Here is a list of some key terms relevant to this course, which may be helpful to students who have just started the study of literature. For more terms, go to A Glossary of Literary Terms or the Handbook of Rhetorary Devices. Tnellen.com also has some good definitions for terms regarding poetry. The explanation of the terms below are collected from these sites.
Allegory. A figurative work in which a surface narrative carries a secondary, symbolic or metaphorical meaning. In The Faerie Queene , for example, Red Cross Knight is a heroic knight in the literal narrative, but also a figure representing Everyman in the Christian journey. Many works contain allegories or are allegorical in part, but not many are entirely allegorical.
Alliteration. The repetition of initial consonant sounds in neighboring words. For example, in clichés: "sweet smell of success", "a dime a dozen", "bigger and better", or in Wordsworth: "And sings a solitary song That whistles in the wind."
A famous example is to be found in the two lines by Tennyson: "The moan of doves in immemorial elms, / And murmuring of innumerable bees."
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds but not consonant sounds as in consonance. Example: "fleet feet sweep by sleeping geeks."
It is essentially a narrative poem, that is, a poem that tells a story.
One of the characteristics of the ballad is its beginning close to (or even with) the climactic episode of the story.
Another marked characteristic of the folk ballad is the objectivity with which the story is told.
Canon. In relation to literature, this term is half-seriously applied to those works generally accepted as the great ones.
Coming-of-age story. A type of novel where the protagonist is initiated into adulthood through knowledge, experience, or both, often by a process of disillusionment. Understanding comes after the dropping of preconceptions, a destruction of a false sense of security, or in some way the loss of innocence.
Conflict/Plot. The struggle found in fiction. Conflict/Plot may be internal or external and is best seen in (1) Man in conflict with another Man: (2) Man in conflict in Nature; (3) Man in conflict with self.
Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds, but not vowels, as in assonance. Example: "lady lounges lazily, dark deep dread crept in."
Elegy. A poem "of lamentation for the dead." The poet chooses freely his metrical pattern, rhyme scheme (if he uses rhyme), and method of treating his theme. There is a more special form of the elegy called the pastoral elegy. The pastoral tradition in English-the tradition of dealing with characters in literature under the guise of poetic shepherds in an idyllic environment-has its roots in classical literature; Vergil and Theocritus are two of the most notable poets who wrote in the pastoral vein. Many pastoral poems were written in English between the middle of the sixteenth century and the middle of the eighteenth. When applied to the elegy, the pastoral tradition resulted in a rather formalized type of poetry most successfully used by Milton in Lycidas (on the death of Edward King), Shelley in Adonais (on the death of John Keats), and Arnold in Thyrsis (on the death of Arthur Hugh Clough). Traditionally, the pastoral elegy begins with a statement of the reason for the grief and an invocation to the Muses for assistance in the task of composition.
Epic. An extended narrative poem recounting actions, travels, adventures, and heroic episodes and written in a high style (with ennobled diction, for example).
Epistolary novel. A novel consisting of letters written by a character or several characters.
Epithet. A word which makes the reader see the object described in a clearer or sharper light. It is both exact and imaginative.
Distinctive epithets are found in the ancient Greek classic, The Odyssey: "wine-dark sea," wave-girdled island," and " blindfolding night."
Flashback. A device that allows the writer to present events that happened before the time of the current narration or the current events in the fiction.
Foot. The basic unit of meter co