(Animal Farm by George Orwell)

Def: that part of a plot structure in which the complications of the rising actions are untangled.

Ex in the play Oedipus the King by Sophocles, the falling action is when Oedipus comes out of the palace blinded, tells Creon to care for his daughters, and banishes himself. 

Def: Farce is a literary genre and the type of a comedy that makes the use of highly exaggerated and funny situations aimed at entertaining the audience. Farce is also a subcategory of dramatic comedy that is different from other forms of comedy, as it only aims at making the audience laugh. It uses elements like physical humor, deliberate absurdity, bawdy jokes and drunkenness just to make people laugh and we often see one-dimensional characters in ludicrous situations in farces.

Ex:Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Importance of Being Earnest, is one of the best verbal farces. Just like a typical farce that contains basic elements like mockery of upper class, disgraceful physical humor, absurdity and mistaken identities

Def: an interruption of the chronological sequence (as of a film or literary work) of an event of earlier occurrence.

Ex: The Bible is a good source of flashback examples. In the Book of Matthew, we see a flashback has been used when Joseph, governor of Egypt, sees his brothers after several years, Joseph “remembered his dreams” about his brothers and how they sold him into slavery in the past.

Def: Foreshadowing is a literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story.

Ex:Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” is rich with foreshadowing examples. One of which is the following lines from Act 2, Scene 2:

“Life were better ended by their hate,

Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love”

Def: Language that is lofty, dignified, and impersonal

Ex: Keats in his “Ode to the Grecian Urn” uses formal diction to achieve a certain effect. He goes:

“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

Are sweeter: therefore, ye soft pipes, play on”

Notice the use of formal “ye” instead of informal “you”. The formality here is due to the respect the urn inspires in Keats. In the same poem he says:

Def: Free verse is a literary device that can be defined as poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm and does not rhyme with fixed forms. Such poems are without rhythms and rhyme schemes; do not follow regular rhyme scheme rules and still provide artistic expression. In this way, the poet can give his own shape to a poem how he/she desires.

Ex: A Noiseless Patient Spider by Walt Whitman

Def: Genre means the type of art, literature or music characterized by a specific form, content and style.

Ex: literature has four main genres; poetry, drama, fiction and non-fiction. All of these genres have particular features and functions that distinguish them from one another.

Def: A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement. Hyperboles

often have a comic effect; however, a serious effect is also possible. Often, hyperbole produces irony.

Ex. “So first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” - Franklin D.

Roosevelt

This stuff is used motor oil compared to the coffee you make, my love.

Def: An iamb is a literary device that can be defined as a foot containing unaccented and short syllables followed by a long and accented syllable in a single line of a poem (unstressed/stressed syllables)

Def:

The only news I know 

Is bulletins all day

From Immortality.

The only shows I see,

Tomorrow and Today,

Perchance Eternity.

(The Only News I Know by Emily Dickinson)

Def: A short poem describing a country or pastoral scene, praising the simplicity and peace of rustic life.

Ex: Alfred, Lord Tennyson's idylls of the King.

Def: Opening s story in the middle of the actiom, necessitating filling in the past deatails by expositon or flashbacks.

Ex: The Odyssey

Def: Irony is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. It may also be a situation that may end up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated. In simple words, it is a difference between the appearance and the reality.

Ex: We come across the following lines in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Act I, Scene V.

“Go ask his name: if he be married.

My grave is like to be my wedding bed.”

Def: Usually it is thought that imagery makes use of particular words that create visual representation of ideas in our minds. The word imagery is associated with mental pictures. 

Ex:Imagery of light and darkness is repeated many times in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. Consider an example from Act I, Scene V:

“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night

Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear;”

Def: Jargon is a literary term that is defined as a use of specific phrases and words by writers in a particular situation, profession or trade. These specialized terms are used to convey hidden meanings accepted and understood in that field. 

Ex: Words such as geek, crash, interface.

Def: Juxtaposition is a literary technique in which two or more ideas, places, characters and their actions are placed side by side in a narrative or a poem for the purpose of developing comparisons and contrasts.

Ex: William Shakespeare “Romeo and Juliet”. We notice the juxtaposition of “light and “darkness” repeatedly. Consider an example from Act I, Scene V:

“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night

Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear;”

Def: A perspective confined to a single character, whether a first person or a third person; the reader cannot know for sure what is going on in the minds of other characters.

