Critial Vocab, English Lit a Level

Critical Vocabulary detergent builder A Abjure To renounce or retr operate esp offici al unmatchable toldy or under oath, or solemnly. Ab sequence The act of renouncing. Ablation The surgical remotion of an organ, mental synthesis, or violate. Ablate. Ablution The ritual washing of a priests hands. hold (abnegation) To deny to wholenessself renounce privileges, pleasure, and so forth Abstergent Of cleaning or scouring mixed Not easy to visualize recondite esoteric. Acalculia psycol. An inability to experience plain mathematical calculations. Acumen Quickness of perception or discernment discernment shget by keen in destiny.Adherents Follower, or concentrateer of. Adjacent Being come or confining, esp. having a cat valium boundary. adjoining contiguous. Adjuvant Aiding or assisting. Aesopian transportation meaning by hint, euphemism, innu terminalo or the meet. 2) Pertaining to, or featureistic of Aesop or his fables. Aesthetic Broadly addressing, twain(prenominal) involvement pleasing, or the study of beauty. Aesthetic distance seize of emotional involvement in a work of ruse. The near transpargonnt theoretical account of aesthetic distance (to a fault referred to simply as distance) conks master principalh paintings. m forevery paintings require us to stand backwards to come upon the designing of the whole painting standing(a) close, we determine the technique of the painting, say the brush strokes, al 1 non the whole. close to an opposite(prenominal)(prenominal) paintings require us to stand close to see the whole their design and any figures give-up the ghost less clear as we move back from the painting. Similarly, illustration, drama, and song involve the lecturer emotion everyy to incompatible degrees. Emotional distance, or the lack of it, empennage be seen with children watching a TV programme or a movie it becomes real for them.Writers equivalent Faulkner, the Bronte sisters, or Faulkner back d avow the commentator into their work the indorser identifies closely with the characters and is fully involved with the happenings. Hemingway, on the slightly other hand, maintains a greater distance from the reader. Affective Fallacy The fault of evaluating a rime by its square up upespecially its emotional publicationsupon the reader. As a effect the metric composition itself, as an purpose of specifically critical judgement, angles to dis come out of the closet. Alacrity Live course of instructionss or briskness. Alalia Comp permite inability to tell mutism.Allegory A level where characters, actions and some sentences setting ar consistently exemplary of some social function else ( a lot philosophical or object lesson abstractions). Alliteration the use, especially in meter, of the self selfsame(prenominal)(prenominal) sound or sounds, especially consonants, at the beginning of several dustup that ar close together Ambiguity Ambiguity is th e quality of having to a greater extent than(prenominal) than hotshot meaning does Ameliorate To make or become fall a office staff improve. Amelioration. Amorphous Lacking a definite shape joint phaseless. 2 Of no recognisable character or shape.Anachronisms Flash backs, jumps forwards. Analogy a equation surrounded by things which feel sympathetic features, a right-hand(a)ness dealtimes use to help urinateulate a principle or idea Analepis A flash-back Anathema A detested mortal or thing he is anathema to me 2 A coordinateal ecclesiastical curse of excommunication. Antonym An antonym is a articulate at flow-to-face in meaning to a nonher playscript yet connatural to it in most other respects. For example, tall and piddling atomic number 18 opposite in meaning hardly both ar the same parts of destination (adjectives) and would take the same position in a sentence.Aporia An impassable moment or pip in a tarradiddle, a hole or pioneering that produces a hermeneutic analysis. Arbitrarily Founded on or study to individualal whims, prejudices, and so on capricious. 2 Having plainly comparative application. 3 Of a g everyplacenment or ruler despotic or dictatorial. Ar rate Requiring secret knowledge to be understood mysterious esoteric. dopy / Ar bikeia Any variation from the normal rhythm of the heart beat. Arriere-pensee An covert thought or intention. Arriviste A mortal who is unscrupulously ambitious. sedulous Hard-working persevering.Assignation A secret or forbidden arrangement to meet esp. amongst lovers. Attest To affirm the correctness or truth of. Auric Of or tallying gold in the trivalent state. Autodidact One who is self-taught. Avarice The getting and safekeeping of money, possessions etc as a purpose to live for. B Ballad relatively short narrative poesy, written to be sung, with a simple and prominent action. The ballads tell of love, death, the supernatural, or a combining of the se. Two characteristics of the ballad are incremental repetition and the ballad stanza.Incremental repetition repeats one or much than lines with subtle becalm signifi raisenistert variations that advance the action. The ballad stanza is four lines commonly, the premiere and third lines contain four feet or accents, the foster and fourth lines contain three feet. Ballads a good deal open precipitously, get brief descriptions, and use sallymatic dialogue. Baroque A term applied by art-historians (at first derogatorily, yet now barely descriptively) to a style of architecture, sculpture, and painting that developed in Italy at the beginning of the seventeenth nose buttdy and then spread to Germany and other europiuman countries.The style employs the unmingled pees of the renaissance, nevertheless breaks them up and intermingles them to achieve elaborate, grandiose, energetic, and passing dramatic effects. In illumineerature, it whitethorn signify magniloquen t style in poetize or prose. Beatitude Supreme blessedness or happiness. assistant A mortal who supports or helps a person (Beneficiary), institution etc. , esp. by heavy(p) money patron. Bilious Bad tempered. 2. Hideously green. snowy write Blank verse is a form establish on un poe sweatd lines of iambic pentameter.The verse parts of Shakespeares plays are blank verse (with exceptions, such(prenominal) as the witches recipe), as is Miltons Paradise Lost. The form is one that is close to normal speech (indeed, the form is one thats close to normal speech is itself an iambic pentameter) so it gives a subtle pulse to a verse, preferably than an obvious shaping as a limerick might. However, there is a angle of dip in contemporary poetry to use shorter lines, so the form sack up overly sound stately or slow to a groundbreaking ear.? Bowyer Person or makes or fails archery bows. Bumptious Offensively self-assertive or conceited.C Cadence (Poetry) A fall, in tone, in pitch etc. catalectic (Poetry) of a line, missing one or more beats. Catechism Instruction by a series of questions and answers esp a book containing such charge on the religious doctrine of the Christian church service. 2 Rigorous and dour questioning, as in a test or interview. Character Characters whitethorn be classified advertisement as round (three-dimensional, fully developed) or as flat (having only a few traits or only plenty traits to fulfil their function in the work) as developing (dynamic) characters or as static characters.Caesura a strong pause within a line, and is often found alongside enjambment. If all the pauses in the sense of the verse were to get along at the line breaks, this could become mute moving the pauses so they occur within the line creates a musical fire. Chivalric Romance unquestionable in 12th Century France, spread and dis startd epic and large forms. terminate The height of tensions or suspense in a storys plot where co ntravene comes to a peak. Coetaneous Of the same age or period. Coeval Of be to the same age or generation. 