This is a set of cards for my AP English Literature class. I'm required to learn them by September 23rd, so I'll allow everyone access to it :)
Terms : Hide Images
| 198805419 | accent | the stressed portion of a word | |
| 198805420 | allegory | an extended narrative in prose or verse in which characters, events, and settings represent abstract qualities and in which the writer intends a second meaning to read beneath the surface story; the underlying meaning may be moral, religious, political, social, or satiric | |
| 198805421 | alliteration | the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to one another; for example, "beautiful blossoms blooming between the bushes" | |
| 198805422 | allusion | a reference to another work or famous figure assumed to be well known enough to be recognized by the reader | |
| 198805423 | anachronism | an event, object, person, or thing that is out of order in time; some of these are unintentional, such as when an actor performing Shakespeare forgets to take off his watch; others are deliberately used to achieve a humorous or satiric effect, such as the sustained anachronism of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court | |
| 198805424 | analogy | a comparison of two similar but different things, usually to clarify an action or a relationship, such as comparing the work of a heart to that of a pump | |
| 198805425 | anecdote | a short, simple narrative of an incident | |
| 198805426 | aphorism | a short, often witty statement of a principle or a truth about life | |
| 198805427 | apostrophe | the device of calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person or to a place, thing, or personified abstraction either to begin a poem or to make a dramatic break in thought somewhere within the poem (usually in poetry but sometimes in prose) | |
| 198805428 | aside | a brief speech or comment that an actor makes to the audience, supposedly without being heard by the other actors on stage; often used for melodramatic or comedic effect | |
| 198805429 | assonance | the repetition of vowel sounds between different consonants, such as in neigh and fade | |
| 198805430 | ballad | a long narrative poem that presents a single dramatic episode, which is often tragic or violent | |
| 198805431 | folk ballad | one of the earliest forms of literature, they were usually sung and was passed down orally from singer to singer; its author (if a single author) is generally unknown, and its form and melody often changed according to a singer's preference | |
| 198805432 | literary ballad | also called an art ballad, this is a ballad that imitates the form and spirit of the folk ballad, but is more polished and uses a higher level of poetic diction | |
| 198805433 | blank verse | poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter; a favorite form used by Shakespeare | |
| 198805434 | burlesque | broad parody; whereas a parody will imitate and exaggerate a specific work, such as Romeo and Juliet, this will take an entire style or form, such as pastoral poetry, and exaggerate it into ridiculousness | |
| 198805435 | cacophony | harsh, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or prose; the opposite of euphony | |
| 198805436 | caricature | descriptive writing that greatly exaggerates a specific feature of appearance or a facet of personality | |
| 198805437 | catharsis | the emotional release that an audience member experiences as a result of watching a tragedy | |
| 198805438 | chorus | in Greek drama, a group of characters who comments on the action taking place on stage | |
| 198805439 | classicism | the principles and styles admired in the classics of Greek and Roman literature, such as objectivity, sensibility, restraint, and formality | |
| 198805440 | colloquialism | a word used in everyday conversation and informal writing that is sometimes inappropriate in formal writing | |
| 198805441 | conceit | an elaborate figure of speech in which two seemingly dissimilar things or situations are compared | |
| 198805442 | consonance | the repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after different vowel sounds, as in boost/best; can also be seen within several compound words, such as fulfill and ping-pong | |
| 198805443 | conundrum | a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun; may also be a paradox or difficult problem | |
| 198805444 | description | the picturing in words of something or someone through detailed observation of color, motion, sound, taste, smell, and touch; one of the four modes of discourse | |
| 198805445 | diction | word choice; also called syntax | |
| 198805446 | discourse | spoken or written language, including literary works; the four traditionally classified modes of this are description, exposition, narration, and persuasion | |
| 198805447 | dissonance | the grating of sounds that are harsh or do not go together | |
| 198805448 | elegy | a formal poem focusing on death or mortality; usually beginning with the recent death of a particular person | |
| 198805449 | end rhyme | a rhyme that comes at the end of lines of poetry; for example: Her voice, soft and lovely when she sings, Came to me last night in a dream. In my head her voice still rings, How pleasant last night must seem. | |
