American Literature CLEP Study Guide

Prose --All work that is not poetry, drama, or song. Articles, Autobiographies, biographies, novels, essays. Poetry --Selected words strung together for their beauty, sound and power to express feelings Fable --Short, easy to read story. Teaches a lesson about people. Prose Folk Tale --Story handed down between generations: Fable, Fairy Tale, Legend, Tall tale, Myth. Prose Legend --Explains origins of natural items. Prose Humor --Amusing components: sarcasm, word play, irony, exaggeration. Proze Memoir --1st person recollection of an event. Prose Ballad --Story told in song form. Common themes: love and adventure. Poetry Lyric --Brief musical poems that convey speakers feelings. Poetry Narrative --Story in poetic form. Has plot, characters, and theme, like narrative story. Poetry Sonnet --14 line poem w/ set scheme and rhythm, usually iambic pentameter. Poetry. Antagonist --Force or character in conflict with protagonist. Exposition --1st part of plot. Introduces characters, setting, and conflict. Rising Action --2nd part of plot. Builds Conflict and develops characters. Climax --3rd part of plot. Highest point of action. Denouement --4th part of plot. Resolves story and ties up loose ends. Blank Verse --Un-rhymed lines of iambic pentameter. captures natural rhythm of speech. Foot --group of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. Free verse --no regular beat, rhyme, or line length. Fathered by Walt Whitman. Meter --Beat of a poem created by stressed and unstressed syllables. Refrain --Line or group of lines repeated at the end of a poem or song. Stanza --Group of lines in a poem. AKA verse. Allusion --Reference to a well known place, event, person, work of art, or other literature. Image --word which appeals to one or more of our senses. Speaker --personality the writer assumes when telling a story Symbol --Person , place, or object which represents an abstract idea Americas 1st Writers, (Early Colonial) --Puritanism and John Smith Total deprevity --Everyone is born sinful. 'original sin' Puritan belief. Doctrine of election --God chooses who is saved and doomed. Puritan belief. Limited atonement --Jesus died for a select few. Puritan belief. William Bradford --. first leader of Plymouth Colony= 'Kingdom of God'. -Re-elected 30 times. -One of Mayflower Compact authors -'History of Plymouth Plantation' John Winthrop --Founder of Mass. Bay colony. Arrived in 1630 on Arabella. Governer of Mass. Bay colony. Famous sermon: 'A model of christian charity' Anne Bradstreet --. 1st Am. published poet. 'The 10th muse lately sprung up in a Am.' 1650 'Love me tender, Love me true' = love for husband, promise of heaven. 'Verses of our burning house' = house means nothing compared to promise of heaven. Puritan. Michael Wigglesworth --Author of 'The day of doom' 1662, 1st Am. best seller = Puritan beliefs and end of the world. Edward Taylor --. Puritan minister, finest puritan writer/poet. 2nd gen. explored self examination. Used conceits. Influenced:T.S Eliot and Ezra Pound. Huswifery --Poem by Edward Taylor