Vocab 1
What is an Allegory?
A metaphorical narrative in prose or verse in which fictional characters and events act as symbols.
Example of an Allegory
Ex. Animal Farm, Allegory of the Cave
A literary genre designed for performance in the theater in which actors take on the roles of characters, perform the indicated actions, and utter the written dialogue
Example of Drama
Ex. Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth
What is Prose?
Written or spoken language that is not verse.
Example of Prose
Ex. Novels, short stories, and flash fiction
What is a Myth?
A narrative of ancient origin that a particular cultural group believes to be a true explanation of why the world is as it is and that provides a rationale and rules for societal customs (e.g., The Adventures of Perseus)
Example of Myth
Ex. Robin Hood, Hercules
What is Verse?
Compositions written in meter.
Example of Verse
Ex. Rhymed, Free
What is Poetry?
Literature that can be in metrical form and that expresses an idea or concept often using figurative language. The three most common types are narrative, dramatic, and lyric.
Example of Poetry
Ex. song lyrics, greeting card couplets, and limericks
What is a Stanza?
A grouping of lines of verse in a poem often set off by a space in the printed text.
Ex. Couplet, Tercet, Quatrain
Example of Stanza
Ex. Couplet, Tercet, Quatrain
What is a Scene?
The subdivision of acts in a play in which there is no change of place or in the continuity of time
Example of Scene
Ex. Hamilton by Lin Manuel Miranda, Scene 1 (Global Inciting Incident)
What is a Sonnet?
A lyric poem consisting of a single stanza of 14 lines of iambic pentameter (i.e., ten syllables, five pairs of one stressed and one unstressed syllable)
Ex. My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
Ex. My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
What is a Soliloquy?
The act of a character in a drama, alone on stage, uttering his thoughts aloud
Example of Soliloquy
Ex. "The To Be or Not To Be" speech, Hamlet, Shakespeare