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| 7271509302 | Active Voice | Active voice pertains to any sentence with an active verb. Active voice expresses more energy than does passive voice. For example: "Robert crushed the tomato with his fist" is in the active voice. "The tomato was crushed by Robert" is in the passive voice. | 0 | |
| 7271530755 | Allegory | An extended narrative (in poetry or prose) in which the characters and actions--and sometimes the setting as well--are contrived to make sense on the literal level and at the same time to signify a second, correlated order of characters, concepts, and events. In other words, an allegory carries a second, deeper meaning, as well as its surface story. | 1 | |
| 7271556574 | Alliteration | The repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of several words in a sentence or a line of poetry. For example: "Black reapers with the sound of steel on stones / Are sharpening scythes" -- Jean Toomer | 2 | |
| 7271566967 | Allusion | A reference to another person, another historical event, another work, and the like. To make allusions, you should be familiar at the very least with Greek and Roman mythology, Judeo-Christian literature, and Shakespeare. Identify the impact of an allusion the same way you would a metaphor. For example, the title "By the Waters of Babylon" by Stephen Vincent Benet is a reference to Psalm 137 | 3 | |
| 7271591586 | Analogy | A term that signifies a comparison of our similarity between two objects or ideas. For example. "Nature's first green is gold" -- Robert Frost | 4 | |
| 7271598227 | Anaphora | The deliberate repetition of a word of phrase at the beginning of several successive poetical lines, prose sentences, clauses or paragraphs. It is used to emphasize an idea. For example, "This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle, / This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, / This other Eden, demi-paradise, / This fortress built by Nature for herself" -- William Shakespeare | 5 | |
| 7271626478 | Aphorism | A brief statement of an opinion or elemental truth. "Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others" -- Jonathan Swift | 6 | |
| 7271636397 | Apostrophe | This is a direct address to someone who is not present, to a deity or muse, or to some other power. "O eloquent, just, and mighty Death!" -- Sir Walter Raleigh | 7 | |
| 7271641970 | Assonance | Repetition of a vowel sound within a group of words or lines. Notice the recurrent long "I" in the following lines: "Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness, / Thou foster-child of silence and slow time" -- John Keats | 8 | |
| 7271653362 | Blank Verse | Blank verse consists of lines of iambic pentameter, which of all verse forms is closest to the natural rhythms of English speech. Most of Shakespeare's plays are in blank verse. | 9 | |
| 7271671881 | Caesura | A pause within a line of poetry in order to make this meaning clear or to follow the natural rhythm of speech. "To err is human, / to forgive, divine" -- Alexander Pope | 10 | |
| 7271674173 | Carpe Diem | Latin for "Seize the day." | 11 | |
| 7271677598 | Connotation | The associations or moods attached to a word. Words generally are negative, positive, or neutral. An author's choice of words, especially words with a particularly strong connotation, is usually the key to determining the author's tone and intention. | 12 | |
| 7271689281 | Consonance | The repetition of a sequence of two or more consonants but with a change in the intervening vowel. For example: "live-love," "learn alone," "pitter-patter." | 13 | |
| 7271697469 | Couplet | A pair of rhymed lines. For example, "Into my empty head there come / a cotton beach, a dock wherefrom" -- Maxine Kumin | 14 | |
| 7271705136 | Denotation | The dictionary definition of a word. | 15 | |
| 7271711231 | Dialect | A regional speech pattern. When using a dialect, a writer is relying on language to make a passage feel personal and authentic. For example: "You mean, you mad 'cause she didn't stop and tell us all her business....The worst thing Ah ever knowed her to do was taking a few years offa her age and dat ain't never harmed nobody" -- Zora Neale Hurston | 16 | |
| 7271725914 | Diction | Word choice; the specific words an author uses in his or her writing | 17 | |
| 7271729745 | Elegy | A formal meditative poem or lament for the dead. An example is "To an Athlete Dying Young" by A. E. Housman. | 18 | |
| 7271735441 | Ellipses | Three dots that indicate words have been left out of a quotation. Ellipses are also often used to create suspense. For example: "The dark car appeared at the end of the alley and Herman, the handsome hero, was trapped against the wall at the opposite end. The engine revved..." | 19 | |
