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Literary Terms-1
Literary Terms-2
Literary Terms-3
Literary Terms-4
Literary Terms-5
100
It occurs when a statement or situation means something different from (or even the opposite of) what is expected.
What is irony
100

Two consecutive lines of poetry that usually rhyme and have the same meter.

What is a couplet?

100
Example: Jumbo shrimp
What is an oxymoron
100
The highest point of intensity in a short story.
What is the climax
100
The whiskey on your breath

Could make a small boy dizzy;

But I hung on like death

Such waltzing was not easy

What is a quatrain?

200
A difference between what is said and what is meant.
What is verbal irony. Example: Oh, goody! It's time to do my homework.
200
The word sounds like what it describes.
What is onomatopeia
200

A humorous word or phrase that depends on a double meaning, either from a second meaning of the same word, or from the meaning of another word with a similar sound.

What is a pun

200
A technique used in which a writer will plant clues or subtle indications about events that will happen later in the narrative.
What is foreshadowing
200
Something that stands for something more than itself.
What is a symbol
300
The implied attitude of the writer toward the subject or the audience.
What is the tone
300
Example: I'm going to die if I don't get to see Lady Gaga in concert this year.
What is hyperbole
300
A story or poem that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral.
What is an allegory
300
The insight about life that is revealed in a literary work.
What is theme
300
A difference between what happens and what would be expected to happen.
What is situational irony. Example: A student studies for days for an English test, but sleeps in the morning of the test, shows up late for class, and fails the test.
400

a poem that tells a story in verse

What is a narrative poem?

400
The specialized language, often technical terms, of a particular group or profession.
What is jargon
400

scene that interrupts the normal chronological flow of events in a story to depict something that happened earlier

What is flashback?

400
Edgar Allen Poe's Fall of the House of Usher...a story featuring a large dark mansion

What is gothic literature?

400
Example: He was no Michael Jordan, but he could shoot a basketball.
What is an allusion
500
An address, usually in poetry, to someone, or even to a personified thing or abstract idea that is not present.
What is an apostrophe. Example: Lord Byron's "Apostrophe to the Ocean"
500

A long speech made by a character who is on stage alone and reveals his/her private thoughts and feelings to the audience

What is soliloquy?

500

Example: Freedom weeps, wrong rules the land, and waiting justice sleeps

What is personification

500

A relatively short narrative poem, written to be sung, with a simple and dramatic action

What is a ballad?

500
Example: Oprah did okay
What is an understatement