Literary Terms, COC-ENT
Want to be able to distinguish your limericks from your haikus and your paeans from your panegyrics? Dive deep into literary terms and forms.
Literary Terms Encyclopedia Articles By Title
cockneyism, the writing or the qualities of the writing of the 19th-century English authors John Keats, Percy Bysshe......
colon, in Greek or Latin verse, a rhythmic measure of lyric metre (“lyric” in the sense of verse that is sung rather......
columbiad, any of certain epics recounting the European settlement and growth of the United States. It may have......
columnist, the author or editor of a regular signed contribution to a newspaper, magazine, or Web site, usually......
comedia, a Spanish regular-verse drama or comedy. Specific forms include the comedia de capa y espada, a cloak-and-sword......
comedy, type of drama or other art form the chief object of which, according to modern notions, is to amuse. It......
common metre, a metre used in English ballads that is equivalent to ballad metre, though ballad metre is often......
common particular metre, a variation of ballad metre in which the four-stress lines are doubled to produce a stanza......
Commonwealth Book Prize, any of the annual literary prizes awarded from 1987 to 2013 by the Commonwealth Foundation,......
complaint, in literature, a formerly popular variety of poem that laments or protests unrequited love or tells......
comédie larmoyante, 18th-century genre of French sentimental drama, which formed a bridge between the decaying......
conceit, figure of speech, usually a simile or metaphor, that forms an extremely ingenious or fanciful parallel......
conceptismo, (from Spanish concepto, “literary conceit”), in Spanish literature, an affectation of style cultivated......
concrete poetry, poetry in which the poet’s intent is conveyed by graphic patterns of letters, words, or symbols......
confession, in literature, an autobiography, either real or fictitious, in which intimate and hidden details of......
confessional poetry, literary movement that emerged in American poetry in the 1950s and ’60s and remained influential......
consonance, the recurrence or repetition of identical or similar consonants; specifically the correspondence of......
contamination, in manuscript tradition, a blending whereby a single manuscript contains readings originating from......
conte, a short tale, often recounting an adventure. The term may also refer to a narrative that is somewhat shorter......
conversation piece, a piece of writing (such as a play) that depends for its effect chiefly upon the wit or excellent......
Coptic literature, body of writings, almost entirely religious, that dates from the 2nd century, when the Coptic......
coquecigrue, an imaginary creature regarded as an embodiment of absolute absurdity. François Rabelais in Gargantua......
Coretta Scott King Book Awards, any of a series of awards given in the United States by the American Library Association......
Cornish literature, the body of writing in Cornish, the Celtic language of Cornwall in southwestern Britain. The......
Costa Book Awards, series of literary awards given annually to writers resident in the United Kingdom and Ireland......
counting-out rhyme, gibberish formula used by children, usually as a preliminary to games in which one child must......
couplet, a pair of end-rhymed lines of verse that are self-contained in grammatical structure and meaning. A couplet......
courtesy literature, literature comprising courtesy books and similar pieces. Though it was essentially a book......
crepuscolarismo, (Italian: “twilight school”), a group of early 20th-century Italian poets whose work was characterized......
criollismo, preoccupation in the arts and especially the literature of Latin America with native scenes and types.......
Croatian literature, the literature of the Croats, a South Slavic people of the Balkans speaking the Croatian language......
Crossword Book Awards, any of a series of Indian literary awards established in 1998 by Indian book retailer Crossword,......
Culhwch and Olwen, (c. 1100), Welsh prose work that is one of the earliest known Arthurian romances. It is a lighthearted......
culteranismo, in Spanish literature, an esoteric style of writing that attempted to elevate poetic language and......
curtal sonnet, a curtailed or contracted sonnet. It refers specifically to a sonnet of 11 lines rhyming abcabc......
cyberpunk, a science-fiction subgenre characterized by countercultural antiheroes trapped in a dehumanized, high-tech......
cyborg, term blending the words cybernetic and organism, originally proposed in 1960 to describe a human being......
cycle, in literature, a group of prose or poetic narratives, usually of different authorship, centring on a legendary......
cynghanedd, Welsh poetic device. It is a complicated system of alliteration and internal rhyme, obligatory in the......
cywydd, Welsh verse form, a kind of short ode in rhyming couplets in which one rhyme is accented and the other......
Czech literature, the body of writing in the Czech language. Before 1918 there was no independent Czechoslovak......
cénacle, a literary coterie formed around various of the early leaders of the Romantic movement in France, replacing......
dactyl, metrical foot consisting of one long (classical verse) or stressed (English verse) syllable followed by......
Danish literature, the body of writings produced in the Danish and Latin languages. During Denmark’s long union......
Below is a list of notable deaths in 2024, arranged in chronological order. (The age of the individual is in parentheses.)......
Below is a list of notable deaths in 2025, arranged in chronological order. (The age of the individual is in...
debate, formal, oral confrontation between two individuals, teams, or groups who present arguments to support opposing......
decadence, a period of decline or deterioration of art or literature that follows an era of great achievement.......
decorum, in literary style, the appropriate rendering of a character, action, speech, or scene. The concept of......
denouement, conclusion after the climax of a narrative in which the complexities of the plot are unraveled and......
descort, a synonym for lai, a medieval Provençal lyric in which the stanzas are nonuniform. The term also refers......
diablerie, a representation in words or pictures of black magic or of dealings with the devil. Among the literary......
diaeresis, (from Greek diairein, “to divide”), the resolution of one syllable into two, especially by separating......