| 198805450 | epic | a long narrative poem about a serious or profound subject in a dignified style; usually featuring heroic characters and deeds important in legends; two famous examples include the Iliad and the Odyssey, both written by the Greek poet Homer | |
| 198805451 | epigram | a concise, witty saying in poetry or prose that either stands alone or is part of a larger work; may also refer to a short poem of this type | |
| 198805452 | euphony | a succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose; the opposite of cacophony | |
| 198805453 | exemplum | a brief tale used in medieval times to illustrate a sermon or teach a lesson | |
| 198805454 | exposition | the immediate revelation to the audience of the setting and other background information necessary for understanding the plot; also, explanation; one of the four modes of discourse | |
| 198805455 | farce | a light, dramatic composition characterized by broad satirical comedy and a highly improbable plot | |
| 198805456 | figurative language | language that contains figures of speech such as similes and metaphors in order to create associations that are imaginative rather than literal | |
| 198805457 | figures of speech | expressions such as similes, metaphors, and personifications that make imaginative, rather than literal, comparisons or associations | |
| 198805458 | foil | a character who, by contrast, highlights the characteristics of another character | |
| 199109260 | folklore | traditional stories, songs, dances, and customs that are preserved among a people; this usually precedes literature, being passed down orally between generations until recorded by scholars | |
| 199109261 | foot | the combination of stressed and unstressed syllables that makes up the basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry | |
| 199109262 | anapest | two unstressed followed by one stressed syllable, as in in-ter-rupt | |
| 199109263 | dactyl | one stressed followed by two unstressed syllables, as in beau-ti-ful | |
| 199109264 | iamb | one unstressed followed by one stressed syllable, as in dis-turb | |
| 199109265 | spondee | two successive stressed syllables, as in hodge-podge | |
| 199109266 | trochee | one stressed followed by one unstressed syllable, as in in-jure and con-stant | |
| 199109267 | foreshadowing | the use of a hint or clue to suggest a larger event that occurs later in the work | |
| 199109268 | free verse | poetry that is written without a regular meter, usually without rhyme | |
| 199109269 | genre | a type of literary work, such as a novel or poem; there are also subs such as science fiction novel and sonnet, without the larger ones | |
| 199109270 | gothic | referring to a type of novel that emerged in the eighteenth century that uses mystery, suspense, and sensational and supernatural occurrences to evoke terror | |
| 199109271 | hubris | the excessive pride or ambition that leads a tragic hero to disregard warnings of impending doom, eventually causing his or her downfall | |
| 199109272 | humor | anything that causes laughter or amusement; up until the end of the Renaissance, this word meant a person's temperament | |
| 199109273 | hyperbole | a deliberate exaggeration in order to create humor or emphasis | |
| 199109274 | idyll | a short descriptive narrative, usually a poem, about an idealized country life; also called a pastoral | |
| 199109275 | imagery | words or phrases that use a collection of images to appeal to one or more of the five senses in order to create a mental picture | |
| 199109276 | interior monologue | writing that records the conversation that occurs inside a character's head | |
| 199109277 | internal rhyme | a rhyme occurring within a line of poetry, as in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven": Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. | |
| 199109278 | inversion | reversing the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase; used effectively in many cases such as posing a question: "Are you going to the store?" Often used ineffectively in poetry, making it seem artificial and stilted, "to the hounds she rode, with her flags behind her streaming" | |
| 199109279 | irony | a situation or statement in which the actual outcome or meaning is opposite to what was expected | |
| 199133273 | loose sentence | a sentence that is grammatically complete before its end, such as "Thalia played the violin intensely never before seen in a high school music class"; the sentence is grammatically complete with the word violin | |
| 199133274 | lyric | a type of melodious, imaginative, and subjective poetry that is usually short and personal, expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker rather than telling a story | |
| 199133275 | metaphor | a figure of speech which one thing is referred to as another; for example, "my love is a fragile flower" | |
| 199133276 | meter | the repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of poetry | |
| 199133277 | monometer | one foot (rare) | |
| 199133278 | dimeter | two feet (rare) | |
| 199133279 | trimeter | three feet | |
