Romeo and Juliet

• Characterization - the creation or construction of a fictional character.
• Rhyming Couplet - two lines of a verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit.
• Epithet - an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned.
• Black Verse - verse without rhyme, especially that with uses iambic pentameter.
• Personification - a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thought or attitudes.
• Alliteration - repetition of the initial constant sounds.
• Simile - A comparison between two things using the words "like" or "as".
• Pun - a joke exploiting the different possible meaning of a word of the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings.
• Oxymoron - a form pf paradox that combines a pair of opposite terms in a single unusual expression.
• Hyperbole - a figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point or evoke humor.
• Monologue - a long speech made by one of the performer or by one person in a group.
• Soliloquy - a literary or dramatic speech by one character, not addressed to others. Used to let the audience "hear" what the character is thinking.
• Allusion - a reference to something outside the text
• Apostrophe - this occurs when a character or speaker calls out to a person dead or absent or inanimate object as if they could respond
• Caesurea - found exclusively in poetry, a pause in the middle of a line of poetry.
• Connotation - The meaning of a word or phrase that is not its literal meaning.
• Denotation - The literal meaning of a word, as opposed to its connotation.
• Diction - word choice
• Enjambment - when a line of poetry continues without a pause or break to the other line
• Hyperbole - an exaggerated statement or claim that is not meant to be taken literally.
• Idiom: a non literal phrase
• Metaphor: A figure of speech that compares two things that are not literally the same.
• Simile: A comparison between two things using the words "like" or "as
• onomatopoeia: the formation of word to litteral letters - zing zag
• Personification - giving a non-human object human qualities.
• Pun - play on words
• Understatment - when a person underestimates the value of something.
• Tone - how the author feels about the audience or the text
• Mood - how the readers feel when they read the text
• Imagery - The use of descriptive words to create a mental picture of a scene or event.
• Stanza - the sections of a poem
• Theme - underlying meaning of the text or what it is about
• Syntax - the order of words
• Diction - the choice of words.
• free verse - no rules
• Black verse - uses iambic pantameter