Glossary of Literary Terms

Adage A traditional or proverbial saying.

Allegory A story in which the characters and events extend beyond the confines of their
story to represent an object lesson to readers.

Alliteration The repetition of a consonant sound – “storm strewn sea.”

Anapaest The anapaestic meter consists of a series of two unstressed sounds followed by a

single stressed sound – “The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold” (Lord Byron).

Antagonist Character whose dramatic role is to oppose the protagonist (q.v.).

Archetype Also known as universal symbol, an archetype may be a character (the intrepid

hero, damsel in distress, party animal), a theme (the triumph of good over evil), a symbol, or
even a setting. Many literary critics are of the opinion that archetypes, which have a common
and recurring representation in a particular human culture or entire human race, shape the
structure and function of a literary work.

Archetypal plot A sequence of events forming a type of story that has recurred throughout
the history of a civilization, and with which most people are familiar; for example, a battle
between good and evil.

Assonance The repetition of vowel sounds, as in “rapid rattle” (Wilfred Owen).

Aural Describes how a poem appeals to our sense of sound, hearing.

Ballad A narrative poem, usually written in quatrains with abcb rhyme scheme (q.v.).

Blank verse Unrhymed iambic pentameter (q.v.) poetry.

Blocking agents In drama, characters who try to prevent other characters from achieving
their goals.

Catharsis The purging of audience emotion in tragedy, the release of emotion, and final
feeling of relief.

Comedy Form of drama characterized by some sense of optimism, fellowship, love, and

good humour.

Conceit A metaphor that is unusually ingenious or elaborate. Common feature in work of

metaphysical poets, such as John Donne.

Contextual symbol A symbol that has a non-literal meaning only within the context of the
work of art in which it is found.
 Dactyl The dactylic meter is the opposite of the anaepestic. It consists of a series of single
hard-stressed sounds followed by two soft-stressed sounds – “Just for a handful of silver he
left us” (Robert Browning).

Deconstruction An interpretive movement in literary theory that reached its apex in the
1970s. Deconstruction rejects absolute interpretations, stressing ambiguities and
contradictions in literature. Deconstruction grew out of the linguistic principles of De
Saussure who noted that many Indo-Europeanlanguages create meaning by binary opposites.
Verbal oppositions such as good/evil, light/dark, male/female, rise/fall, up/down, and
high/low show a human tendency common transculturally to create vocabulary as pairs of
opposites, with one of the two words arbitrarily given positive connotations and the other
word arbitrarily given negative connotations.

Dramatic monologue A poem which is “dramatic” because it is a speech presented to an

audience (usually of only one person) and a “monologue” because no other character does any
talking.

Dynamic character Sometimes referred to as a round character, a dynamic character is

one whose values, attitudes, and/or ideals change as a result of the experience the character
undergoes throughout the story.

Elegy A poem written to commemorate the death of a person who played a significant role
in the poet’s life.

Epic An epic in its most specific sense is a genre of classical poetry. It is a poem that is a
long narrative about a serious subject, told in an elevated style of language, focused on the
exploits of a hero or demi-god who represents the cultural values of a race, nation, or religious
group, in which the hero’s success or failure will determine the fate of that people or nation.
Usually, the epic has a vast setting and covers a wide geographic area, it contains superhuman
feats of strength or military prowess, and gods or supernatural beings frequently take part in
the action. The poem begins with the invocation of a muse to inspire the poet and, the
narrative starts in medias res. The epic contains long catalogues of heroes or important
characters, focusing on highborn kings and great warriors rather than peasants and
commoners.

Epiphany A change, sudden insight or awareness revealed to the main character.

Eye rhyme Words that look as if they should rhyme but do not – for example “good” and
“mood.” Also known as sight rhyme.

Fable A short and traditional story, involving archetypal characters and ending with a
moral.

Feminism and literature Feminist critics aim to examine the relationships between the
male and female characters and the distribution of power within those relationships.

Fiction Prose text in the form of a story that is primarily a product of human imagination.
 First-person major-character narrator This type of narrator tells a story in which he or
she is the main character, or main focus of attention.

First-person minor-character narrator  This narrator is typically a gossip. He or she

observes the actions of another person, often a friend, and then tells what that friend did,
when, and to whom.

Flashback The technique of narrating an event that occurred before the point in the story
to which the narrator has advanced.

Flat character A character, also known as a static character, who is offered the chance for
positive change but who, for one reason or another, fails to embrace it.

Free verse Poetry without a set rhyme scheme or rhythm pattern.

Full rhyme The use of words that rhyme completely, such as “good” and “wood.”

Genre A major literary form, such as drama, poetry, and the novel.

Haiku The Japanese haiku is a brief poem, consisting of a single image. The haiku consists
of three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, respectively.

Half rhyme Describes words that almost rhyme such as “time” and “mine.”

Hamartia A term from Greek tragedy that literally means “missing the mark.” Originally
applied to an archer who misses the target, a hamartia came to signify a tragic flaw,
especially a misperception, a lack of some important insight, or some blindness that ironically
results from one’s own strengths and abilities.

Horatian satire Named after the Roman poet, Horace, this is a fairly gentle type of satire
used to poke fun at people and their failings or foibles.

Hyperbole A metaphor that bases its comparison on the use of exaggeration, for example,
“I’d walk a million miles for one of your smiles” (Al Jolson).

Iambic The iambic rhythm pattern in poetry consists of one unstressed sound or beat,
followed by one stressed sound or beat – “The cúrfew tólls the knéll of párting dáy” (Thomas
Gray).

Iambic diameter A line with two beats – “I can’t.”

Iambic pentameter A line with five beats – “I have been one acquainted with the night”
(Robert Frost).

Iambic tetrameter A line with four beats – “I wandered lonely as a cloud” (William
Wordsworth).

   Iambic trimeter A line with three beats – “The only news I know/Is bulletins all day” (Emily
Dickinson).
 Imagery In literature, an image is a word picture. It can be a phrase, a sentence, or a line.
It is used to enhance the reader’s appreciation of the figurative more than the literal meaning
of a poem, story, or play – “The fog comes/on little cat feet” (Carl Sandberg).

