LITERARY TERMS
Group #5: assonance, ballad, bard, bathos,
belle-lettres, bibliography, Bildungsroman,
blank verse, bombast, and burlesque
ASSONANCE
the repetition of
two or more vowel
sounds in a group
of words or lines in
poetry and prose
The Hammer
by Carl Sandburg
I have seen
The old gods go
And the new gods come.
Day by day
And year by year
The idols fall
And the idols rise.
Today
I worship the hammer.
BALLAD
A simple narrative verse that tells a
story that is sung or recited
Annabel Lee
by Edgar Allan Poe
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may
know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other
thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
from Annabel Lee, audio
Word used in audio: suf·fuse [suh-fyooz]
verb. to overspread with or as with a liquid,
color, etc.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more
than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of
Heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me—
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than
the love
Of those who were older than we—
Of many far wiser than we—
And neither the angels in Heaven above
Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
For the moon never beams, without bringing me
dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling—my darling—my life and my
bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea—
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
BARD
Originally, a Celtic poet who sang
epic poems while playing a harp. In
time, bard was used to refer to any
poet.
Today, it is often used to refer to
William Shakespeare (the Bard of
Avon).
BATHOS [BEY-THOS]
(from Greek bathys, "deep"), unsuccessful, and
therefore ludicrous, attempt to portray pathos in art,
i.e., to evoke pity, sympathy, or sorrow. The term was
first used in this sense by Alexander Pope in his
treatise Peri Bathous; or, The Art of Sinking in Poetry
(1728).
Bathos may result from
•an inappropriately dignified treatment of the commonplace,
•the use of elevated language and imagery to describe trivial
subject matter, or
•from such an exaggeration of pathos (emotion provoked by
genuine suffering) as to become overly sentimental or ridiculous.
EXAMPLE OF BATHOS IN POETRY
Even great poets occasionally lapse into
bathos. William Wordsworth’s attempt to
arouse pity for the old huntsman in
“Simon Lee” is defeated by the following
lines:
Few months of life has he in store
As he to you will tell,
For still, the more he works, the more
Do his weak ankles swell.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF BATHOS
Bathos = an abrupt descent from the
exalted to the banal, either in style or
content [opposite of climax is bathos]
For instance, "In the United States,
Osama bin Laden was wanted for
conspiracy, murder, terrorism, and
unpaid parking tickets."
BELLE-LETTRES \BEL-LETRƏ\
French term for the world of books,
criticism, and literature in general
NOTE: For this literary term,
no example is required.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
a list of works cited or otherwise
relevant to a subject or other work
NOTE: For this literary term,
no example is required.
BILDUNGSROMAN
[BIL-DOONGZ-ROH-MAHN]
Bildungsroman, class of novel that
deals with the maturation process, with
how and why the protagonist develops as
he does, both morally and
psychologically.
The German word Bildungsroman means
“novel of education” or “novel of
formation” [“bild” = German for build]
BILDUNGSROMAN (CONT.)
To spur the hero or heroine on to their
journey, some form of loss or discontent
must jar them at an early stage away from
the home or family setting.
NOTE: For this literary term,
no example is required.
BILDUNGSROMAN (CONT.)
The process of maturity is long, arduous, and
gradual, consisting of repeated clashes between
the protagonist's needs and desires and the views
and judgments enforced by an unbending social
order.
Eventually, the spirit and values of the social order
become manifest in the protagonist, who is then
accommodated into society. The novel ends with an
assessment by the protagonist of himself and his new
place in that society.
BLANK VERSE
non-rhyming poetry written in iambic
pentameter, the primary meter used in
English poetry and the works of
Shakespeare and Milton
It is “blank” because the lines generally do
not rhyme.
All Afternoon
by Charles Tomlinson
BLANK VERSE
All afternoon the shadows have been building
A city of their own within the streets,
Carefully correcting the perspectives
With dark diagonals, and paring back
Sidewalks into catwalks, strips of bright
Companionways, as if it were a ship
This counter-city. But the leaning, black
Enjambements like ladders for assault
Scale the façade and tie them to the earth,
Confounding fire-escapes already meshed
In slatted ambiguities. You touch
The sliding shapes to find which place is which
And grime a finger with the ash of time
That blows through both, the shadow in the shade
And in the light, that scours each thoroughfare
To pit the walls, rise out of yard and stairwell
And tarnish the Chrysler’s Aztec pinnacle.
BOMBAST
Inflated, pretentious speech or
writing that sounds important but
is generally balderdash
NOTE: For this literary term,
no example is required.
BURLESQUE
Literary work, film, or stage
production that mocks a person, a
place, a thing, or an idea by using
wit, irony, hyperbole, sarcasm, and/or
understatement.
For example, a burlesque may turn a supposedly
distinguished person into a buffoon or a
supposedly lofty subject into a trivial one. A
hallmark of burlesque is its thoroughgoing
exaggeration, often to the point of the absurd.
EXAMPLE OF BURLESQUE: DON QUIXOTE
Cervantes (1547-1616) used
burlesque in Don Quixote to
poke fun at chivalry and other
outdated romantic ideals.
WORKS CITED
“Bathos." Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.. 22
Feb. 2011. Web. 21 Feb. 2011.
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bathos>.
“The Bildungsroman Genre.” The Victorian Web. Nagoya, University,
Japan, 21 Feb. 2005. Web. 21 Feb. 2011.
<http://www.victorianweb.org/genre/hader1.html>.
“Bildungsroman .” Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica
Online. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/65244/bildungsroma
n>.
“Chrysler Building.” London an NYC. 24 Dec. 2010. Web. 21 Feb. 2011.
<http://www.londonandnyc.com/2010_12_01_archive.html >.
Cummings, Michael J. Literary Terms. 2010. Web. 21 Feb. 2011.
<http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xLitTerms.html>.Poetry
Foundation.org. Poetry Foundation., 2011. Web. 21 Feb. 2011.
<http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?i d=2046>.
“Suffuse.” Dictionary.com. 2014. Web. 2 Feb. 2014.
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/suffuse>.