84.Pun [Russell]
85.Quatrain [1st] [Wein]
86.Resolution[Grider
87.Rhyme: A piece of verse or poetry in which there is a repetition of corresponding sounds, usually at the end of lines. Robert Frost emloys a rhyme scheme in "The Road Not Taken."
Internal rhyme occurs when words rhyme anywhere other than the end of the line. Eye rhyme occurs when words look similar, but do not necesarily sound the same ["trough" and "rough"]. Half rhyme occurs when the final consonants rhyme, but not the vowel sounds ["way" and "Willy"].[Doug Yuen, '99]16 I shall be telling this with a sigh A 17 Somewhere ages and ages hence B 18 Two roads diverged in a wood, and I A 19 I took kthe one less traveled , A 20 And that has made all the difference B
88.Rhyme Scheme: The pattern established by the arrangement of rhymed words at the ends of the lines in a stanza or poem. It is usually described by using letters of the alphabet to denote the recurrence of rhyuming lines.
Example: Piano by D.H. Lawrence89.Rhythm [1st] [Friel]
Somewhere beneath that piano's superb sleek black A
Must hide my mother's piano, little brown, with the back A
That stood close the wall, and the front's silk both torn, B
And the keys with little hollows, that my mother's fingers had worn. B
The rhyme scheme for this stanza is AABB [Jessica Sharron, '99]
92.Saga: Historically, it is a medieval Scandinavian story of battles, customs, and legends, written between 1120 and 1400, and is often narrated in prose. It traditionally deals with families that first settled Iceland and their descendants, and can include histories of important families of nobility. Today it is better defined as any long story of adventure or heroic deeds, telling the tales of a hero or following a family through several generations. A contemporary example of a saga would be Mario Puzo's The Godfather series. [Todd Sterhan, '99]
93.Satire: The use of mockery, irony, or wit to attack or ridicule something, such as a habait, idea or custom which is considered to be foolish or wrong. An example of satire is the novel Gulliver's Travels. Here Jonathan Swift ridicules the absurd manners and traditions of the British Empire. [Sarah Mitchell, '99]
94.Scansion [Parmalee]
95.Setting: The time and place in which a work of literature occurs.
Examples: One of the settings in Gulliver's Travels was the island of Lilliput. One of the settings in Jane Eyre was the Lowood Institution. [Nicki Roberts, '99]
96.Short Story: A fictional narrative shorter than a novel. It aims at creating mood and effect rather than plot. Typical features of a short sotry are: its plot is based on probability, its characters are human and have normal human problems, its time and place are established in realistic settings, and its elements work toward unifying the story. An example is "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkinss Gilman and "Battle Royal" by Ralph Ellison, a short story created out of an excerpt from the longer novel Invisible Man [Samantha Shelton, '99]
97.Simile:a figure of speech which makes a comparison between two unlike things using words "like" or "as". An example would be the line "Like the circle of a throat/ The night on every side was turning red," from Louis Simpson's poem "The Battle." Simpson is using the circle that would appear if
one were to choke someone's throat, to make a comparison with the night. [Paymon Rahgozar]
98.Soliloquy: When a character in a play or novel is alone and talking to himself outloud. Example: From "Hamlet":
To be, or not to be: that is the question:From: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare[Nora Quiros, '99]
Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. ..'
That time of year thou may'st in me behold
That time of year thou may'st in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by - and - by black night doth take away,
Death's second shelf that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
-William Shakespeare, [Sarah Gorback, '99]couplets: two line stanzasStanzas are seen in almost all forms of poetry, such as William Wordsworth's poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," which has four stanzas, each oneof them being sestets, or six line stanzas. The stanzas hae a "ababcc" rhyme scheme. [Marc Gentzler, '99]
tercets: three line stanzas
quatrains: four line stanzas
cinquains: five line stanzas
sestets: six line stanzas
heptastichs: seven line stanzas
octaves: eight line stanzas
104.Subtext: What something really means, not just what it appears to mean. Irony is the primary example, with diction and meaning different, often opposite.
Example [from Catch-22]: The meaning of the term derives from the fact that anyone desiring to get out of combat duty because of craziness really isn't crazy. The subtext is the only way outof combat duty is death. [Anthony Gurvitz-Shaw, '99]
105.Suspense: The growing of excitement felt by an audience or individual while awaiting the climax of a movie, book, play, etc. due mainly to its concern for the welfare of a character they sympathize with or the anticipation of a violent act.
An example of suspense can be found in the short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" in the AP literature textbook. When the family is systematically killed off one by one, the reader cannot help but have a sense of sympathy for the poor unfortunate souls of the unlucky family members thus adding to the suspense of the story. [Frederick Kim, '99]
106.Symbolism: A device in literature where an object represents an idea. In the poem "The Sick Rose" by William Blake, the rose symbolizes perfection. The worm is a symbol of death. The storm is a symbol of chaos. Night represents darkness and evil, and the bed symbolizes the vulnerability of innosence and sleep.
The Sick Rose
O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy,
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy. [Eric Frey, '99]
107. Synecdoche [1st] [Schaub]109. Theatre of the Absurd: A drama based ujpon some absurd idea or situation. It is often derived from the themes of Existentialism. These plays typically express man's feelings of isolation and frustration, among others, and are often allegorical. Though not a play, the best example we have read of the absurd is the nouvelle The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Another example is Jean Paul Sartre's short play No Exit, which begins with three souls dropped into a hell that has been economizing on labor. Eugene Ionesco's The Lesson is also an example from this theatre. [Jamie Ellis-Simpson, '99]
110. Theme[Wang]
111. Tone: The tone of a work is the attitude of the author toward the subject he is writing about. It is the style or manner of a piece of work, an inflection of the mood of the piece. For example, the tone of Joseph Heller's Catch-22 is one of sarcasm and humor, as well as indifference. Joseph Heller seems neither to approve or disapprove of his characters' actions; he simply records the foolishness and mindlessness of what they say and do. [Leah Porter, '99]
112. Tragedy: Tragedy, as defined by Aristotle in the Poetics is “the imitation of an action
that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself.” Aristotle set down the guidelines for tragedy which consists of:
1. the tragic hero who should be of high worth or standing, but not perfect.In the "The Tragedy of Othello," Othello was the tragic hero of high standing. A general of the army his tragic flaw was he allowed rumors spawn his jealousy into a violent rage. He recognizes his blinded rage when the truth unfolds before him and he takes his own life. The audience should feel a cleansing process from the terrible and tragic ending with the death of Desdemon and Othello. [Alisso Ko, '99]
2. a tragic flaw, weakness, or transgression (hubris) in the hero which leads to the hero’s downfall.
3. the recognition scene where the hero realizes what he has done.
4. the effect of the inevitable disaster (catastrophe) on the spectators is the cleansing (catharsis.) The cleansing process is due to the emotions ofpity for the tragic hero and terror through what they have seen.