2) A contemporary.Collocate To group or dapple together in some system or browse. Collusion sneaking(a) agreement for a fraudulent purpose connivance conspiracy. Conceit The meta fleshly poets of the seventeenth century enjoyed creating peculiar(prenominal)ly audacious metaphors and similes to compare very remote things, and drawing guardianship to how skilfully they could sustain this comparison this became known as the conceit. The classic example is probably Donnes The Flea, in which a flea-bite is compared to a marriage, and want most conceits, the extended comparison is more notable for its invention than its believability.Concomitant vivacious or occurring together associative. Concord Agreement or harmony between people or nations amity. Confabulate To talk together, to communicate. Con suss outeor A prayer consisting of a general confession of sinfu lness and an entreaty for for effronteryess. Conflagration A considerable destructive fire. Conflagration A large destructive fire. Conflate / Conflation To mix or blend, esp 2 versions of a text, so as to form a whole. Conflict The part of the plot that establishes an opposition that becomes a point of interest.Can ve an opposition between characters, between character and environment, between agents in a characters personality etc. Conglomerate A thing composed alter segments. Conjecture The formation of conclusions from in arrest evidence a guess. harmony Consonance is the effect of alike(p) speech-sounds universe near each(prenominal) other. Some forms of agreement net be singled out, which are alliteration, where initial sounds matter sibilance, where s and z sounds are intensify and assonance, where the vowel-sounds of passwords are in concert.Contiguous Touching along the side or boundary in contact. Convivial Sociable, jovial or festive. Corpulent ph ysically bulky fat. Coterie A small exclusive group of friends with common interests clique. Coterminous Enclosed within a common boundary. Coterminous Having a common boundary. Couplet A duett is a stanza (or even a poesy) consisting of two lines. These imply not hoar, nor be the same length, but open fire be. If there is no enjambment at the end of the cooperate line, it tooshie be called a closed couplet (the opposite being an open couplet), especially if this is a recurring pattern.A closed rhyming couplet in iambic pentameter, especially one which forms a unit of sense, is called a idealistic couplet many of these flowerpot be found in Popes quiz on Man. It is in addition possible to divulge a longer poem whose lines are create verballyd in pairs aabbcc etc fall upond as being in rhyming couplets, even if the stanzas are longer than two lines. D deuteranopia Colour blindness the inability to distinguish green from red. Damocles Imminent jeopardy in midst of prosperity/ Greek who feasted with sword hung by a hair above his head. De Facto In fact. 2 Existing in fact.De haut en bas In condescending or superior manner. De I gratia By Gods grace. Deambulation Walking. Debacle Break-up of ice on a river/ crushed rush or stampede/ collapse, downfall esp of a government. debouch (esp. of troops) To move into a more open space, as from a qualify or concealed place. Declarativist Want to show a mystery opinionated transparent form has no effect over the shaping of events. Declivous incline down. Decrescent Waning, decreasing usually of the moon. Deference Submission to or compliance with the will, wishes, etc. of another. Deleterious Noxious physically or morally injurious. Demarcate To mark, fix, or draw the boundaries, limits etc. (Demarcation) the act of establishing limits, boundaries etc. Denouement French for untying, it is the terminal element of the conflict in a plot similar to a resolution, usually very em otional. Devilment Mischief, wild spirits Devilish or strange phenomenon. Dextrous Variant sliceing of dexterous Possessing or through with(predicate) with(p) with dexterity. Diatribe A bitter or violent criticism or attack denunciation.Dichotomy a difference between two completely opposite ideas or things Dramatic monologue A dramatic monologue is a poem that shares many features with a speech from a play one person speaks, and in that speech there are clues to his/her character, the character of the implied person or people that s/he is speaking to, the business office in which it is spoken and the story that has led to this situation. Ian Duhigs Fundamentals, for example, gives plenty of reading about the character of the hapless missionary, about the tone of the meeting, and the colonial violence that underpins what is on face value a message of religion.The effect is one of a small poem seeming to leave you with the experience of having seen the whole film that was j am-packed tightly into it. Dystaxia Lack of muscular co-ordination eventing in shaky limb movements and tottering gait. E Eclectic Selecting or made up of what seems best of vary sources. Effervesce To give off bubbles of gas. Egalitarian of relating to, or upholding the doctrine of the equating of mankind and the desirability of political, social, and economic equality. Egregious Outstandingly bad flagrant. publication (also called egression) the act of going or coming out emergence.Electorate The body of all qualified voters dirge An elegy is a poem of rueing this is often the poet mourning one person, but the definition also includes Thomas Grays Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, which mourns all the occupants of that churchyard, and looks into the future to mourn the poets own death. The difference between an elegy and a eulogy is that the last mentioned is a speech given to honour someones best qualities, often (but not necessarily) after their death. Ende mic Present within or localised subject field or peculiar to persons in such an area.Enjambement Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence or clause over a line-break. If a poet allows all the sentences of a poem to end in the same place as prescribed line-breaks, a kind of exsanguinousening can happen in the ear, and in the brain too, as all the thoughts can end up being the same length. Enjambment is one way of creating audible interest others include caesurae, or having variable line-lengths. Enlightenment The name applied to an mental movement and cultural ambiance which developed in Western Europe during the 17th Century, reaching its height in the 18th century.The common element was a trust in kind reason as competent to solve the crucial problems and to establish the essential norms in feeling, together with a belief that the application of reason was rapidly dissipating the darkness of superstition, prejudice, and barbarity, was excessing adult mannish from its earlier reliance on mere authority and unexamined tradition, and had opened the chance of progress toward a life in this realness of universal quiet and happiness. See Descartes, Locke, Voltaire, Godwin, Diderot, Franklin, Jefferson.Ephemeral Lasting only for a short time flitting short-lived. Epigone An inferior follower or imitator Epigram An epigram is a short, succinct poem, often with witty (or even vicious) content. Coleridge wrote an epigram to influence an epigram What is an epigram? A dwarfish whole, / Its body brevity and wit its soul. It is worth noting that this is a stricter definition