ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style

The Grammardog Guide to

Anthem by Ayn Rand

All exercises use sentences from the novel.

Includes over 250 multiple choice questions.

About Grammardog

Grammardog was founded in 2001 by Mary Jane McKinney, a high school English teacher

and dedicated grammarian. She and other experienced English teachers in both high

school and college regard grammar and style as the key to unlocking the essence of an

author.

Their philosophy, that grammar and literature are best understood when learned together,

led to the formation of Grammardog.com, a means of sharing knowledge about the

structure and patterns of language unique to specific authors. These patterns are what

make a great book a great book. The arduous task of analyzing works for grammar and

style has yielded a unique product, guaranteed to enlighten the reader of literary classics.

Grammardog’s strategy is to put the author’s words under the microscope. The result

yields an increased appreciation of the art of writing and awareness of the importance and

power of language.

Grammardog.com L.L.C.

P.O. Box 299

Christoval, Texas 76935

Phone: 325-896-2479

Fax: 325-896-2676

[email protected]

Visit the website at www.grammardog.com

for a current listing of titles. We appreciate teachers’ comments and suggestions.

E-mail us at [email protected]

ISBN 978-1-60857-011-9

From ANTHEM by Ayn Rand, copyright 1938, 1946 by Ayn Rand, Introduction copyright

© 1995 by Leonard Peikoff and the Estate of Ayn Rand. Used by permission of Dutton

Signet, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Copyright © 2004 Grammardog.com L.L.C.

Grammardog.com exercises may be reproduced for classroom and academic use only.

Any other use requires express written permission of Grammardog.com.

http://www.grammardog.com/

mailto:[email protected]

3

ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style

All exercises use sentences from the novel.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Exercise 1 -- Parts of Speech . . . . 5

25 multiple choice questions

Exercise 2 -- Proofreading: Spelling, Capitalization, . . . . 7

and Punctuation


Exercise 3 -- Proofreading: Spelling, Capitalization, . . . . 8

and Punctuation


Exercise 4 -- Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences . . . . 9


Exercise 5 -- Complements . . . 11

25 multiple choice questions on direct object,

indirect object, predicate nominative,

predicate adjective, and object of preposition

Exercise 6 -- Phrases . . . 13

25 multiple choice questions on infinitive,

gerund, prepositional, appositive, and

participial phrases

Exercise 7 -- Verbals . . . 15

25 multiple choice questions on infinitives,

gerunds, and participles

Exercise 8 -- Clauses . . . 17


4


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Exercise 9 -- Style: Figurative Language . . . 19

25 multiple choice questions on metaphor,

simile, and personification

Exercise10 -- Style: Poetic Devices . . . 21

25 multiple choice questions on assonance,

consonance, alliteration, repetition, and

rhyme

Exercise 11 -- Style: Sensory Imagery . . . 23


Exercise 12 -- Style: Allusions and Symbols . . . 25


Exercise 13 -- Style: Literary Analysis – Selected Passage 1 . . . 27








Answer Key -- Answers to Exercises 1-16 . . . 35

Glossary -- Literary Analysis . . . 37

Glossary -- Grammar . . . 48

5


EXERCISE 1 PARTS OF SPEECH

Identify the parts of speech in the following sentences. Label the underlined words: v = verb n = noun adj = adjective adv = adverb

prep = preposition pron = pronoun conj = conjunction

____1. The flame of the candle stands still in the air.

____2. But we cannot change our bones nor our body.

____3. We were born with a curse.

____4. When we were five years old, we were sent to the Home of the Students,

where there are ten wards, for our ten years of learning.

____5. So we fought against this curse.

____6. And we were lashed more often than all the other children.

____7. The sleeping halls are white and clean and bare of all things save one

hundred beds.

____8. They do not speak often, for they are weary.

____9. We left them to lie in the shade of the Theater tent and we went with

International 4-8818 to finish our work.

____10. They were frightened, but they stood by and watched us go.

____11. Hundreds upon hundreds of years ago men knew secrets which we have lost.

____12. International 4-8818 looked upon us and stepped back.

____13. “Equality 7-2521,” they said, “your face is white.”

____14. And now we know that metal draws the power of the sky, and that metal

can be made to give it forth.

____15. We used for it the copper wires which we found here under the ground.

____16. But then came the day when the sky turned white, as if the sun had burst

and spread its flame in the air, and the fields lay still without breath, and the

dust of the road was white in the glow.

6


EXERCISE 1 PARTS OF SPEECH

____17. And the Golden One stepped back, and stood looking upon their hands

in wonder.

____18. Men never see their own faces and never ask their brothers about it, for

it is evil to have concern for their own faces or bodies.

____19. This room has no windows and it is empty save for an iron post.

____20. Then we knew suddenly that we were lying on a soft earth and that we had

stopped.

____21. We are walking to the fangs awaiting us somewhere among the great,

silent trees.

____22. I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them.

____23. Then here, on this mountaintop, with the world below me and nothing

above me but the sun, I shall live my own truth.

____24. There is nothing to take a man’s freedom away from him, save other men.

____25. Through all the darkness, through all the shame of which men are capable,

the spirit of man will remain alive on this earth.

7


EXERCISE 2 PROOFREADING: SPELLING, CAPITALIZATION, PUNCTUATION

Read the following passages and decide which type of error, if any, appears in each underlined section.

