Literary TermsBy: William Lancaster

Figurative Language

Imagery- The use of words to depict a picture or idea

Example from Hamlet-

“Doubt thou the stars are fire;

Doubt that the sun doth move;

Doubt truth to be a liar;

But never doubt I love.”

Example from everyday use-

On a starry winter night in Portugal

Where the ocean kissed the southern shore

There a dream I never thought would come to pass

Came and went like time spent through an hourglass

-Teena Marie, “Portuguese Love”

Simile- A comparison of two things using “like” or “as”.

Example from Hamlet-

“May thy heart sink as the great orb at the end of the day”

Example from everyday use-

As busy as a bee

As happy as a clam

Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get

Metaphor- A comparison of two things; does not need to use “like” or “as”

Example from Hamlet-

“My father's brother, but no more like my father than I to Hercules”

Example from everyday use-

Sea of grief

The light of my life

Time is a thief

Personification- Giving human characteristics to something nonhuman

Example from Hamlet-

“My fate cries out, and makes each petty artery in this body as hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.”

Example from everyday use-

The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky

The run down house appeared depressed

Apostrophe- The act of addressing some abstraction or personification that is not physically present

Example from Hamlet-

“Do it, England; for like the hectic in my blood he rages,

And thou must cure me: till I know 'tis done,

Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun.”

Example from everyday use-

Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky

Symbolism- The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities

Example from Hamlet-

“…Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole

With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,

And in the porches of my ears did pour…”

Example from everyday use-

Black is used to represent death or evilWhite stands for life and purity

Allegory- Something that has a greater meaning

Example from Hamlet-

"A little more than kin, and less than kind”

Hamlet states that Claudius is related to him in two ways now, stepfather and uncle, yet still is not really either.

Example from everyday use-

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

they have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts

Paradox- A person, thing, or situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature

Example from Hamlet-

“O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,

Or that the Everlasting had not fixed

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter. O God, God,

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable

Seem to me all the uses of this world!”

Example from everyday use-

You can save money by spending it

Wise fool

Bittersweet

Hyperbole- An over-exaggeration of something

Example from Hamlet-

“O, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven, It hath the primal eldest curse upon't…”

Example from everyday use-

It doesn't get better than this

I am so hungry I could eat a horse.

Understatement- An under-exaggeration of something

Example from Hamlet-

Claudius claims that he is afraid of having Hamlet so close to him. He says claims Hamlet is “mad” in order to cover up what he is really doing.

Example from everyday use-

The English test was not that hard, you probably don’t even need to study.

Irony- The use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning

Example from Hamlet-

Claudius tells Hamlet to think of him a father, yet he killed Hamlet’s real father.

Example from everyday use-

As an audience member, you realize that if a character walks into an abandoned warehouse, chances are a killer is waiting... but because you are a member of the audience you cannot disclose the information to the character

Chiasmus- A reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases

Example from Hamlet-

“Be not too tame neither, but

let your own discretion be your tutor.

Suit the action to the word,

the word to the action.”

Example from everyday use-

He went to the country, to the town went she.

Metonymy- Consists of the use of the name of one object or concept for that of another to which it is related, or of which it is a part

Example from Hamlet-

Denmark- Old Hamlet Norway- Fortinbras

Example from everyday use-

The pen is mightier than the sword

The White House

Synecdoche- A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special

Example from Hamlet-

“There were six guns out on the moor”

Example from everyday use-

“sails” is often used to refer to a whole ship.

"hired hands" can be used to refer to workmen.

Musical Devices

Alliteration- The commencement of two or more stressed syllables of a word group either with the same consonant sound or sound group or with a vowel sound that may differ from syllable to syllable

Example from Hamlet-

“For we will fetters put about this fear,

Which now goes too free-footed.”

