INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE

LEGEND

a nonhistorical or unverifiable story handed down by tradition from

earlier times and popularly accepted as historical.

MYTH

a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or

hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a
natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or
demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature.

EPIC

noting or pertaining to a long poetic composition, usually centered

upon a hero, in which a series of great achievements or events is
narrated in elevated style.

HAIKU

a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven,

and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.
TANKA

a Japanese poem consisting of five lines, the first and third of which
have five syllables and the other seven, making 31 syllables in all and
giving a complete picture of an event or mood.

SONNET

a poem that has 14 lines and a particular pattern of rhyme.

SHORT STORY

an invented story that is no more than about 10,000 words in

length.

NOVEL

Novel, an invented prose narrative of considerable length and a

certain complexity that deals imaginatively with human experience,
usually through a connected sequence of events involving a group of
persons in a specific setting.

NARRATIVE POETRY

Narrative poetry is a form of poetry that tells a story, often

making the voices of a narrator and characters as well; the entire
story is usually written in metered verse.
BALLAD

a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. Traditional ballads

are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally
from one generation to the next as part of the folk culture.

PROSE

Prose is so-called "ordinary writing" — made up of sentences and

paragraphs, without any metrical (or rhyming) structure.

POETRY

Poetry is a form of literature that follows specific forms to create a

rhythm and/or rhyme scheme.