ENGLISH LITERATURE
POËZIE EN LITERATUUR
LITERARY TERMS: SHORT STORY
Genre = a form or category of literature (comedy, thriller, action).
Theme = a term used in different ways:
For the main idea of a work of literature.
An idea which a work explores.
An argument that a work advances.
It can be identified in a complete sentence, a noun phrase, or a single word (power).
Protagonist = main character.
Antagonist = a character (or thing, obstacle) in conflict with the protagonist.
Conflict = the central problem or issue to be resolved in a plot, involving the protagonist struggling
against an antagonist. Conflict can also refer to the ideas (themes) in a literary work.
Exposition = the revelation (onthulling) (usually early) in a story or play of necessary background
information.
Setting = the location of a story. It may be important in developing character, motivation and
meaning.
Foreshadowing = a hint that is fully understood only in retrospect after the reader discovers more
information later in the plot. What is going to come later in the story?
Climax = the high point of tension in a plot, when the outcome is decided.
Dénouement = resolution or conclusion: the scene in which a plot reaches its final outcome: the
main conflict is settled.
Irony = it refers to how a person, situation, statement, or circumstance is not as it would seem.
Many times it is the exact opposite of what it appears to be.
Flat character = a one-dimensional character who has only a few, easily defined traits. Most minor
characters are flat.
Round character = a multi-faceted character, especially one who can choose right or wrong.
Usually a protagonist. In most short stories there are no more dan one or two round characters.
,LITERARY TERMS: POETRY
Setting = where or when an event or story takes place. New York, America, in the year 1820.
Theme = a main idea or an underlying meaning in a poem. Love, jealousy, revenge.
Perspective = a writer may narrate the story from his own perspective, or from a character’s
perspective.
Stanzas = similar to paragraphs in a story or a couplet in a song.
Imagery = visual/ descriptive language. Anything that ignites the senses.
Metaphor = a figure of speech (metafoor). “A sea of knowledge” to express how smart they are.
Personification = a figure of speech in which a thing (an idea, or an animal) performs human actions.
Non-human objects act like human beings. “Sometimes the sun smiles, the wind whispers to the
trees, and the shadows of the leaves dance in the wind.”
Hyperbole = a figure of speech that involves an exaggeration of ideas, for the sake of emphasis.
“That suitcase weighted a ton!”
Rhythm:
Metre = a sound pattern in a verse; it gives poetry a rhythmical and melodious sound. In a
line are stressed and unstressed syllables.
Iambic pentameter = daDUM (klap op de tweede lettergreep) (pentameter = 5 klappen in een
regel)
Triambic pentameter =
Rhyme:
Rhyme scheme = it is the pattern of rhyme of end words in a poem. abab, cdcd, efef, gg
Internal rhyme = in the same sentence.
End rhyme = at the end of a sentence in the same stanza.
Repetition of sounds:
Alliteration = a repetition of letters (medeklinkers) with the same sound, at the beginning of
words, within one line. “Sally Sells Seashells by the Seashore.”
Repetition of words:
Assonance = two or more words, within one line, repeat the same vowel (=klinker) sound.
“mEn sEll the wEdding bElls.”
, POEM: SONNET 130 | WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Lastige woorden:
Dun = A dull grey.
Wires = Refers to gold spun into a golden thread, though his lover’s hair is not golden, but blackish
(dirty).
Damasked = Red and white mixed (so: pink).
Reeks = originally means ‘breathes forth’, but the modern meaning ‘having a bad smell’ is true to
what Shakespeare meant.
Hath= has
Grant = admit
Treads = walks
The plot: She is as rare as any of those women whom poets describe with comparisons that
exaggerate, and thus belie, human beauty.
Shakespearean Sonnet:
Sonnet is usually a poem about love or ideal beauty
14 lines, 3x4 lines (3 quatrains) and 1x2 lines (1 couplet)
Rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg
Iambic pentameter: Iamb (jambe) = 1 unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed one: da- DUM
Penta=5 (in Greek) so: 10 syllables in one line.
example:
my MIS / tress’ EYES / are NO / thing LIKE / the SUN
After 2 quatrains you usually find the volta, a turn or a change in thought and/or emotion
Analysis
Poem written in first-person perspective.
Satirizes traditional sonnets! This lady is NOT a perfect beauty– but he still truly loves her.
The poet describes his beloved in comparison with, or rather in contrast to, natural
phenomena: Her eyes do not shine like the sun, her lips are not as red as coral, etc.
She is not as beautiful as nature.
The volta shifts the attention to her voice and how she walks. BUT: he still loves her – and
she’s only human - so not perfect.
He goes even further: it would make no sense to describe her as godlike – as a human, he has
no experience with goddesses.
The couplet explains his reasons for writing this: He wants to make no false comparisons
(unlike other sonnet-writers who write about exaggerated perfection): her imperfection does
not diminish his love, perhaps only deepens it.
