2. Romeo & Juliet Literary Terms

3. Drama a story written to be performed by actors

4. Soliloquy a long speech expressing the thoughts of a character alone on stage

5. Monologue a speech by one character in a play, story, or poem

6. Prologue an opening speech that introduces the play’s main characters, plot, and setting

7. Tragedy a work of literature, especially a play, that results in a catastrophe for the main character.

8. Tragic hero a character of noble birth with the potential for greatness, but due to a tragic flaw in his character makes an error in judgment that leads to his death

9. Aside a short speech delivered by an actor in a play traditionally directed at the audience.

10. Comic Relief a technique that is used to interrupt a serious part of a literary work by introducing a humorous character or situation.

11. Dialogue a conversation between characters

12. Blank Verse poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

13. Dramatic Foil a character that provides a contrast to another character – opposites

14. Suspense a feeling of uncertainty about the outcome of events in a story – a way to keep the reader interested

15. Dramatic Irony when a reader knows something that a character doesn’t know

16. Pun Shakespeare loved to use them.  Humorous use of a word with two meanings > sometimes missed by the reader because of Elizabethan language and sexual innuendo

17. Prose Ordinary writing that is not poetry, drama, or song  Only characters in the lower social classes speak this way in Shakespeare’s plays  Why do you suppose that is?

18. A fourteen line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter Topics:  Love  Friendship  Mortality  Immortality of poetry Sonnets

19. Iambic Pentameter A series of five stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry

20. Couplet a pair of rhyming lines in poetry

21. That completes our notes on literary terms. Now we will discuss sonnets more in depth.

22. Sonnets A sonnet consists of three quatrains and one couplet

23. Sonnets A quatrain is a series of four rhymed lines

24. Sonnets  First quatrain: the subject is revealed and why it is loved is explained  Second quatrain: describe what is special about the subject – be descriptive and imaginative  Third Quatrain: A problem arises with loving the subject

25. Sonnets A couplet is a series of two rhymed lines Summarizes and leaves the reader with a new, concluding image

26. Sonnets Rhyme Scheme – a pattern of rhyme in a poem Sonnet Rhyme Scheme: ABAB/CDCD/EFEF/GG

27. Sonnets Iambic Pentameter: five beats of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables (“da-DUH”); ten syllables per line. Meter means rhythm.

28. Sonnets “Who’s wood / these are / I think / I know /his house” “Is in / the village / though he / will not / mind me / stopping”