Literary Terms AUDREY ODOM Imagery Visually descriptive or

Literary Terms AUDREY ODOM

Imagery �Visually descriptive or figurative language �“paints a picture” of the scene in your head. �Hamlet: O, that this too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! (Act I, Scene ii, Lines 129 -130) �Imagery in Music “Picture yourself in a boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies” -The Beatles “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”

Simile �The comparison of two very different things using “like” or “as” �Hamlet: Pale as his shirt (Act II, Scene i, Line 81) �Simile in music “Telephone wires above are sizzling like a snare” -Lana Del Rey “Summertime Sadness”

Metaphor �A word or phrase used to refer two things to show that they are similar �Hamlet: To die, to sleep– To sleep, perchance to dream (Act III, Scene i, Lines 64 -65) �Metaphor in Movie Title “Gone with the Wind”

Personification �Giving human characteristics/actions to something nonhuman. �Hamlet: But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o’er the dew of yon high eastward hill. (Act I, Scene i, Lines 166 -167) �Personification in Movies “Ted”

Apostrophe �The addressing of a usually absent person or a usually personified thing rhetorically �Hamlet: Let me not think on’t: frailty, thy name is women (Act I, Scene ii, Line 146) �Apostrophe in Poetry O Captain! My Captain! -Walt Whitman

Symbol �A thing/theme that represents something else with a deeper meaning �Hamlet: Poison is a symbol of disloyalty and corruption and death Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial And in the porches of my ears did pour The leperous distilment (Act I, Scene v, Lines 61 -64) �Symbols in Movies: Luke Skywalker wear black throughout the return of the Jedi symbolizing the possibility of him turning to the dark side.

Allegory �A story or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, an allusion to another meaning �Hamlet: O heart, lose not thy nature. Let not ever The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom. (Act III, Scene ii, Lines 376 -377) Hamlet is referring to Nero, who killed his mother, prior to when Hamlet is going to visit Gertrude. He hopes not to kill her. �Allegory in Books: Animal Farm by George Orwell The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

Paradox �A statement that says two opposite things contradict each other, but both are true �Hamlet: I must be cruel, only to be kind (Act III, Scene iv, Line 178)

Hyperbole �Exaggerated statements not to be taken literally �Hamlet: With such deterity to incestuous sheets! (Act I, Scene ii, Line 159) �Hyperboles in Music “You Ain’t Nothin But a Hound Dog” -Elvis Presley

Understatement �The presentation of something being smaller or less important than it actually is. �Hamlet: It is not nor it cannot come to good. But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue. (Act I, Scene ii, Lines 158 -159) �Understatement in Music “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” -R. E. M.

Irony �The use of words that mean the opposite of what you really think. Can be used for humor and drama. �Hamlet: (Dramatic Irony) Get thee to a nunnery. (Act III, Scene 1, Line 121) �Irony in Movies “ 50 First Dates” Adam Sandler doesn’t want a long lasting relationship until he meets a girl with short term memory

Chiasmus �An inverted relationship between the syntactic elements of parallel phrases �Hamlet: King: Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern. Queen: Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz. (Act II, Scene ii, Lines 33 -34)

Metonymy �Substitution of the name of an attribute for that of the thing meant �Hamlet …To die, to sleep No more, and by a sleep to say we end (Act III, Scene I, Lines 60 -61) �Metonymy in Books “Her voice is filled with money” -F. Scott Fitzgerald “The Great Gatsby”

Synecdoche �A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole �Hamlet: O, that this too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! (Act I, Scene ii, Lines 129 -130) �Synecdoche in daily phrase: “All hands on deck!”

Repartee �Conversation characterized by quick, witty comments �Hamlet: Well, God-a-mercy Polonius: Do you know me, my lord? Hamlet: Excellent well. You are a fishmonger. Polonius: Not I, my lord. Hamlet: Then I would you were so honest a man. Polonius: Honest, my lord! (Act II, Scene ii, Lines 171 -176)

Stichomythia �Dialogue in which two characters speak alternate lines of verse �Hamlet: Laertes: Where is my father? Claudius: Dead Gertrude: But not by him (Act IV, Scene 5, Line 28)

Stock Characters �Character who is normally one-dimensional but sometimes stock personalities are deeply conflicted, rounded characters. �Hamlet: Polonius is a stock character because he has former wisdom but still provides comic relief. �Stock Characters in TV: Normally a guest star that appears for one episode is considered a stock character

Alliteration �The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words �Hamlet: With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts (Act I, Scene v, Line 43) �Alliteration in Real Life: Dunkin Donuts

Assonance �Repetition of the sound of a vowel in non-rhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be noticeable �Hamlet: Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; (Act II, Scene ii, Lines 115 -116) �Assonance in Music “I’m a mess in a dress” -Orianthi “According to You”

Consonance �Recurrence or repetition of consonants especially at the end of stressed syllables �Hamlet: No more, and by a sleep to say we end (Act III, Scene I, Line 61) �Consonance in Music “Whisper word of wisdom, let it be” -The Beatles “Let it Be”

Rhyme �Correspondence of sound between words �Hamlet: …The plays the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king. (Act II, Scene ii, Lines 591 -592) �Rhyme in Music “Hope that you fall in love and it hurts so bad, the only way you can know is give it all that you have” -One Republic “I Lived”

Rhythm �A strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound �Hamlet: The rhythm in Hamlet corresponds to iambic pentameter �Rhythm in Music All music has some sort of rhythm in it, the drums or the bass guitar usually provides the rhythm

Meter �Arranged and measured rhythm in verse �Hamlet: When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there’s the respect

End-Stopped Line �A line that ends with a definite punctuation mark (period/colon). �Hamlet: Admit no messengers, receive no tokens. (Act II, Scene ii, Line 143)

Run-On Line �When the natural pause in reading does not coincide with the end of a line, the speaker continues without pause �Hamlet O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do but be merry? For look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within’s two hours. (Act III, Scene ii, Lines 118 -120)

Caesura �A break between words within a metrical foot. �Hamlet: To be, or not to be, that is the question (Act III, Scene i, Line 56)

Free Verse �Poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter �Hamlet: The common people in this era would speak in free verse as opposed to the higher class, who would speak in prose �Example of Free Verse in Poetry “Winter Poem” by Nikki Giovanni

Iambic Pentameter �A line that has ten syllables in each line, but the alternate syllable is stressed �Hamlet: To be, or not to be: that is the question. (Act III, Scene I, Line 56) �Iambic Pentameter in Other Literature: Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief, -Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Grammatical/Rhetorical Pauses �Grammatical- A pause introduced by a mark of punctuation �Rhetorical- A natural pause not marked by punctuation �Hamlet: But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, (Act II, Scene ii, Line 535) �Grammatical Pause in Music: “It takes two, two sides to every story” -Katy Perry “It Takes Two”

Concluding Couplet �Two successive lines that are rhymed and have the same meter �Hamlet: Till then sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes. (Act I, Scene 2, Lines 257 -258) �Concluding Couplet in Poetry “If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved. ” -Shakespeare Sonnet 116