Imagists A group of poets whose aim between 1912 and 1917 was to write poetry that
accented imagery (q.v.) or, their preferred term, “imagism” to communicate meaning.

In media res Latin for “in the middle of the action,” the point at which an epic, such as
“The Odyssey,” typically opens.

Irony Cicero referred to irony as “saying one thing and meaning another.” Irony comes in
many forms. Verbal irony is a trope in which a speaker makes a statement in which its actual
meaning differs sharply from the meaning that the words ostensibly express. Dramatic
irony involves a situation in a narrative in which the reader knows something about present or
future circumstances that the character does not know. In that situation, the character acts in a
way we recognize to be grossly inappropriate to the actual circumstances, or the character
expects the opposite of what the reader knows that fate holds in store, or the character
anticipates a particular outcome that unfolds itself in an unintentional way. Probably the most
famous example of dramatic irony is the situation facing Oedipus in the play Oedipus
Rex. Situational irony is a trope in which accidental events occur that seem oddly
appropriate, such as the poetic justice of a pickpocket getting his own pocket picked.

Juvenalian satire Named after the Roman poet Juvenal, this form of satire uses bitter
sarcasm more than humour, and is often tinged with cruelty.

Limited omniscient narrator A narrator who limits himself or herself to relaying to

readers the thoughts and actions of the main character only.

Litotes The deliberate use of understatement, usually to create an ironic or satiric effect –

“I am not as young as I used to be.”

Malapropism  A blunder in diction, grotesquely substituting one word with a similar

sound for the proper word. Mrs. Malaprop, (Fr. Mal à propos), a character in R. B. Sheridan’s
comedy The Rivals, was famously guilty of such errors in diction: e.g., “As headstrong as
an allegory [alligator] on the banks of the Nile”; Shakespeare’s Mistress Quickly in 2 Henry
IV (Falstaff “is indicted to dinner”); and Capt. Jack Boyle in O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock
(“The whole world’s in a state of chassis” [chaos]) are earlier and later characters given to
malapropisms.

Marxist literary theory Like feminist critics, Marxist critics examine the imbalance of
power relationships among characters in literature, in terms of social class.

Metaphor A comparison intended to clarify or intensify the more complex of the objects
of the comparison.

Metonymy A form of metaphor in which a phrase is understood to represent something

more; for example, to use the phrase “sabre rattling” to mean “threatening war.”
 Meter A term used to describe the rhythm and measure of a line of poetry.

Narrative The storyline in a literary work.

Narrator Storyteller.

Non-sequential plot One in which the author holds back an important incident that
occurred before the chronological ending of the story, typically to create suspense.

Novel A narrative work of fiction typically involving a range of characters and settings,
linked together through plot and sub-plots.

Novella A short work of fiction that falls in length somewhere between the novel and the
short story.

Objective narrator The objective narrator establishes setting in a precise but rather

detached style, and then lets the conversation tell the story, using an objective point of view.

Octave An eight-line stanza.

Ode A long formal poem that typically presents a poet’s philosophical views about such
subjects as nature, art, death, and human emotion.

Omniscient narrator A narrator capable of telling readers the thoughts of all the
characters and the actions of all the characters at any time. An omniscient narrator is like a
god who can provide readers with all the information they could ever want.

Onomatopoeia A word or phrase usually found in a poem the sound of which suggests its
meaning – “bang,” “thwack.”

Oral Describes a spoken as opposed to written literary tradition.

Paradox A phrase which seems self-contradictory but, in fact, makes powerful sense
despite its lack of logic – “I must be cruel only to be kind” (Shakespeare).

Pastoral Relating to the countryside, especially in an idealized form.

Pastoral elegy A form of elegy that typically contrasts the serenity of the simple life of a
shepherd with the cruel world which hastened the death of the poet’s friend.

Personification A form of metaphor that compares something non-human with something

that is human – “Two Sunflowers/Move in the Yellow Room” (William Blake).

Petrarchan sonnet A sonnet with a rhyme scheme: abbaabbacdecde.

Plot In a literary fiction work, “plot” refers to the events, the order in which they occur,
and the relationship of the events to each other.
 Poetry One of the major literary genres, usually written in a series of discrete lines which
highlight the artistic use of language.

Point of view The stance from which the storyteller or narrator tells the story.

Prose The written text of fiction and non-fiction, as distinct from poetry.

Protagonist The main character in a literary work. See also antagonist.

Quatrain A four-line stanza.

Reader response theory A theory of literature that asserts that the reader creates meaning
and that, because all people are different, all readings will be different.

Regular verse A literary work written in lines that have the same rhythm pattern and a
regular rhyme scheme.

Rhyme scheme The rhyming pattern of a regular-verse poem.

Rhyming couplet A two-line stanza in which the last words in each line rhyme.

Satire A literary form in which a writer pokes fun at those aspects of his society, especially
those people and those social institutions that the author thinks are corrupt and in need of
change.

Scapegoat A person who is banished or sacrificed in the interests of his or her community.
The term is often applied to a tragic hero.

Sequential plot One in which the events are narrated in the order in which they occurred
in time.

Sestet A six-line stanza.

Shakespearean sonnet A sonnet with a rhyme scheme: ababcdcdefefgg.

Short story A prose fiction narrative that usually occurs in a single setting and concerns a
single main character.

Sight rhyme Words that look as if they should rhyme but do not – for example “mood”
and “good.” Also known as eye rhyme.

Simile A type of metaphor that makes the comparison explicit by using either the word
“like” or the word “as” – “Elderly American ladies leaning on their canes listed toward me
like towers of Pisa” (Nabokov).

Sonnet A 14-line regular-verse poem, usually written in iambic pentameter.

Spondee A double-hard-stressed phrase such as “shook foil” (Gerard Manley Hopkins,

“God’s Grandeur”).
 Static character A static character, also known as a flat character, is one who is offered
the chance for positive change but who, for one reason or another, fails to embrace it.