PASSAGE 1 PASSAGE 2

We looked into thier eyes and we could not lie. “Our dearest one, we whispered.

1 1

“Yes, we whispered, and they smiled, and Never have men said this to Women.

2 2

then we said: Our dearest one, do not obey us.” The head of the Golden One bowed slowly, and

3

They steped back, and their eyes were wide they stood stil before us, their arms at their sides,

4 3

and still. the palmes of their hands turned to us, as if their

4

“Speak these words again,” they Whispered. body were delivered in submision to our eyes. And

5 5

“Which words? we asked. But they did not we could not speak

6 6

answer, and we knew it.

____1. a. Spelling ____1. a. Spelling

b. Capitalization b. Capitalization

c. Punctuation c. Punctuation

d. No error d. No error





















8


EXERCISE 3 PROOFREADING: SPELLING, CAPITALIZATION, PUNCTUATION

Read the following passages and decide which type of error, if any, appears in each underlined section.

PASSAGE 1 PASSAGE 2

When the Council of The Home questioned us, So we were taken to the Stone Room under the

1

we looked upon the faces of the Council, but Palace of Corective Detention. This room has no

2 1

there was no curosity in those faces, and no anger, window’s and it is empty save for an iron post.

3 2

and no mercy So when the oldest of them asked us: Two man stood by the post, naked but for leather

4 3

“Where have you been?” we thought of our glass aprons and leather hoods over their faces. those

4

box and of our light, and we forgot al else. And we who had brought us departed, leeving us to the two

5 5

answered: Judges who stood in a corner of the room

6

“we will not tell you.”

6

























9


EXERCISE 4 SIMPLE, COMPOUND, AND COMPLEX SENTENCES

Label each of the following sentences S for simple, C for compound, CX for complex,

or CC for compound/complex.

____1. We have committed a greater crime, and for this crime there is no name.

____2. The laws say that none among men may be alone, ever and at any time, for this

is the great transgression and the root of all evil.

____3. We know that we are evil, but there is no will in us and no power to resist it.

____4. We strive to be like all our brother men, for all men must be alike.

____5. Men must learn till they reach their fifteenth year.

____6. The sleeping halls were white and clean and bare of all things save one

hundred beds.

____7. The Teachers told us so, and they frowned when they looked upon us.

____8. We learned that the earth is flat and that the sun revolves around it, which

causes the day and the night.

____9. We could ask questions of these, for they do not forbid questions.

____10. It whispers to us that there are great things on this earth of ours, and that

we can know them if we try, and that we must know them.

____11. When the bell rings, we all arise from our beds.

____12. Thus we lived each day of four years, until two springs ago when our crime

happened.

____13. And when we cleaned the yard of the Home of the Scholars, we gathered the

glass vials, the pieces of metal, the dried bones which they had discarded.

____14. We were gathering the papers and the rags which the wind had blown from the

Theatre, when we saw an iron bar among the weeds.

____15. Thus we learned their name, and we stood watching them go, till their white

tunic was lost in the blue mist.

10


EXERCISE 4 SIMPLE, COMPOUND, AND COMPLEX SENTENCES

____16. The other women were far off in the field, when we stopped at the hedge by

the side of the road.

____17. “If you see us among scores of women, will you look upon us?”

____18. Then the three of the sisters in the field appeared, coming toward the road,

so the Golden One walked away from us.

____19. One night, we were cutting open the body of a dead frog when we saw its

leg jerking.

____20. It was dead, yet it moved.

____21. Many days passed before we could speak to the Golden One again.

____22. In a month, the World Council of Scholars is to meet in our City.

____23. We must guard our tunnel as we had never guarded it before.

____24. “Take our brother Equality 7-2521 to the Palace of Corrective Detention.”

____25. We opened our eyes, lying on our stomach on the brick floor of a cell.

11


EXERCISE 5 COMPLEMENTS

Identify the complements in the following sentences. Label the underlined words: d.o. = direct object i.o. = indirect object p.n. = predicate nominative

o.p. = object of preposition p.a. = predicate adjective

____1. We have broken the laws.

____2. We are alone here under the earth.

____3. We stole the candle from the larder of the Home of the Street Sweepers.

____4. All men are good and wise.

____5. And we learned much from our Teachers.

____6. This is an evil thing to say, for it is a transgression, the great Transgression of

Preference, to love any among men better than the others, since we must love

all men and all men are our friends.

____7. No men known to us could have built this place.

____8. Strange are the ways of evil.

____9. Yet as we stand at night in the great hall, removing our garments for sleep,

we look upon our brothers and we wonder.

____10. The eyes of our brothers are dull, and never do they look one another in

the eyes.

____11. We, Equality 7-2521, have discovered a new power of nature.

____12. We can give our brothers a new light, cleaner and brighter than any they

have ever known.

____13. The Judges were small, thin men, grey and bent.

____14. Many Judges came to our cell, first the humblest and then the most honored

Judges of the City.

____15. It was easy to escape from the Palace of Corrective Detention.

____16. The locks are old on the doors and there are no guards about.

12


____17. We lit the candle and we saw that our place had not been found and nothing

had been touched.

____18. Tomorrow, in the full light of day, we shall take our box, and leave our

tunnel open, and walk through the streets to the Home of the Scholars.

____19. We shall tell them the truth.

____20. Tomorrow we shall be one of you again.

____21. We saw a great painting on the wall over their heads, of the twenty illustrious

men who had invented the candle.