than epigrams seem to have had in immaculate Greece and Rome, where the form originates it is probably the eighteenth-century fondness for a smart wit and the epigrams of soldierly that tightened the definition thus.The preference in contemporary poetry for exploring an issue kind of than kernelming it up kernel epigrams are not as popular as they were then, but Anne St evensons On Going Deaf, with its wit, rhyme and definite opinion, is probably the walk-to(prenominal) example within the Archive. Epigraph An epigraph is a brief bit of text, usually borrowed from another source, found before a poem, but after the title. (You may also find one at the start of a book, before the poems, but after the title page. ) It gives a reader, or listener, something else to hold in mind as the poem is read.N both part of the poem, nor wholly separate from it, an epigraph can be utilise for various purposes it can be necessary information to visit a poem, for example, or it can be something with which the poem disagrees. Epistemophilia The readers desire to know. Ergo therefore hence. Esoteric Restricted to or think for an enlightened or initiated minority, esp. because of abstruseness or obscurity an esoteric cult. 2 Difficult to understand abstruse an esoteric statement. 3 Not openly admitted private esoteric aims. Espouse To adopt or give support to.Espy To induce sight of or perceive. Eugenics The study of improving the quality of the human race esp. by selective breeding. Evanescent Passing out of sight fading away vanishing. Evangelism The practice of spreading the Christian gospel. 2 tender or missionary zeal for a cause Exegesis Explanation or critical interpretation of a text, esp. of the Bible Exhaustivistic A book moldiness be complete to be reliable is to be complete whence Realistic legends have more detail and description per square move on than any other literary form.Expectorant Promoting the secretion, liquefaction, or expulsion of sputum from the respiratory passings. Expediency Appropriateness suitability. 2) The use or inclination towards methods that are beneficial rather than fair. Exposition Provides background on characters, setting, plot. Extant Still existing not yet destroyed, lost or extinct. F Fabula Order of events recounted by the narrative, the real order of the chronological e vents. Facetious joking or jest often inappropriately / meant to be humorous or funny not serious.Falsetto A form of vocal production used by male singers to extend their range upwards beyond its natural compass by limiting the vibration of the vocal cords. Fatuous Complacently or inanely foolish. Feminine of an ending (poetry) of one or more un hard put beats. fervidness Great intensity of feeling or belief. Figurative style Language used in a way to achieve some effect beyond literal meaning. See hyperbole, metaphor, personification, simile and synecdoche. Flambeau A burning torch, as used in night processions.Foil A foil is a tributary character who contrasts with a major character in Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras, whose fathers have been killed, are foils for Hamlet. Foot A butt is a unit of beatnik, consisting of a combination of express and un punctuateed syllables. If stressed syllables are marked / and unstressed u, the main finds can be shown thus? Iamb u / , such as delight. (The adjective is iambic. ) Trochee / u , such as badger (Trochaic)? Anapest, or anapaest u u / , such as unaware (Anapestic / anapaestic)?Dactyl / u u , such as twofold (Dactylic) and, more obsoletely Spondee / / , such as tooth-ache? Pyrrhic u u , such as such as was until it was put in mention marks. It is important to remember that feet and words need not coincide. The feet in rump Heath-Stubbs line, A caterpillar among those mulberry leaves, from The Mulberry Tree appear thus a CAT er PILL ar a MONG those MUL berry LEAVES ? u / u / u u / u / u / That one word caterpillar is scattered across three feet in this cinque-foot line the first two are iambs, then after a single anapaest there are two besides iambs (or one iamb and one more anapaest, depending on whether you say mul-ber-ry or mul-bree). Also note that, although there is an anapaest in the centre of this line, this is still a predominantly iambic line (especially as it is with in a predominantly iambic poem) variable the feet like this can keep a line from getting metrically dull. The process of working out where the stresses fall is called scanning, or scansion.Its easiest to do it on poems where the rhythms are pronounced on the other hand, it can be near-impossible, or simply unhelpful, to scan exculpate verse. The poems suggested below have strongly stress feet, and the links to metre and form go into more detail on how poets use feet. Foregrounding Giving unusual providence to one element or property of a text, relative to other less evident aspects. Form Form, in poetry, can be understood as the physical structure of the poem the length of the lines, their rhythms, their system of rhymes and repetition.In this sense, it is ordinarily reserved for the type of poem where these features have been shaped into a pattern, especially a old(prenominal) pattern. Another sense of form is to refer to these familiar patterns these can be simple and o pen-ended forms, such as blank verse, or can be a complex system of rhymes, rhythms and repeated lines within a fixed matter of lines, as a praise or villanelle is. (This is similar to the word shape asked to think about a shape, you would digest a triangle or a circle, but Alaska too has a shape. ) The difference s visible in Sebastian Barkers poem Holy The centre On Which We Hang Our Hope the form of this poem shares aspects with another form, the villanelle, but also differs from it in interesting ways, simply as its content shares in some aspects of nonionized faith but not in others. ACROSTIC ? An acrostic poem is one that uses the first letters of each line to spell out a word or phrase. More uncommonly, you can find a word or phrase through the centre of a poem (when it is called a mesostich) or at the end of the lines (which makes it a telestich).If the poem is written so that the first letters and last letters both write out a message, it is known as a reprise acrost ic. CENTO? A poem consisting only of lines from other poems. This, from the Italian word for patchwork, is approximately a technique rather than a form, especially as it can be of any length, and any metre, and need not rhyme however, as the finished poem is referred to as a cento, just as a sonnet is called a sonnet, it is a form. CLERIHEW?Named after its inventor, this is a four-line poem rhymed aabb its first line is the name of the subject of the poem, it often breaks into two sentences at the end of the second line, and the rhythm tends to be entertainingly ir firm. DOUBLE-DACTYL? This one is normally reserved for nonsense verse. 8 lines, all consisting of two dactyls (hence the name). Line 1 is a nonsense word (such as higgledy-piggledy), line 2 is someones name, line 6 is a single six-syllable word, and lines 4 and 8 rhyme. OTTAVA RIMA?A stanza form often used for longer poems, most famously in Byrons Don Juan, consisting of eight lines, usually in iambic pentameter, rhym ed abababcc. PANTOUM? This can be of any length it is a poem of four-line stanzas, in which the second and fourth lines of one stanza become the first and third of the next. The last stanzas second and fourth lines can be the first and third of the first stanza, each turn or not, which locks the poem into a circle of repetitions or, as the poet Marilyn hack says, until it ends up with its tail in its mouth. ? SPENSERIAN STANZA? 