| 7326646207 | Epistrophe | The ending of a series of lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences with the same word or words, used to emphasize the word or group of words for emotional impact. | 20 | |
| 7326646208 | Euphemism | To use an inoffensive or more socially acceptable word for something that could be inappropriate or offensive to some. | 21 | |
| 7326646209 | Foil | A minor character whose situation or actions parallel those of a major character and thus by contrast set off or illuminate the major character. | 22 | |
| 7326646210 | Foot | The combination of stressed and unstressed syllables that make up the metric unit of a line. | 23 | |
| 7326646211 | Free verse | Poetry that doesn't follow a prescribed form but is characterized by irregularity in the length of the lines and a lack of a regular metrical pattern and rhyme. | 24 | |
| 7326646212 | Hyperbole | Exaggeration of an event or feeling | 25 | |
| 7326646213 | Imagery | Language that appeals to one or another of the five senses. Imagery can be created by using particularly vivid adjectives, similes and metaphors. | 26 | |
| 7326646214 | Irony | The use of words to express something other than-and often the opposite of- the literal meaning. | 27 | |
| 7326646215 | Jargon | A pattern of speech and vocabulary associated with a particular group of people. | 28 | |
| 7326522822 | Epistrophe | The ending of a series of lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences | 29 | |
| 7379474525 | Panegyric | A literary expression of praise - for example, "O Captain!" by Walt Whitman | 30 | |
| 7379474526 | Passive Voice | The opposite of active voice. The passive voice is used when something happens to someone. For example, "Samantha was choked by the assailant" rather than "The assailant choked Samantha" | 31 | |
| 7379474527 | Pastoral | A reference to or a description of simple country life. Older pastoral poems usually include shepherds who live in an idyllic setting. | 32 | |
| 7379474528 | Personification | Giving of human characteristics to nonhuman things. | 33 | |
| 7379474529 | Ploce | One of the most commonly used figures of stress, it means repeating a word within the same line or clause. | 34 | |
| 7379474530 | Point of View | The perspective from which the writer chooses to tell his or her story. Point of view can be in the first or third person, and limited, omniscient, or objective. | 35 | |
| 7379474531 | Pun | A play on words used to create humor or comic relief | 36 | |
| 7379474532 | Refrain | A line, part of a line, or group of lines repeated in the course of a poem, sometimes with slight changes. | 37 | |
| 7379474533 | Repetition | The repeating of a word or phrase for emphasis. | 38 | |
| 7379474534 | Rhyme | The echo or imitation of a sound. A rhyme scheme is a regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem. There may be internal rhyme, slant or half rhyme, and a perfect rhyme. | 39 | |
| 7379474535 | Rhythm | The sense of movement attributable to the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. | 40 | |
| 7379474536 | Satire | A form of writing in which a subject (usually a human voice) is made fun of or scorned, eliciting amusement, contempt, or indignation. The purpose of satire is to provoke change or reform. | 41 | |
| 7379474537 | Shift | A change in setting (place or time), tone, or speakers. Identifying shifts in poetry is especially important for determining the overall purpose and tone of a poem. | 42 | |
| 7379474538 | Simile | A figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made using "like," "as," or "than" between two very different things in order to express an idea that is more familiar or understandable. | 43 | |
| 7379474539 | Soliloquy | A speech in which a character in a play, alone on stage, expresses his or her thoughts. A soliloquy may reveal the private emotions, motives, and state and mind of the speaker. | 44 | |
| 7379474540 | Sonnet | A fixed form of fourteen lines, normally in iambic pentameter, which a rhyme scheme conforming to or approximating one of two main types. | 45 | |
| 7379474541 | Stanza | A group of lines that forms one division of a poem | 46 | |
| 7379474542 | Symbol | An object that signifies something greater than itself. | 47 | |
| 7379474543 | Synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole - for example, "All hands on deck." | 48 | |
| 7379474544 | Theme | An insight into life conveyed by a poem or story. The theme is the main point the author wants to make with the reader, and is often a basic truth, an acknowledgement of our humanity, or a reminder of human beings' shortcomings. | 49 | |
| 7379474545 | Verse | Lines of poetry or metrical language in general, in contrast to prose. | 50 |