____22. “Our name is Equality 7-2521,” we answered, “and we are a Street Sweeper of

this City.

____23. Give no thought to us, for we are nothing, but listen to our words, for we bring

you a gift such as has never been brought to men.

____24. “We give you the power of the sky!” we cried.

____25. “The candle is a great boon to mankind, as approved by all men.

13


EXERCISE 6 PHRASES

Identify the phrases in the following sentences. Label the underlined words: par = participial ger = gerund inf = infinitive appos = appositive prep = prepositional

____1. There are few offenses blacker than to fight with our brothers, at any age

and for any cause whatsoever.

____2. The Council of the Home told us so, and of all the children of that year, we were

locked in the cellar most often.

____3. We, Equality 7-2521, were not happy in those years in the Home of the Students.

____4. This is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick.

____5. We did not listen well to the history of all the Councils elected since the

Great Rebirth.

____6. And then we saw iron rings as steps leading down a shaft into a darkness

without bottom.

____7. We knelt, and we crawled forward, our hand groping along the iron line to see

where it would lead.

____8. Each night, we run to the ravine, and we remove the stones which we have piled

upon the iron grill to hide it from men.

____9. And there it was that we saw Liberty 5-3000 walking along the furrows.

____10. And each day thereafter we knew the illness of waiting for our hour on the

northern road.

____11. Then they glanced at us over their shoulder, and we felt as if a hand had

touched our body, slipping softly from our lips to our feet.

____12. And we take no heed of the law which says that men may not think of women,

save at the Time of Mating.

____13. And we thought that we would not let the Golden One be sent to the Palace.

____14. Yet as we walked back to the Home of the Street Sweepers, we felt that we

wanted to sing, without reason.

14


EXERCISE 6 PHRASES

____15. So we were reprimanded tonight, in the dining hall, for without knowing it we

had begun to sing aloud some tune we had never heard.

____16. And now, sitting here in our tunnel, we wonder about these words.

____17. There are Fraternity 2-5503, a quiet boy with wise, kind eyes, who cry suddenly,

without reason, in the midst of day or night, and their body shakes with sobs they

cannot explain.

____18. We do not wish to look upon the Uncharted Forest.

____19. There was a thin thread of blood running from the corner of their mouth, but

the lips were smiling.

____20. We looked into their eyes and we could not lie.

____21. The Collective 0-0009, the oldest and wisest of the Council, spoke and asked:

“Who are you, our brother?”

____22. There is some error, one frightful error, in the thinking of men.

____23. We are sitting at a table and we are writing this upon paper made thousands

of years ago.

____24. We thought it was strange that men had been permitted to build a house for

only twelve.

____25. And here, in this uncharted wilderness, I and they, my chosen friends, my

fellow-builders, shall write the first chapter in the new history of man.

15


EXERCISE 7 VERBALS: GERUNDS, INFINITIVES, AND PARTICIPLES

Identify the underlined verbals and verbal phrases in the sentences below as being

gerund (ger), infinitive (inf), or participle (par). Also indicate the usage by labeling each: subj = subject d.o. = direct object o.p. = object of preposition

adj = adjective adv = adverb

Verbal Usage

____ ____1. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down

upon a paper no others are to see.

____ ____2. And now there is nothing here save our one body, and it is strange to

see only two legs stretched on the ground, and on the wall before us

the shadow of our one head.

____ ____3. It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be

superior to them.

____ ____4. We did not listen well to the history of all the Councils elected since

the Great Rebirth.

____ ____5. We wished to know about all the things which make the earth

around us.

____ ____6. To find these things, the Scholars must study the earth and learn

from the rivers, from the sands, from the winds and the rocks.

____ ____7. We wished to be a scholar.

____ ____8. We came back to have our dinner, which lasts one hour.

____ ____9. Where the City ends there is a great road winding off to the north,

and we Street Sweepers must keep this road clean to the first

mile-post.

____ ____10. Twice have we been sent to the Palace of Mating, but it is an ugly

and shameful matter, of which we do not like to think.

____ ____11. And we thought then, standing in the square, that the likeness of a

Saint was the face we saw before us in the flames, the face of the

Transgressor of the Unspeakable Word.

____ ____12. We have fought against saying it, but now it is said.

16


EXERCISE 7 VERBALS: GERUNDS, INFINITIVES, AND PARTICIPLES

Verbal Usage

____ ____13. Tonight, after more days and trials than we can count, we finished

building a strange thing, from the remains of the Unmentionable

Times, a box of glass, devised to give forth the power of the sky of

greater strength than we had ever achieved before.

____ ____14. We could not see our body nor feel it, and in that moment nothing

existed save our two hands over a wire glowing in a black abyss.

____ ____15. Our discovery is too great for us to waste our time in sweeping the

streets.

____ ____16. “You are damned, and we wish to share your damnation.”

____ ____17. There is some error, one frightful error, in the thinking of men.

____ ____18. Then we went out to gather wood for the great hearth of our home.

____ ____19. We look ahead, we beg our heart for guidance in answering this call no

voice has spoken, yet we have heard.

____ ____20. I wished to know the meaning of things.

____ ____21. It is my ears which hear, and the hearing of my ears gives its song to

the world.

____ ____22. “My dearest one, it is not proper for men to be without names.

____ ____23. There was a time when each man had a name of his own to distinguish

him from all other men.