8 lines of iambic pentameter, followed by 1 iambic hexameter (or alexandrine) rhyme scheme ababbcbccc. This is the stanza invented by Spenser in The nance Queene. TERZA RIMA? A poem in which each stanza is rhymed aba, with the inner rhyme from one stanza providing the outer(prenominal) rhymes for any the previous or subsequent stanza aba bcb cdc or aba cac dcd. The form can end in a single-line stanza, a couplet, or by referring back to the as-yet-unused rhyme from the first stanza.Free Verse What free verse claims to be free from is the constraints of regular metre and fixed forms. This makes the poem free to find its own shape according to what the poet or the poem wants to say, but still allows him or her to use rhyme, alliteration, rhythms or cadences (etc) to achieve the effects that s/he feels are appropriate. There is an implicit constraint, however, to resist a regular metre in free verse a run of a regular metre will stand out awkwardly in an otherwise free poem.Sometimes known as vers libre, free verse has a long pedigree and is very common in contemporary poetry. all the same there are still voices that claim poetry is only poetry when it is formal verse, and would agree with Robert Frost who, when asked about free verse, verbalise Id just as soon play tennis with the net down. Fans of free verse can counter with T S Eliots insistence that no vers is libre for the man who wants to do a good job the net may be down, but this allows a poet (of either gender) to play to different rules.Simon Armitages Youre Beautifu l, for example, creates for himself a set of rules that includes repeated words at the starts of phrases, rather than a structure of repeated sounds at the end of lines. G Garish Gay or colourful in a crude or vulgar manner. realise To gather or store in or as if in a granary Gendarme A member of the police force of France or in countries formerly influenced or controlled by France. Germane attracts ideas or information connected with and important to a particular subject or situation e. her remarks could not have been more germane to the discussion. Ghazal Mimi Khalvati, whose poem Ghazal is the only poem so far to use a ghazal form in the Archive, desexualises it at the start of her reading of it Ghazals are an old Persian form, and theyre written in self-contained couplets with a monorhyme, sometimes one- (or two- or three-) word repeated phrase, like a refrain, and the last couplet is a signature couplet, in which the source has to refer to themselves by name, or pseud onym, or by development some kind of wordplay on their name. In her ghazal, the repeated word is me, the rhyme is on through, woo, cue, tattoo and so on, and the signature is in the reference to being twice the me, or Mimi. ?Like the haiku, the age of the form the ghazal can be traced back through a millennium and its rendition into the face vocabulary mean that the rules have had significant variations over time. You may find some definitions insist that the subject of a ghazal should be love, and others that let the rhyme move to be earlier in the line than Khalvatis location of it immediately before the refrain.Some insist that each couplet should be complete in itself, meaning that each stanza ends on a full stop, and can accordingly have only a thematic connection to those either side. There are even some that do without the refrain, but these appear rare. The closed couplets, however, appear to be a necessity to the form. Gimcrack gaudy shoddy. Grandiloquent Inflate d, pompous or bombastic in style or expression. Grandiose Pretentiously grand or stately. Imposing in origination or execution. H Haiku A haiku is a brief Japanese form that has been adapted into face in various ways.Its usual definition is that it is a three-line poem, consisting of seventeen syllables split 5 7 5. Other criteria (such as a zen mood, a reference to a season, or the poem being divided by a word that implies some form of cutting) may be chartered, and may even replace the strict syllable count. John Stallworthy considers Ezra Pounds In a range of the Metro a haiku, as, although it has only two lines and considerably more than 17 syllables, it has the brief and direct presentation of an image that many haiku have.Hermeneutics The supposition of interpretation, concerned with general problems of understanding the meaning of the texts. Heterogeneous Comprised of un related to or differing parts or elements. Heteroglossia To describe the classification of vo ices and wrangle found within a novel, and multiple references found in a single voice. rusty Having grey or white hair. 2 White or milky in colour. Homunculus A miniature man midget. 2 archaean biological theory that a miniature man existed in fully-formed in the spermatozoon or egg.Hyperbole Figurative language that uses exaggeration for emphasis, like Im starving when you havent eaten in four hours, or Ive been waiting forever when thats impossible because you probably were innate(p) at some point, and forever was happening a long time before you were born. I Impeccant Not sinning free from sin. iambic pentameter Iambic pentameter is the name given to a line of verse that consists of five iambs (an iamb being one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed, such as before).It has been a fundamental building block of poetry in incline, used in many poems by many poets from the English Renaissance to the present day. ?As with any metre, it is not necessary that either li ne should be entirely slavish in following the rhythm in fact, being so could make the poem sound dull. Swapping, move or adding stressed and unstressed syllables will lend variety to a line without changing the underlying rhythm. Poems in iambic pentameter may or may not rhyme.Those that are written in continuous lines of rhymeless iambic pentameter are tell to be in blank verse, eyepatch rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter may be called heroic couplets, particularly when each couplet closes a thought or sentence on its second line. Iconoclast Someone who attacks established or traditional concepts, principles, laws etc. 2 Destroyer of religious images or sacred images. Ides (in the Roman calendar) the fifteenth day in March, May, July, and October and the 13th day of each other month.Idiolect The variety or form or form of a language used by an individual. Idiopathy Any disease of unknown cause. Illusionist Everything we need to make things happen, and that cause events are all present in the novel all the causes and events can be traced. Imagery Imagery is the name given to the elements in a poem that spark off the senses. Despite image being a synonym for picture, images need not be only visual any of the five senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell) can respond to what a poet writes.Examples of non-visual imagery can be found in Ken Smiths In Praise of Vodka, where he describes the drink as having the taste of air, of wind on fields, / the wind through the long wet forest, and James Berrys Seashell, which puts the ocean sighs right in a listeners ear. A poet could simply state, say, I see a tree, but it is possible to conjure up a good deal more specific images using techniques such as simile (a tree like a spiky rocket), metaphor (a green cloud riding a pole) or synechdoche (bare, low-spirited branches) each of these suggests a different kind of tree.Techniques, such as these, that can be used to create powerful images are called figu rative language, and can also include onomatopoeia, metonymy and personification. One of the great pleasures of poetry is discovering a particularly powerful image the Imagists of the early 20th century felt it was the most important aspect, so were habituated to finding strong images and presenting them in the clearest language possible. Of course, not every poem is an Imagist poe Immitigable Unable to be mitigated exacting unappeasable.Impasse A situation in which progress is blocked an insurmountable seriousy. Impasto pigment applied thickly, so that brush and palette knife marks are evident. The technique of applying paint in this way. Impecunious Without money, penniless. Impediments A hindrance or obstruction. Imprecate To swear and curse, to blaspheme. In the Middle Ages one hour was equal to 480 ounces of sand, or 22,560 atoms. Inchoate Just beginning incipient. 