Def: a figure of speech which employs an understatement by using double negatives or, in other words, positive statement is expressed by negating its opposite expressions.

Ex: “I am not unaware how the productions of the Grub Street brotherhood have of late years fallen under many prejudices.” (Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub)

Def: A sentence grammatically complete and usually stating its main idea before end.

Ex: "The child ran as if being chased by demons."

Def: Originally designated poems meant to bre sung the accompaniment of a lyre; now any short poem in which the speaker expresses intense personal emotion rather than describing a narrative or dramatic situation.

Def: The Sonnet and the ode are great examples of lyric poetry.

Def: A misleading term for theme; the central idea or statement of a story, or area of inquiry.

Ex: The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, draws much its strength from the fact that its messages are so universal. Focusing on fulfilling our own “Personal Legends,” 

Def: Metaphor is a figure of speech which makes an implicit, implied or hidden comparison between two things that are unrelated but share some common characteristics. In other words, a resemblance of two contradictory or different objects is made based on a single or some common characteristics.

Ex:“Shall I Compare Thee to a summer’s Day”,

William Shakespeare was the best exponent of the use of metaphors. His poetical works and dramas all make wide-ranging use of metaphors.

Def: Meter is a stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse or within the lines of a poem. Stressed syllables tend to be longer and unstressed shorter. In simple language, meter is a poetic device that serves as a linguistic sound pattern for the verses, as it gives poetry a rhythmical and melodious sound. 

Ex: 

Cry, cry! Troy burns, or else let Helen go.

(From Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare)

Spondaic meter has two accented syllables. You can easily identify this type of meter because it contains both stressed syllables.

Def: A figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it. The substituted term generally carries a more potent emotional response.

Ex:  " The Spires of Oxford" -W.M

God rest you, happy gentlemen,

who laid your good lives down,

Who took the khaki and the gun

Instead of cap and gown.

God bring you to a fairer place

Than even Oxford town.

Def: In literature, mood is a literary element that evokes certain feelings or vibes in readers through words and descriptions.

Ex:

Charles Dickens creates a calm and peaceful mood in his novel “Pickwick Papers”:

“The river, reflecting the clear blue of the sky, glistened and sparkled as it flowed noiselessly on.”

Def: Motif is an object or idea that repeats itself throughout a literary work.

Ex: "Green light" in the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Def: A textual organization based on sequences of connected events, usually presented in a straightforward, chronological framework.

Def: The "character" who "teells" the story, or in poetry, the persona.

Ex: Pip in "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens

Def: A poem written about or for a specific occasion, public or private.

Ex: An epithalamium is a wedding poem.

Def: Ode is a literary technique that is lyrical in nature, but not very lengthy. You have often read odes in which poets praise people, natural scenes, and abstract ideas. It is highly solemn and serious in its tone and subject matter, and usually is used with elaborate patterns of stanzas. 

Ex: Poe's "To Helen" or Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale.

Def: Omniscient is a literary technique of writing narrative in third person in which a narrator knows the feelings and thoughts of every character in the story. 

Ex:

“Harry had taken up his place at wizard school, where he and his scar were famous …but now the school year was over, and he was back with the Dursleys for the summer, back to being treated like a dog that had rolled in something smelly…The Dursleys hadn’t even remembered that today happened to be Harry’s twelfth birthday. Of course, his hopes hadn’t been high?”

(An Excerp from “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” by J.K. Rowling)

Def; A figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of

words. Simple examples include such words as buzz, hiss, hum, crack, whinny, and murmur. 

Ex: “The moan of doves in immemorial elms,

And murmuring of innumerable bees…”

(‘Come Down, O Maid’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson)

Def:Overstatement is an act of stating something more than it actually is in order to make the point more serious or important or beautiful. In literature, writers use it as a literary technique for the sake of humor, and for laying emphasis on a certain point.

Ex: 

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

It seems she hangs upon the check of night

Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear.

(From Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare)

Def: From the Greek for “pointedly foolish,” an oxymoron is a figure of speech wherein the author groups apparently contradictory terms to suggest a paradox.