____ ____24. There is nothing to take a man’s freedom away from him, save other

men.

____ ____25. And the day will come when I shall break all the chains of the earth,

and raze the cities of the enslaved, and my home will become the capital

of a world where each man will be free to exist for his own sake.

17


EXERCISE 8 CLAUSES

Indicate how the underlined clauses are used in the sentences below. Label the clause: subj = subject adj = adjective p.n. = predicate nominative

d.o. = direct object adv = adverb o.p. = object of preposition

____1. What punishment awaits us if it be discovered.

____2. And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do or

think alone.

____3. Our name is Equality 7-2521, as it is written on the iron bracelet which all

men wear on their left wrists with their names upon it.

____4. It was not that the learning was too hard for us.

____5. We think that there are mysteries in the sky and under the water and in the

plants which grow.

____6. And we were punished when the Council of Vocations came to give us our life

Mandates which tell those who reach their fifteenth year what their work is

to be for the rest of their days.

____7. Then we saw that the eyes of International 4-8818 were full to the lids with

tears they dared not drop.

____8. We have solved secrets of which the Scholars have no knowledge.

____9. The women who have been assigned to work the soil live in the Home of the

Peasants beyond the City.

____10. We look upon the light which we have made.

____11. “What is not done collectively cannot be good,” said International 1-5537.

____12. We awoke when a ray of sunlight fell across our face.

____13. “We found the marks of your feet across the plain where no men walk.”

____14. I understood the blessed thing which I had called my curse.

____15. I understood why the best in me had been my sins and my transgressions; and

why I had never felt guilt in my sins.

18


EXERCISE 8 CLAUSES

____16. It is the word by which the depraved steal the virtue of the good, by which

the weak steal the might of the strong, by which the fools steal the wisdom

of the sages.

____17. And when I understood this word, the book fell from my hands, and I wept,

I who had never known tears.

____18. I have learned that my power of the sky was known to men long ago; they

called it Electricity.

____19. I shall call to me all the men and the women whose spirit has not been killed

within them and who suffer under the yoke of their brothers.

____20. And as I stand here at the door of glory, I look behind me for the last time.

____21. But I still wonder how it was possible, in those graceless years of transition, long

ago, that men did not see whither they were going, and went on, in blindness and

cowardice, to their fate.

____22. I wonder, for it is hard for me to conceive how men who knew the word “I”,

could give it up and not know what they lost.

____23. For that which they died to save can never perish.

____24. And the day will come when I shall break all the chains of the earth, and raze

the cities of the enslaved, and my home will become the capital of a world where

each man will be free to exist for his own sake.

____25. And here, over the portals of my fort, I shall cut in the stone the word which is

to be my beacon and my banner.

19


EXERCISE 9 STYLE: FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

Identify the figurative language in the following sentences. Label the underlined words: p = personification s = simile m = metaphor

____1. And we looked straight into the eyes of the Council, but their eyes were

as cold blue glass buttons.

____2. The sky is like a black sieve pierced by silver drops that tremble, ready to

burst through.

____3. They are a tall, strong youth and their eyes are like fireflies, for there is

laughter in their eyes.

____4. Only the iron tracks glowed through it, straight and white, calling us

to follow.

____5. But we could not follow, for we were losing the puddle of light behind us.

____6. The fire flickers in the oven and blue shadows dance upon the walls, and

there is no sound of men to disturb us.

____7. And it seems to us that our spirit is clear as a lake troubled by no eyes save

those of the sun.

____8. Women work in the fields, and their white tunics in the wind are like the

wings of sea-gulls beating over the black soil.

____9. Their body was straight and thin as a blade of iron.

____10. And the drops of water falling from their hands, as they raised the water

to their lips, were like sparks of fire in the sun.

____11. Fear walks through the City, fear without name, without shape.

____12. Men never enter the Uncharted Forest, for there is no power to explore it

and no path to lead among its ancient trees which stand as guards of

fearful secrets.

____13. The trees have swallowed the ruins, and the bones under the ruins, and

all the things which perished.

____14. They had hair of gold and eyes of blue as morning.

20


EXERCISE 9 STYLE: FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

____15. There was nothing left around us, nothing save night and a thin thread

of flame in it, as a crack in the wall of a prison.

____16. For this wire is as a part of our body, as a vein torn from us, glowing

with our blood.

____17. Then we saw the Scholars who sat around a long table; they were

as shapeless clouds huddled at the rise of the great sky.

____18. And slowly, slowly as a flush of blood, a red flame trembled in the wire.

____19. And the road seemed not to be flat before us, but as if it were leaping up

to meet us, and we waited for the earth to rise and strike us in the face.

____20. The forest seemed to welcome us.

____21. “Your mouth is cut of granite, but our brothers are soft and humble.”

____22. It is my mind which thinks, and the judgment of my mind is the only

searchlight that can find the truth.

____23. I am not a bandage for their wounds.

____24. The word “We” is as lime poured over men, which sets and hardens to

stone, and crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which

is black are lost equally in the grey of it.

____25. I am done with the monster of “We,” the word of serfdom, of plunder,

of misery, falsehood and shame.

21


EXERCISE 10 STYLE: POETIC DEVICES

Identify the poetic devices in the following sentences. Label the underlined words: a. assonance b. consonance c. alliteration d. repetition e. rhyme

____1. The walls are cracked and water runs upon them in thin threads without

sound, black and glistening as blood.