| 199133280 | tetrameter | four feet | |
| 199133281 | pentameter | five feet | |
| 199133282 | hexameter | six feet | |
| 199133283 | heptameter | seven feet (rare) | |
| 199133284 | metonymy | a figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated, such as using "the crown" to refer to a monarch | |
| 199133285 | mode | the method or form of a literary work; a manner in which a work of literature is written | |
| 199133286 | mood | similar to tone, this is the primary emotional attitude of a work | |
| 199133287 | myth | one story in a system of narratives set in a complete imaginary world that once served to explain the origin of life, religious beliefs, and the forces of nature as supernatural occurrences | |
| 199133288 | narration | the telling of a story in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or drama; one of the four modes of discourse | |
| 199133289 | naturalism | a literary movement that grew out of realism in France, the United States, and England in the nineteenth centuries; it portrays humans as having no free will, being driven by the natural forces of heredity, environment, and animalistic urges over which they have no control | |
| 199133290 | objectivity | an impersonal presentation of events and characters | |
| 199133291 | ode | a long lyric poem, usually serious and elevated in tone; often written to praise someone or something | |
| 199133292 | onomatopoeia | the use of words that sound like what they mean, such as hiss and boom | |
| 199133293 | oxymoron | a figure of speech composed of contradictory words or phrases, such as "wise fool" | |
| 199133294 | parable | a short tale that teaches a moral; similar to but shorter than an allegory | |
| 199133295 | parallelism | the technique of arranging words, phrases, clauses, or larger structures by placing them side to side and making them similar in form | |
| 199133296 | parody | a work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements | |
| 199133297 | pastoral | a poem about idealized rural life, or shepherds, or both; also called an idyll | |
| 199133298 | periodic sentence | a sentence that is not grammatically complete until its last phrase, such as, "Despite Glenn's hatred of his sister's laziness and noisy eating habits, he still cared for her." | |
| 199133299 | personification | the attribution of human qualities to a nonhuman or inanimate object | |
| 199133300 | persuasion | one of the four modes of discourse; language intended to convince through appeals ot reason or emotion; also called argument | |
| 199133301 | Petrarchan sonnet | one of the most important types of sonnets, composed of an octave with an abba abba rhyme scheme, and ending in a sestet with a cde cde rhyme scheme; also called an Italian sonnet | |
| 199133302 | point of view | the perspective from which a story is presented | |
| 199133303 | first person narrator | a narrator, referred to as "I," who is a character in the story and relates the actions through his or her own perspective, also revealing his or her own thoughts | |
| 199133304 | stream of consciousness narrator | like a first person narrator, but instead placing the reader inside the character's head, making the reader privy to the continuous, chaotic flow of disconnected, half-formed thoughts and impressions as they flow through the character's consciousness | |
| 199133305 | omniscient narrator | a third person narrator, referred to as "he," "she," or "they," who is able to see into each character's mind and understands all the action | |
| 199133306 | limited omniscient narrator | a third person narrator who only reports the thoughts of one character, and generally only what that one character sees | |
| 199133307 | objective narrator | a third person narrator who only reports what would be visible to a camera; thoughts and feelings are only revealed if a character speaks of them | |
| 199133308 | protagonist | the main character of a literary work | |
| 199133309 | realism | a nineteenth-century literary movement in Europe and the United States that stressed accuracy in the portrayal of life, focusing on characters with whom middle-class readers could easily identify | |
| 199133310 | refrain | a line or group of lines that is periodically repeated throughout a poem | |
| 199133311 | regionalism | an element in literature that conveys a realistic portrayal of a specific geographic locale, using the locale and its influences as a major part of the plot | |
| 199133312 | rhyme | a similarity of accented sounds between two words, such as sad/mad | |
| 199133313 | masculine rhyme | the rhyme sound is the last syllable of a line | |
| 199133314 | feminine | the accented syllable is followed by an unaccented syllable | |
| 199133315 | romanticism | a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement that began in the eighteenth century as a reaction against neoclassicism; the focal points of the movement are imagination, emotion, and freedom, stressing subjectivity, individuality, the love and worship of nature, and a fascination with the past | |
| 199133316 | sarcasm | harsh, caustic personal remarks to or about someone; less subtle than irony | |