English novelist Charles Dickens had a knack for expertly portraying the symptoms of medical conditions. He also......
dialogue, in its widest sense, the recorded conversation of two or more persons, especially as an element of drama......
diary, form of autobiographical writing, a regularly kept record of the diarist’s activities and reflections. Written......
diction, choice of words, especially with regard to correctness, clearness, or effectiveness. Any of the four generally......
dilemma tale, typically African form of short story whose ending is either open to conjecture or is morally ambiguous,......
dime novel, a type of inexpensive, usually paperback, melodramatic novel of adventure popular in the United States......
Dionysian, characteristic of the god Dionysus or the cult of worship of Dionysus; specifically, of a sensuous,......
dipsas, a serpent with a bite said to produce intense thirst. The snake was the subject of a story told by several......
dissociation of sensibility, phrase used by T.S. Eliot in the essay “The Metaphysical Poets” (1921) to explain......
dithyramb, choral song in honour of the wine god Dionysus. The form was known as early as the 7th century bc in......
doggerel, a low, or trivial, form of verse, loosely constructed and often irregular, but effective because of its......
dolce stil nuovo, the style of a group of 13th–14th-century Italian poets, mostly Florentines, whose vernacular......
domestic tragedy, drama in which the tragic protagonists are ordinary middle-class or lower-class individuals,......
doppelgänger, (German: “double goer”), in German folklore, a wraith or apparition of a living person, as distinguished......
double dactyls, a light-verse form consisting of eight lines of two dactyls each, arranged in two stanzas. The......
dramatic irony, a literary device by which the audience’s or reader’s understanding of events or individuals in......
dramatic literature, the texts of plays that can be read, as distinct from being seen and heard in performance.......
dramatic monologue, a poem written in the form of a speech of an individual character; it compresses into a single......
dramaturgy, the art or technique of dramatic composition or theatrical representation. In this sense English dramaturgy......
drame bourgeois, type of play that enjoyed brief popularity in France in the late 18th century. Written for and......
dream allegory, allegorical tale presented in the narrative framework of a dream. Especially popular in the Middle......
drott-kvaett, a medieval Scandinavian verse form used in skaldic poetry. Drott-kvaett consists of stanzas of eight......
duan, a poem or song in Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic literature. The word was used by James Macpherson for......
Dutch literature, the body of written works in the Dutch language as spoken in the Netherlands and northern Belgium.......
dwarf, an individual who is much below the ordinary stature or size for his ethnic group or species. (For the physiology......
débat, a type of literary composition popular especially in medieval times in which two or more usually allegorical......
echo verse, a type of verse in which repetition of the end of a line or stanza imitates an echo. The repetition......
eclogue, a short pastoral poem, usually in dialogue, on the subject of rural life and the society of shepherds,......
education novel, a genre popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in which a plan of education was set......
eisteddfod, formal assembly of Welsh bards and minstrels that originated in the traditions of court bards of medieval......
elegiac stanza, in poetry, a quatrain in iambic pentameter with alternate lines rhyming. Though the older and more......
elegy, meditative lyric poem lamenting the death of a public personage or of a friend or loved one; by extension,......
elf, in Germanic folklore, originally, a spirit of any kind, later specialized into a diminutive creature, usually......
elision, (Latin: “striking out”), in prosody, the slurring or omission of a final unstressed vowel that precedes......
Elizabethan literature, body of works written during the reign of Elizabeth I of England (1558–1603), probably......
ellipsis, figure of speech characterized by the deliberate omission of a word or words that are, however, understood......
embedded journalism, the practice of placing journalists within and under the control of one side’s military during......
emblem book, collection of symbolic pictures, usually accompanied by mottoes and expositions in verse and often......
enclosed rhyme, in poetry, the rhyming pattern abba found in certain quatrains, such as the first verse of Matthew......
encomium, a prose or poetic work in which a person, thing, or abstract idea is glorified. Originally an encomium......
end rhyme, in poetry, a rhyme that occurs in the last syllables of verses, as in stanza one of Robert Frost’s “Stopping......
end stop, in prosody, a grammatical pause at the end of a line of verse, as in these lines from Alexander Pope’s......
English literature, the body of written works produced in the English language by inhabitants of the British Isles......
- Introduction
- Old English, Poetry, Manuscripts
- Prose, Novels, Poetry
- Medieval, Poetry, Romance
- Lyric Poetry, Verse Forms, Metrics
- Medieval, Renaissance, Poetry
- Chaucer, Gower, Poetry
- Medieval, Prose, Romance
- Renaissance, Poetry, Drama
- Elizabethan Poetry, Prose
- Sonnets, Poetry, Rhyme
- Elizabethan, Early Stuart, Drama
- Shakespeare, Plays, Poetry
- Restoration, Romanticism, Modernism
- Early Stuart, Poetry, Prose
- Jonson, Cavalier Poets
- Milton, Poetry, Epic
- Restoration, Poetry, Drama
- Locke, Enlightenment, Essays
- Enlightenment, Satire, Novels
- Swift, Satire, Poetry
- Novels, Fiction, Classics
- Romanticism, Poetry, Wordsworth
- Romanticism, Poetry, Novels
- Poetry, Romanticism, Satire
- Discursive Prose
- Victorian, Post-Romantic, Poetry
- Dickens, Victorian, Novels
- Romanticism, Poetry, Verse
- Victorian, Poetry, Novels
- Modernism, Poetry, Novels
- Modernism, Poetry, Novels
- WWI, Interwar, Poetry
- WWII, Poetry, Novels
- Poetry, Verse, Sonnets
- 21st Century, Poetry, Novels
englyn, a group of strict Welsh poetic metres. The most popular form is the englyn unodl union (“direct monorhyme......
enjambment, in prosody, the continuation of the sense of a phrase beyond the end of a line of verse. T.S. Eliot......
enthymeme, in syllogistic, or traditional, logic, name of a syllogistic argument that is incompletely stated. In......
entrelacement, a literary technique in which several simultaneous stories are interlaced in one larger narrative.......