Allegory寓言;讽喻
A story in which people (or things or actions) represents an idea or a generalization about life. Allegories usually have a strong lesson or moral.

Alliteration头韵
The repetition of initial consonant sounds in words, such as "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers."

Allusion典故
A reference to a familiar person, place, thing, or event- for example, Don Juan, brave new world, Everyman, Machiavellian, utopia.

Analogy类比 
A comparison of objects or ideas that appear to be different but are alike in some important way.

Anapestic meter 
Meter that is composed of feet are short-short-long or unaccented-unaccented-accented, usually used in light whimsical poetry, such as a limerick.

Anecdote 轶事
A brief story that illustrates or makes a point.

Antagonist对比
A person or thing working against the hero of a literary work (the protagonist).

Aphorism名言
A wise saying, usually short and written.

Apostrophe
A turn from the general audience to address a specific group of persons (or a personified abstraction) who is present or absent. For example, in a recent performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet turned to the audience and spoke directly to one woman about his father's death.

Assonance
A repetition of the same sound in words close to one another- for example, white stripes.

Blank verse
Unrhymed verse, often occurring in iambic pentameter.

Caesura
A break in the rhythm of language, particularly a natural pause in a line of verse, marked in prosody by a double vertical line

Characterization对人或物的特性描述
A method an author uses to let readers know more about the characters and their personal traits.

Cliché
An expression that has been used so often that it loses its expressive power- for example, "dead as a doornail" or "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."

Consonance
Repetition of the final consonant sound in words containing different vowels- for example, "stroke of luck."

Couplet
A stanza made up of two rhyming lines.

Diction
An author's choice of words based on their clearness. conciseness, effectiveness, and authenticity.
Choices of words (Diction) includes Archaic, Colloquialisms, Dialect, Jargon, Profanity, Slang, and Vulgarity