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| 5217428723 | Allegory | A story illustrating an idea or a moral principle in which objects take on symbolic meanings. In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, Dante, symbolizing mankind, is taken by Virgil the poet on a journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise in order to teach him the nature of sin and its punishments and the way to salvation. | 0 | |
| 5217428724 | Alliteration | Used for poetic effect, a repetition of the initial sounds of several words in a group. The following line from Robert Frost's poem "Acquainted with the Night" provides us with an example of alliteration: "I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet." The repetition of the "s" sound creates a sense of quiet, reinforcing the meaning of the line. | 1 | |
| 5217430698 | Allusion | A reference in one literary work to a character or theme found in another literary or historical work. T. S. Eliot, in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," alludes (refers) to the biblical figure John the Baptist in the line, "Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter." In the New Testament, John the Baptist's head was presented to King Herod on a platter. | 2 | |
| 5217430699 | Ambiguity | The lack of clarity caused by a statement that contains two or more meanings. For example, when the oracle at Delphi told Croesus that if he waged war on Cyrus he would destroy a great empire, Croesus thought the oracle meant his enemy's empire. In fact, the empire Croesus destroyed by going to war was his own. | 3 | |
| 5217441537 | Anecdote | A very short tale told by a character in a literary work to illustrate a point or lesson. In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, "The Miller's Tale" and "The Carpenter's Tale" are examples. | 4 | |
| 5217441538 | Antagonist | A person or force which opposes the protagonist in a literary work. In Stephen Vincent Benet's The Devil and Daniel Webster, Mr. Scratch is Daniel Webster's antagonist at the trial of Jabez Stone. The cold, in Jack London's To Build a Fire is the antagonist which defeats the man on the trail. | 5 | |
| 5217446620 | Aphorism | A brief statement which expresses an observation on life, usually intended as a wise observation. Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac contains numerous examples, one of which is "Drive thy business; let it not drive thee," which means that one should not allow the demands of business to take control of one's moral or worldly commitments. | 6 | |
| 5217467197 | Aside | A device in which a character in a drama makes a short speech, which is heard by the audience but not by other characters in the play. In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the Chamberlain, Polonius, confronts Hamlet. In a dialogue concerning Polonius' daughter, Ophelia, Polonius speaks this aside: "How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter. Yet he knew me not at first; 'a said I was a fishmonger. 'A is far gone. And truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love, very near this. I'll speak to him again." | 7 |
