Zig-Zag glossary

• Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds.
• Antithesis is the contrasting of opposites for emphasis.
• Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds.
• Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds.
• An autobiography is a non-fiction account of the author's own life.
• A caesura is break or pause within a line of verse.
• Chronology is the placing of things in the order they occurred.
• A connotation is an additional or carried meaning.
• Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds.
• A couplet is a two-line stanza, either rhyming or non-rhyming.
• Decasyllabic means a line of verse containing 10 syllables.
• Declarative is a statement.
• Dialectical means an interactive disputation.
• A diptych in art is a work created from 2 linked pieces.
• A discourse is a structured text, the structure of something, a treatise.
• Elliptical refers to a written style in which words serving a grammatical or semantic function are omitted; using an abbreviated, consise, almost ungrammatical style.
• End-stopped means a line of verse ending in a punctuation mark, usually concluding meaning or forcing a stoppage in the phrasing.
• Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence across multiple lines of verse.
• An epigraph is an inscription at the head of a chapter or section.
• A euphemism is a more acceptable expression substituted for one that could be viewed as insensitive or offensive.
• An extended metaphor is an image or symbol that is continued throughout a text or section.
• Free verse is lines of verse without a regular metre, syllabic count or (generally) rhyme scheme.
• A haiku is a traditional Japanese poetic form consisting of a still image conveyed through three lines, the first and third with five syllables, the second with seven syllables.
• A homophone is a word that sounds identical to another word.
• Hypersyllabic means including more than the usual number of syllables (similar to hypermetrical).
• Hyposyllabic means including fewer than the usual number of syllables (similar to hypometrical).
• Iambic refers to a traditional British verse form consisting of alternatinf unstressed and stressed syllables.
• Imagery is a detailed description to engage the reader's imagination.
• Juxtaposition is the contrasting of opposites.
• Liminal means marginal, to do with borders or points of transition.
• A lyric is a type of emotionally-focussed verse with song-like qualities.
• A metaphor is an image in which something is described as something difficult in order to clarify the intended function of it.
• Metonymy is the description of something by focussing on aspects of it.
• Metre is regular patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables within lines of poetry.
• Monosyllabic means words or lines including only a single syllable.
• A motif is a recurring image or symbol within a text.
• The narrative is the 'storyline' of a text.
• A narrator is the person who tells the story.
• 'Other' is a point of contrast against which an individual or group define themselves.
• An oxymoron is a self-contradictory image, the use of opposing references applied to a single item.