Stereotype A recognizable type of person rather than a fully developed character. A

stereotypical character is one who can be identified by a single dominant trait; for
example, the braggart soldier, the country bumpkin.

Symbolism The use within a literary work of an element that has more than a literal
meaning – “All the world’s a stage” (Shakespeare).

Synecdoche The use of a part to represent a whole, as in the expression “lend me a hand.”

Tercet A three-line stanza.

Theatre of the absurd A phrase used to describe a group of plays written during and after
the 1950s. The term “absurd” is used because the plots and the characters (though not the
themes) are unconventional when examined in the context of conventional tragedy and
comedy.

Theme The message or insight into human experience that an author offers to his or her
readers. Broad themes might include family, love, war, nature, death, faith, time, or some
aspects of these.

Tone The attitude or personality that a literary work projects; for example, serious and
solemn, or lighthearted and amusing.

Tragedy A play that tells the story of a significant event or series of events in the life of a
significant person.

Tragic hero The main character in a Greek or Roman tragedy. In contrast with the epic
hero (who embodies the values of his culture and appears in an epic poem), the tragic hero is
typically an admirable character who appears as the focus in a tragic play, but one who is
undone by a hamartia—a tragic mistake, misconception, or flaw. That hamartia leads to the
downfall of the main character.

Trochaic The opposite of iambic. The rhythm of the lines of a trochaic poem consist not of
a series of soft-stressed-hard-stressed sounds, but a series of hard-stressed-soft-stressed
sounds – “There they are my fifty men and women” (Robert Browning).

Valediction Bidding farewell to someone or something.

Verse A unit of a varying number of lines with which a poem is divided. Also called a
stanza.

Villanelle A 19-line poem divided into five tercets and one quatrain. Probably the most
famous English villanelle is Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.”
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o Terms & Definitions

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All definitions come from:
The American Heritage  Dictionary of the English Language, edited by Editors of the American
Heritage Dictionaries, Houghton Mifflin, 6th edition, 2016. Credo Reference. Accessed 19
Nov. 2020.
Click on the entry word for pronunciation, etymology, and more information.

 Allegory

a) The representation of abstract ideas or principles by characters, figures, or events in

narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form. b) A story, picture, or play employing such
representation.

 Alliteration

The repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of
words or in stressed syllables, as in “on scrolls of silver snowy sentences.” Modern
alliteration is predominantly consonantal; certain literary traditions, such as Old English
verse, also alliterate using vowel sounds.

 Allusion

An instance of indirect reference.

 Anagram

A word or phrase formed by reordering the letters of another word or phrase, such as
"satin" to "stain."

 Analogy

A comparison based on a similarity between things that are otherwise dissimilar.

Example: "Her hair was like spun gold."

 Anaphora

The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive

verses, clauses, or paragraphs; for example, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall
fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight
in the hills.” - Winston S. Churchill.

 Anastrophe

Inversion of the normal syntactic order of words; for example, “Matter too soft a lasting
mark to bear” - Alexander Pope

 Antithesis

A figure of speech in which sharply contrasting ideas are juxtaposed in a balanced or

parallel phrase or grammatical structure, as in “Hee for God only, shee for God in him” -
John Milton.

 Aphorism

a) A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion; an adage. See Synonyms at saying.

b) A brief statement of a principle.

 Apostrophe

The direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a personified abstraction,

especially as a digression in the course of a speech or composition.

 Assonance

a) Resemblance of sound, especially of the vowel sounds in words, as in: “that dolphin-
torn, that gong-tormented sea” - William Butler Yeats. b) The repetition of identical or
similar vowel sounds, especially in stressed syllables, with changes in the intervening
consonants, as in the phrase "tilting at windmills."

 Bildungsroman
 A novel whose principal subject is the moral, psychological, and intellectual
development of a usually youthful main character.

 Caesura

A pause in a line of verse dictated by sense or natural speech rhythm rather than by
metrics.

 Characterization

Representation of a character or characters on the stage or in writing, especially by

imitating or describing actions, gestures, or speeches.

 Chiasmus

A rhetorical inversion of the second of two parallel structures, as in “Each throat/Was

parched, and glazed each eye” Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

 Circumlocution

a) The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language. b) Evasion in speech or

writing. c) A roundabout expression.

 Connotation

a) An idea or meaning suggested by or associated with a word or thing: "Hollywood

holds connotations of romance and glittering success." b) The set of associations
implied by a word in addition to its literal meaning.

 Consonance

The repetition of consonants or of a consonant pattern, especially at the ends of words,

as in blank and think or strong and string.

 Denotation

The most specific or direct meaning of a word, in contrast to its figurative or associated
meanings.

 Deus ex Machina

a) In Greek and Roman drama, a god lowered by stage machinery to resolve a plot or
extricate the protagonist from a difficult situation. b) An unexpected, artificial, or
improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or
drama to resolve a situation or untangle a plot.
 Diction

a) Choice and use of words in speech or writing. b) Degree of clarity and distinctness of
pronunciation in speech or singing; enunciation.

 Doppelgänger

A ghostly double of a living person, especially one that haunts its fleshly counterpart.

 Epilogue

a) A short poem or speech spoken directly to the audience following the conclusion of a
play. b) A short addition or concluding section at the end of a literary work, often
dealing with the future of its characters. Also called an afterword.

 Epithet

a) A term used to characterize a person or thing, such as "rosy-fingered" in "rosy-

fingered dawn" or "the Great" in "Catherine the Great." b) A term used as a descriptive
substitute for the name or title of a person, such as "The Great Emancipator" for
Abraham Lincoln.

 Euphemism

The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered
harsh, blunt, or offensive: "Euphemisms such as ‘slumber room’ … abound in the funeral
business." - Jessica Mitford.

 Euphony

Agreeable sound, especially in the phonetic quality of words.

 Fable

a) A usually short narrative making an edifying or cautionary point and often employing
as characters animals that speak and act like humans. b) A story about legendary
persons and exploits.