____2. And if sometimes, in the secret darkness of our heart, we regret that which

befell us on our fifteenth birthday, we know that it was through our own guilt.

____3. We had broken a law, for we had not paid heed to the words of our Teachers.

____4. The shadow on the sundial marks off a half-hour while we dress and eat our

breakfast in the dining hall, where there are five long tables with twenty

clay plates and twenty clay cups on each table.

____5. They sit in the sun in summer and they sit by the fire in winter.

____6. It is empty save for trees and weeds.

____7. It was old and rusted by many rains.

____8. Thus did it come to pass that each night, when the stars are high and the

Street Sweepers sit in the City Theatre, we, Equality 7-2521, steal and run

through the darkness to our place.

____9. We alone, of the thousands who walk this earth, we alone in this hour are

doing a work which has no purpose save that we wish to do it.

____10. Their hair was golden as the sun; their hair flew in the wind, shining and

wild, as if it defied men to restrain it.

____11. And we stood still that we might not spill this pain more precious than

pleasure.

____12. They stood still as a stone, and they looked straight upon us, straight into

our eyes.

____13. “They always work in the same places,” we answered, “and no one will take

this road away from us.”

____14. But here, in our tunnel, we feel it no longer.

22


EXERCISE 10 STYLE: POETIC DEVICES

____15. And beyond the City there lies the plain, and beyond the plain, black upon

the black sky, there lies the Uncharted Forest.

____16. But ever do our eyes return to that black patch upon the sky.

____17. They had torn out the tongue of the Transgressor, so that they could speak

no longer.

____18. And of all the faces on that square, of all the faces which shrieked and

screamed and spat curses upon them, theirs was the calmest and the

happiest face.

____19. But we know its nature, we have watched it and worked with it.

____20. Then we knew what we must do.

____21. We wondered who was sprinkling burning coal dust upon the floor, for we

saw drops of red twinkling on the stones around us.

____22. It is true that our tunic was torn and stained with brown stains which had

been blood.

____23. “How dared you, gutter cleaner,” spoke Fraternity 9-3452, “to hold

yourself as one alone and with the thoughts of the one and not of the many?”

____24. This miracle of me is mine to own and keep, and mine to guard, and mine to

use, and mine to kneel before!

____25. And he stood on the threshold of the freedom for which the blood of the

centuries behind him had been spilled.

23


EXERCISE 11 STYLE: SENSORY IMAGERY

Identify the sensory imagery in the following sentences. Label the underlined words: a. sight b. sound c. touch d. taste e. smell

____1. There is green mould in the grooves of the letters and yellow streaks on the

marble, which come from more years than men could count.

____2. In the Home of the Students we arose when the big bell rang in the tower and

we went to our beds when it rang again.

____3. We wished it so much that our hands trembled under the blankets in the night,

and bit our arm to stop that other which we could not endure.

____4. Their hair was white and their faces were cracked as the clay of a dry

river bed.

____5. In five hours, the shadows are blue on the pavements, and sky is blue with a

deep brightness which is not bright.

____6. Then we sing hymns, the Hymn of Brotherhood, and the Hymn of Equality,

and the Hymn of the Collective Spirit.

____7. On the ground there were long thin tracks of iron, but it was not iron;

it felt smooth and cold as glass.

____8. The air is pure under the ground. There is no odor of men.

____9. We only knew suddenly that their hands were empty, but we were still

holding our lips to their hands, and that they knew it, but did not move.

____10. The leaves rustle over our head, black against the last gold of the sky.

____11. The moss is soft and warm.

____12. They leapt to their feet, they ran from the table, and they stood pressed

against the wall, huddled together, seeking the warmth of one another’s

bodies to give them courage.

____13. We swung our fist through the windowpane, and we leapt out in a ringing

rain of glass.

____14. We made a fire, we cooked the bird, and we ate it, and no meal had ever

tasted better to us.

24


EXERCISE 11 STYLE: SENSORY IMAGERY

____15. It lay so still that we saw no water but only a cut in the earth, in which

the trees grew down, upturned, and the sky lay at the bottom.

____16. We knelt by the stream and we bent down to drink.

____17. We seized their body and we pressed our lips to theirs.

____18. The Golden One breathed once, and their breath was a moan, and then

their arms closed around us.

____19. Then we walked on into the forest, their hand in ours.

____20. Stones rolled from under our feet, and we heard them striking the rocks

below, farther and farther down, and the mountains rang with each stroke,

and long after the strokes had died.

____21. The sunrays danced upon colors, colors, more colors than we thought

possible, we who had seen no houses save the white ones, the brown ones

and the grey.

____22. And there were globes of glass everywhere, in each room, the globes with the

metal cobwebs inside, such as we had seen in our tunnel.

____23. But others were of heavier cloth, and they felt soft and new in our fingers.

____24. They were not soft and rolled, they had hard shells of cloth and leather; and

the letters on their pages were so small and so even that we wondered at the

men who had such handwriting.

____25. When the sun sank beyond the mountains, the Golden One fell asleep on the

floor, amidst jewels, and bottles of crystal, and flowers of silk.

25


EXERCISE 12 ALLUSIONS AND SYMBOLS

Identify the type of allusion or symbol used in the following sentences. Label the underlined

Words or phrases: a. archetypal b. mythological c. religious d. government e. science/technology

____1. Then we sing hymns, the Hymn of Brotherhood, and the Hymn of Equality,

and the Hymn of the Collective Spirit.