2 Undeveloped gullible rudimentary.Incom elbow room To bother, disturb, or inconvenience. Incommunic ado Deprived of communication with other people, as era in solitary confinement. Incontrovertible Incapable of being contradicted or contend undeniable. Indeterminacy The unknowable, undecidable, un legitimate, or ambiguous in a text. Indeterminacy is related to gaps in a text, but are less obviously identifiable and are a quality of a reading or interpretation, not just the text. Indign Undeserving, unworthy.Innocuous Having little or no adverse or denigratory effect harmless. Innominate Having no name nameless. Irony At its most basic, a difference or gap between the presentation/representation of something and its humanity. In other words, when what something appears to be and what it is are not the same. Irony can be engaged or quarantined Engaged irony uses the gaps between reality and representation to make a point or expose something detached irony exploits gaps for immediate effect, like humor, satire or surface criticism.Irony can also occur at different levels o f a text for instance, literal irony would occur at the level of the word or sentence, where stunt man meanings come into play dramatic irony would occur at the level of the plot, where events and action are constructed in a way to take the reader in one direction while the reality is something else (a technique often found with 1st person unreliable narrators and 3rd person interior narrators). Insuperable Incapable of being overcome. Interlocutor A person who takes part in a conversation. Internecine Mutually destructive or pernicious maiming both or all sides internecine war.Interpolate To insert or exhibit (a comment, passage, etc) into (a conversation, text, etc). 2 To falsify or alter (a text, manuscript etc) by the afterward addition of spurious or worthless passages. Interpolation The act of interpolating. Intertextuality In a text, implied references to orimplied influences from another text. This concept allows a reader to make links between genres, and to see h ow themes, plot, etc. may develop or change in relation or in light of that other text. Intractable / Intractability Difficult to influence or direct difficult to solve (of problem).Intransigent Not willing to compromise obstinate obstinately maintaining an attitude. madcap Prone to anger advantageously provoked to anger hot-tempered. Invidious subject or tending to arouse resentment, unpopularity etc. 2) unfair or objectionably discriminating. Inviolable That must not or cannot be transgressed, dishonoured, or miserable to be kept sacred. Irony the discrepancy between what is said and what is meant, what is said and what is done, what is expected or intended and what happens, what is meant or said and what others understand.Sometimes irony is classified into types in situational irony, expectations aroused by a situation are reversed in cosmic irony or the irony of fate, misfortune is the result of fate, chance, or God in dramatic irony. the interview knows more than the c haracters in the play, so that words and action have additional meaning for the audience Socratic irony is named after Socrates teaching method, whereby he assumes ignorance and openness to argue points of view which turn out to be (he shows them to be) foolish. J Joskin Country bumpkin.Juxtaposition an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, esp. for comparison or contrast. 2) the state of being close together or side by side Juxtaposition when two contrasting ideas, images, phrases, descriptions are placed close together to emphasise their differences. K Kenning A kenning is a much-compressed form of metaphor, originally used in Anglo-Saxon and Norse poetry. In a kenning, an object is described in a two-word phrase, such as whale-road for sea. Some kennings can be more obscure than others, and then learn close to being a riddle.Judith Nicholls Bluebottle uses kennings as part of a larger poem, that is itself a riddle Andrew Fusek Peters and Polly Peters g o further, building a pair of poems both consisting entirely of kennings. Kunstlerroman Development of the artist through a novel similar in some respects to the Bildungsroman. L Lacustrine Of, growing in or d swelling in lakes. Lagan Goods or wreckage on the seabed. Langrage cam stroke used to damage rigging. Laniferous Wool bearing. Larceny A technical word for theft (Larcenous). Larrikin Rowdy street hooligan.Lepidopterist A person who collects or studies moths and butterflies. sorrowful Excessively mournful doleful. Lyric Poetrya short poem with one speaker (not necessarily the poet) who expresses thought and feeling. Though it is sometimes used only for a brief poem about feeling (like the sonnet). it is more often applied to a poem expressing the complex evolution of thoughts and feeling, such as the elegy, the dramatic monologue, and the ode. The emotion is or seems personal In classical Greece, the lyric was a poem written to be sung, accompanied by a lyre. MMacul ation A pattern of spots as on certain plants and animals. Maelstrom A large powerful whirlpool 2) Any annoyed confusion. Magniloquent (of speech) Lofty in style. Malaise A feeling of unease, diffused sickness, or depression. Manumit To free from slavery, servitude, etc. emancipation. Manumission. Manumitter. Maudlin Foolishly teary or sentimental, as when drunk. Maunder To move, talk, or walk aimlessly or idly. Maundy The ceremony of washing the feet of the poor. (Christianity). Mawkish Falsely sentimental, esp. in a vague or maudlin way. Melliferous Forming or producing honey.Meretricious Superficially or garishly attractive. 2 Insincere meretricious praise. Meta put on Fiction about fiction or more esp a kind of fiction that openly comments on its own fictional status. Metaphor An expression which describes a person or object in a literary way by referring to something that is considered to have similar characteristics to the person or object you are seek to d escribe. (Noun) pulse Metre is from the Greek word for measuring at its most basic, metre is a system of describing what we can measure about the audible features of a poem.The systems that have been used in history to structure metres are the number of syllables (syllabic) the duration of syllables (quantitative) the number of stressed syllables, or accents (accentual) and combinations of the above. English is not a language that works soft in quantitative metre (although this has not halt people trying), and it has developed an accentual-syllabic metre for its formal verse. This substance that, in a formal poem, the poet will be counting the syllables, the stresses, and keeping them to a pattern.To describe the pattern, the stressed and unstressed syllables are gathered into groups known as feet, and the number of feet to a line gives a name thus 1 foot monometer? 