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| Alliteration | the repetitiom of begining consonant sounds. It is used to emphasize words, to tie lines together, to reinforce meaning, and to add sound effects. |
| Allusion | is an indirect refernece to a person, a place, an event, or a literary work with which the author believes the reader will be familiar. Provides a deeper understanding of the main idea in a peice of literature. |
| Assonance | is the repetition of vowel sounds within two or more closely positioned words. Helps unify poetry and prose while also providing interesting sound patterns. |
| Blank Verse | is unrhymed poetry written with an alternating pattern of five unstressed and stressed syllables per line. The rhythem created by this pattern resembles the natural rythem or spoken English. The plays of William Shakespeare are mainly in this. |
| Conflict | is the struggle between opposing forces that is the basis of the plot of a story, novel, play, biography, or autobiography. |
| Consonance | is the repetition of consonant sounds within lines. Helps unify poetry and prose while also providing interesting sound patterns. |
| Couplet | is two consecutive lines of poetry with end rhyme. |
| Epithet | is a descriptive nickname a writer uses to create a memorable image. |
| Extended Metaphor | is a comparison that is develpoed through an entire verse, poem, or paragraph. |
| External Conflict | occurs between a character and a force of nature, between two characters, or between a character and society. |
| Figurative Language | is language that conveys ideas beyond the literal, or ordinary, meaning of the words. The most common examples of this are simile, metaphor, personification, and hyperbole. |
| Foot or Metric Foot | the basic unit of verse meter consisting of any various combinations or groups of unstressed and stressed syllables. |
| Foreshadowing | is a writer's use of hints or clues to indicte events that will occur later in a story. |
| Free Verse | is poetry written without regular patterns of rhyme and meter. It often sounds like everyday conversation when you read aloud. |
| Hyperbole | is a figure of speech in which an exaggeration is made for emphasis or humerous effect, |
| Imagery | refers to details that appeal to a reader's five senses, often in a startling way. Usually these images are visual ones, but may also appeal to other senses. |
| Internal Conflict | occurs when a character struggles within himself or herself, for example, when trying to make a decision. |
| Irony | is a contrast between what is expected and what actually exists or happens. |
| Lyric Poem | a short poem that expresses the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker. |
| Metaphor | a figure of speech that compares two unlike things that have something in common. Unlike similies, metaphors do not use the words "like" or "as". |
| Meter | refers to the regular pattern of stressed and unstresesed syllables in a line of poetry. This of a poem can emphasize the musical quality of the language. In addition, the poet may use this to emphasize particular words or ideas to create a certain mood. |
| Mood | is the feeling created by the writer in a literary work. Events, descriptive details, and setting all contribute to this. For example A descripion of an early spring day with bright sunshine might create this of joy and rebirth. |
| Onomatopoeia | a combination of words whose sound seems to resemble the word(s) it expesses (eg. "buzz" of the bee, "ooze" of the oil, etc.) |
| Paralleism | is the technique by which a writer exprsses ideas of equal importance in phrases or sentances that are worded in similiar ways. In the Declaration of Independence, Jeffereson describes King George's offenses in parallel constructions: "he has refused," "he has dissolved," "he has obstructed," and so on. |
| Personification | giving the qualities of a human being to an object, animal, or idea. Like other figures of speech, pesonification helps writers communicate feelings and perspectives. |
| Poetic License | Deviation from form, fact, or rule by an artist or writer for the sake of the effect gained. |
| Point of Veiw | is the perspective from which a story is told. When a story is narrated by one of its characters, this is described as first person. When a story's narrator is not one of the characters, but instead is outside the story, this is described as third person. |
| Quatrain | is a four-line stanza and is common in English poetry. Various rhyme schemes are used for these. |
| Repetiton | a literary technique or device in which words or lines are repeated throughout a work. Writers and speakers often repeat words, phrases, or sentences for emphasis or to create a particular sound pattern or rhythm. |
| Rhyme | is the repetiton of sounds at the ends of words. |
| Rhyme Scheme | refers to the pattern of rhyme within a poem. Is indicated by using a different letter for each rhyming sound in a poem. |
| Simile | is a comparison of two unlike things using the words "like" or "as". Used to bring out emotional responses, create lively images, and present familiar objects in unusual and strking things. |