____2. We looked too long at the stars at night, and at the trees and the earth.

____3. We melt strange metals, and we mix acids, and we cut open the bodies of

the animals which we find in the City Cesspool.

____4. They took the bag of seeds, and they threw the seeds into the furrows of earth

as they walked away.

____5. What – even if we have to burn for it like the Saint of the pyre – what is the

Unspeakable Word?

____6. We put a piece of copper and a piece of zinc into a jar of brine, we touched

a wire to them, and there, under our fingers, was a miracle which had never

occurred before, a new miracle and a new power.

____7. It makes the needle move and turn on the compass which we stole from the

Home of the Scholars; but we had been taught, when still a child, that the

loadstone points to the north and that this is a law which nothing can change;

yet our new power defies all laws.

____8. We found wires that led to strange little globes of glass on the walls; they

contained threads of metal thinner than a spider’s web.

____9. But then came the day when the sky turned white, as if the sun had burst and

spread its flame in the air, and the fields lay still without breath, and the dust

of the road was white in the glow.

____10. Many Judges came to our cell, first the humblest and then the most honored

Judges of the City.

____11. “Should it be what they claim of it, said Harmony 9-2642, “then it would bring

ruin to the Department of Candles.

____12. “This could wreck the Plans of the World Council, said Unanimity 2-9913,”

and without the Plans of the World Council the sun cannot rise.”

26


EXERCISE 12 ALLUSIONS AND SYMBOLS

____13. We can kill more birds than we need for our food; we find water, and fruit

in the forest.

____14. The fires smolder as a crown of jewels around us, and smoke stands still in the

air, in columns made blue by the moonlight.

____15. I stand here on the summit of the mountain.

____16. He took the light of the gods and he brought it to men, and he taught men to

be gods.

____17. “And he suffered for his deed as all bearers of light must suffer. His name

was Prometheus.”

____18. “And I have read of a goddess,” I said, “who was the mother of the earth

and of all the gods. Her name was Gaea.”

____19. I have learned that my power of the sky was known to men long ago; they

called it Electricity.

____20. Thus did men – men with nothing to offer save their great number – lose the

steel towers, the flying ships, the power wires, all the things they had not

created and could never keep.

27


EXERCISE 13 STYLE: LITERARY ANALYSIS – SELECTED PASSAGE 1

Read the following passage the first time through for meaning.

The women who have been assigned to work the soil live in the Home of the Peasants beyond the City. Where

the City ends there is a great road winding off to the north, and we Street Sweepers must keep this road clean

to the first mile-post. There is a hedge along the road, and beyond the hedge lie the fields. The fields are black

and ploughed, and they lie like a great fan before us, with their furrows gathered in some hand beyond the sky,

spreading forth from that hand, opening wide apart as they come toward us, like black pleats that sparkle with

thin, green spangles. Women work in the fields, and their white tunics in the wind are like the wings of sea-gulls

beating over the black soil.

And there it was that we saw Liberty 5-3000 walking along the furrows. Their body was straight and thin as

a blade of iron. Their eyes were dark and hard and glowing, with no fear in them, no kindness and no guilt.

Their hair was golden as the sun; their hair flew in the wind, shining and wild, as if it defied men to restrain it.

They threw seeds from their hand as if they deigned to fling a scornful gift, and the earth was as a beggar under

their feet.

We stood still; for the first time did we know fear, and then pain. And we stood still that we might not spill

this pain more precious than pleasure.

Then we heard a voice from the others call their name: “Liberty 5-3000,” and they turned and walked back.

Thus we learned their name, and we stood watching them go, till their white tunic was lost in the blue mist.

(From Chapter II)

Read the passage a second time, marking figurative language, sensory imagery, poetic

devices, and any other patterns of diction and rhetoric, then answer the questions below.

1 The women who have been assigned to work the soil live in the Home of the Peasants beyond the City. Where

2 the City ends there is a great road winding off to the north, and we Street Sweepers must keep this road clean

3 to the first mile-post. There is a hedge along the road, and beyond the hedge lie the fields. The fields are black

4 and ploughed, and they lie like a great fan before us, with their furrows gathered in some hand beyond the sky,

5 spreading forth from that hand, opening wide apart as they come toward us, like black pleats that sparkle with

6 thin, green spangles. Women work in the fields, and their white tunics in the wind are like the wings of sea-gulls

7 beating over the black soil.

8 And there it was that we saw Liberty 5-3000 walking along the furrows. Their body was straight and thin as

9 a blade of iron. Their eyes were dark and hard and glowing, with no fear in them, no kindness and no guilt.

10 Their hair was golden as the sun; their hair flew in the wind, shining and wild, as if it defied men to restrain it.

11 They threw seeds from their hand as if they deigned to fling a scornful gift, and the earth was as a beggar under

12 their feet.

13 We stood still; for the first time did we know fear, and then pain. And we stood still that we might not spill

14 this pain more precious than pleasure.

