Literary Terms

GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS

alliteration repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words, e.g.

funny face or cowardly custard . Note that sound, not spelling, is what matters: philosophical fish is still an example of alliteration.

The similar sounds do not have to be right next to each other:

Then on a sudden, lo! the level lake,

And the long glories of the winter moon.

assonance repetition of the similar vowel sounds. These could be the same vowel sounds with different consonants, e.g. blue moon , funny tummy , or

the same consonants with different vowel sounds, e.g. black block , sad Sid .

Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms

dialect words a dialect is a form of language spoken in a particular area or by a particular social group. dialect words are examples of words or meanings that distinguish a dialect from standard English or from other dialects. This could be a word that only occurs in that dialect, e.g. mardy in Yorkshire

direct address when a poem talks to us!

Shall I compare thee to a summer s day?

- Sonnet, William Shakespeare

dramatic monologue an imaginary speaker addressing an imaginary audience, e.g. My Last Duchess by Robert Browning. Usually in iambic pentameter in a single stanza, i.e. no breaks. The person just will not stop talking!

My Last Duchess is in iambic pentameters that rhyme in pairs. These are called rhyming couplets . Look out for the following:

a) words or phrases that imply a setting in which the speaker is talking:

e.g. That s my last Duchess painted on the wall

enjambment when a sentence runs over from one line of verse into the next.

This is a poem about a line of ants

running along one twig and then another

twig and the enjambement reflects the

unending movement of the ants until one of them

stops.

form the shape of the poem. Some shapes have names, e.g. sonnet, ballad, dramatic monologue. Others do not, but there will always be something that binds the poem together: a particular rhythm, rhymes and so on. Think: why does this form, this shape, suit the subject and its treatment by the poet?

free verse a poem with no regular rhythm or line length.

It can make you wonder: why do we call this a poem at all?

Isn t it just someone deciding when

to start

a new line whenever they like

in a rather annoying and

pretentious

way?

half-rhyme words that almost rhyme but not quite: very similar to assonance.

The effect can be unsettling, as in this war poem about two dead soldiers meeting underground:

It seemed that out of battle I escaped

Down some profound, dull tunnel, long since scooped

Through granites which titanic wars had groined.

Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned

- Wilfred Owen, Strange Meeting

hyperbole deliberate exaggeration for effect. I ve told you a thousand times! is one annoying example.

iambic pentameter a line of verse with five beats, which fall on the second syllable of each pair: ti TUM ti TUM ti TUM ti TUM ti TUM

E.g. Believe me, King of Shadows, I mistook!

- Puck, in deep trouble, pleading with Oberon in A Midsummer Night s Dream

Note: iamb = ti TUM pente = five in Greek.

imagery language that describes something using at least one of the five senses. Often this will be a mental image, but imagery can also describe a sound, a smell, a taste c. It is a very broad term indeed, and is also applied to figurative language such as metaphors and similes.

literal and figurative language

Literal language means directly what it states. I laughed a lot is literal.

Figurative language does not mean directly what it states. I laughed my head off is figurative.

Note: metaphors, similes and personification are all examples of figurative language.

metaphor an image which implies a comparison by stating that something is the thing it resembles. The sea was woman the woman was the sea. Ray Bradbury, in his short story, The Shoreline at Sunset , about some boys who find a mermaid.

onomatopoeia when the words sound like what they mean, e.g. buzz, crash . Movement may also be imitated, e.g. splishy-splashy fish .

In poetry, the words often behave like what they describe. The sound of the words, their pace, rhythm, softness or harshness often reflect their meaning.

personification describing something non-human as if it has human characteristics such as feelings. This could be an inanimate (non-living) object:

the broken toaster spat crumbs at me . Or it could be an abstract idea, like love or truth, given a human form, e.g. Grief fills the room up of my absent child,

Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form: Then have I reason to be fond of grief. Shakespeare, King John ,

refrain a recurring phrase or lines at the end of each stanza of poetry, like a one-line chorus. Can you think of a song you like that has a refrain?

rhyme scheme the way rhymes within a poem are organised. You write about this by using aabb, abab and so on. Each new letter represents a new sound.

rhythm the arrangement of words to form a regular beat through a pattern of stresses. Rhythm is to poetry what the beat is to music.

sibilance - alliteration of the s sound, e.g. serious snakes stay sober .

simile a comparison between two things, using like or as .

Her skin was soft as sable,

Her eyes were wide as day,

sonnet a poem of fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter.

Shakespearean sonnet has a rhyming couplet at the end. E.g. Simon Armitage s poem, The Clown Punk .

Petrarchan sonnet has no rhyming couplet at the end. Instead, there is a turn or volta in the argument, around the eighth line. E.g. Shelley s Ozymandias .

speaker the voice that is speaking in a poem written in the first person.

Note: take care when deciding whether to write speaker or poet . The poet is the actual person who wrote the poem. The speaker is the character within it: the one whom the poem is pretending to be!

stanza a clearly demarcated part of a poem. Another word for verse , really!

structure how the poet has organised his or her work into patterns, e.g. the number of stanzas/verses and their length the line lengths the rhymes and the rhythms. E.g. This poem tells a story in three verses. The first two are the same length but the third is very short, reflecting the sudden death of the fish.

symbol something used to stand for or represent something else.

Note: a symbol is like a heavy-duty metaphor. It stands for something bigger than itself. E.g. the rose is often a symbol of love the cross is a symbol of Christianity.

tone the overall feeling or mood of a poem.

Note: look out for any changes of tone and see how precise you can be about which word or phrase creates that change.