 Flashback

A literary or cinematic device in which an earlier event is inserted into the normal
chronological order of a narrative.

 Foil
 One that by contrast underscores or enhances the distinctive characteristics of another:
"I am resolved my husband shall not be a rival, but a foil to me." - Charlotte Brontë.

 Foreshadowing

An indication or a suggestion of what will come in the future, given beforehand; a hint.

 Hyperbole

A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in "I could
sleep for a year" or "This book weighs a ton."

 Imagery

The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas.

 Irony

a) The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their
literal meaning. b) An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between
apparent and intended meaning. c) A literary style employing such contrasts for
humorous or rhetorical effect.

 Juxtapose

To place side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.

 Malapropism

Ludicrous misuse of a word, especially by confusion with one of similar sound.

 Metaphor

a) A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is
used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in "a sea of troubles"
or "All the world's a stage" (Shakespeare). b) One thing conceived as representing
another; a symbol.

 Motif

A recurrent thematic element in an artistic or literary work.

 Onomatopoeia

The formation or use of words such as "buzz" or "murmur" that imitate the sounds
associated with the objects or actions they refer to.
 Oxymoron

A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined, as in "a

deafening silence" and "a mournful optimist."

 Parable

A simple story illustrating a moral or religious lesson.

 Paradox

A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true.

 Pathetic Fallacy

The attribution of human emotions or characteristics to inanimate objects or to nature;

for example, "angry clouds" or "cruel wind."

 Personification

A figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstractions are endowed with human
qualities or are represented as possessing human form, as in "Hunger sat shivering on
the road" or "Flowers danced about the lawn." Also called prosopopeia.

 Point of View

The attitude or outlook of a narrator or character in a piece of literature, a movie, or

another art form.

 Plot

The pattern of events or main story in a narrative or drama.

 Portmanteau

A word formed by merging the sounds and meanings of two different words, as chortle,
from chuckle and snort.

 Prologue

a) An introduction or preface, especially a poem recited to introduce a play. b) An

introduction or introductory chapter, as to a novel.

 Pun
 A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on
the similar sense or sound of different words.

 Rhyme Scheme

The arrangement of rhymes in a poem or stanza.

 Satire

A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.

 Setting

The time, place, and circumstances in which a narrative, drama, or film takes place.

 Simile

A figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a
phrase introduced by "like" or "as," as in "How like the winter hath my absence been." -
Shakespeare

 Spoonerism

A transposition of sounds of two or more words, especially a ludicrous one, such as "Let
me sew you to your sheet" for "Let me show you to your seat."

 Stanza

One of the divisions of a poem, composed of two or more lines usually characterized by
a common pattern of meter, rhyme, and number of lines.

 Stream of Consciousness

A literary technique that presents the thoughts and feelings of a character as they
occur.

 Symbol

Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention,

especially a material object used to represent something invisible.

 Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as "hand" for sailor), the whole
for a part (as "the law" for police officer), the specific for the general (as "cutthroat" for
 assassin), the general for the specific (as "thief" for pickpocket), or the material for the
thing made from it (as "steel" for sword).

 Synesthesia

The description of one kind of sense impression by using words that normally describe
another.

 Syntax

a) The pattern of formation of sentences or phrases in a language. b) Such a pattern in a

particular sentence or discourse.

 Theme

a) A subject of artistic representation. b) An implicit or recurrent idea; a motif: "a theme

of powerlessness runs through the diary."

 Tone

a) Manner of expression in speech or writing: "took an angry tone with the reporters."
b) A general quality, effect, or atmosphere.

 Tragedy

A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers
extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or
inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances.

 Verse

a) A single metrical line in a poetic composition; one line of poetry. b) Metrical or

rhymed composition as distinct from prose; poetry.

Alliteration
Alliteration describes when the initial sounds of words are
repeated in close proximity. Alliteration is based on
repeated sounds, not letters: car keys is alliterative, but city cardis
not. Alliteration can add emphasis, playfulness, or rhythm.
Example:  from Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love’s day.
Allusion
An allusion is a reference, usually implicit, to a person, place,
thing, event, or idea in history or literature. Allusions tap into
readers’ cultural knowledge and create an in-group of readers
who catch the reference.

Example:  Though many people who use the phrase probably aren’t
aware of this, using the phrase “going down the rabbit hole” to
describe starting a disorienting, confusing, and lengthy
experience is an allusion to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland  (1865), in which Alice ends up in Wonderland by
following the White Rabbit down his rabbit hole.
Analogy
An analogy is a comparison in which an idea or thing is compared
to something quite different from it. Analogies are more
extensive than similes and metaphors.

Example:  from James Russell Lowell’s “An Epistle to George

William Curtis”
“No mud can soil us but the mud we throw”

The mud in this sentence clearly isn’t literal dirt. Just like we
cannot touch mud without getting dirty, we cannot speak ill of
others without sullying ourselves. Mud here is analogous to
slander—it makes us dirty.

Antagonist
The antagonist is a character or force that comes into conflict
with the protagonist, the central character, in fiction or drama.

Example:  In the Harry Potter series, Lord Voldemort is Harry’s

antagonist, as are, at various points, Draco Malfoy and Severus
Snape.
Assonance
Assonance is the repetition of internal vowel sounds in nearby
words that do not rhyme. Alliteration occurs at the start of
words; rhyme, at the ends; and assonance, in the middle.
“Moon” and “spoon” rhyme; “moon” and “mood” are assonant.

Example:  from Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish”

I caught a tremendous fish

and held him beside the boat

half out of water, with my hook

fast in a corner of its mouth.

He didn’t fight.

He hadn’t fought at all.
He hung a grunting weight,
Ballad
Historically, ballads were story songs passed down orally; thus,
they usually cannot be traced to particular authors. Ballads
usually offer dramatic, short, and impersonal stories. Literary
ballads are narrative poems that are written in a form that
imitates traditional ballads.

