Literary Terms for High School Students

alliteration

allusion

anachronism

antagonist

assonance

ballad

blank verse

characterization

climax

conflict

connotation

couplet

denotation

denouement

drama

enjambment

epic

exposition

fiction

figure of speech

flashback

foreshadowing

free verse

hyperbole

imagery

internal rhyme

irony

meter

narration

nonfiction

novel

onomatopoeia

personification

persuasion

plot

poetry

point of view

protagonist

quatrain

rhythm

satire

scansion

setting

simile

sonnet

speaker

stanza

stress

theme

tone

triplet

metaphor

didactic

symbol

soliloquy

end-rhymed

iambic

dramatic irony