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Literary Terms
Author! Author!
Symbolism
Poetry
Figurative Language
100
When only one actor on stage speaks his inner thoughts aloud so the audience can understand his thoughts and feelings.
What is a soliloquy?
100
This Native American author from Washington State writes both prose and poetry with ironic humor.
Who is Sherman Alexie?
100
They say that this symbol for creation in "Frankenstein" never strikes twice in the same place.
What is lightning?
100
This stanza of poetry is made up of four lines.
What is a quatrain?
100
I am so hungry, I could eat a horse!
What is hyperbole?
200
This is a repeated phrase, usually found in songs, but also found in poetry.
What is a refrain?
200
This Mississippi author, whose house is a major tourist attraction in Oxford, MS, is well-known for the story, "A Rose for Emily."
Who is William Faulkner?
200

This imagery from the opening paragraph of Chrysanthemums demonstrates what idea?

"On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot."

What is restriction or containment?
200
In an epic poem, this happens when the final two lines rhyme.
What is a heroic couplet?
200

This figure of speech intentionally uses understatement to produce an ironic effect.

Ex: When the house is completely engulfed in flames, and someone says, "Oh, I guess we have a problem with the heating."

What is litotes?
300
This term is used to describe analyzing a poem for the meter by examining the poem line by line, word by word.
What is scansion?
300
This British female author defied the gender norms and published one of the all-time best selling science fiction novels.
Who is Mary Shelley?
300
In the poem, The Fish, the poet symbolizes what idea through the imagery of "...a five-haired beard of wisdom training from his aching jaw."
What is desire/perseverance/strength?
300
This type of 14-line poem is structured with three quatrains and a couplet.
What is a Shakespearean Sonnet?
300

This term is a type of metaphor in which a part of something is used to signify the whole, as when a gossip is called a "wagging tongue."

What is synecdoche?

400
This term describes a heroic figure whose fortunes have been reversed.
What is a tragic hero?
400
This African American writer gave us memorable characters such as Troy, Bono, and Gabriel.
Who is August Wilson?
400
Rain in literature often symbolizes this idea.
What is cleansing/spring/renewal?
400
This literary term applies when there is punctuation at the end of a poem's line.
What is end-stopped?
400

This term is a type of metaphor in which something closely associated with a subject is substituted for it.  Ex:  "silver screen" meaning motion pictures or "the Crown" meaning the king

What is metonymy?

500
This literary term actually means "unraveling" or "unknotting" and refers to a particular part of the ending of a narrative.
What is denouement?
500
This British author examined colonialism and imperialism in his famous novel, Heart of Darkness.
Who is Joseph Conrad?
500
In literature, these characters, images, and themes symbolically embody universal meanings and basic human experiences, regardless of when or where they live.
What are archetypes?
500
These poems are characterized by their nonconformity to established patterns of meter, rhyme, and stanza.
What is free verse?
500
This type of figurative language refers briefly to a person, place, thing, even, or idea in history or literature.
What is an allusion?