28



15 Then we heard a voice from the others call their name: “Liberty 5-3000,” and they turned and walked back.

16 Thus we learned their name, and we stood watching them go, till their white tunic was lost in the blue mist.

____1. All of the following descriptions are parallel in meaning EXCEPT . . .

a. Their body was straight and thin as a blade of iron (Lines 8-9)

b. Their eyes were dark and hard and glowing (Line 9)

c. Their hair was golden as the sun (Line 10)

d. Their hair flew in the wind, shining and wild, as if it defied men to restrain it

(Line 10)

____2. All of the following comparisons are described in the passage EXCEPT . . .

a. the fields are like large fans

b. the sky is like a hand

c. the furrows are like pleats

d. the sprouting crops are like spangles

____3. The underlined words in Line 2 are examples of . . .

a. assonance b. consonance c. alliteration d. rhyme

____4. The underlined words in Lines 6 and 14 are examples of . . .


____5. The author characterizes Liberty 5-3000 as being all of the following EXCEPT . . .

a. seductive

b. fearless

c. strong

d. superior

____6. All of the following are examples of consonance EXCEPT . . .

a. hand, beyond (Line 4)

b. thin, green (Line 6)

c. wind, wings (Line 6)

d. lost, mist (Line 16)

29




The lash whistled like a singing wind. We tried to count the blows, but we lost count. We knew that the blows

were falling upon our back. Only we felt nothing upon our back any longer. A flaming grill kept dancing

before our eyes, and we thought of nothing save that grill, a grill, a grill of red squares, and then we knew

that we were looking at the squares of the iron grill in the door, and there were also the squares of stone on the

walls, and the squares which the lash was cutting upon our back, crossing and re-crossing itself in our flesh.

Then we saw a fist before us. It knocked our chin up, and we saw the red froth of our mouth on the withered

fingers, and the Judge asked:

“Where have you been?”

But we jerked our head away, hid our face upon our tied hands, and bit our lips.

The lash whistled again. We wondered who was sprinkling burning coal dust upon the floor, for we saw drops

of red twinkling on the stones around us.

The we knew nothing, save two voices snarling steadily, one after the other, even though we knew they were

speaking many minutes apart:

“Where have you been where have you been where have you been where have you been? . . . “

And our lips moved, but the sound trickled back into our throat, and the sound was only:

“The light . . . The light . . . The light. . . .”

Then we knew nothing. (From Chapter VI)



1 The lash whistled like a singing wind. We tried to count the blows, but we lost count. We knew that the blows

2 were falling upon our back. Only we felt nothing upon our back any longer. A flaming grill kept dancing

3 before our eyes, and we thought of nothing save that grill, a grill, a grill of red squares, and then we knew

4 that we were looking at the squares of the iron grill in the door, and there were also the squares of stone on the

5 walls, and the squares which the lash was cutting upon our back, crossing and re-crossing itself in our flesh.

6 Then we saw a fist before us. It knocked our chin up, and we saw the red froth of our mouth on the withered

7 fingers, and the Judge asked:

8 “Where have you been?”

9 But we jerked our head away, hid our face upon our tied hands, and bit our lips.

10 The lash whistled again. We wondered who was sprinkling burning coal dust upon the floor, for we saw drops

11 of red twinkling on the stones around us.

12 Then we knew nothing, save two voices snarling steadily, one after the other, even though we knew they were

13 speaking many minutes apart:

14 “Where have you been where have you been where have you been where have you been? . . .”

30



15 And our lips moved, but the sound trickled back into our throat, and the sound was only:

16 “The light . . . The light . . . The light . . . “

17 Then we knew nothing.

____1. The passage contains examples of all of the following sensory imagery EXCEPT . . .

a. sight and sound b. sound and touch c. taste and smell

____2. All of the following descriptions are parallel in meaning EXCEPT . . .

a. A flaming grill (Line 2)

b. the red froth of our mouth (Line 6)

c. burning coal dust upon the floor (Line 10)

d. drops of red twinkling on the stones (Line 10-11)

____3. All of the following descriptions are examples of personification EXCEPT . . .

a. The lash whistled (Line 1)

b. A flaming grill kept dancing (Line 2)

c. the sound trickled back into our throat (Line 15)

____4. The author uses all of the following examples of repetition to heighten the

intensity of the torture EXCEPT . . .

a. that grill, a grill, a grill (Line 3)

b. red squares, the squares, the squares, the squares (Lines 3-5)

c. “Where have you been where have you been where have you been

where have you been? . . .” (Line 14)

d. “The light . . . The light . . . The light. . . .” (Line 16)

____5. Line 9 contains all of the following poetic devices EXCEPT . . .


____6. Line 1 contains examples of . . .

a. personification and simile

b. metaphor and simile

c. personification and metaphor

31




It is dark here in the forest. The leaves rustle over our head, black against the last gold of the sky. The moss

is soft and warm. We shall sleep on this moss for many nights, till the beasts of the forest come to tear our

body. We have no bed now, save the moss, and no future, save the beasts.

We are old now, yet we were young this morning, when we carried our glass box through the streets of the

City to the Home of the Scholars. No men stopped us, for there were none about from the Palace of Corrective

Detention, and the others knew nothing. No men stopped us at the gate. We walked through empty passages

and into the great hall where the World Council of Scholars sat in solemn meeting.

We saw nothing as we entered, save the sky in the great windows, blue and glowing. Then we saw the Scholars

who sat around a long table; they were as shapeless clouds huddled at the rise of the great sky. There were men

whose famous names we knew, and others from distant lands whose names we had not heard. We saw a great

painting on the wall over their heads, of the twenty illustrious men who had invented the candle.

