"You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him discover it himself."
Important literary terms may be used as figures of speech in suitable occasions. Inappropriate or exaggerated figures of speech can be laughable. Figures of speech if not laboured, add greatly to the colour of a talk. We all use figures of speech, often without realizing what we are doing; if you say "Karwan Bazer is in trouble", you don't really mean a Bazer, you mean the kitchen market in general. Your delivery may promote an effectual positive resource by the proper use of figures of speech. Your audience may be more convinced and more motivated for the cause your want to put through by your artful and crafty use of figures of speech. There are many types of figures of speech which can be your nuts and bolts for your fruitful lectures. A good number of such words are given below for the benefit of a public speaker.
Aestheticism
A term loosely applied to an English literary movement of the second half of the nineteenth century. The roots of the movement lay in the reverence for beauty instilled by Keats and the pre-Raphaelities.Alliteration
The repetition of initial identical consonant sounds or any vowel sounds in successive or closely associated words or syllables. A good example of consonantal alliteration is Coleridge's lines;The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow followed free.
Allusion
A rhetorical term applied to that figure of speech making casual reference to a famous historical or literary figure or event.Anachronism
False assignment of an event, a person, a scene, language - in fact anything to a time when that event or thing or person was not in existence. The anachronism, however, is a greater sin to the realist than to the romanticist, and may not be important according to its effect on the literary structure as a whole.Anagram
A word or name resulting from the transposition of letters. For example, the title of Samuel Butler's novel Erewhon is an anagram for the word 'nowhere.'Antagonist
The character in fiction or drama who stands directly opposed to the protagonist. A rival or apponent of the protagonist.Antimasque
A secondary or lesser masque, of a ludicrous character, introduced between the acts of a serious masque, by way of lightening it.Aphorism
A concise statement of a principle or precept given in pointed words. Aphorism implies specific authorship and compact, telling expression.Apostrophe
The interruption of the course of a speech or writing, in order to address briefly a person or persons, (present or absent, real or imaginary) individually or separately.Arcadia
Though originally a mountainous district in the Peloponnesus, Arcadia symbolized in the pastoral verse of the Classical poets, e.g., Virgil's Eclogues, the harmony and simplicity of an imagined Golden Age. The Renaissance saw the development of the Arcadian prose romance, of which the Arcadia of Sannazaro and that of Sir Philip Sydney are the most notable examples.
Archaism
Antiquity of style, manner, or use, in art of literature.Argument
A prose statement summarizing the plot or stating the meaning of a long poem or occasionally of a play.Atmosphere
The mood which is established by the totality of the literary work.Avant Garde
In literature, a term designating new writing that contains innovations in form or technique.Balance
In rhetoric refers to taht structure in which parts of a sentence-as words, phrase, or clauses are set off against each other in position so as to emphasize a contrast in meaning. As a critical term balance is often used to characterize nicety of proportion among the various elements of a given piece writing.Ballad
A narrative poem, usually simple and fairly short, originally designed to be sung. Ballads often begin abruptly, imply the previous action, utilize simple language, tell the story tersely through dialogue and described action, and make use of refrains. The folk ballad, which reached its height in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was composed anonymously and handed down orally, often in several different versions. The literary ballad, consciously created by a poet in imitation of the folk ballad, makes use of many of its devices and conventions.Baroque
First used in the eighteenth century, to describe a kind of architecture that flourised throughout the seventeenth century. The word has come to denote a style whose chief characteristic is a degree of explosive elaboration which almost obscures the under-lying order or pattern: there is balance, but also a decided sense of strain or contortion.Bathos
A ludicrous descent from the elevated to the commonplace or ridiculous, in writing or speech.Beast Epic
A favourite medieval literary form consisting of a series of linked stories grouped about animal characters and often presenting satirical comment on contemporary life of church or court by means of human qualities attributed to best characters.Belles-Letters
Literature, more especially that body or writing, comprising drama, poetry, fiction, criticism and essays which lives because of inherent imaginative and artistic rather than scientific or intellectual qualities.Blank Verse
Unrhymed verse, particularly that form of unrhymed heroic verse which is commonly employed in English dramatic and epic poetry. Blank verse consists of lines of 10 syllables each, the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and tenth syllables bearing the accents (iambic Pentameter).Burlesque (or Caricature)
Any imitation of people or literature, which, by distortion, aims to amuse. Its subject matter is sometimes said to be faults rather than vices, and its tone is neither shrill nor savage. Thus, in destination from satire it can be defined as a comic imitation of a mannerism or a minor fault (either in style or subject-matter), contrived to amusement rather than contempt and/or indignation arouse.Caesura (Cesura)
A pause in a line of verse dictated not by metrics but by the natural rhythm of the language. There is usually a caesura in verses of ten syllables or more, and the handling of this pause to achieve rhythmical variety is a test of the poet's ability.Canon
The undoubted works of a particular author or authors. Doubtful works are the apocrypha. Thus, most scholars include thirty seven plays in the Shakespeare canon, but other plays, attributed to him on uncertain evidence, belong to the Shakespeare apocrypha. Those books of the Bible officially recognized by a religious group as inspired constitute the canon; those rejected are the Apocrypha.Canto
A section or division of a long poem. Derived from the Latin cantus (song) the word originally signified a section of a narrative poem of such length as to be sung by minstrel in one singing.Caricature
A representation, pictorial or descriptive, in which beauties or favorable points are concealed or perverted and peculiarities or defects exaggerated, so as to make the person or thing represented ridiculous, while a general likeness is retained.Catharsis
In Aristotle's Poetics, the purgation of the emotions of pity and fear aroused by the actions of the tragic hero. This concept has been the cause of considerable controversy since its appearance in the Poetics, where it is limited to this passage : "Tragedy through pity and fear effects a purgation of such emotions." No universally accepted explanation of the process has been made.Classicism
Refers to the classical style in literature or art. characterized especially by attention to form with the general effect of regularity simplicity, and restraint.Closed Couplet
Two successive verses riming aa and containing within the two lines a complete, independent statement. It is "closed" in the sense that its meaning is complete within the two verses and does not depend on what goes before or follows for its grammatical structure or thought.Comedy of Humours
A term applied to the special type of realistic comedy which was developed in the closing years of the sixteenth century by Ben Jonson and George Chapman and which derives its comic interest largely from the exhibition of "humourous" characters; that is, persons whose conduct is controlled by some one characteristic or whim or humour.Comedy of Manners
A comedy concerned with the intrigues, regularly amorous, of witty and sophisticated members of an aristocratic society. The actions of those who oppose or ineptly imitate the manners of that society are the subjects of much raillery and laughter.Comic Relief
A humourous scene, incident, or speech in the course of a serious fiction or drama. Such comic intrusions are usually consciously introduced by the author to provide relief from emotional intensity and at the same time, by contrast, to heighten the seriousness of the story.Conceit
The term is used to designate an ingenious and fanciful notion or conception, usually expressed through analogy, and pointing to a striking parallel between two seemingly dissimilar things. A conceit may be a brief metaphor but it usually forms the framework of an entire poem. In English there are two basic kinds of conceits: the patriarchal conceit, most often found in love poems and sonnets, in which the subject of the poem is compared extensively and elaborately to some object, a rose, a ship, a garden, etc; and the metaphysical conceit, in which complex, startling, and highly intellectual analogies are made.Dirge
A song or tune expressing grief, lamentation, and mourning.Dramatic Irony
The words or acts of a character in a play may carry a meaning unperceived by himself but understood by the audience.Dramatic Monologue
A lyric poem which reveals "a soul in action" through the conversation of one character in a dramatic situation. The character is speaking to an indentifable but silent listener in a dramatic moment in the speaker's life. The circumstances surrounding the conversation, one side of which we "hear" as the dramatic monologue, are made clear by implication in the poem, and a deep insight into the character of the speaker is given.Droll
A short, comic piece, often coupled with dancing, performed most often at fairs during the Commonwealth (1649-1660) in England. Since the government had closed the theatres and forbidden full-length plays, the performances of drolls, often comic scenes extracted from earlier plays, were among the few ways of evading the Puritan edicts.Denouement
The final unraveling of the plot in drama or fiction; the solution of the mystery; the explanation or outcome. Denouement implies an ingenious untying of thee knot of and intrigue, involving not only a satisfactory outcome of the main situation but explanation of all the secrets and an misunderstandings connected with the plot complication.Elegy
A susained and formal poems setting forth the poet's meditations upon death or upon a grave theme. The meditation. often is occasioned by the death of a particular person, but it may be a generalized observation or the expression of a solemn mood.Epic
A long poem which relates the story of an event, or of a series of events, whether historical or imaginary, concerning heroic action by one or more individuals, usually over a relatively long period of time.Epigram
In Greek literature a poetical inscription placed inscription placed upon a tomb or monument. Later extended to encompass any very short poem amorous, elegiac, meditative, complimentary, anecdotal. or satiric - which is polished, terse and pointed. Usually an epigram ends with a surprising or witty turn of thought.Epistolary Novel
A novel in which the narrative is carried forward by letters written by one or more of the characters.Euphemism
A mild, delicate, or indirect word or expression used in place of a plainer and more accurate one, which by reason of its meaning or association might be offensive, unpleasant, or embarrassing.Euphuism
In English literature, an affected literary style, originating in the 15th century, characterized by a wide vocabulary, alliteration, consonance, verbal antithesis, and odd combinations of words. The style, although bombastic and ridiculous originally, contributed to the flexibility and verbal resources of later English.Existentialism
Though existentialism has been called a philosophical "school" the existentialists themselves differ markedly in doctrine and attitude. Since World War II, there have been two major developments of existentialist thinking. One, Christian existentialism, influenced by Kierkegaard, has stressed the idea that in God man my find freedom from tension, for, in Him the finite and infinite are one. Some of the leading exponents of this general orientation are Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, and Cabriel Marcel. Karl Jaspers, though a believer in some transcendent reality in the universe, does not accept the restrictions of any formal theology. The other major development is attributable to Jean Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger, who posit the idea that man is alone in a godless universe: in this atheistic philosophy, man has no reality if he unthinkingly fellows social law or convention. Suffering anguish and despair in his loneliness, he may, nevertheless, become what he wishes by the exercise of free will.Both groups of existentialists, however, hold certain elements in common: the concern with man's being; the feeling that reason is insufficient to understand the mysteries of the universe; the awareness that anguish is a universal phenomenon; and the idea that morality has validity only when there is positive participation.
Expressionism
A movement dominant especially in German painting during the decade following World War I. The expressionist presents in his work not life as it appears on the surface to the dispassionate eye, but rather life as he (or as his character) passionately feels it to be. Thus his work consciously distorts the external appearance of the object in order to represent the object as it is felt. Scenery in an expressionist drama for example, will not be photographically accurate but will be distorted so that, for example, the wall in a courtroom may veer crazily to reflect the defendant's state of mind.Genre
A term used in literary criticism to designate the distinct types or categories into which literary works are grouped according to form or technique.Gothic
Though the Goths were a single Germanic tribe of ancient and early medieval times, the meaning of Gothic was broadened to signify Teutonic or Germanic and later, "medieval" in general.Grub Street
Once the name of a London Street (now Milton Street) much inhabited by indigent writers whose hack work resulted in their earning no more than meagre living. Since many critics found even this result insufficient justification for their scribblings, the term Grub Street has come to be applied to any inept commercial writing.Heroic Drama
A form of writing that developed in England during the Restoration period. The play imitated thee epic and included a warrior hero, and action involving the fate of an empire, and an elevated style, usually cast in thee form of heroic couplets. A noble hero and heroine are typically represented in a situation in which their passionate love conflicts with the demands of honour and patriotic duty. Usually the central dilemma is obviously contrived, and the characters statuesque and unconvincing, while the attempt at a grand style tends to swell into bombast.Heroic Line
lambic pentameter, so called because it was used for heroic or epic poetry in English. When the stanza is of two lines only, it is called a heroic couplet. A quatrain in this meter is known as the heroic stanza. The heroic line in classical prosody is the hexameter. verse composed of heroic lines. Whether the English pentameter or the classical hexameter, is known as heroic verse.Humours
Through the Renaissance period, humours was a physiological term for the four primary fluids of the human body, blood, phlegm, choler, (for yellow bile), and melancholy(for black bile). the mixture of these humours was thought to determine both man's physical condition and his character. A a preponderance of one or another humours in a temperament was supposed to produce four types of disposition, whose names have survived the underlying theory. Sanguine(from blood), phelgmatic, choleric, and melancholic. Ben Jonson based on this physiology his theory of the comedy of humours, in which each person is regarded as motivated by a preponderant humour that gives him a characteristic bias or eccentricity of disposition.Idyll
Primarily a poem descriptive of rural scenes and events; a pastoral or rurl poem like the idylls of Theocritus; also to longer poems of a descriptive and narrative character, as Tennyson's / dylls of the King 2. An episode or a series of events or circumstances of pastoral or rural simplicity, fit for an idyll.Imagery
Descriptive representation: sensory content of a literary work; figurative language intended to evoke a picture or and idea in the mind of the reader.Innuendo
An oblique hint; an indirect intimation about a person or thing; an inferential suggestion, commonly used in a bad sense, but sometimes in n innocent one.Intentional Fallacy
In contemporary criticism, a term used to describe the error of judging the success and the meaning of a work of art by the author's expressed or ostensible intention in producing it.Interlude
A type of dramatic entertainment popular in England in the 15th and 16th centuries. The terms as it is used now, generally refers to those plays which were a development from the earlier miracle and morality plays and are significant in the history of the drama as a transition to the Elizabethan plays. Interludes might be serious and moralistic but were more likely to be rough and farcical.Intrigue
The incidents which make up the plot of aplay. Although the word intrigue may properly be used to refer to any plot in the drama, it is most likely to be applied to one which is elaborate and especially to one in which the schemes of one or more of the characters provide the motivating force.Irony
A device by which a writer expresses a meaning contradictory to the stated or ostensible one. There are many techniques for achieving irony. The writer may, for example, make it clear that the meaning he intends is the opposite of his literal one, or the may construct a discrepancy between an expectation and its fulfillment or between the appearance of a situation and the reality that underlies it. Whatever his technique, the writer demands that the reader perceives the concealed meaning that lies beneath his surface statement.Lampoon
Writing which ridicules and satirizes the character or personal appearance of a person is a bitter, scurrilous manner.Lay
A lyric, or more commonly, a short narrative poem often in four stress couplets and meant to be sung. Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel imitates such a medieval verse narrative, though intended to be read or recited without music.Limerick
A form of light verse, a particularly popular type of nonsense verse. Its composition follows a rather definite pattern: five anapestic lines of which the first, second, and fifth, consisting of three feet, rime; and the third and fourth lines, consisting of two feet, rime. Sometimes a limerick is written in four lines, but when so composed, its third line bears an internal rime and might easily be considered two lines.Madrigal
A poem to be set to music and usually concerned with love.Magnum Opus
A great work, a masterpiece. Formerly the term was used in all seriousness, but nowadays it often carries with it a suggestion of irony or sarcasm.Masque
A form of amateur histrionic entertainment, commonly with elaborate consumes and scenery, in vogue at court and among the nobility in England in the 16th and 17th centuries. Originally consisted of dumb show and dancing, but afterward including dialogue and song. Also refers to a dramatic composition for such an entertainment.Metaphor
A figure to speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable, in order to suggest a resemblance.Metaphysical Poetry
A type of English poetry that flourished in the 17th century. Metaphysical poetry was concerned especially the religious themes and was characterized by an involved method of expression known as the conceit. Its most noticeable qualities are an obscurity of idea and an extravagance and harshness of expression.Metonymy
A common figure of speech which is characterized by the substitution of a term naming an object closely associated with the word in mind for the word itself. In this was we commonly speak of the king as "the crown", an object closely associated with kingship thus being made to stand for "king."Metrics
The systematic examination of the patterns of rhythms in poetry, and the formulation of principles describing their mature; another term for prosody.Mime
A player in a kind of farce among the ancient Greeks and Romans which depended for effect largely upon ludicrous actions, gestures, etc.; generally a comedian or buffoon; an actor or pantomimist; any mimic or imitator.Minstrel
A wandering poet or musician of the later middle Ages.Miracle Plays
Plays developed in the 14th and 15th centuries for secular performance but with religious themes. They are successors of earlier dramatizations of episodes of the Christian story which were presented in church.Mock Epic or Mock Heroic
Terms frequently used interchangeably to designate a literary form which burlesque epic poetry by treating a trivial subject in the grand style, or which uses the epic formulas to make ridiculous a trivial subject by ludicrously overstating it. When the mock poem is much shorter than a true epic some prefer to call it mock heroic, a term also applied to poems which mock romances rather than epics. Ordinary usages, however, employ the terms interchangeably.Monody
A dirge or lament in which a single mourner expresses individual grief, e.g. Arnold's Thyrsis, Monody.Morality Plays
Plays developed in the early 15th century for the purpose of encouraging good behaviour in their hearers. Generally the morality plays present abstract virtues and vices struggling for possession of a man's soul. There is usually a debate between body and soul in which the soul moralizes against the body, which has led it unwillingly down the road to damnation. Finally, after death, abstractions representing heavenly judgment decide whether man shall be given mercy or harsh punishment. These heavenly abstractions are often the Four Daughters of God: Mercy and Peace (for salvation), Righteousness and Truth (for damnation).Muses
In Greek mythology, there were none muses, the daughters of Zeus and Memory. Though at first, one was not distinguished from another, they later had their individual provinces to preside over. Clio was the muse of history, Calliope of epic poetry, Erato of love poetry, Euterpe of lyric poetry, Melpomene of tragedy, Polyhymnia of songs to the gods, Terpsichore of the dance, Thalia of comedy, Urania of astronomy.Mystery play
A medieval religious play based upon biblical history, and dramatized stories of the Old Testament, New Testament and the death and resurrection.Novella
A tale or short story. The term is particularly applied to the early tales of Italian and French writers-such as the Decameron of Boccaccio and the Heptameron of Marguerite of Valois.Ode
A lyric poem expressive of exalted or enthusiastic emotion, especially one of complex or irregular metrical form. Originally and strictly, such a composition was intended to be sung.Omniscient Point of View
A term used to describe the point of view in a work of fiction in which the author is capable of knowing, seeing, and telling whatever he wishes in the story, and exercises this freedom at will.Onomatopoeia
The naming of anything by a more or less exact reproduction of the sound which it makes, or something audible. Connected with it.Ottava Rima
A term designating an eight line stanza, the last two forming a couplet, each line containing eleven syllables.Panegyric
A formal written or oral composition lauding a person.Patomime
A plays or entertainment in which the performers express themselves by mute gestures, often to the accompaniment of music; also a form of lavish and elaborate theatrical spectacle developed in England in the early part of the 18th century.Parable
An illustrative story answering a question or pointing a moral or lesson.Paradox
A statement or opinion seemingly self contradictory or absurd that may actually be well founded or true.Pastoral Elegy
A poem employing conventional pastoral imagery, written in dignified serious language, ad taking as its theme the expression of grief at the loss of a friend or important person.Pathetic Fallacy
A term first used by Ruskn to designate the literary device by which nature and inanimate objects are credited with human emotions.Peripety
The reversal of fortune for the protagonist in a dramatic or fictional plot, whether to his fall in a tragedy or to his success in a comedy.Picaresque Novel
Literary works that deal with the fortunes of rogues or adventurers.Pindaric Ode
The regular ode, characterized by a division into units containing three parts- the strophe and antistrophe, alike in form,. and the epode, different from the other two, See Ode.Plagiarism
Literary theft. A writer who steals the plot of some obscure, forgotten story and uses it as new in a story of his own is a plagiarist.Poetic Justice
An ideal distribution of rewards and punishments such as is common in poetry and works of fiction.Polemic
A work, argumentative in nature, which presents the writer's viewpoint on a controversial subject. Many English authors such as Swift and Milton have written polemical works, of which Miltons' Areopagitica is perhaps the most famous.Pre-Raphaelite
One of a group of English artists (the "Pre Raphaelite Brother hood," formed in 1848, and inculding Holman Hunt, Millais, and Dante Gabrial Rossetti) who endeavoured to revive the style and spirit of the Italian artists before the time of Raphael, and laid stress upon delicacy of clour and finish and fidelity to nature. The same principles were applied to the writing of poetry as well as painting.Protagonist
In the Greek drama, the leading character or actor in a play: hence, in general, any leading character.Refrain
A phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a song or poem, especially at the end of each stanza; a burden; a chorus.Repartee
A ready, pertinent, and witty reply.Revenge Tragedy
A form of drama made popular on the Elizabethan Stage by Thomas Kyd. Although central theme is revenge, it also includes the use of real or pretended insanity, suicide, intrigue, a scheming villain, philosophic soliloquies and the sensational use of horrors.Romantic
A term used of literature that is centred upon the inner rather than upon the outer world and that tries to convey the writer's feelings in a manner uniquely expressive of his experience and his personality though not in traditional formal patterns. These features distinguish it from classical writing. The romantic movement that started at the close of the eighteenth century was a reaction against the formalism of a period dominated by a mechanistic view of life. Romanticism, another name for this reaction, applies, also to any trend that exalts nature above artifice, sensibility above intellect, the foreign, above the familiar, energy above restraint, and the search for an Absolute above concern with the here and now. The romantic is one who takes this attitude.Semantics
That part of language that deals with the definitions of words and particularly the historical changes of those definitions.Seven Deadly Sins
The seven cardinal sins which, according to medieval theology, entailed spiritual death and could be atoned for only by perfect penitence pride, envy, the wrath, sloth avarice gluttony and the lust.Simile
The comparing or likening f two things having some strong point or points of resemblance, both of which are mentioned and the comparisons directly stated.Stream of Consciousness Novel
A term coined by William James in 1890 to describe the flux of thought. It is used in reference to writing that records mental activity ranging from the complete consciousness to the unconscious. Its most prominent technique is the interior monologue, which reveals the minds of the characters in such a manner (commonly without punctuation logical transitions, or conventional syntax) as to reflect the fluid and unending activity to the mind with all its apparent irrelevancies, and chaotic thought sequences.Surrealism
A movement in art and literature emphasizing the expression of the imagination as realized in dreams and presented without conscious control. It developed in France under the leadership of Andre Breton in 1924. As a literary movement it has beeen confined almost entirely to France, but as a movement in the modern art it has had many flowers, among them Dali, Miro, Duchamp and Max Ernest.Tone (Tone Colour)
Tone is used in contemporary criticism, as a term designating the attitudes toward the subject and toward the audience implied in a literary work. In such a usage a work may have a tone that is formal, informal intimate, solemn, sombre, playful, serious, ironic, condescending, or any of many other possible attitudes, clearly tone in this sense contributes in a major way to the effect and the effectiveness of a literary work. In another sense, tone is used to designate the mood of the work itself and the various devices that are used to create that mood. In this sense, tone results from combinations and variations of such things as meter, rime, alliteration, assonance, consonance, diction, sentence structure, repetition, imagery, symbolism, etc.Tragi-Comedy
A play which employs a plot suitable to tragedy but which ends happily like a comedy. the action, serious in themeand subject matter and sometimes in tone also, seems to be leading to a tragic catastrophe until an unexpected turn in events brings about the happy ending.
Trope
A word or expression used in a different sense from that which properly belongs to it, or a word changed from its original signification to another for the sake of giving spirit or emphasis to an idea. Among the major tropes are metaphor, simile, hyperbole, metonymy synecdoche, and irony.Verisimilitude
The appearance or semblance of truth and actuality. The term has been used in criticism to indicate the degree to which a writer faithfully creates the semblance of the truth.Wit
The term wit has, in critical and general usage, undergone periodic change so that its meanings. overlapping, from period to period, have at any one time been numerous. In the Renaissance, the word wit meant "intelligence" or "wisdom". During the seventeenth century, the term wit meant fancy, implying such nimbleness of thought land such originality in figures of John Donne and others. In the latter half of the century, the meaning of wit changed. For Hobbes (in the Leviathan 1651) judgment rather than fancy was the principal element of wit, and in fact, he felt that wit could be achieved by judgment alone. The excess of fancy, he remarked later, resulted in a loss of delight in wit. As a poetic faculty, true wit was the poet, s ability to see similarities in apparently dissimilar things. False wit, as later described by Addison, involved the association of words rather than of ideas: such linguistic devices as puns, anagrams, acrostics, etc., he listed as types of such wit.In modern times, wit is limited to intellectually amusing utterance calculated to delight and surprise.