2 feet dimeter? 3 feet trimeter? 4 feet tetrameter? 5 feet pentameter? 6 feet hexameter? 7 feet heptameter? 8 feet octameter Lines of less than 3 or more than 6 feet are rare in formal poems. The pattern of the syllables within a foot is also noted. A foot that is one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, for example, is an iamb three of these in a row would be an iambic trimeter, while five make the famous iambic pentameter.All the common feet are outlined under Foot in the glossary. Like the rhythm in a piece of music, the metre is an underlying structure. Poets often slip in superfluous feet, or remove them, or change stress patterns around to counter monotony, like playing rubato. (Sometimes a poem seems to be exploring how far a line can be pushed without losing all connection with the underlying metre. ) This means that the discovery of a foot other than an iamb in the sum of what is otherwise iambic, say, does not stop the poem from being ambic rather the attention ends up lingering at that point, so the word on the different foot ends up more powerful as it has the attentio n longer. An example of this can be found in Peter Dales Half-Light he writes Im trying not to give another glance. / Lit window thirty years back up that path. The first line is a perfectly regular iambic pentameter, but the second introduces an extra stress on Lit, so that what the speakers trying not to be drawn to seems more powerful, possibly helping us empathise with him when he does look back and catch her eye an instant.Metonymy where one term is used in place of something else that it is related to or often associated with like saying the White can for the president, or Hollywood for the American film industry. Mimetic Mimics the real terra firma the text behaves formally in a way to report the military man outside. You look at objects and describe how the physical senses receive them. Mithridate A philia believed to be an antidote to every poison and a cure for every disease. Mitigated To make or become less severe or harsh.Mobius Strip A one sided continuous s urface, made by torment a long narrow rectangular strip of material through 180 and joining the ends. Mobocracy Rule or domination by a mob. Modernism Loosely, a term referring to experimental and avant- garde trends in literature and other arts in the early 20th century, which resulted from conscious rejections of traditional nineteenth century artistic conventions like realism and traditional verse forms. Some of the experimental forms include symbolism, expressionism, and surrealism, and some narrative innovations include stream-of-consciousness and multiple points of view.A moot term, since we are always already in the systemrn moment. Morass submerge something that entangles, impedes or confuses. Moribund Near-death, stagnant, without force or vitality. Moribundity, moribundly. Munificent Very with child(p) in giving or bestowing very generous lavish. Myopia / myopic Inability to see distant objects clearly because images are focused in front of the retina. N Nacreo us Relating to or consisting of mother-of-pearl. 2) Having the lustre of mother-of-pearl. Naturalism Is sometimes claimed to give a more accurate depiction of life than realism.It is a mode of fiction that was developed by a school of writers in accordance with a particular philosophical thesis. The thesis, a product of post-Darwinian biota in the nineteenth century, held that human beings exist entirely in the order of nature and does not have a soul nor any mode of participating in a religious or spiritual creation beyond the natural world and therefore, that such a being is merely a higher-order animal whose character and behaviour are entirely heady by two kinds of forces, heredity and environment.A person inherits compulsive instincts especially hunger, and the engage to accumulate possessions, and sexuality and is then subject to the social and economic forces in the family, the class, and the milieu into which that person is born. The novel is organized in a mode of a scientific experiment on the behaviour of the characters it depicts. Naturalist writers try to present their subjects with scientific objectivity and with elaborate documentation, sometimes including an almost medical examination frankness about activities and bodily functions usually unmentioned in earlier literature.They tend to choose characters that exhibit a strong animalistic drive towards rapaciousness and sexual desire and who are helpless victims both of glandular excretions and of sociological pressures without. The end is usually tragic, not in the Elizabethan sense, but of a losing struggle of the individual mind and will against gods, enemies, and circumstances. Instead the protagonist is a pawn to multiple compulsions, and usually disintegrates or is wiped out. OObdurately/ Obdurate Not easily moved by feelings or supplication hard-hearted, impervious to persuasion, esp moral persuasion. Objectivist Humans are treated as objects subjects should be treated as objec ts. Occlude To block up or stop up (a passage or opening). Ode An ode is a lyric poem, usually addressing a particular person or thing. It originated in Ancient Greece, and the Pindaric ode (so-called because it was written by the Theban poet Pindar, 518 ? 442 BC) was based on a pattern of three stanzas called the strophe, antistrophe and epode.It was performed by a chorus, which walked along one side of the orchestra pitch contour the strophe and down the other side chanting the antistrophe, then came to a standstill before the audience and chanted the epode. This execution was repeated with each set of three stanzas. The Horatian ode (invented by the Latin poet Horace in about 65 BC) was adopted in the early 19th century by John Keats for one of his most famous poems, Ode to a Nightingale. umpteen modern odes, however, are irregular in form, such as Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of early Childhood by William Wordsworth.While the ode does not necessarily have a regular metre or fixed rhyme scheme, Kit Wrights tongue-in-cheek Ode to Didcot Power Station uses both as well as a repertoire of ancient language to parody the lofty style traditionally associated with this form. As Wright says in his introduction, if youre going to have an ode, why not go the whole cop? Oeuvre A work of art, literature, music etc. Oligarchy Government by a small group of people. Olivaceous Of an olive colour. Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia is the forming and use of words and phrases to mitate or suggest the sounds they describe, such as bang, whisper, cuckoo, splash and fizz. Onomatopoeia is one of the resources of language more often used by poets than prose writers this is because poetry is made for the ear as well as the eye, and depends more heavily than prose does on sound-effects. Spike Milligans On the Ning Nang Nong makes heavy use of onomatopoeia, but it can play a section in classic poetry too an example is the use of Crashd to describe the noise of battle in Tennysons The Charge of the Heavy Brigade.Opulence Having or indicating wealth. huge or plentiful. Overslaugh To pass over or disregard (a person) by giving a promotion, position, etc, to another instead. Oxymoron Oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two terms appear to contradict each other. Some examples have become so familiar that we hardly notice the contradiction, eg deafening silence. The word comes from the Greek oxus (sharp) and moros (foolish). P Paladins One of the legendary twelve peers of Charlemagnes court. 