| 199133317 | simile | a figure of speech that uses like, as, or as if to make a direct comparison between two essentially different objects, actions, or qualities; for example, "the sky looked like an artist's canvas" | |
| 199133318 | soliloquy | a speech spoken by a character alone on stage, giving the impression that the audience is listening to the character's thoughts; perhaps the most famous example is Hamlet's speech beginning "To be, or not to be" | |
| 199133319 | sonnet | a fourteen-line lyric poem in iambic pentameter | |
| 199133320 | speaker | the voice of a poem; an author may speak as himself or herself or as a fictitious character | |
| 199133321 | stanza | a group of lines in the formal pattern of a poem | |
| 199133322 | couplet | the simplest stanza, consisting of two rhymed lines | |
| 199133323 | tercet | three lines, usually having the same rhyme | |
| 199133324 | quatrain | four lines | |
| 199133325 | cinquain | five lines | |
| 199133326 | sestet | six lines | |
| 199133327 | octave | eight lines | |
| 199133328 | stereotype | a character who represents a trait that is usually attributed to a particular social or racial group and lacks individuality | |
| 199133329 | stock character | a standard character who may be stereotypes, such as the miser or the fool, or universally recognized, like the hard-boiled private eye in detective stories | |
| 199133330 | style | an author's characteristic manner of expression | |
| 199133331 | subjectivity | a personal presentation of events and characters, influenced by the author's feelings and opinions | |
| 199133332 | suspension of disbelief | the demand made of a theater audience to provide some details with their imagination and to accept the limitations of reality and staging; also, the acceptance of the incidents of the plot by a reader or audience | |
| 199133333 | symbolism | the use of symbols, or anything that is meant to be taken both literally and as representative of a higher and more complex significance | |
| 199133334 | synechdoche | a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent a whole, such as using "boards" to mean "a stage" or "wheels" to mean "a car" | |
| 199133335 | syntax | word choice or diction | |
| 199133336 | theme | the central idea or "message" of a literary work | |
| 199133337 | tone | the characteristic emotion or attitude of an author toward the characters, subject, and audience | |
| 199133338 | tragic flaw | the one weakness that causes the downfall of the hero in a tragedy | |
| 199133339 | villanelle | a lyric poem consisting of five tercets and a final quatrain | |
| 199133340 | voice | the way a written work conveys an author's attitude | |
| 199584030 | allegory | this occurs when one idea or object is represented in the shape of another | |
| 199584031 | anagnorisis | in drama, the discovery of recognition that leads to the peripety or reversal | |
| 199584032 | anecdote | a short narrative detailing particulars of an interesting episode or event | |
| 199584033 | antistrophe | one of the three stanzaic forms of the Greek choral Ode, the others being strophe and edope. It is identical in meter with the strope, which precedes it. As the chorus sang the strophe, they moved from right to left; while singing this, they retraced these steps exactly, moving back to the original position. In rhetoric, this is the reciprocal conversion of the same words in succeeding phrases or clauses, as T.S. Eliot's "The desert in the garden the garden in the desert." | |
| 199584034 | aphaeresis | a type of elision in which a letter or syllable is omitted at the beginning of a word, as 'twas for it was. | |
| 199584035 | apocope | a type of elision in which a letter or syllable is omitted at the end of the word, as in morn for morning. | |
| 199584036 | attitude | an author's, speaker's, character's opinion of or feelings toward a subject. Attitudes may shift either slightly or from on extreme to the other. Authors often create readers' attitudes by manipulating characters' attitudes. | |
| 199584037 | burlesque | any imitation of people or literary type that, by distortion, aims to amuse. They tend to ridicule faults, not serious vices. | |
| 199584038 | aubade | a lyric about a dawn or a morning serenade, a song of lovers parting at dawn. | |
| 199584039 | baroque | this is a blending of picturesque elements (the unexpected, the wild, the fantastic, the eccentric) with the more ordered, formal style of the high Renaissance. | |
| 199584040 | bathos | the effect resulting from the unsuccessful effort to achieve dignity or sublimity of style; dropping from the sublime to the ridiculousness. | |
| 199584041 | Breton Lay (Romance) | a medieval French Metrical Romance, emphasizing love as the central force in the plot. These romances drew on the traditions of courtly love. | |
| 199584042 | caesura | a pause or break in a line of verse. Originally, in classical literature, this characteristically divided a foot between two works, usually near the middle of a line. | |
| 199584043 | comedy | compared with tragedy, this is a lighter form of drama that aims primarily to amuse. It differs from farce and burlesque by having a more sustained plot, weightier and subtler dialogue, more lifelike characters, and less boisterous behavior. | |
