Short Story & Poetry Terms Review
for Mr. Reddish’s 8th Grade Language Arts
classes
Short Story Terms
the people or animals that take part in the action
characters
the time and place of the action in a story
setting
a struggle between opposing forces
conflict
conflict that takes place in the mind of a character
internal conflict
conflict in which a character struggles with an outside force or
another person
external conflict
introduces the setting, the characters, and the basic situation
exposition
introduces the conflict, or problem/
events leading up to the climax
rising action
the turning point of a story / highest point of action
climax
the part of the story when the conflict lessens /
events after the climax
falling action
a story’s conclusion
resolution
the perspective from which a story is told
point of view
the contrast between an actual outcome and what the reader or the characters expect will happen
irony
the use of clues that hint at future events
foreshadowing
the use of scenes within a story that interrupt the sequence of
events to reveal past occurences
flashback
the central message expressed in a story
theme
a message about life that is often expressed in many different eras
and cultures
universal theme
Poetry Terms
the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words
alliteration
writing that is innovative, imaginative, and not meant to be
taken literally
figurative language
describes one thing as if it were something else
metaphor
uses like or as to compare two unlike things
simile
gives human qualities to something nonhuman
personification
the use of words that imitate sounds
onomatopoeia
writing or speech that appeals to one or more of the five senses—
sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch
imagery
help poets add natural pauses by breaking up a poem into many
individual parts
lines
occurs when the ends of lines share the same sound
end rhyme
when a rhyme occurs within a single line
internal rhyme
the pattern of rhyme in a poem
rhyme scheme
the use, more than once, of any element of language—a sound,
word, phrase, clause, or sentence
repetition
the character, or voice, who tells the poem
speaker
the arrangements of groups of lines to create an appearance on the page or to organize thoughts
stanzas
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