Example:  For an example of a traditional ballad, read “Get Up and

Bar the Door”: http://www.bartleby.com/40/20.html
For an example of a literary ballad, read John Keats’ “La Belle
Dame Sans Merci”: http://www.bartleby.com/126/55.html
Ballad Stanza
The ballad stanza, named because it is frequently used in
ballads, consists of four lines. The first and third lines have eight
syllables (tetrameter); the second and fourth have six (trimeter).
Usually, only the second and fourth lines rhyme.
Example: from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner”
The Sun came up upon the left,

Out of the sea came he!

And he shone bright, and on the right

Went down into the sea.

Biography
A biography is the story of a person’s life, presumed to be
factual. An autobiography is a story one writes about one’s own
life.

Example: The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an

autobiographical account of slavery.
Cadence
Cadence refers to the natural rhythm of language, the rising and
falling “tune” of a piece of writing, based on stressed and
unstressed syllables. Cadence is present in prose as well as in
poetry.

Catharsis
Catharsis refers to the release of emotions of pity or fear at the
end of a tragedy. As audience members watch a play and see the
misfortunes of the characters, they might feel scared or sorrowful
for them, but at the end, these negative emotions are “purged,”
tensions are released, and viewers are left calm.

Example: When watching or reading William Shakespeare’s Romeo

and Juliet, the scene when Romeo believes Juliet to be dead might
make us recall our own lost loves and thus to release our
emotions.
Characterization
Characterization is the process by which the writer reveals the
personality of a character. Direct characterization tells  the
audience about the character. Indirect characterization shows the
audience the character’s personality. There are five different
forms of indirect characterization: we learn about characters
through their speech, thoughts, effect on others, actions, and
looks.
Characters who grow and change over the course of the story
are dynamic; those who don’t are static. Characters who are vivid,
three-dimensional, and lifelike are round; those who aren’t
are flat.
Chorus
In a tragedy, the chorus is a group of people who function as
commentators on the characters and their actions.

Cliché
A cliché is an overused idea or expression. Clichés are usually
seen as signs of poor writing.

Example: describing someone as “as old as the hills” or “fit as a

fiddle”
Concrete Poem
Concrete poems use typography to make a picture of the subject
on the page.

Example:  Take a look at George Herbert’s “Easter-

Wings”: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173626
Conflict
Conflict is the dramatic struggle between two forces in a story.
There are several kinds of conflict common in fiction: human vs.
human, human vs. nature, human vs. society, human vs. self.

Example:  In The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen is involved in all of

these kinds of conflict. Her battles against the “Careers” are
human vs. human. Her struggles to find water and food are
human vs. nature. Her struggles to bring down her corrupt
government are human vs. society. Her difficulty in deciding
whether or not she loves Peeta is human vs. self.
Connotation
The connotation of a word is the associations we have with it that
go beyond its literal meaning, thanks to how it has commonly
been used.

Example: Both “house” and “home” can mean a structure in which

one lives, but they have different connotations. A “house” is just
a building; but a “home” is a space filled with warm and fuzzy
feelings.
Denotation
The denotation of a word is its dictionary definition. (The
alliteration here—denotation=dictionary—makes this easier to
remember.)

Dialect
Dialects are particular ways of speaking that are associated with
groups of people from different regions, races/ethnicities, or
social classes. Dialect provides a way for writers to contrast their
characters’ backgrounds.

Example:  Think about the differences between the dialect of Jim,

an escaping slave, and Huck, a poorly educated Midwestern boy,
in this excerpt from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
[Jim] says: “I doan’ want to go fool’n ‘long er no wrack. We’s
doin’ blame’ well, en we better let blame’ well alone, as de good
book says. Like as not dey’s a watchman on dat wrack.”

“Watchman your grandmother,” I [Huck] says; “there ain’t

nothing to watch but the texas and the pilot-house; and do you
reckon anybody’s going to resk his life for a texas and a pilot-
house such a night as this, when it’s likely to break up and wash
off down the river any minute?” Jim couldn’t say nothing to that,
so he didn’t try. “And besides,” I says, “we might borrow
something worth having out of the captain’s stateroom. Seegars,
I bet you—and cost five cents apiece, solid cash. Steamboat
captains is always rich, and get sixty dollars a month, and they
don’t care a cent what a thing costs, you know, long as they
want it. Stick a candle in your pocket; I can’t rest, Jim, till we
give her a rummaging.”

Dialogue
Dialogue is the term for when characters talk to one another.
(For an example, see the dialogue between Huck and Jim above.)

Diction
Diction means word choice. When you examine an author’s
diction, you should think about the words’ connotations as well
as their denotations. You should also think about whether the
language is formal or informal.

Example:  Both of these sentences convey essentially the same

message—be quiet—but the differences in diction make them feel
and mean differently.
Shut yer trap, will ye?

Please resume a respectful silence.

Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony involves a situation in which the reader knows
something that the character does not know. Because of our
knowledge, we can recognize that the character’s actions are
inappropriate to the circumstances or that he/she expects the
opposite of what fate holds in store.

Example:  In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo believes Juliet to be dead when

we know she is not. As a result, he makes a bad decision that we
in the audience perceive as ironic.
Dramatic Monologue
A dramatic monologue is a kind of poem in which the speaker
addresses a silent audience imagined to be present.

Example:  from T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

And indeed there will be time

To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”

Time to turn back and descend the stair,

With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—

(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)

My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,

My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—

(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)

Do I dare

Disturb the universe?

Elegy
An elegy is a melancholy contemplative lyric poem written in
memory of someone who has died. These poems often end with
peace and consolation.

Example:  Walt Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!” is an elegy for

Abraham Lincoln.
Epic
An epic is a long narrative poem, told in a formal style, which
chronicles a heroic journey and events significant to a culture or
a nation. Epics often include superhuman deeds, highly stylized
language, and a blending of the lyric and the drama.

Example: Homer’s Odyssey and Illiad
Epigram
An epigram is a short, witty poem that usually makes a satiric
point.

Example:  Consider this example, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Sir, I admit your general rule,
That every poet is a fool,
But you yourself may serve to show it,
That every fool is not a poet.