| 199584044 | conceit | a long, complex metaphor. The term designates fanciful notion, usually expressed through an elaborate analogy and pointing to a striking parallel between ostensibly similar things | |
| 199584045 | concrete poem | poetry that exploits the graphic, visual aspect of writing; a specialized application of what Aristotle called opsis ("spectacle"). Poems in which the shape, not the words, is often what matters. Also called emblematic poetry. | |
| 199584046 | contra passo | let the punishment fit the crime | |
| 199584047 | convention | a device of style or subject matter so often used that it becomes a recognized means of expression | |
| 199584048 | critique | a critical examination of a work of art with a view to determining its nature and assessing its value according to some established standards. These are more serious and judicious than a review. | |
| 199584049 | detail | items or parts that form a larger picture or story. Authors choose or select details to create effects in their works or evoke responses from the reader. | |
| 199584050 | diction | sometimes used informally to refer to crispness of pronunciation. In linguistics, it means word choice | |
| 199584051 | dramatic monologue | the speaker in this is usually a fictional character or a historical figure caught at a critical moment. His or her words are established by the situation and are usually directed at a silent audience. The speaker usually reveals aspects of his personality of which he or she is unaware. | |
| 199584052 | elegy | a poem that laments the death of a person, or one that is simply sad and thoughtful. | |
| 199584053 | elision | the omission of a letter or syllable as a means of contraction, generally to achieve a uniform metrical pattern, but sometimes to smooth the pronunciation; most such omissions are marked with an apostrophe.Specific types of this include aphaeresis, apocope, syncope, and synalepha, which of which can be found in Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard." | |
| 199584054 | enjambment | the continuation of a complete idea (a sentence or clause) from one line or couplet of a poem to the next line or couplet without a pause. This occurs in run-on lines and offers contrast to end-stopped lines. | |
| 199584055 | epic question | the request or question addressed to the Muse at the beginning of an epic; the answer constitutes the narrative of the work | |
| 199651395 | epic simile | an elaborated comparison. The epic simile differs an ordinary simile in being involved and ornate, in a conscious imitation of the Homeric manner. | |
| 199651396 | epiphany | literally a manifestion or showing-forth, usually of some divine being. It is thus an intuitive grasp of reality achieved in a quick flash of recognition in which something, usually simple and commonplace, is seen in a new light. | |
| 199651397 | exemplum | one section of the medieval sermon-the part which set forth examples to illustrate the theme of text of the sermon. | |
| 199651398 | existentialism | a group of attitudes (current in philosophical, religious, and artistic thought during and after the Second World War) that emphasizes existence rather than essence and sees the inadequacy of human reason to explain the enigma of the universe as the basic philosophical question. | |
| 199651399 | Fabliaux | a humorous tale (often sly, bawdy satire) popular in medieval France. The conventional verse form of this was the eight-syllable couplet. | |
| 199651400 | feminine rhyme | an extra-metrical unstressed syllable added to the end of a line in iambic or anapestic rhythm. The first four lines in Hamlet's "To be, or not to be-that is the question:" soliloquy all have these. | |
| 199651401 | hamartia | the error, frailty, mistaken judgement, or misstep through which the fortunes of the hero of a tragedy are reversed. Aristotle asserts that this hero should be a person "who is not eminently good or just, yet whose misfortune is brought about by some error or frailty." | |
| 199651402 | heroic couplet | Iambic pentameter lines rhymed in pairs | |
| 199651403 | Horatian Satire | satire in which the voice is indulgent, tolerant, amused, and witty. The speaker holds up to gentle ridicule absurdities and follies of human beings, aiming at producing in the reader not the anger of a Ju venal but a wry smile. | |
| 199651404 | Juvenalian Satire | formal satire in which the speaker attacks vice and error with contempt and indignation. It is so called because it is like the dignified satires of Juvenal. | |
| 199651405 | kenning | a figurative phrase used in Old Germanic languages as a synonym for a simple noun. These are often picturesque metaphorical compounds. Specimen kennings from Beowulf are "the bent-necked wood," for ship; "the swan-road" for the sea. | |
| 199651406 | litotes | a figure of speech in which a positive is stated by negating its opposite. Some examples of these: no small victory, not a bad idea, not unhappy. ________, which is a form of understatement, is the opposite of hyperbole | |