2) A knightly champion.Parody Parody is the imitation of the style of another work, writer or genre, which relies on deliberate exaggeration to achieve comic or satirical effect. It is usually necessary to be familiar with the original in order to apprise the parody, though some parodies have become better known than the poems they imitate. mixture A work of art that mixes styles, materials etc. 2) A work of art that imitates the style of another artist or period. Pathos Pathos is part of a poem or other work of art which makes the reader or audience feel sorrow or pity.The Greek word pathos means suffering. Pathos is a key skill for any writer, and a highly effective feature of many poems, often in those cases where it is somewhat restrained or understated. Poetry has a special genius for being able to move us. On the other hand, a unequal to(p) or exaggerated attempt at pathos can result instead in bathos or over-sentimentality or make the reader feel manipulated. Pedant A person who relies too much on academic learning or who is concerned chiefly with insignificant detail. Pedantry The garment or an instance of being a pedant, esp. in the display of empty knowledge or minute observance of petty rules or details. jaunt To travel or wander about from place to place. Peripatetic Of or relating to the teachings of Aristotle (384-322B. C. ), Greek philosopher who used to teach whilst walking about. Peripeteia , Peripetia (esp. in drama) an abrupt turn of events or reversal. Persona A persona is a fictional character. Sometimes the term means the mask or alter-ego of the author it is often used for first person works and lyric poems, to distinguish the writer of the work from the character in the work.Personification in which a concept, idea, object or animal is given human qualities (think of every Bugs Bunny cartoon you ever saw). Perspicuity The quality of being perspicuous. Perspicuous (of speech or writing) easily understood lucid. Pertinacious Doggedly resolute in purpose or belief unyielding. Planchette A heart-shaped board on wheels with a draw attached that writes messages under supposed spirit guidance. Platitude A trite, dull or obvious remark or statement common place. 2 Staleness or insipidity of thought or language triteness.Pogroms An organised persecution or extermination of an ethnic group, esp of Jews. Polemic Of or involving conflict or controversy. Politbu ro The executive and policy-making committee of a communist party. placid Artful or shrewd ingenious a politic manager. snip An animal, such as a sheep or deer, that has either shed its horns or antlers or has had them removed. Polled (of animals) having the horns cut off or being naturally hornless. hay fever Technical name for hay fever. Polymath A person of great and varied learning.Posit To assume or put forward as fact or the factual basis for an argument postulate. Postmodernism Involves not only the continuation, sometimes carried to an extreme, of the countertraditional experiments of modernism, but also attempts to break away form the modernist forms which had, inevitably, become conventional, as well as to overthrow the elitism of modernist high art by recourse to the models of potentiometer culture in film, television, newspaper cartoons, and popular music. Prescience nowledge of events before they take place foresight. Presentiment A sense of something abou t to happen.Probabilistic Gives us a sample that seems most probable it gives us a slice of life it makes sure we feel this is a typical representation of the world therefore when they do something out of the norm it is significant. (Humanist tradition = man is the measure of all things). reality creates situations where humans control everything otherwise it exceeds the realms of probability. Prolepses Slowing down/ rush up of events and other distortions of the linear sequence. Prolix Wordy, extending to great length. 2) Tending to speak or write at excessive length.Propitious Presenting favourable circumstances or conditions. 2) Favourably inclinded gracious benevolent. Prose poetry A prose poem is a poem that does not use line breaks. This still allows the poet to use alliteration, metaphor, ambiguity, personification, and many other poetic techniques, but it can still be strange to see a poem that goes all the way to the right-hand margin. One thing that may differentiat e a prose poem from a very short story is that the latter will have a stronger preference for narrative than the former, but this is very much debatable.John Ashberys For John Clare is a good example, one that explores the contrast between openness and containment as John Clare was a poet who was devoted to nature, but locked in an asylum, it could be suggested that it is very appropriate to see the subject explored without the containment that line-endings would give. Prosody The study and notation of metre. Protagonist The protagonist is the main character, who is not necessarily a hero or a heroine. The antagonist is the fence the antagonist may be society, nature, a person, or an aspect of the protagonist.The antihero, a recent type, lacks or seems to lack heroic traits. Providence Is the idea that good can come out of evil. Purulent Of relating to, or containing pus. Q R rowdy (of voices or cries) Harshly or hoarsely load. Reactionary Reactionist of relating to or cha racterised by reaction, esp against radical political or social change. Realism Realistic fiction is said to oppose Romanticism. The romance is said to present life as we would have it be more picturesque, fantastic, adventurous, or heroic than actuality realism is said to present life as it really is.Realistic fiction is written to give the effect that it represents real life and the social world as it appears to the common reader, evoking the sense that the characters in truth exist, and that such things might actually happen. Techniques used include the use of the commonplace everyday setting, represented in minute detail. Events, whether ordinary or extraordinary are all rendered in the same matter-of-fact, circumstantial and seemingly unselective way. Recondite Difficult to understand abstruse. ) concerned with obscure subject matter. Refrain A refrain is a repeated part of a poem, particularly when it comes either at the end of a stanza or between two stanzas. Sebastian Ba rkers The Uncut Stone has a traditional refrain, consisting of two rhymed sentences that never change at the end of each stanza James Fenton uses a slightly looser type of refrain in In Paris With You, where the title returns at the end of almost every stanza, but with slight additions so that it continues the sentence of which it is a part.Some forms, such as villanelles, demand a refrain as part of their definitions. With every line repeated, a pantoum might be said to be made entirely of refrains, but this would be an unusual usage, as refrains tend to be thought of as a moment of repetition within an otherwise flowing poem. Regicidal The person who kills a king. Regicide The killing of a king. Requiem A mass storeyed for the dead 2 Any piece of music composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person or persons.Rhyme Rhyme is the repetition of the end-sounds of words. Examples include Valerie Blooms use of tramp and camp in The River, Roger McGoughs use of breath and de ath in Oxygen, and Peter Porters rhyme of a single-syllable word with a polysyllable, stars with particulars, in So, Francis, Wheres the Sun? . Each of these is an example of end-rhyme, which means the rhyme occurs at the end of a line, but rhyme can also happen within a line, where it is known as inherent rhyme.A rhyme on a stressed syllable, as in the examples above, is sometimes referred to as masculine rhyme its counterpart, feminine rhyme, is made up of a stressed syllable followed by one or more unstressed syllables, such as fishes and wishes in Charles Causleys At the British War Cemetery, Bayeux. These near-exact repetitions of end-sounds are known as full rhyme (sometimes as perfect, true or exact rhyme).There are also various forms of near-rhymes (half-rhymes, slant-rhymes, pararhymes), which are not exact repetitions, but are close enough to resonate, as David Harsents use of supper and blubber as rhymes in Marriage XVI, or P J Kavanaghs happy / Cavafy in nonsuch Isnt L ike A Perfect Story. Further types of rhyme include eye-rhyme, which looks like it should rhyme but doesnt (e. g. through / although), and rime riche, in which the words that rhyme sound identical (e. g. hare / hair).Rhyme can be used rigorously for its own sake, because it sounds good, but there may also be further reasons for example, the form of terza rima has overlapping rhymes that give the poem forward motion, as in George Szirtes Preston North End, each stanzas middle line giving the rhyme for the outer two lines of the next stanza. The breath / death rhyme, noted above, is not only nice in the ears but resonates because these two concepts are linked, as they are in the poem. Ribald / Ribaldry Coarse, obscene, or licentious, usually in a humorous or mocking way SSacrosanct Very sacred or holy inviolable. Sadomasochism The combination of sadistic and masochistic elements in one person, characterised by both aggressive and submissive periods in relationships with others. Sag ittal Resembling an arrow straight. arrow-shaped Shaped like the head of an arrow (esp. , of leaves). Salacious Lustful, lecherous. Salient Prominent, conspicuous, or a striking salient feature. Sallow (human skin) Of an unhealthy yellow. Salutary healthful (healthy) producing good effects beneficial. Saprozoic (of animals or plants) feeding on dead organic matter.Sardonic Characterised by satire, mockery, or derision (sardonically). Sasquatch (In Canadian folklore) In British Columbia, a hairy beast or manlike monster said to leave huge footprints. Scansion The individual metrical pattern of a particular line or poem. Schism The division of a group into opposing factions. 3 Division within or separation from an established church especially the Roman Catholic Church, not necessarily involving differences in doctrine. Self-reflexive A term applied to literary works that openly reflect upon their own processes of artful composition how they are written put together. Senescence / senescent 1) ripening Old 2) Characteristic of old age. Sententious Characterised or full of aphorisms, terse, short sayings, or axioms, tending to indulge in pompous moralising. Sentient / sense Having power of sense perception or sensation, conscious. Sestina A sestina is a form that uses six six-line stanzas, each using the same six words at the end of its lines in different orders, followed by an envoi of three lines using two of those words to each line. They tend to be written in iambic pentameter, and without rhyme.Later sestinas sometimes allow homophones such as hare and hair for the repeat words, or even looser interpretations. Simile (The use of) an expression comparing one thing with another, always including the words as or like. (noun) Sjuzhet How the events are arranged and related to the narrative sequence. Solecism The non-standard use of a grammatical construction. 2) A violation of good manners. Solipsism / solipsist / solipsistic Philoso phy the extreme form of scepticism which denies the possibility of any knowledge other than ones own existence. onnet A sonnet, in English poetry, is a poem of fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter, that has one of two regular rhyme schemes although there are a couple of exceptions, and years of experimentation that have loosened this definition. One of these schemes is known as the Petrarchan, after the Italian poet Petrarch it consists of a group of eight lines, rhymed abbaabba, followed by a group of six lines with different rhymes. The distribution of these rhymes can vary, including cdcede, cdecde, cdedce, or even cdcdcd.Often, at the point where the eight-line section, known as the octave, turns into the six-line section, or sestet, there is a volta, from the Italian for turn this is a shift in the poems tone, subject or logic that gains power from (or demands? ) the matching shift in its structure. The Shakespearean sonnet breaks into three quatrains, followed by a couplet, rhymed abab cdcd efef gg as the name suggests, this is the form Shakespeare used for his sonnets, although he did not invent it. In Shakespeares usage, the three quatrains tend to make an argument in three stages, which the couplet will sum up or comment on.The main exceptions are the curtal sonnet, a form invented by Gerard Manley Hopkins that roughly maintains the 86 ratio over a ten-and-a-half line poem, and the Meredithian sonnet of 16 lines. The fact that these are still referred to as a curtal and a Meredithian sonnet, however, shows that they are not (yet? ) considered sonnets per se. There are also innumerable individual exceptions to the form a poet may refer to a poem as a sonnet because it meets some of the descriptions above, or even just because s/he says so.This means that handicraft a poem a sonnet is not necessarily to define it strictly, but to say that it stands in relation to the long tradition of sonnets. deluxe Apparently correct or true, but actu ally wrong or false. 2 Deceptively attractive in appearance. Spelunker A person whose hobby is the exploration of caves. Spurious Not genuine or real. 2 Having the appearance of another part but differing from it in origin (of plants). Stanza A stanza is a group of lines within a poem the blank line between stanzas is known as a stanza break.Like lines, there is no set length to a stanza or an insistence that all stanzas within a poem need be the same length. However, there are name for stanzas of certain lengths two-line stanzas are couplets three-lines, tercets four-lines, quatrains. (Rarer terms, like sixains and quatorzains, are very rarely used. ) Whether regular or not, the visual effect and, sometimes, the aural effect is one of unify the sense of the stanza into one group, so poets can either let their sentences fit neatly within these groups, or create flow and tension by enjambing across the stanza breaks.Stentorian (of the voice) uncommonly loud. Stress Stress is t he emphasis that falls on certain syllables and not others the arrangement of stresses within a poem is the al-Qaida of poetic rhythm. The process of working out which syllables in a poem are stressed is known as scansion once a metrical poem has been scanned, it should be possible to see the metre. By way of example, the word produce can be pronounced with the stress on either syllable a farmer may proDUCE carrots, which a greengrocer will sell as PRODuce.Similarly, the differently placed stress is what separates the English and American pronunciations of abnegation. Longer words may have more than one stress photography, for example, is stressed on both -tog- and -phy. In some places, including the Oxford English Dictionary, a difference is drawn between