Download Name - Union High School

Name:
Date:
Period:
Literary Elements of “The Raven”
Directions:
Define each term and provide a quote and line # from Poe’s “The Raven” that serves as an
example for each.
1. Gothic Fiction -
2. Tone -
3. Symbolism -
4. Alliteration -
5. Assonance –
6. Allusion -
7. Internal Rhyme -
8. Refrain -
9. Simile -
10. Metaphor -
1
Gothic Fiction - Portrays fantastic tales dealing with horror, despair, and other “dark” subjects. Gothic
literature was named for the apparent influence of the dark gothic architecture of the period on the genre.
This literature gave birth to many other forms, such as suspense, ghost stories, horror, mystery, and also
Poe's detective stories.
2
Tone – A particular style in discourse or writing, which expresses the person's sentiment or reveals his
character; an author's attitude to his subject matter or audience and the distinctive mood created by this.
3
Symbolism – The practice of representing things by symbols, or of giving a symbolic character to objects
or acts
4
Alliteration – A pattern of sound that includes the repetition of consonant sounds. Poets often use
alliteration to audibly represent the action that is taking place. Poets may also use alliteration to call
attention to a phrase and fix it into the reader's mind; thus, it is useful for emphasis.
5
Assonance – The repetition of similar vowels in the stressed syllables of successive words
6
Consonance – The repetition of consonants or consonant patterns, especially at the ends of words
7
Internal Rhyme – The rhyming of words within a line of poetry, not just at the end of the lines
8
Refrain – A phrase or verse which recurs at intervals, especially at the end of a stanza
9
Simile – A type of figurative language (language that does not mean exactly what it says) that makes a
comparison between two otherwise unalike objects or ideas by connecting them with the words "like" or
"as." Similes allow an author to emphasize a certain characteristic of an object by comparing that object to
an unrelated object that is an example of that characteristic.
10 Metaphor – A type of figurative language in which a statement is made that says that one thing is
something else but, literally, it is not. In connecting one object, event, or place, to another, a metaphor can
uncover new and intriguing qualities of the original thing that we may not normally notice or even
consider important. As an effect, a metaphor functions primarily to increase stylistic colorfulness and
variety. Metaphor is a great contributor to poetry when the reader understands a likeness between two
essentially different things.