You can scroll on the bar or click the appropriate letter to find what you would like. Allegory A story with an underlying meaning symbolized by the characters and action. Alliteration The repetition of the same sounds-usually initial consonants of words or of stressed syllables-in any sequence of neighboring words. Allusion A reference to a familiarly person or event, often from literature. Anachronism A chronological error in literature that places a person, event, or object in an impossible historical context. Anagram A word or phrase created by transposing the letters of another word. Analogy The relation of one thing to something familiar. Antagonist The major character opposing a hero or a protagonist. Anthropomorphism The assigning of human characteristics and feelings to animals and nonhuman things. Anticlimax Something that works against a climax, such as humor; a sudden descent from the lofty to the trivial. Antihero A protagonist lacking in heroic qualities like courage, idealism, and honesty. Antithesis rhetorical figures in which sharply opposing ideas are expressed within a balanced grammatical structure. Assonance The close repetition of similar vowel sounds. Autobiography The story of one's life as written by oneself. Ballad A poem, often meant to be sung, that tells the story. Bathos a sudden descent from the lofty to the ordinary or ridiculous. Belles-lettres Literature Currently, lighter writings or appreciative essays on the beauties of literature. Bibliography A list of books on a similar subject or by a given author or authors. Biography The story of someone's life as written by another. Blank Verse Unrhymed poetry, especially poetry written in iambic pentameter. Cacophony Discordant sounds, sometimes used in poetry for effect. Cadence The naturally rhythm of language determined by its inherent alternation of stressed or unstressed syllables. Caesura A pause or break in a line of verse. Climax The point of high emotional intensity at which a story or play reaches its peak. Conceit A fanciful image, especially an elaborate or startling analogy. Couplet Two successive lines of poetry, usually rhymed. Denouement Literally, the "unknotting": the final unraveling of the plot following the climax. Diction The choice and arrangement of words in a literary work. Doggerel Crudely written poetry. Elegy A poetic lament. Epic An extended narrative poem, exalted in style and heroic in theme. Epistolary novel a novel written in the form of correspondence. Essay A short written work of nonfiction, usually on one topic. Euphony Harmonious sounds, often used in poetry for effect. Fable A prose or poetic story that illustrates a moral. Fiction Narrative writing drawn from the imagination of the author rather than from history or fact. Foot A group of syllables forming a metrical unit. Free Verse A poem without regular meter or line length. Genre A literary type or class. Haiku An unrhymed poem form, originated by the Japanese, consisting of three lines of five, seven, and five syllables that record the essence of a moment. Hero A character, often the protagonist, who exhibits qualities such as courage, idealism, and honesty. High Comedy Comedy that is characterized by intellect or wit. Historical Novel A narrative that places fictional characters or events in historically accurate surroundings. Hyperbole A deliberate overstatement. Iamb A metrical foot that contains one short or unstressed syllable preceding one long or stressed syllable. Iambic Pentameter Poetry consisting of five parts per line, each part having one short or unstressed syllable and one long or stressed syllable. Imagery Figurative language used to evoke particular mental pictures. Irony An expression of a meaning that contradicts the literal meaning. Literature Novels, stories, poems, and plays of high standards that entertain, inform, stimulate, or provide aesthetic pleasure. Low Comedy Humorous material that employs physical actions or jokes of questionable taste. Malapropism A mistaken substitution of one word for another that sounds similar, generally with humorous effect. Metaphor A figure of speech in which two unlikely objects are compared by identification or by the substitution of one for the other. Meter The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry. Motif A theme, character, or verbal pattern that recurs in literature or folklore. Myth A legend, usually made up in part of historical events, that helps define the beliefs of a people and that often has evolved as an explanation for rituals land natural phenomena. Nonfiction A historically accurate narrative. Novel A long work of fictional prose. Novella A short novel; also, the early tales or short stories of French and Italian writers. Ode A lyric poem marked by strong feelings and an involved style. Onomatopoeia Formation of a word by imitating the natural sound associated with the object or action involved; the use of words that are so named. Oxymoron A figure of speech that employs two contradictory terms. Palindrome A word, a sentence, or a group of sentences (sometimes in verse) that reads the same backward and forward. For examples, see "Palindromes" in chapter 13. Parable A short that illustrates a moral. Paradox An apparently contradictory statement that contains a truth that reconciles the contradiction. Parody A humorous, often exaggerated, imitation of a serious literary work. Pathetic Fallacy The assigning of human attributes to nature. Pathos An element that evokes feelings of pity tenderness and sympathy. Personification The assigning of human attributes to abstractions, objects, and other nonhuman things. Plot The organization of individual incidents in a narrative or play. Poem A rhythmic expression of feelings or ideas, often using metaphor, meter, and rhyme. Poetic License The practice of violating rules, expectations, or conventions to achieve a desired effect. Prologue An introductory speech or monologue, given by an actor or actress before a play, which helps to set the stage for what is to come. Prose Literary expression not marked by rhyme or metrical regularity. Protagonist The main character of a play, novel, or story, usually the hero. Pun a humorous and often clever play on words in which one word evokes another with a similar sound but a different meaning. Refrain A phrase or verse that is repeated throughout a poem or song. Rhetorical Question A question put forth to achieve an effect or make a point, to which an answer is not expected. Rhyme The repetition of similar or identical sounds at the ends of lines of verse. Rhythm The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry or prose. Satire Ridicule of a subject; the work in which it is contained. Short Story A brief work of narrative prose. Simile A comparison of two unlike things that usually employs like or as. Soliloquy A dramatic monologue meant to convey the thoughts of a character in a play. Sonnet a poem consisting of fourteen iambic pentameter lines with a rigidly prescribed rhyming scheme. Spondee a type of metrical food with two stressed syllables. Spoonerism The transportation of the initial sounds of two or more words, often with humorous results. Named for a Professor Spooner of Oxford. Who was famous for such transpositions. Style An author's individual method and tone. Subplot A secondary plot in a story. Symbol In literature, something that stands for, or means, something else. Theme The central, idea or thesis of a work. Trochee A metrical foot that contains one long or stressed syllable preceding one short or unstressed. Verse Lines of writing arranged in metrical patterns, or a single such line.     COPYRIGHT©2005 VICTORIA PACKING CORP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ( CTR-110505-LIT)