Vocab List 10

Term: Poetic License The ability for a poet to leave social norms, literal reality, or historical truth in
order for them to create a special effect for the reader. It can also refer to when a writer ignores some
grammatical rules to create a special effect as well.
Example: William Shakespeares Julius Caesar Act III Scene II
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
Shakespeares utilizes poetic license in this case because he chooses not to put and between Romans and
countrymen in order to keep the line in iambic pentameter.
Term: Renaissance A cultural and intellectual movement during the 16 th century characterized by
rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman texts. This rediscovery is also why the Renaissance is also
known as rebirth.
Example: Castigliones The Courtier
HAVE a longe time doubted with my self (most loving M. Alphonsus) which of the two were harder for me, either to
denye you the thinge that you have with suche instance manye tymes required of me, or to take it in hande: bicause
on the one side me thoughte it a verye harde matter to denye anye thynge, especially the request beinge honest, to
the personne whom I love deerlye, and of whom I perceyve my selfe deerlye beloved.

Term: Restoration Period A period in time from 1660 to 1700 where Charles II, the Stuart monarch, was
restored to power from Oliver Cromwell. This led to a change in England from dogmatic Puritanism to
Enlightenment ideals such as logical, rationalism, and skepticism.
Example: John Miltons Paradise Lost is an epic from the restoration period
OF Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,

Term: Rhetorical Devices Rhetorical devices refer to a variety of methods in which language is used in
a specific way in order to obtain some rhetorical, persuasive, effect or some literary effect on the readers.
Using rhetorical devices is a creative way to add literary quality to a piece of wring.
Example: An example of a rhetorical device is anaphora, which is the repetition of some phrase at the
start of consecutive sentences. Here is an example from William Shakespeares Richard II from Act II
Scene I
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings [. . .]
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,

Term: Stock Characters A character type that appears repeatedly in a literary genre who has certain
characteristics or attitudes that are common throughout the literary genre.
Example: The folk story of Cinderella or The Little Glass Slipper that contains Cinderella is an example
of a female stock character. She would be an example of the Damsel in Distress.
Term: Symbols A literal thing such as a word, object, idea, or place that goes beyond its literal meaning
to hold some more important or deeper idea. Symbols can be used to express something more simply.
Symbols can be cultural things or they can be specific to a certain story.
Example: William Shakespeares As you Like It
All the worlds a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
they have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
Term: Tone The attitude of the writer towards some subject matter or towards the audience. Writers can
achieve tone through their diction or their general opinion towards the subject matter.
Example: Robert Frosts The Road Not taken
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Term: Victorian Period The period in British literature in the late nineteenth century which is marked by
excellent novelists, essayists, poets, and philosopher, but few dramatists. The dates associated with this
time period is typically the 1830s to 1900.
Example: Charles Dickens Pickwick Papers is a novel from the Victorian period. Chapter I. The
Pickwickians
The first ray of light which illumines the gloom, and converts into a dazzling brilliancy that obscurity in which the
earlier history of the public career of the immortal Pickwick would appear to be involved, is derived from the
perusal of the following entry in the Transactions of the Pickwick Club, which the editor of these papers feels the
highest pleasure in laying before his readers, as a proof of the careful attention, indefatigable assiduity, and nice
discrimination, with which his search among the multifarious documents confided to him has been conducted.

Term: Alexandrine A twelve-syllable line written in iambic hexameter.

Example: The last line of this stanza of To the Memory of Mr. Oldham by John Dryden is an
Alexandrine.
But satire needs not those, and wit will shine
Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line:
A noble error, and but seldom made,
When poets are by too much force betrayed.
Thy generous fruits, though gathered ere their prime,
Still showed a quickness; and maturing time
But mellows what we write to the dull sweets of rhyme.

Term: Anacrusis Adding an extra unstressed syllable or two at the start of a line of verse. These dont
usually count as a part of the meter though.
Example: The word and in the second line of Blakes The Tiger is an anacrusis.
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?