| 199651407 | loose sentence | a sentence grammatically complete before the end; the opposite of periodic sentence | |
| 199651408 | masculine rhyme | rhyme that falls on the stressed, concluding syllables of the rhyme words. "Mont" and "fount" make this kind of rhyme, and "mountain" and fountain" make the opposite | |
| 199651409 | Metaphysical conceit | an ingenious kind of conceit widely used by the metaphysical poets, who explored all areas of knowledge to find, in the startingly esoteric or the shockingly commonplace, telling and unusual analogies for their ideas. This kind of conceit often exploits verbal logic to the point of the grotesque, and it sometimes achieves such extravagant turns on meaning that it becomes absurd. | |
| 199651410 | Metaphysical poetry | the characteristics of the best of these are logical elements in a technique intended to express honestly, if unconventionally, the poet's sense of life's complexities. The poetry is intellectual, analytically, psychological, disillusioning, bold; absorbed in thoughts of death, physical love, religious devotion. | |
| 199651411 | narrative pace | the pace by which the story and events are developed. These methods may include diction, syntax, dialogue, shifts in tone, etc. | |
| 199651412 | narrative techniques | methods used in telling a story. These methods include (but are not limited to) point of view (of the writer), viewpoint (of a character), sequencing of events, manipulation of time, dialogue, or interior monologue. | |
| 199651413 | ode | a lyric poem that is serious and thoughtful in tone and has a very precise, formal structure. | |
| 199651414 | pathetic fallacy | a phrase coined by Ruskin to denote the tendency to credit nature with human emotions. In a larger sense the pathetic fallacy is any false emotionalism resulted in a too impassioned description of nature. It becomes a fault when it is overdone to the point of absurdity. | |
| 199651415 | peripateia | the reversal of fortune for a protagonist-possibly either a fall, as in a tragedy, or a success, as in a comedy. | |
| 199651416 | stichomythia | a form of repartee developed in classical drama and often employed by Elizabethan writers. It is a sort of line-for-line verbal fencing match in which the principals retort sharply to each other in lines that echo and vary the opponent's words. Antithesis is freely used. | |
| 199651417 | synalepha | a type of elision in which a vowel at the end of one word is coalesced with one beginning the next word, as "th' embattled plain." | |
| 199651418 | syncope | a type of elision in which a word is contracted by removing one or more letters or syllables from the middle, as in ne'er for never. | |
| 199651419 | syntax | the structure of a sentence; the juxtaposition of words in a sentence. Discussion of syntax in a work could include discussion of the length or brevity of sentences, the kinds of sentences (declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, imperative sentences, rhetorical questions; simple, complex, or compound sentences) and the impact on the reader of the author's choice of sentence structure. | |
| 199651420 | terza rima | a three-line stanza, supposedly devised by Dante with rhyme scheme aba bcb cdc ded and so forth. In other words one rhyme sound is used for the first and third lines of each stanza, and a new rhyme introduced for the second line, this new rhyme, in turn, being used for the first and third lines of the next stanza. The opening of Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" is written in this. | |
| 199651421 | trope | in rhetoric this is a figure of speech involving a "turn" or change of sense-the use of a word in a sense other than the literal. | |
| 199651422 | tone | the writer's attitude toward his or her subject matter. For example, it can be angry, compassionate, melancholy, allusive, etc. | |
| 199651423 | verisimilitude | a fixed nineteen-line form, originally French, employing only two rhymes and repeating two of the lines according to a set pattern. Line 1 is repeated as lines 6, 12, and 18; line 3 as lines 9, 15, and 19. The first and third lines return as a rhymed couplet at the end. The finest of these in any language-and of the greatest modern poems in any form- is Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" | |
| 199651424 | voice | this term, while often used synonymously with speaker or persona, can also refer to a pervasive presence behind the fictitious voices that speak in a work, or to Aristotle's "thos," the element in a work that creates a perception by the audience or reader of the moral qualities of the speaker or a character | |
| 199651425 | volta | the turn in thought-from question to answer, problem to solution-that occurs at the beginning of the sestet in the Italian sonnet. This sometimes occurs in the Shapespearean sonnet between the twelfth and the thirteenth lines. This is routinely marked at the beginning of line 9 (Italian) or 13 (Shakespearean) by but, yet, or and yet. | |
| 199651426 | uxoriousness | excessively fond of or submissive to a wife. | |
| 200278743 | skene | the verbal description of violence in tragedy | |
| 200278744 | obskene | violence or sex committed off stage | |