Example from everyday use-

Good as gold

Alice’s aunt ate apples and acorns around August

Becky’s beagle barked and bayed, becoming bothersome for Billy

Assonance- The repetition of the same vowel sound

Example from Hamlet-

“With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,-- O wicked wit and gifts,”

Example from everyday use-

Hear the mellow wedding bells -Edgar Allen Poe

I must confess that in my quest I felt depressed and restless

Consonance- The repetition of the same consonant sound

Example from Hamlet-

“Till then Sit Still, my Soul: foul deeds will rise though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.”

Example from everyday use-

He struck a streak of bad luck.

Rhyme- The same end sound of words

Example from Hamlet-

“The time is out of joint. O cursed spite That ever I was born to set it right”

Example from everyday use-

villa and manilla

amore and favor

sure and kreatur

lay and lei

sitar and guitar

Rhythm- movement with uniform or patterned recurrence of a beat, accent, or the like

Example from Hamlet-

“Doubt thou the stars are fire;

Doubt that the sun doth move;

Doubt truth to be a liar;

But never doubt I love.”

6 beats per line and ABAB rhyme scheme.

Each character talks with a different rhythm. The way that Hamlets speaks makes it appear almost as if it were music.

Example from everyday use-

Because I could not stop for Death,

He kindly stopped for me;

The carriage held but just ourselves

And Immortality.

6,8 beats per line and a slight rhyme scheme

Meter- A line of speech; can be set in patterns

Example from Hamlet-

The “O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I” speech is set in iambic pentameter.

Example from everyday use-

All poetry is written in meters.

These meters can be written in rhyme scheme patterns and syllable patterns

....1.............. 2.................3..............4................ 5

Shall.I..|..com.PARE..|..thee.TO..|..a.SUM..|..mer’s DAY

End-Stopped Line- A thought that is completed at the end of a line of speech

Example from Hamlet-

“Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.”

Example from everyday use-

I am not prone to weeping, as our sex

Commonly are; the want of which vain dew

Perchance shall dry your pities; but I have

That honourable grief lodged here which burns

Worse than tears drown.

Run-On Line- A thought that is left incomplete at the end of a line of speech

Example from Hamlet-

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter. O God, God,

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable

Seem to me all the uses of this world!”

Both lines end without completing their thoughts until the third.

Example from everyday use-

That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive. I call

That piece a wonder, now

The first and second lines are left incomplete.

Caesura- A break, pause, or interruption

Example from Hamlet-

"To be,// or not to be, //that is the question:Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,And by opposing end them:// to die, //to sleep”

Example from everyday use-

He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,

Off-hand-like--just as I--

Was out of work-had sold his traps--

No other reason why.

Free Verse- A verse that does not follow a fixed metrical pattern

Example from Hamlet-

“Indeed this counselor

Is now most still, most secret, and most grave,

Who was in life a foolish prating knave”

Uneven beats per line and no rhyme scheme.

Example from everyday use-

All writing is written like this when it is written without a pattern.

Iambic Pentameter- A line containing 10 syllables

Example from Hamlet-

“O that this too too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!

Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d

His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!”

10 beats per line

Example from everyday use-

Her vestal livery is but sick and green

And none but fools do wear it; cast it off- Romeo and Juliet

Grammatical/Rhetorical Pauses- A pause in speech that is either written in with punctuation or is implied

Example from Hamlet-

Hamlet’s soliloquies are filled with pauses that are mostly rhetorical, yet are sometimes written in.

Example from everyday use-

Most presidential debates have grammatical pauses intended to let you think about what that person said.

Concluding Couplet- The last two lines of speech that rhyme with each other

Example from Hamlet-

“Foul deeds will rise,

Though all the earth's o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.”

Example from everyday use-

He that loves a rosy cheekOr a coral lip admires,Or from star-like eyes doth seekFuel to maintain his fires;As old Time makes these decay,So his flames must waste away.

But a smooth and steadfast mind,Gentle thoughts, and calm desires,Hearts with equal love combined,Kindle never-dying fires: -Where these are not, I despiseLovely cheeks or lips or eyes.