Ex: 

Tennyson’s “Lancelot and Elaine”.

“the shackles of love straiten’d him

His honour rooted in dishonoured stood

And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true”

Def:Parable is a figure of speech, which presents a short story typically with a moral lesson at the end. 

Ex:Jesus has mentioned a very popular parable related to Good Samaritan in the holy Bible. Gospel of Luke (10:29-37) describes that there was a traveler (may be a Jew), whom some people had robbed and beaten alongside the road and left him. A Levite and a priest passed through that way, but both ignored that man. Eventually, a Samaritan reached there and helped the injured and miserable man without thinking about his race or religious belief (generally, Samaritans despise Jews). 

Def: A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity. 

Ex:I n the famous play of Shakespeare, Hamlet, the protagonist Hamlet says,

“I must be cruel to be kind.”

Def: It refers to the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity. This can involve, but is not limited to repetition of a grammatical element such as a preposition or verbal phrase.

Ex: Charles Dickens’s novel A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity . . .”

Def: Parody is an imitation of a particular writer, artist or a genre, exaggerating it deliberately to produce a comic effect. The humorous effect in parody is achieved by imitating and overstressing noticeable features of a famous piece of literature, as in caricatures, where certain peculiarities of a person are highlighted to achieve a humorous effect.

Ex:“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;”

(shakespeare Sonnet 13)

Def:  A work that describe the simple life of country fols, usually shepherds who live a timeless, painless (and sheepless) life in a world fuull of beauty, music, and love.

Ex: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë 

Def: – A sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end. This independent clause is preceded by a phrase or clause that cannot stand alone. 

Ex: “Ecstatic with my AP score, I let out a loud, joyful shout!” The effect of a periodic sentence is to add emphasis and structural variety. It is also a much stronger sentence than the loose sentence

Def: The voice or figure of the author who tells and structures the story and who may or may not share the values of the actual author.

Ex: Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Def: a figure of speech in which a thing, an idea or an animal is given human attributes. The non-human objects are portrayed in such a way that we feel they have the ability to act like human beings.

Ex: Taken from Act I, Scene II of “Romeo and Juliet”,

“When well-appareled April on the heel

Of limping winter treads.”

Def: Italian or Petrarchan sonnet was introduced by an Italian poet Francesco Petrarch of 14th century.The rhyme scheme of Petrarchan sonnet has first eight lines called octet that rhymes as abba -abba –cdc-dcd. The remaining six lines called sestet might have a range of rhyme schemes.

Ex: Visions by Francesco Petrarch

Def : The arrangerment of the narration based on the cause-effect relationship of the events.

Ex: Among the examples of plot in modern literature, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (written by J.K. Rowling) is probably the most familiar to both readers and moviegoers. The plot of the story begins when Harry learns that Professor Snape is after the Sorcerer’s Stone. The Professor lets loose a troll, who nearly kills Harry and his friends. In addition, Harry finds out that Hagrid let out the secret of the giant dog to a stranger in return for a dragon which means that Snape can now reach the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Def: A protagonist is the central character or leading figure in poetry, narrative, novel or any other story. A protagonist is sometimes called a “hero” by the audience or readers.

Ex: Hamlet in Shakespeare's "Hamlet"

Def: A quatrain is a verse with four lines, or even a full poem containing four lines, having an independent and separate theme. Often one line consists of alternating rhyme. It exists in a variety of forms. 

Ex:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul

And sings the tune without the words

And never stops at all,

(Hope is the Thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson)

Def: The practice in literature of attempting to describe nature and life without idealization and with attention to deail.

Ex: The theme in Jack London’s novel, To Build A Fire, is man versus nature; thus it is another good example of naturalism. Naturalism in this novel shows how human beings need to be careful at every corner, as death could reach them anywhere, waiting for them to commit a mistake and take their lives. We see the story is about a man with his dog trying to survive harsh cold weather by building a fire. In fact, author uses Darwinian Theory of “survival of the fittest” in his work.

Def: A rhetorical question is asked just for effect or to lay emphasis on some point discussed when no real answer is expected. A rhetorical question may have an obvious answer but the questioner asks rhetorical questions to lay emphasis to the point. 

Ex: Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

 JULIET: “Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.

Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,

Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part

Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Def: A rhyme is a tool utilizing repeating patterns that brings rhythm or musicality in poems which differentiate them from prose which is plain. A rhyme is employed for the specific purpose of rendering a pleasing effect to a poem which makes its recital an enjoyable experience. Moreover, it offers itself as a mnemonic device smoothing the progress of memorization. 

Ex: 

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:

(“Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare)

Def: Rising action in a plot is a series of relevant incidents that create suspense, interest and tension in a narrative. In literary works, a rising action includes all decisions, characters’ flaws and background circumstances that together create turns and twists leading to a climax.

Ex:The conflict begins in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel, The Hobbit, as Gandalf meets Bilbo and asks him to play the role of a burglar of dwarves’ expedition to recover treasure of Thorin from Smaug. Rising action occurs as he agrees to live up and act as a burglar during this adventure. His heroism begins merely by shouting to wake up Gandalf, who rescues company from goblin, and then action slowly intensifies when he finds out the magic ring. Gradually, he overcomes difficulties by killing a big spider, and establishes his potentials as a hero and leader.

Def: Sarcasm is derived from French word sarcasmor and also from a Greek word sarkazein that means “tear flesh” or “grind the teeth”. Somehow, in simple words it means to speak bitterly.

Ex: “Thrift, thrift, Horatio! The funeral bak’d meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.”

(Hamlet Act 1 Scene 2, by Shakespeare)

Def: Satire is a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule. It intends to improve humanity by criticizing its follies and foibles. A writer in a satire uses fictional characters, which stand for real people, to expose and condemn their corruption.

Ex:Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver. 

“that for above seventy Moons past there have been two struggling Parties in this Empire, under the Names of Tramecksan and Slamecksan from the high and low Heels on their shoes, by which they distinguish themselves.”

Def: In literature, scansion means to divide the poetry or a poetic form into feet by pointing out different syllables based on their lengths.

Ex: If music be the food of love, play on…

That strain again! it had a dying fall:

(Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare)

Def: Setting is an environment or surrounding in which an event or story takes place.

Ex:  Elsinore, Denmark: in and around the royal palace. The story of Hamlet by Shakespeare is set in the late middle ages (14th and 15th centuries, or 1300 to 1499) in and around (mostly) the royal palace in Elsinore, a city in Denmark.

Def: A Shakespearean sonnet is generally written in an iambic pentameter, there are 10 syllables in each line.

Ex: Without argument, Sonnet 18 - Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? Is the most famous of Shakespeare’s sonnets ... perhaps even the most famous love poem of all time.

Def: A Shape Poem is a type of poetry that describes an object and is shaped the same as the object the poem is describing.

Ex: "The Guitar" by Federico Lorca

Def: A simile is a figure of speech that makes a comparison, showing similarities between two different things. Unlike a metaphor, a simile draws resemblance with the help of the words “like” or “as”. Therefore, it is a direct comparison.

Ex: In her novel To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf compares the velocity of her thoughts about the two men with that of spoken words.

“. . . impressions poured in upon her of those two men, and to follow her thought was like following a voice which speaks too quickly to be taken down by one’s pencil . . .”

Def: A soliloquy is a popular literary device often used in drama to reveal the innermost thoughts of a character. It is a great technique used to convey the progress of action of the play by means of expressing a character’s thoughts about a certain character or past, present or upcoming event while talking to himself without acknowledging the presence of any other person.

Ex: Hamlet's "To be or not to be" by Shakespeare

Def: The person, not necessarily the author, who is the voice of the literature.

Ex:Pip in Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations

Def:  A section of a poem demarcated by extra line spacing. Some distinguish a  stanza, a division marked by a single pattern of meter or rhyme.

Ex: Couplet, Tercet, Quatrain, Cinquain, Sestet, Heptatich, Octave.

Def: A characterization based on concious or unconcious assumptions that some aspect, such as gender, age, ethnic or national identity, religion, occupation,  material status, and so on, are predictably accompanied by a certain character traits, actions, and even values.

Ex: In To Kill a Mockingbird, Mr. Ewell is the stereotypical "poor white" man in the South.

Def: One that appears in a numer of stories or plays.

Ex: Evil step mother

Def: The organization or arrangement of the various elements in a work.