Epistle
An epistle is a letter in verse form. When novels are written in
the form of letters, they are written in epistolary form.
Example:  Elizabeth Bishop’s “Letter to
N.Y.”: http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index/index.php?date=2006/07/22
Essay
An essay is a form of writing, usually in prose, which varies in
length from a few pages to a full book. Essays aren’t works of
fiction, but instead discuss a topic or variety of topics.

Example:  John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Euphemism
An euphemism is the substitution of a mild expression for a harsh
or blunt choice of words.

Example: Using “passed away” instead of “died”

Extended Metaphor
An extended metaphor is exactly what it sounds like—an
metaphor used in an extended way. In a poem that makes use of
extended metaphor, all (or at least a significant portion) of the
lines consist of a series of related metaphors.
Example:  Emily Dickinson’s “My Life had stood—a Loaded
Gun”: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/gun.html
Fable
A fable is a short narrative, written in other prose or verse, which
ends with a moral, either stated or implied. Often, the characters
in fables are animals or inanimate beings.

Example:  Check out Aesop’s fables, believed to be the first

collected fables, here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/aesop/
Fairy Tale
Fairy tales are a form of folk literature, originally passed through
the oral tradition. Fairy tales are usually written in prose and tell
the story of the travails of a hero or heroine who, after some
supernatural adventures, lives “happily ever after.” The middle of
the story, however, is often quite unhappy.

Example:  The three major collections of European fairy tales are

Charles Perrault’s Contes de ma mère l’Oye  (better known to readers
of English as The Tales of Mother Goose), Kinder- und
Hausmärchen (or Household Tales) by the brothers Grimm, and Hans
Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales.
Figurative Language
Figurative language is language that isn’t meant to be taken
literally, at face value.

Example:  metaphors, similes, hyperbole

Flashback
A flashback is a scene that breaks into the present tense of a
narrative in order to explain events that took place before the
text’s starting point.

Example:  All the scenes in the Harry Potter series in which older

people remember what it was like when Voldemort took power
the first time are flashbacks.
Folk Tale
The folk tale is an expansive literary category that includes
things like legends, fables, tall tales, and ghost stories. Folk tales
are usually passed down orally. They often feature local
characters.

Example:  Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle,” about a man who

sleeps through the American Revolution and parties with Henry
Hudson in the Catskills, is based on German folklore.
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is the introduction of hints early in the story that
suggest events to come.

Example:  Early in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, a madman/prophet

foresees the sinking of the Pequod and warns Ishmael and
Queequeg.
Free Verse
Free verse refers to poetry that doesn’t conform to patterns of
meter, rhyme, and stanza. Since the section breaks in free verse
aren’t regular, these sections aren’t referred to as stanzas—
instead, they are called verse paragraphs.
Example:  Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn
Ferry”: http://www.bartleby.com/142/86.html
Graphic Novel
A graphic novel is a book-length story developed in comic-strip
format.

Example:  Art Spiegelman’s Maus

Haiku
Haiku is a kind of lyric poetry of Japanese origins. Haikus often
present an intense emotion or image of nature. Traditionally, a
haiku consists of three unrhymed lines—five syllables, seven
syllables, five syllables.

Example:  Consider this example, by Michael R. Collins:

Freeway overpass—
Blossoms in graffiti on

Fog-wrapped June mornings.

Historical Fiction
Historical fiction is a kind of fiction that reconstructs a particular
historical moment imaginatively. The characters might be
actually historical figures or they might be imagined characters
placed into a real historical moment.

Example: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s  The Scarlet Letter is an example of

historical fiction—though written in the mid-nineteenth century, it
is set in colonial Massachusetts.
Hyperbole
Hyperbole is an intentionally exaggerated statement that adds
emphasis.

Example:  “I studied a million hours for my Praxis exam!”

Iambic Pentameter
Iambic pentameter is a popular meter for poetry in English. Each
line consists of 10 syllables, five pairs of an unstressed syllable
followed by a stressed syllable.

Example: from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

“But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”

Idiom
An idiom is a set expression not meant to be interpreted literally.
Idioms are culturally bound and difficult to translate.

Example: hitting the road, calling the shots, seeing eye to eye,

pulling the wool over one’s eyes, pulling someone’s leg, raining
cats and dogs… consult Amelia Bedelia  for more information.
Imagery
Imagery refers to language used to engage our physical senses.
Imagery is commonly associated with the idea of creating mental
pictures, but appeals to touch, smell, taste, and hearing count
too.

Example:  from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations

“It was a rimy morning, and very damp. I had seen the damp
lying on the outside of my little window, as if some goblin had
been crying there all night, and using the window for a pocket-
handkerchief. Now, I saw the damp lying on the bare hedges and
spare grass, like a coarser sort of spiders’ webs; hanging itself
from twig to twig and blade to blade. On every rail and gate, wet
lay clammy; and the marsh-mist was so thick, that the wooden
finger on the post directing people to our village–a direction
which they never accepted, for they never came there–was
invisible to me until I was quite close under it.”

Irony
Irony uses contradictory statements or situations to reveal a
reality different from what seems to be true. Sarcasm is a form
of verbal irony, when someone says something but really means
the opposite. Dramatic irony is created by a difference between
what a character thinks and what the reader knows is
true. Situational irony is created by a difference between what is
expected to happen and what actually happens due to forces out
of our control.
Example: Consider this (really) short story, by W. Somerset
Maugham:
http://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english320/Maugham-AS.htm
Legend
A legend is a story that lies somewhere between myth and
verifiable fact. Legends are about particular individuals.

Example:  Stories about King Arthur, Robin Hood, or Faust

Limerick
A limerick is a humorous form of poetry consisting of five lines
rhyming aabba (the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with one
another, as do lines three and four). Lines 1, 2, and 5 contain
three feet (see description of meter if you are picturing toes),
and lines 3 and 4 contain two.

Example:  from Edward Lear’s A Book of Nonsense:

There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, ‘It is just as I feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!

Lyric Poem
A lyric is a short poem that expresses the emotions and thoughts
of one speaker (not to be confused with the poet herself). The
dramatic monologue, elegy, haiku, and sonnet are all examples
of lyric poetry.

