Assam ASSEB HS Alternative English key terms

The central idea or underlying message a literary work explores, such as love, justice, or loss of innocence, usually conveyed through plot, character, and imagery rather than stated directly.

A recurring image, phrase, object, or situation that repeats through a text to reinforce its themes, for example repeated references to a journey or to birdsong.

A concrete object, person, or event that stands for a larger abstract idea beyond its literal meaning, such as a river representing the passage of time.

Descriptive language appealing to the senses that creates vivid mental pictures and mood, built from sensory detail and figurative comparisons rather than plain statement.

A figure of speech stating that one thing is another to suggest a shared quality, without using like or as, as in calling a city a sleeping giant.

A comparison between two unlike things using the words like, as, or than, for example cheeks like roses, making the resemblance explicit and easy to picture.

Giving human qualities, feelings, or actions to non-human things, animals, or abstract ideas, such as describing the wind as whispering threats.

Repetition of the same initial consonant sound in nearby words, as in silent silver stream, used to create rhythm, emphasis, or a memorable musical effect.

Repetition of similar vowel sounds within nearby words, usually in stressed syllables, producing internal rhyme and musicality without full end rhyme.

A word that imitates the sound it names, such as buzz, crash, or sizzle, letting the sound of the line echo its meaning.

A gap between what is said or expected and what is actually meant or happens, creating surprise, humour, or criticism in the reader's mind.

Writing that exposes and ridicules human folly or vice through irony, exaggeration, or wit, often aiming to provoke reform rather than mere amusement.

Deliberate and obvious exaggeration used for emphasis or comic effect, as in saying a bag weighed a ton, not meant to be read literally.

Presenting something as smaller or less important than it really is, often for ironic or restrained effect, as in calling a disaster a slight inconvenience.

A compact phrase joining two apparently contradictory words, such as bitter sweet or living death, to startle the reader into fresh perception.

A statement that seems self-contradictory yet reveals a deeper truth on reflection, such as the more you know, the less you feel you know.

The ordered pattern in which end rhymes recur across the lines of a poem, usually shown by letters such as abab or abcb.

The regular arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables that gives a line of verse its rhythmic beat, measured in feet such as iamb or trochee.

Unrhymed poetry written in regular iambic pentameter, common in long dramatic and reflective poems where natural speech rhythm matters more than rhyme.

Poetry without fixed metre or regular rhyme, shaped instead by line breaks, rhythm of speech, and imagery to suit its subject and voice.

A grouped set of lines in a poem, separated by a blank space, working like a paragraph and often carrying its own rhyme or thought unit.

A line or phrase repeated at intervals in a poem or song, often at the end of stanzas, to build rhythm and underline a central feeling.

A direct address to an absent person, a dead figure, an object, or an abstraction as though it could hear and reply, as in O death, where is thy sting.

A poem of mourning and reflection written for someone dead or for a lost era, moving from grief through praise toward consolation.

A formal lyric poem addressing and celebrating a person, object, or idea with elevated feeling and dignified structure.

A short poem expressing the personal thoughts or feelings of a single speaker, valued for musicality and emotional intensity rather than narrative.

A fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter with a fixed rhyme pattern, traditionally turning from problem to resolution in its final lines.

A situation in a play or story where the audience knows something a character does not, so the character's words carry a meaning they cannot see.

The methods a writer uses to build and reveal a character, through description, dialogue, action, and the reactions of others.

The main character whose fate and choices drive the narrative and hold the reader's central interest.

The character or force that opposes the protagonist and creates the central conflict of the story.

The struggle between opposing forces in a narrative, whether person against person, society, nature, or the self, which drives the plot forward.

The point of highest tension in a story where the central conflict reaches its decisive moment and the outcome begins to turn.

The final unravelling of a plot after the climax, in which loose threads are settled and the outcome is made clear to the reader.

The perspective and personality from which a story is told, including whether the narrator is first or third person and how much they know.

The angle from which a narrative is presented, such as first person, third-person limited, or omniscient, shaping what the reader can know.

The arranged sequence of events and causes in a story, moving through exposition, rising action, climax, and resolution.