Literary Terms and Figurative Language

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Literary Terms and Figurative Language

• Ms. Mathews
• 9th Grade English

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Poetic Terms Specific to and Important to
Understanding Shakespearean Plays
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Alliteration

• The repetition of consonant sounds at the
  beginnings of words
• Example using the h sound
• The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
• Went envying her and me
• -Edgar Allan Poe, from Annabel Lee

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Anaphora

• The repetition of words at the beginning of
  neighboring sentences, which gives them
  additional emphasis

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Apostrophe

• An address to a person or personified object not
  present

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Assonance

• The repetition of vowel sounds
• Example About the town the owl could not be
  found.
• About
• Town
• Owl
• Found

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Blank Verse

• Unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter
• Each line of blank verse has five pairs of
  syllables
• In most pairs, an unstressed syllable is followed
  by a stressed syllable
• Shakespeares plays are ALL written in blank
  verse however, you will notice that portions of
  Romeo and Juliet are written in the Shakespearean
  Sonnet format (14 lines, iambic pentameter,
  specific rhyme scheme)

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Consonance

• The repetition of consonant sounds in close
  proximity, as in a sentence or a line
• Example The archetypal arachnid attacked the
  critical acrobats katydid.

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Enjambment

• A poetic device where syllables, within lines of
  patterned verse, run over into subsequent lines,
  making the lines of regular verse irregular.
• Example I will not eat green eggs/ And ham, I
  will not eat them, Sam I Am.

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Epithet

• A phrase that is commonly used to describe a
  certain individual or characteristic
• Example To describe someone being under the
  weather, you are saying that the person is
  sick/ill.

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Extended Metaphor

• A figure of speech
• Compares two essentially unlike things at some
  length and in several ways (2 lines)
• Does not contain the words like or as

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Motif

• Any recurring element in a story that has a
  symbolic meaning

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Oxymoron

• A figure of speech that combines contradicting
  words
• Examples
• Bitter sweet
• Forward retreat
• Serious joke
• Deafening silence

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Pun

• A joke that comes from a play on words.
• Can make use of a words multiple meanings or of a
  words rhyme

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Dramatic Terms
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Tragedy

• A dramatic work that presents the downfall of a
  dignified character or characters who are
  involved in historically or socially significant
  events.
• The events in a tragic plot are set into motion
  by a decision that is often an error of judgment.
• Succeeding events are linked in a cause and
  effect relationship and lead inevitably to a
  disastrous conclusions, usually death.

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Stage Directions

• Instructions in a play which are often printed in
  italic type at the beginning of a play and at the
  beginning of acts and scenes.

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Dialogue

• Written conversation between two or more
  characters
• Writers use dialogue to bring the characters to
  life and give readers insight into the
  characters qualities, personality traits, and
  reactions to other characters

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Aside

• Dramatic device
• A character speaks his/her thoughts aloud
• Words are meant to be heard by the audience, but
  not by the other characters

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Monologue

• A speech presented by a single character to an
  audience of any number of people.

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Soliloquy

• A long speech in which a character speaks to no
  one but themselves, thinking private thoughts
  aloud
• Generally, the character is on stage alone,
  speaking his/her thoughts aloud for the audience
  to hear.