1. D-H DENOTATION - HYPERBOLE

2.  DENOTATION  The literal dictionary definition of a word  Example: de·no·ta·tion (denō táysh'n ) n. 1. basic meaning: the most specific or literal meaning of a word, as opposed to its figurative senses or connotations

3.  DENOUEMENT  The resolution of the plot; the point at which all mysteries are solved, tangles untied, and conflict resolved  Example: When Oedipus banishes himself from Thebes and asks Creon to bury Jocasta and care for his daughters; when Victor asks Robert Walton to pursue the creature and finish the job

4.  DESCRIPTION  Writing that uses imagery and figurative language to show detail and help the reader picture scenes, events, and characters  Example: “The wild garden behind the house contained a central apple-tree and a few straggling bushes under one of which I found the rusty bicycle pump.”

5.  DIALECT  Language that conveys a regional distinction of a people group  Example: “ My hand is in my hussyfskap, Goodman, as ye may see; An it sould nae be barrd this hundred year, It’s no be barrd for me.” (From “Get Up & Bar the Door”)

6.  DIALOGUE  Written conversation between two or more characters  Example: “Merry Christmas, Uncle!” “Bah humbug!”

7.  DIARY  A writer’s personal day-to-day account of his or her thoughts, impressions, and experiences.  Example: Anne Frank’s main literary accomplishment; anyone’s personal journal; The Diary of Samuel Pepys

8.  DICTION  A writer’s specific choice of words— both vocabulary and syntax (word arrangement and usage); diction may be formal, informal, technical, abstract, concrete, etc.  Example: The poet’s choice for Hrothgar; Shakespeare’s choices for Hamlet; Chaucer’s decision to use the vernacular of the lower class in his writing

9.  DRAMA  A form of literature presented on stage with actors speaking dialogue in front of an audience Examples: Romeo & Juliet; Much Ado About Nothing; Once Upon a Mattress; The Crucible; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

10.  DRAMATIC IRONY  When the audience knows before the characters what will happen Examples: The fact that we know before Oedipus that he is the murderer of his own father; the fact that the reader knows the plans of the three rioters to kill each other in “The Pardoner’s Tale”

11.  DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE  A narrative poem or speech in which one character speaks and reveals feelings, personality, or other information previously unknown to the audience Example: Juliet’s speech regarding Romeo; a newscaster reporting on the day’s events; to speak out loud to one’s self, evaluation a course of action

12.  ELEGY  A poem or speech expressing mourning or loss, usually over the death of someone Examples: “The Seafarer,” “The Wanderer,” and “The Wife’s Lament”; Alfred Lord Tennyson’s In Memoriam, written in memory of his friend; “On My First Son” by Ben Jonson after the death of his child

13.  ELIZABETHAN (ENGLISH) SONNET  A 14-line poem made up of 3 quatrains (4-line stanzas) and a final couplet Examples: “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day,”; all of Shakespeare’s sonnets

14.  END RHYME  When the sounds of words at the ends of two or more lines of poetry are identical  Example: “In buying victuals; he was never rash / Whether he bought on credit or paid cash.” (from Chaucer’s “Prologue” to Canterbury Tales )

15.  EPIC  A long, narrative poem about the deeds of a hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated  Examples: Beowulf; The Iliad & The Odyssey; Paradise Lost

16.  EPIC SIMILE  A long comparison that continues for a number of lines throughout a long story-telling poem; it usually contains the words like or as  Example: Conspicuous as the evening star that comes, amid the first in heaven, at full of night, and stands most lovely in the west, so shone in sunlight the fine-pointed spear Achilles poised in his right hand… (from The Iliad )

17.  EPIGRAM  A short, witty poem or pointed statement; often written in two well- balanced parts  Examples: “To err is human, to forgive, divine.” “Early bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

18.  EPITAPH  An inscription on a gravestone or monument to honor the memory of the deceased  Example: “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.”

19.  EPITHET  A descriptive phrase or compound word that functions as an adjective and is used to point out specific traits of a person or thing  Examples: “The sin-stained demon,” “boar- headed helmets,” “gold-covered benches”

20.  ESSAY  A brief work of non-fiction that offers an opinion on a subject  Examples: “Of Studies,” or “Of Marriage and Single Life” by Francis Bacon (Father of the English essay)

21.  EXAGGERATION  To stretch the truth for effect; hyperbole  Example : “There was no one greater or stronger anywhere on the earth than Beowulf.”

22.  EXPOSITION  The part of a narrative or drama in which important background information is revealed  Example: “Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.” (From A Christmas Carol)

23.  EXTENDED METAPHOR  A comparison of two things, not using like or as, that goes on throughout an entire poem, or portion of a story  Examples: When a poet gives a long description of his love as a mathematician’s compass he is using this; a song describing a person’s love like a fire through an entire song

24.  EXTERNAL CONFLICT  Problems that are outside of the protagonist rather than within  Examples: Scrooge v. fate; Beowulf v. Grendel; Victor v. the Creature; the three young ritoers v. Death

25.  FABLE  A brief tale told in verse or prose for the purpose of teaching a moral or lesson; often contain animals as main characters  Examples: “The Hare & the Tortoise,” “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” “The Goose Who Laid the Golden Egg”

