GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS

* VERSE: A sentence in poetry.

1. POETRY: A written composition inspired by the author´s ideas, emotions and
feelings which uses poetic resources such as rhyme, alliteration, etc. E.g. “Trees”
by Joyce Kilmer

2. LYRIC: It is a kind of poetry that expresses the author´s emotions like in a song.
E.g. “When you cry I cry” by Sonnier Williams

3. EPIC: It refers to heroic poetry generally talks about adventures, actions done by a
hero. It sometimes has a sequence of events. E.g. “The Iliad” and “Odyssey” by
Homer.

4. NARRATIVE: It is the recount or telling a story by connected events in a logical

sequence. It can be real or imaginary. E.g. A novel is a type of narrative like “The
picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde.

5. ROMANCE: It is a story relating to love involving knights, heroes and adventures

and maiden woman (young girls). E.g. “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte.

6. DRAMA: It is a written to be performed by actors. It consists of dialogue involving

conflicts. It is divided into acts and scenes. E.g. “Hamlet” or “Macbeth” by
Shakespeare.

7. PROSE: It is an ordinary written or spoken language without paying attention to

grammatical structures. E.g. Taking notes, letters, newspapers, essay, and
magazines.

8. RHYME: A poetry resource. It deals with two or more sounds that have rhyme at
the ending of the words. E.g. “Corazó n de melon, te quiero con tesó n”.

9. ALLITERATION: It is a poetic resource. It is the repetition of two or more

consonant sounds at the beginning of the words. E.g. in Spanish the repetition of
the m: “Mi mama me mima”.

10.COMEDY: A piece of literary entertainment work consisting on jokes, sketches or

dialogues intended to make an audience laugh. It usually has a happy ending. E.g.
“The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde, “Modern Times” by Charles
Chaplin.
11.SONNET: A poem of 14 lines using a number of formal rhymes, skims. It has 10
syllables per line. E.g. “Sonnet number 10” by Shakespeare

12.BLANK VERSE: A verse without rhyme. E.g. the opening verse paragraph of
twenty-two lines in “Tintern Abbey” by Wordsworth

13.STANZA: The division of a group of verses. It is a symbol that divides four or more
verses.

14.IMAGE: It is a mental image representation that is experienced by the reader of a

poem. E.g. In Memorìam No. 101 Tennyson, the author encompasses not only
things that are visible, but also qualities that are smelled or heard, together with a
suggestion, in the adjective "summer," of warmth.

15.SIMILE: It is a figure of speech involving one thing with another using the word
“like” or “As”. E.g. “Oh my love is like a red, red rose” by Robert Burns.

16.METAPHOR: It is a figure of speech which makes an implicit or hidden

comparison between two things that are unrelated but share some common
characteristics. E.g. The black sheep of the family = the bad guy

17.ESSAY: It is a piece of written in a particular subject which gives personal opinion

of an author. E.g. “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell

18.NOVEL: A long written story containing characters and chapters. It is usually

fictional. E.g. “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy.

19.TRAGEDY: It is a kind of drama that presents a serious subject matter about

human suffering, involving terrible events. It usually has an unhappy ending. E.g.
“Oedipus the King” by Sophocles, “Romeo and Juliet” by Shakespeare.

20.PASTORAL POETRY: It is a poem describing rural and simple life which

symbolizes shepherds and their lives. E.g. “Eclogues” by Virgil, “Il penseroso”, “L
´Allegro”

21.ODE: A lyric poem which expresses deep feelings of love and respect and praises
someone or something. E.g. Nightingale” or “Melancholy” by Keats, “Ode to cats”
by Pablo Neruda.
22.ELEGY: It is a poem filled with sadness involving lament and sorrow for the death
of a person. E.g. Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” on the death of Arthur Hallam, “Elegy
in a country…” by Thomas Gray.

23.BALLAD: It is a kind of narrative poem that tells a love story in a direct matter.
E.g. Anonymous medieval ballad, Irish Ballad, Paradise by Coldplay.

24.PERSONIFICATION: A figure of speech in which a thing, an idea or an animal is

given human attributes or qualities. E.g. In the poem “To Autumn”, the author
Keats personifies the season, autumn, as a woman carrying on the rural chores of
that time of year.

25.SYMBOL: It signifies ideas and qualities given them symbolic meaning that is
different from their literal senses. E.g. The general association of a peacock with
pride, or the rising sun with birth.

26.PLAY: It is similar to a drama. That is to say that is performed in a theater. E.g.

“The merchant of Venice” or “Julius César” by Shakespeare.