| 200278745 | dithyramb | wild chant or song; unordered; improvised. | |
| 200278746 | tragos | means "goat" - early performers were all men dressed in goat skins and did a song recitation (They later became the chorus) | |
| 200278747 | tetralogy | plays that were produced in a group of 4. Three plays were on a unified theme and the fourth was a satyr play - lighter in nautre. | |
| 200278748 | deus ex machina | "god from the machine" refers to the intervention of a supernatural being, such as a god, devil, or angel, to resolve a dramatic dilemma. | |
| 200278749 | catharsis | a purging of the emotions of fear and pity. Often in tragedies, the third play in some manner absolves the hero who is usually morally blameless, yet he is contaminated | |
| 200278750 | hubris | overweening pride which results in the misfortune of the protagonist of a tragedy leads the protagonist to break amoral law or ignore a divine warning with calamitous results. | |
| 200278751 | hamartia | the error or mistaken judgement which moves the hero toward tragedy | |
| 200278752 | agon | contest, argument, struggle | |
| 200278753 | peripetia | th reverse of fortune for the protagonist in a dramatic or fictional plot, whether to his fall in a tragedy or to his success in a comedy | |
| 200278754 | anagnorisis | the discovery of recognition that leads to the peripetia or reversal; the moment of recognition for the protagonist when he realizes the truth of his situation | |
| 200278755 | pathos | suffering | |
| 200278756 | mathos | knowledge | |
| 200278757 | sophrosyne | balance, wisdom in life | |
| 200278758 | moira | in inescapable fate, and has tremendous power; one's portion; a due and regular share | |
| 200278759 | oikos | the household; implying an estate, like a manor with family and servants, all centering on the dependent upon a marriage | |
| 200278760 | polis | the ordered, consciously constructed city where the aim is to establish justice | |
| 200278761 | tragos | goat song; a possible origin of the word tragedy | |
| 200278762 | komos | the culminating procession in a festival; a marriage feast; probable origin of word comedy | |
| 200278763 | physis | nature, the flow of things, the rhythm of being | |
| 200278764 | nomos | law, custom, convention; the custom of the community; man-made ordinances, but based on divine order, including unwritten laws | |
| 200278765 | cosmos | the order of the universe, a world | |
| 200278766 | hybris (hubris) | overweening price and insolence; wanton violence; in tragedy, the human attempt to bypass mortal limits and to be a god | |
| 200278767 | nemesis | just indignation; retribution; a supernatural force that tracks down those who have committed an offense | |
| 200278768 | ate | ruin, blind folly; infatuation; a curse passed down in a family line | |
| 200278769 | ananke | necessity, the inexorable way things are; force; bodily pain, hunger, suffering | |
| 200278770 | eros | the motivating desire (love) that flows through all things, blinding them together; in humans ic an be a source of madness | |
| 200278771 | themis | the ancient right order of things, justice as a tradition: the earth, the "mothers" | |
| 200278772 | dike | justice that is arrived at by thought and reflection; the right order of Zeus; and incarnation of justice | |
| 200278773 | pantalone | the old man of Italian commedia dell' arte excessively devoted to one or another of his appetites | |
| 200278774 | senex | the old man in comedy who blocks the action and thwarts the lovers | |
| 200278775 | tyche | chance, fortune, luck; irrational contingency; that which "happens" | |
| 200278776 | sophrosyne | the ideal of the classical Greeks: balance, harmony, beauty, wholeness, purity | |
| 200278777 | megalopsychos | the great-sold man of whom Aristotle writes; the ideal tragic hero | |
| 200278778 | kairos | the right time for action; critical moment; due season; the moment of divine inspiration | |
| 200278779 | chronos | time as the unfolding of all things; the successive movement of events; the beholder, conserver, and revealer of human actions | |
| 200278780 | telos | the end, purpose, and final ordering of an action | |
| 200278781 | poneros | the comic hero, a rascal | |
| 200278782 | praxis | action in the sense of doing | |
| 200278783 | poiesis | action in the sense of making | |
| 200278784 | theoria | action in the sense of contemplating | |
| 200278785 | pathos | the state of being acted upon; passion, suffering | |
| 200278786 | mimesis | imitation, in the sense of making a representation, an image, or a model | |
| 200278787 | catharsis | the purging and illuminating that tragedy effects through pity and fear | |
| 200278788 | hamartia | the "tragic flaw"; missing the mark; a blindness | |
| 200278789 | peripeteia | reversal of the situation; peripety, a turnabout | |
| 200278790 | anagnorisis | the revelation, enlightenment, which occurs in the course of a tragedy | |
| 200278791 | mythos | plot | |
| 200278792 | ethos | character | |
| 200278793 | dianoia | thought | |
| 200278794 | lexis | diction | |
| 200278795 | melos | song | |
| 200278796 | opsis | spectacle |