Def: The style in writing can be defined as the way a writer writes and it is the technique which an individual author uses in his writing. It varies from author to author and depends upon one’s syntax, word choice, and tone. It can also be described as a voice that readers listen to when they read the work of a writer.

Ex: Hermingway wrote primarily with short, simple sentences, while Joseph Conrad wrote long, rambling prose.

Def: Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense.

Ex: We find symbolic value in Shakespeare’s famous monologue in his play As you Like It:

“All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

they have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,”

This symbolizes that women and men have a different role in life. “A stage” here symbolizes the world and “players” is a symbol for human beings.

Def: Synecdoche is a literary device in which a part of something represents the whole or it may use a whole to represent a part.

Ex: Look how Shelly uses synecdoche in his poem Ozymandias:

“Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them.”

“The hand” in the above lines refers to the sculptor who carved the “lifeless things” into a grand statue.

Def: Syntax is a set of rules in a language. It dictates how words from different parts of speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought.

Ex: In Romeo and Juliet (By Shakespeare), he writes,

“What light from yonder window breaks?” instead of using a common expression “What light breaks from yonder window?”

Def:  It uses tercets, three lines stanzas. Its interlocking pattern on end words follow: Aba bcb cdc ded and so on…

Ex: 

Ode to the West Wind

by

Percy Bysshe Shelley

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing

Def: Theme is defined as a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work that may be stated directly or indirectly.

Ex:  Love and friendship are frequently occurring themes in literature. They generate emotional twists and turns in a narrative and can lead to a variety of endings: happy, sad or bittersweet. For example, " Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare

Def: is an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience. Tone is generally conveyed through the choice of words or the viewpoint of a writer on a particular subject.

Ex: Robert Frost in the last stanza of his poem The Road Not Taken gives us an insight into the effect of tone:

“I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

Def: Tragedy is kind of drama that presents a serious subject matter about human suffering and corresponding terrible events in a dignified manner.

Ex: Shakespeare, the most popular of all playwrights, knew the Greek tragedy style well and he used several Greek themes but modified them to his own purpose. He intentionally violates the unity of action and mixes tragic actions with comical. For example, he wrote Hamlet and plenty of other plays based on the theme of Tragedy

Def: is a metrical foot of two syllables, one long (or stressed) and one short (or unstressed).

Ex: 

And my poor fool is hang’d! No, no, no life!

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,

And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more,

Never, never, never, never, never!

Pray you, undo this button: thank you, sir.

Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips,

Look there, look there…..!

(King Lear by William Shakespeare)

Def: is a structural part of a plot and is at times referred to as a crisis. It is a decisive moment or a turning point in a storyline at which the rising action turns around into a falling action.

Ex: In William Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet”, the story reaches its climax in Act 3. In the first scene of the act, Romeo challenges Tybalt to a duel after he (Tybalt) killed Mercutio:

“And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now!

Now, Tybalt, take the ‘villain’ back again

That late thou gavest me; for Mercutio’s soul

Is but a little way above our heads,”

Def: The quality or characteristic of being true or real.

Ex: Drawing analogies from real life gives a semblance of truth to even fantastic ideas. For instance,

“The white mares of the moon rush along the sky

Beating their golden hoofs upon the glass Heavens.”

Def: In literature, it is defined as a poetic device which requires a poem to have 19 lines and a fixed form. It has five tercets (first 15 lines), a quatrain (last four lines), and a couplet at the end of the quatrain.

Ex: Theocritus by Oscar Wilde

Def: A voice in literature is the form or a format through which narrators tell their stories. It is prominent when a writer places himself / herself into words and provides a sense the character is real person conveying a specific message the writer intends to convey. In simple words, it is an author’s individual writing style or point of view. 

Def: A repeated stanza or lines in a poem or song.

Ex: Robert Burns repeats the line "For a'that, and a'athat!"

Def: Language that is not as lofty or impersonal as formal dictation: similar to everyday speech.

Ex: Such diction may include words as "OK, bye, hey, huh?"

Def: Rhythm is a literary device which demonstrates the long and short patterns through stressed and unstressed syllables particularly in verse form.

Ex: This is the most commonly used. It consists of two syllables. The first syllable is not stressed while the second syllable is stressed. Such as “compare” in

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”

-Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare