A Reader's Guide to Literary Terms: A Dictionary

ACATALECTIC ACCENT achieve action actors aesthetic anapest ancient ballad beast epic called characters Classical comedy consisting contains couplet critics describe designed developed device drama eighteenth century elements Elizabethan emotion England English epic essay example expression figure of speech French genre Greek Hamlet hero Hotchkiss humor I. A. Richards iamb iambic idea imitation irony language Latin literary literature lyric meaning medieval metaphor meter metrical foot Milton MIRACLE PLAY modern moral narrative nature notable novel Oedipus original Oscar Wilde pastoral pattern Petrarchan sonnet play playwright plot poem poetic poetry poets popular prose qq.v quatrain reader refers refrain Renaissance rhetorical rhyme scheme rhythm Romantic satirical scene Shakespeare's short sometimes song sonnet sprung rhythm stanza stock character story stress style symbols synonym T. S. Eliot tercet term theater theatrical Thomas tion tragedy trochee unstressed syllables usually Villanelle W. B. Yeats word writers Yeats