26.  FALLING ACTION  The point within a plot following a crisis and showing a reversal of fortune for the protagonist  Example: When Jocasta discovers the truth and Oedipus continues to seek the truth regarding the murderer; when Victor decides to go after the Creature

27.  FANTASY  A work of fiction that disregards the restraints of reality; creatures or events that are not real are presented in an organized fashion  Examples: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia

28.  FARCE  Exaggerated comedy that features absurd plot, ridiculous situations, and humorous dialogue  Examples: A pie in the face; a slip on a banana peel; a mix- up of character identities

29.  FICTION  Imaginative works of prose, usually presented in novel or short story form; the people and events of a work of literature that are NOT true  Examples: Frankenstein; A Christmas Carol; A Separate Piece; The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

30.  FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE  Language that communicates meaning beyond the literal meaning of the words; includes similes, metaphors, hyperbole, personification, etc.  Examples: A writer using various methods to describe a flower…the flower was as red as dawn; the flower was a glowing ember; the flower awoke with joy to the light of sunrise

31.  FIRST PERSON P.O.V.  When the narrator in a work of literature tells the story as he or she perceives it—from the perspective of I, me, mine, we, etc.  Example: When we arrived to the scene, the first thing I noticed were the shards of glass throughout the room.

32.  FLASHBACK  An account of an event that happened before the beginning of the story  Example: The narrator explains that a character used to love dance as a child and gives a long explanation of a scene from that character’s childhood, then jumps back to the present scene where the character is despising dance.

33.  FOIL  A character who provides a striking contrast to another character  Example: Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, is one to Scrooge; Elizabeth is one to Victor Frankenstein; Darth Vader is one to Yoda.

34.  FOLK BALLAD  An anonymous poem or song handed down from generation to generation  Examples: “Get Up and Bar the Door,” “Sir Patrick Spens,” and “Barbara Allan” are all examples of this form.

35.  FOLK TALE  A story handed down by work of mouth from generation to generation  Examples: “Little Red Riding Hood,” “The Three Little Pigs,” “Rumplestiltskin,” “Paul Bunyan”

36.  FORESHADOWING  A writer’s clues or hints about events that will occur later within the work  Examples: Teiresias’ predictions of Oedipus’ loss of sight; Frankenstein’s sense of doom before a loved one dies

37.  FORM  All the principles of arrangement in a poem—the ways in which the words and images are organized and pattered. Form includes rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, consonance, and assonance.  Examples: A sonnet, a haiku, a dramatic monologue, a free verse poem, a narrative poem, an elegy—all are examples of this literary device.

38.  FRAME STORY  A story within another story  Examples: “The Canterbury Tales,” “Federigo’s Falcon,” and the tales from The Decameron; Frankenstein

39.  FREE VERSE  Verse that contains no particular pattern of rhythm or rhyme  Example: “I have met them at the close of day/ coming with vivid faces / from counter or desk… (a stanza from a poem)

40.  HAIKU  A poem of three lines and 17 syllables and arranged in lines of 5 syllables (first line), 7 syllables (second line), and 5 syllables (third line)  Example: “Purple crocuses Rise up to meet the dawn Stems of royalty” (a poem)

41.  HERO  The protagonist or central character in a work of fiction, a drama, or epic poem  Examples: Oedipus, Beowulf, Victor Frankenstein, Ebeneezer Scrooge, and Hamlet are all examples of this.

42.  HEROIC COUPLET  Two rhymed lines written in iambic pentameter (10 beats per line)  Example : Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

43.  HISTORICAL WRITING  The narrative or systematic telling of real past events  Example: A work of literature retelling the real events of Lewis and Clark; a work that retells the accounts of several lives involved in the Civil War

44.  HUMOR  Literature that includes sarcasm, irony, exaggeration, puns, and characters in ridiculous situations  Example: Dave Barry’s use of satire to show the ridiculous side of recent news events; Chaucer’s use of mockery to poke fun at the Miller; when you are sarcastic to make people laugh

45.  HYPERBOLE  Exaggeration for the sake of emphasis  Example: There was no one greater or stronger than Beowulf anywhere on the earth.

46.  SAMPLE QUESTIONS “ Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” with the meaning that the bit of blood on Macbeth’s hand will turn the entire ocean red. A: Hyperbole/Exaggeration

47.   Teiresias’ predictions to Odysseus as to how to get home; the eclipse of the moon, the horses running wild, the winds blowing trees down—all before Duncan’s actual murder; Frankenstein’s feeling of dread and doom as he listens to Justine’s last words in her cell  A: Foreshadowing SAMPLE QUESTIONS

48.   The conversation between the three rioters in “The Pardoner’s Tale”; the conversation between Anansi and his daughter; words spoken by Macbeth to Lady Macbeth  A: Dialogue SAMPLE QUESTIONS

49.   The Odyssey; The Iliad; Beowulf; Paradise Lost; Lord of the Rings A: Epic SAMPLE QUESTIONS

50.   A pie in the face; a slip on a banana peel; a falling safe hits someone on the head; some of Shakespeare’s mixed identity plays; Saturday Night Live’s various skits, especially those of cheerleaders, politicians, nerds, etc.  A: Farce SAMPLE QUESTIONS