Literary Terms, Concepts, and Devices Explained

Literary Terms Defined

Poem

Poem: the textual unit.

Verse

Verse: the unit of measure, rhythm, and rhyme.

Measure

Measure: takes into account the number of syllables.

Rhyme

Rhyme: the final sound matching two or more verses from the last vowel.

Rhythm

Rhythm: the right combination of stressed and unstressed syllables within the verse, which imparts musicality.

Stanza

Stanza: the unit formed by the combination of verses with no predetermined measure and a particular rhyme. Often lyrical.

Eglogue

Eglogue: contains the expression of the feeling of love put into the mouth of shepherds in the middle of idealized nature.

Elegy

Elegy: expresses the pain of death.

Ode

Ode: expresses feelings like love or sadness in many different shades.

Satire

Satire: censorship or critique, often humorous and almost always brief.

Fable

Fable: short narrative prose with the intention of moralizing, often featuring animal characters.

Epistolary

Epistolary: literary prose composition in the form of a letter.

Dialogue

Dialogue: literary work in which two or more characters exchange views on a topic for the sake of explanation.

Essay

Essay: literary prose whose purpose is to present and discuss a topic from observation and experience. Often didactic.

Key Latin Phrases

Carpe Diem

Carpe Diem: (Latin for "seize the day") emphasizes living in the present.

Collige, Virgo, Rosas

Collige, Virgo, Rosas: (Latin for "gather, girl, the roses") encourages young women to enjoy their youth before aging.

Beatus Ille

Beatus Ille: (Latin for "blessed is he") expresses contentment with a simple, rural life and contempt for material goods.

Golden Mean (Aurea Mediocritas)

Golden Mean: the desirable middle ground between two extremes, avoiding excess and promoting peaceful living.

Locus Amoenus

Locus Amoenus: (Latin for "pleasant place") description of an idealized, pleasant landscape.

Ubi Sunt?

Ubi Sunt?: (Latin for "where are they?") a motif where the poet laments the absence of people or things from the past, often wondering about the whereabouts of the dead.

Medieval Literature Concepts

Medieval Themes

• Religious themes, derived from the Bible and lives of saints.
• The theme of death, implying contempt for worldly possessions.
• The theme of fickle fortune and its influence on human life.
• Themes relating to the heroic world and chivalric love.
• Present in popular and cultured lyric poetry.

Literary Influences

• Eastern-Arabic and French (Jarchas), reaching via the Camino de Santiago and influencing epic poetry.
• Italian, a later influence, notably on the Marquis de Santillana.
• Classical, which was not forgotten during the Middle Ages.

Book of Good Love Structure

• I) A prose prologue explaining the work's moralizing intent.
• II) A happy and carefree story detailing the protagonist's various affairs, often interrupted by other elements.
• III) Different narratives, such as the battle between Don Carnal and Doña Lent, and the story of Don Melón and Doña Endrina.
• IV) A number of satires.
• V) Moral reflections on various topics.
• VI) Religious lyrical poems.
• VII) Lyrical poems on secular subjects.

Literary Devices

Chiasmus

Chiasmus: a rhetorical device in which two or more clauses are related to each other through a reversal of structures (e.g., "Juan, hey; hey, Juan").

Hyperbole

Hyperbole: exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally (e.g., "My house is just a few steps away").

Pun

Pun: a joke exploiting different meanings of a word or words that sound alike (e.g., "Bird stop Roma" / "Rome burns sometimes").

Epithet

Epithet: an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned (e.g., "the white snow").

Understatement

Understatement: the presentation of something as being smaller, worse, or less important than it actually is (e.g., "These are ill at ease").

Personification

Personification: the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman (e.g., "The joy gets out of hand").

Antithesis

Antithesis: a figure of speech in which an opposition or contrast of ideas or words is presented in a balanced or parallel construction (e.g., "One for all, and all for one").

Paradox

Paradox: a seemingly absurd or contradictory statement or proposition which when investigated may prove to be well founded or true.