Example:  Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnet

43”: http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/how-do-i-love-thee-sonnet-43
Metaphor
A metaphor is a comparison of two dissimilar things, without
using “like” or “as.”

Example:  Check out Anne Bradstreet’s “The Author to Her Book,”

which likens the poet’s book to a
child: http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/author-her-book
Meter
Meter refers to a rhythmic pattern of stresses in a poem. Meters
get their names from the pattern of stresses and from the
number of feet, or rhythmic units, in a line. So, for example,
iambic pentameter is called iambic pentameter because each line
contains five (“pent”) iambs (pairs of unstressed and stressed
syllables). A foot customarily contains one stressed and one or
two unstressed syllables. The process of determining meter is
called scansion.
Metonymy
Metonymy is a subgroup of metaphor in which we substitute the
name of something closely associated with our subject for the
subject itself.

Example: saying “the White House” when we mean the president,

or “suits” when we mean businessmen
Mock Epic
A mock epic is a work of poetry that uses the lofty tone and
language we associate with the epic to discuss a trivial subject in
order to render the subject ridiculous.

Example:  In The Rape of the Lock, Alexander Pope writes of a riff

between two families resulting from a man cutting off a lock of a
woman’s hair. Check out the beginning of the poem:
What dire offence from am’rous causes springs,

What mighty contests rise from trivial things,

I sing—This verse to Caryl, Muse! is due:

This, ev’n Belinda may vouchsafe to view:

Slight is the subject, but not so the praise,

If she inspire, and he approve my lays.

Mood
Mood refers to the feeling the readers get from reading a piece,
the atmosphere, the vibe. Setting, tone, and diction all contribute
to the mood.
Example:  Consider how this description of the prison-door, which
appears at the beginning of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet
Letter, manages in a single paragraph to convey the fact that
Puritan New England is a repressive place, but one where hope
and beauty surprisingly remain. The description of the door gives
the reader a gloomy, hopeless feel, which Hawthorne then
reverses with his description of the fragile rose.
“Certain it is, that, some fifteen or twenty years after the
settlement of the town, the wooden jail was already marked with
weather-stains and other indications of age, which gave a yet
darker aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy front. The rust on
the ponderous iron-work of its oaken door looked more antique
than any thing else in the new world. Like all that pertains to
crime, it seemed never to have known a youthful era. Before this
ugly edifice, and between it and the wheel-track of the street,
was a grass-plot, much overgrown with burdock, pig-weed,
apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found
something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black
flower of civilized society, a prison. But, on one side of the
portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush,
covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which
might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to
the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he
came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature
could pity and be kind to him.”

Moral
The moral is the lesson to be learned from a literary text.

Example:  Once again, consult Aesop’s fables: http://www.sacred-

texts.com/cla/aesop/
Mystery
Mystery is a genre of fiction in which a crime needs to be solved.
The reader along with the characters must unravel the clues to
arrive at the truth in the end.
Example:  Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is the
first detective story. Read it here: http://poestories.com/read/murders
Myth
A myth is a story not taken to be factual involving supernatural
beings. Myths usually explain how something came into being.
Example:  The Ojibwe myth “How the Bear Lost His
Tail”: http://www.uwosh.edu/coehs/cmagproject/ethnomath/legend/legend5.htm
Narrative Poem
A narrative poem is a poem that tells a story.

Example:  Edgar Allan Poe’s “The

Raven”: http://poestories.com/read/raven
Nursery Rhyme
Nursery rhymes have their origins in the oral tradition. They are
collections of verses recited or sung by adults to very small
children.
Example:  “Old Mother Hubbard”
Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia are words that resemble the sounds they describe.

Example:  buzz, sizzle

Paradox
A paradox is a statement that seems contradictory at first but
actually makes sense.
Example:  Pay attention to the last line in John Donne’s “Death, Be
Not Proud”: http://www.bartleby.com/105/72.html
Persona
A persona is the speaker who tells a story or narrates a poem.
The persona is neither a character in the story nor the voice of
the author herself.

Example:  Diedrich Knickbocker, a (fictional) Dutch historian, is a

persona through whom Washington Irving narrates his historical
work.
Personification
Personification means giving a thing, idea, or animal human
qualities.
Example:  from A.E. Housman’s “Loveliest of Trees”:
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Plot
The plot is the structure of a story, the arrangement of the
story’s events. Plot has five parts:

Exposition:  the start of the story, before the action starts

Rising action:  the actions and conflict that lead to the climax
Climax:  the turning point
Falling action:  the events that lead to the resolution
Resolution/Denouement:  the conclusion of the story
Note that a story (especially a long one) may go through this
sequence more than once.

Example:  In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the exposition occurs
when the book begins at the Dursleys’ house, describing Harry’s
miserable life before he learns he is a wizard. Hagrid’s surprising
visit to tell Harry his true past, Harry’s acclimation to Hogwarts,
and the development of the friendship between Harry, Ron, and
Hermione, among other things, comprise the rising action. The
climax of the book arrives when the three children go down the
trap door to protect the stone and Harry faces off with
Voldemort. The falling action includes Harry’s recovery from his
encounter and explanations from Dumbledore. Finally, the
resolution occurs when Gryffindor wins the house cup and the
school year ends.
Point of View
Point of view refers to who is telling the story. (When point of
view is used to describe nonliterary texts, usually it means the
author’s perspective on the subject he is discussing.)

