Literary Terms as defined by M.H. Abrams
Symbolism: in the broadest sense a symbol is something that represents another. In literature it is a word or phrase that signifies with a range of references beyond itself. This is in contrast with an emblem which is meant to singularly represent.
e.g. the albatross as a living being symbolic of the sublime, but also representing Coleridge’s fascination with nature
Internal Rhyme: Rhyming words consist of repetition of the last stressed vowel and of all speech sounds following that vowel, Rime of the Ancyent Marinere utilizes both internal rhyme within the same line as well as alternating rhyming couplets that follow an ABCB rhyme scheme
e.g.1) About, about, in reel and rout
2) And every tonge, through utter drought,
Was wither’d at the root;
We could not speak, no more if
We had been choked with soot
Anaphora: repetition of a word or phrase which signifies plenitude/abundance.
e.g. The ice was here, the ice was there,
the ice was all around:
Alliteration: repetition of a speech sound in a sequence of words and only applied to consonants and only when the recurrent sound begins a word or stressed syllable. Used stylistically to reinforce meaning or to link related words or to provide tone color and enhance the palpability of enunciating the words.
e.g. The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow follow’d free;
Irony: a sense of dissembling or hiding what is actually the case; not in order to deceive but for rhetorical effect, or under/overstatement used for a similar rhetorical effect.
e.g. Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.
Simile: a comparison of two distinctly different things with the use of like or as.
e.g. The water, like a witch’s oils,
Burnt green, and blue, and white.
Personification: in which the inanimate or abstract are endowed with life or human attributes or feeling.
e.g. ‘O sleep! It is a gentle thing,
Beloved from pole to pole!
Paradox: a statement which seems on its face to not be logically sound, yet turns out to be interpretable in a way that makes good sense.
e.g. But where the ship’s huge shadow lay
The charmed water burnt always.
Literary Ballad: the Rime of the Ancyent Marinere is a literary ballad, a narrative poem written in deliberate imitation of the form, language and spirit of the traditional ballad which is an orally transmitted song telling a story.
Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms, ed. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. New York: Montreal, 1988.