Not Literal
An implied or indirect reference in literature to a familiar person, place, or event.
Allusion
The pattern or beat of a poem.
Rhythm
Poems that express the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker, often in highly musical verse.
Lyrical Poems
Stories or long poems about larger-than-life heroes
Epic
A topic of discussion or work; a major idea broad enough to cover the entire scope of a literary work. It may be stated or implied. Clues to it may be found in the prominent and/or recurring ideas in a work.
Theme
An extended comparison showing the similarities between two things.
Analogy
An arrangement of lines of verse in a pattern usually repeated throughout a poem. Usually, each one has a fixed number of verses or lines, an overall meter, and a consistent rhyme scheme.
Stanzas
Poems that tell a story in the verse. These poems often have elements similar to those in short stories, such as plot and characters.
Narrative Poems
Songlike poems that tell stories. They often deal with adventure and romance.
Ballads
So-called "ordinary writing"— made up of sentences and paragraphs, without any metrical (or rhyming) structure
Prose
The comparison of two unlike things in which no words of comparison (like or as) are used (e.g., The speech gave me food for thought).
Metaphor
A single metrical line of poetry
Verse
The narrator’s perspective from which the events are depicted (e.g., first-person, third-person, etc.). The vantage point from which a story is told.
Point of View
A formal, often ceremonious lyric poem that addresses and often celebrates a person, place, thing, or idea.
Odes
The prevailing emotions of a work or of the author in his or her creation of the work. It is not always what might be expected based on its subject matter.
Mood
Language that cannot be taken literally since it was written to create a special effect or feeling.
Figurative Language
A regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem. To indicate this in a poem, one uses lowercase letters. Each rhyme is assigned a different letter.
Rhyme Scheme
This “personal” point of view relates events as they are perceived by a single character. The narrating character may offer opinions about the action and characters that differ from those of the author
First Person
A lyric poem of fourteen lines with rhymes arranged according to certain definite patterns. It usually expresses a single idea with a reversal or change in direction in the concluding lines. There are two common forms: Italian and English.
Sonnet
The attitude of the author toward the audience, the characters, the subject, or the work itself (e.g., serious, humorous).
Tone
A word or group of words in a literary work which appeal to one or more of the senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing and smell; figurative language. The use of images serves to intensify the impact of the work.
Imagery
In its broadest sense, a type of text that aims to present ideas and evoke an emotional experience in the reader through the use of meter, imagery, and connotative and concrete words. Some are carefully constructed based on rhythmic patterns. They typically rely on words and expressions that have several layers of meaning (figurative language). They may also make use of the effects of regular rhythm on the ear and may make a strong appeal to the senses through the use of imagery.
Poetry/Poem
The voice used by an author to tell/narrate a story or poem. This is often a created identity and should not automatically be equated with the author. See also Narrator and Point of View.
Speaker
Poetry that lacks regular metrical and rhyme patterns but that tries to capture the cadences of everyday speech. The form allows a poet to exploit a variety of rhythmical effects within a single poem.
Free Verse
A message about life that is expressed regularly in many different cultures and time periods.
Universal Theme