Allusion - A reference in one literary work to a character or theme found in another literary work.
Apostrophe - A figure of speech wherein the speaker speaks directly to something nonhuman.
Assonance - The repetition of vowel sounds in a literary work, especially in a poem.
Ballad - A story in poetic form, often about tragic love and usually sung.
Cacophony - Cacophony is an unpleasant combination of sounds.
Euphony - Euphony is a pleasant combination of sounds.
Caesura - A pause within a line of poetry which may or may not affect the metrical count
Conceit - A far-fetched simile or metaphor, a literary conceit occurs when the speaker compares two highly dissimilar things.
Connotation/Denotation - The connotation of a word is its emotional content. The denotation of a word is its dictionary definition.
Consonance - The repetition of consonant sounds with differing vowel sounds in words near each other in a line or lines of poetry.
Couplet - A stanza of two lines, usually rhyming.
Diction - An author's choice of words.
Elegy - A lyric poem lamenting death.
Didactic Literature - Literature designed explicitly to instruct.
Epithet - In literature, a word of phrase preceding or following a name which serves to describe the character.
Euphemism - A mild word of phrase which substitutes for another which would be undesirable because it is too direct, unpleasant, or offensive.
Foot - The basic unit of measurement in a line of poetry.
Free Verse - Unrhymed Poetry with lines of varying lengths, and containing no specific metrical pattern.
Figurative Language - In literature, a way of saying one thing and meaning something else.
Figure of Speech - An example of figurative language that states something that is not literally true in order to create an effect. Similes, metaphors and personification are figures of speech which are based on comparisons. Metonymy, synecdoche, synesthesia, apostrophe, oxymoron, and hyperbole are other figures of speech.
Hyperbole - A figure of speech in which an overstatement or exaggeration occurs
Iamb A metrical pattern of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable.
Imagery - A word or group of words in a literary work which appeal to one or more of the senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell.
Irony - In irony of situation, the result of an action is the reverse of what the actor expected. In dramatic irony, the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not. In verbal irony, the contrast is between the literal meaning of what is said and what is meant.
Local Color - A detailed setting forth of the characteristics of a particular locality, enabling the reader to "see" the setting.
Lyric Poem - A short poem wherein the poet expresses an emotion or illuminates some life principle.
Metaphor - A figure of speech wherein a comparison is made between two unlike quantities without the use of the words "like" or "as."
Meter - A regular pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables in a line or lines of poetry.
Metonymy - A figure of speech in which a word represents something else which it suggests.
Narrative Poem - A poem which tells a story.
Ode - A poem in praise of something divine or expressing some noble idea.
Paradox - A situation or a statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, does not.
Personification - A figure of speech in which something nonhuman is given human characteristics.
Parallel Structure - A repetition of sentences using the same structure.
Rhyme - In poetry, a pattern of repeated sounds.
Rhythm - Recurrences of stressed and unstressed syllables at equal intervals, similar to meter.
Scansion - A close, critical reading of a poem, examining the work for meter.
Simile - A figure of speech which takes the form of a comparison between two unlike quantities for which a basis for comparison can be found, and which uses the words "like" or "as" in the comparison.
Sonnet - A lyric poem of fourteen lines whose rhyme scheme is fixed.
Symbolism - A device in literature where an object represents an idea.
Synecdoche - A figure of speech wherein a part of something represents the whole thing.
Synesthesia - One sensory experience described in terms of another sensory experience.
Theme - An ingredient of a literary work which gives the work unity.
Tone - Tone expresses the author's attitude toward his or her subject.
Understatement - A statement which lessens or minimizes the importance of what is meant.
Quatrain - A four-line stanza which may be rhymed or unrhymed.
Enjambment - The continuation of the sense and therefore the grammatical construction beyond the end of a line of verse or the end of a couplet.
Slant Rhyme - a rhyme in which the sounds are similar, but not exact