Objective Point of View: The narrator tells the story without stating

more than can be inferred from the action and dialogue.
Third Person Omniscient Point of View: The narrator knows everything
about the characters and shares their thoughts and feelings with
the reader.
Third Person Limited Point of View: The narrator can only see into the
mind of a single character.
First Person Point of View: The story is told by a character within it.
Example:  Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is told in the objective
POV. The Brothers Grimms’ “Hansel and Gretel” is told in the
third person omniscient POV; the narrator knows what both
siblings and their parents are thinking. Jane Austen’s Pride and
Prejudice is told in the third person limited POV; we’re only in
Elizabeth Bennet’s head. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is
told in the first person POV; Nick Carraway, the narrator, is also
a character in the story.
Prose
Prose is how we ordinarily use language, when we speak and
write in sentences that don’t rhyme or conform to a particular
meter. Fiction is (usually) written in prose.
Example:  this website
Rhyme
Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar last syllables in
different words. Rhyme is usually a matter of sound, not spelling,
so “prey” and “ray” rhyme, while “enough” and “bough” do not.
Rhyme usually occurs at the end of lines of poetry, but not
always. You can label a poem’s rhyme scheme by placing the
same lowercase letter next to each rhyming word.
Example:  Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice”
Some say the world will end in fire, (a)
Some say in ice. (b)

From what I’ve tasted of desire (a)

I hold with those who favor fire. (a)

But if it had to perish twice, (b)

I think I know enough of hate (c)

To say that for destruction ice (b)

Is also great (c)

And would suffice. (b)

So, the rhyme scheme of this poem is abaabcbcb.

Rhythm
Rhythm is used to refer to the repetition of stressed and
unstressed sounds in a poem. Prose also can have rhythm—
reading aloud will help you to hear it.

Satire
In a satire, an author mocks something in order to expose it to
criticism so it can be corrected. People, ideas, institutions, even
other works of literature are all fit subjects for satire.
Example:  Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is filled with satire. For
example, when Huck decides he’s willing to go to hell to protect
Jim the slave from being reenslaved, we realize how corrupt
Huck’s culture is: Huck thinks helping another man achieve
freedom is going to stop him from achieving salvation, when we
know he is actually far more moral than the world in which he
lives.
Science Fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction concerned with scientific
experiment, technological development, and the future. Science
fiction defies our received understandings of how science works.

Example: H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds

Setting
Setting is where and when a narrative takes place.

Example:  Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities takes place in London

and Paris during the turbulent days of the French Revolution.
Simile
A simile is a comparison of two unlike things using the words
“like” or “as.”

Example: Robert Burns’ “A Red, Red Rose” contains multiple

examples: http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/Classic%20Poems/Burns/a_red,_red
_rose.htm
Sonnet
A sonnet is a poem containing 14 lines, usually written in iambic
pentameter. There are two main kinds, the Italian sonnet and the
English sonnet, which differ mainly due to their rhyme schemes.
The Italian sonnet is divided in an octave, a set of 8 lines that
rhymes abbaabba, and a sestet, a set of 6 lines with no set
rhyme scheme. You’re probably more familiar with the English
sonnet, the kind of sonnet Shakespeare wrote. English sonnets
are made up of three quatrains (groups of 4 lines) and a couplet
(a pair of rhyming lines. The rhyme scheme for the English
sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg.

Example:  William Shakespeare’s Sonnet

18: http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/shall-i-compare-thee-summers-day-
sonnet-18
Stage Directions
Stage directions are a playwright’s descriptive or interpretive
comments that provide readers (and actors) with information
about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play. Dialogue in a
play is clearly marked by character; everything not marked by
character is a stage direction.

Example:  In Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie elevates the stage direction to an

art form.
Stanza
A stanza is a group of lines, separated from others by a space,
which usually has a set meter and rhyme. Remember that since
free verse is irregular, it is made up of verse paragraphs, not
stanzas.
Example:  Here are the first two stanzas of Edgar Allan Poe’s
“Annabel Lee.” Note the space between them.
It was many and many a year ago,

In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,

In this kingdom by the sea,

But we loved with a love that was more than love—

I and my Annabel Lee—

With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven

Coveted her and me.

Style
Style refers to the individual and unique way a writer uses
his/her words to achieve particular effects. Every writer makes
lots of choices, from choosing the right words to using literary
devices, and all these things together make up a writer’s style.

Symbolism
Symbolism means imbuing a person, object, or event with
meaning beyond the literal. Symbols can be shared across texts
(a red rose as a symbol for love) or significant only in context
(the scarlet A in The Scarlet Letter).
Example:  The title of Elie Wiesel’s Night alerts us to the fact that
throughout the text, night will be used a symbol for the
metaphorical darkness of the Holocaust.
Tall Tale
A tall tale is a greatly exaggerated story, usually about a hero
with larger-than-life abilities. Tall tales are a kind of folklore.

Example: Mark Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras

County”
Theme
The theme of a piece of literature is its central meaning or idea.
The theme of a text is not the same thing as the subject.
Example:  The subject of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is
the consequences faced by a woman who commits adultery with
a minister in Puritan New England. The theme, however, is that
our social rules and judgments cause us to misunderstand
others, mistaking saints for sinners and sinners for saints.
Tone
Tone refers to the author’s attitude toward what he/she writes
about as revealed through the text’s style. We describe tone
using the kinds of words we use for feelings.
Example:  sad, embittered, neutral, playful, nostalgic, satirical
Understatement
Understatement is means downplaying a statement, usually for
ironic or comic effect. Understatement is the opposite of
hyperbole.

Example:  Holden Caulfield states the following in J.D.

Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye: “I have to have this operation. It
isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.”
Unreliable Narrator
An unreliable narrator is a narrator who can’t be trusted due to
his/her ignorance, bias, age, or mental instability. Unreliable
narrators only appear in texts told in the first person.

Example: Scout Finch, who narrates Harper Lee’s To Kill a

Mockingbird, is an unreliable narrator because she is only 6 years
old. Since she is so young, many aspects of Tom Robinson’s case
fall outside her life experience and understanding.
Voice
Voice refers to the way narrators tell their stories, the author’s
writing style and point of view. Voice is part of what makes a
literary text a distinct production of its writer.

To write these definitions, I relied on the following sources:

Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry, by John Frederick Nims and
David Mason
The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms & Literary Theory, by J.A. Cuddon
Bedford/St. Martins LitGloss,
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/litgloss/

Literary Devices: Definitions and Examples of Literary

Terms, www.literarydevices.net
American Academy of Poets, www.poets.org