All the heads of the Council turned to us as we entered. These great and wise of the earth did not know what

to think of us, and they looked upon us with wonder and curiosity, as if we were a miracle. It is true that our

tunic was torn and stained with brown stains which had been blood. We raised our right arm and we said:

“Our greeting to you, our honored brothers of the World Council of Scholars!”

The Collective 0-0009, the oldest and wisest of the Council, spoke and asked:

“Who are you, our brother? For you do not look like a Scholar.”

“Our name is Equality 7-2521,” we answered, “and we are a Street Sweeper of this City.”

Then it was as if a great wind had stricken the hall, for all the Scholars spoke at once, and they were angry

and frightened. (From Chapter VII)



1 It is dark here in the forest. The leaves rustle over our head, black against the last gold of the sky. The moss

2 is soft and warm. We shall sleep on this moss for many nights, till the beasts of the forest come to tear our

3 body. We have no bed now, save the moss, and no future, save the beasts.

4 We are old now, yet we were young this morning, when we carried our glass box through the streets of the

5 City to the Home of the Scholars. No men stopped us, for there were none about from the Palace of Corrective

6 Detention, and the others knew nothing. No men stopped us at the gate. We walked through empty passages

7 and into the great hall where the World Council of Scholars sat in solemn meeting.

8 We saw nothing as we entered, save the sky in the great windows, blue and glowing. Then we saw the Scholars

9 who sat around a long table; they were as shapeless clouds huddled at the rise of the great sky. They were men

10 whose famous names we knew, and others from distant lands whose names we had not heard. We saw a great

11 painting on the wall over their heads, of the twenty illustrious men who had invented the candle.

12 All the heads of the Council turned to us as we entered. These great and wise of the earth did not know what

32



13 to think of us, and they looked upon us with wonder and curiosity, as if we were a miracle. It is true that our

14 tunic was torn and stained with brown stains which had been blood. We raised our right arm and we said:

15 “Our greeting to you, our honored brothers of the World Council of Scholars!”

16 The Collective 0-0009, the oldest and wisest of the Council, spoke and asked:

17 “Who are you, our brother? For you do not look like a Scholar.”

18 “Our name is Equality 7-2521,” we answered, “and we are a Street Sweeper of this City.”

19 Then it was as if a great had stricken the hall, for all the Scholars spoke at once, and they were angry

20 and frightened.

____1. The flashback beginning in Line 4 is signaled by all of the following devices

EXCEPT . . .

a. a change in setting

b. a change in character

c. a change in time of day

d. a change in tense

____2. The underlined words in Line 9 are an example of . . .

a. simile b. metaphor c. personification

____3. All of the following word pairs are examples of assonance EXCEPT . . .

a. over, our (Line 1)

b. moss, soft (Line 1-2)

c. famous, names (Line 10)

d. true, tunic (Line 13-14)

____4. A parallel tone is achieved between Lines 1-3 and . . .

a. Lines 4-6

b. Line 8-10

c. Lines 15-17

d. Lines 19-20

____5. In Lines 13-14, It is true that our tunic was torn contains all of the

following poetic devices EXCEPT . . .


____6. All of the following contrasts are described in the passage EXCEPT . . .

a. alienation/community b. dark/light c. trust/betrayal d. maturity/naïvety

33




We awoke when a ray of sunlight fell across our face. We wanted to leap to our feet, as we have had to leap

every morning of our life, but we remembered suddenly that no bell had rung and that there was no bell to

ring anywhere. We lay on our back, we threw our arms out, and we looked up at the sky. The leaves had

edges of silver that trembled and rippled like a river of green and fire flowing high above us.

We did not wish to move. We thought suddenly that we could lie thus as long as we wished, and we laughed

aloud at the thought. We could also rise, or run, or leap, or fall down again. We were thinking that these

were thoughts without sense, but before we knew it our body had risen in one leap. Our arms stretched out

of their own will, and our body whirled and whirled, till it raised a wind to rustle through the leaves of the

bushes. Then our hands seized a branch and swung us high into a tree, with no aim save the wonder of

learning the strength of our body. The branch snapped under us and we fell upon the moss that was soft

as a cushion. Then our body, losing all sense, rolled over and over on the moss, dry leaves in our tunic, in

our hair, in our face. And we heard suddenly that we were laughing, laughing aloud, laughing as if there

were no power left in us save laughter.

Then we took our glass box, and we went on into the forest. We went on, cutting through branches, and it

was as if we were swimming through a sea of leaves, with the bushes as waves rising and falling and rising

around us, and flinging their green sprays high to the treetops. The trees parted before us, calling us

forward. The forest seemed to welcome us. We went on, without thought, without care, with nothing to

feel save the song of our body. (From Chapter VIII)



1 We awoke when a ray of sunlight fell across our face. We wanted to leap to our feet, as we have had to leap

2 every morning of our life, but we remembered suddenly that no bell had rung and that there was no bell to

3 ring anywhere. We lay on our back, we threw our arms out, and we looked up at the sky. The leaves had

4 edges of silver that trembled and rippled like a river of green and fire flowing high above us.

5 We did not wish to move. We thought suddenly that we could lie thus as long as we wished, and we laughed

6 aloud at the thought. We could also rise, or run, or leap, or fall down again. We were thinking that these

7 were thoughts without sense, but before we knew it our body had risen in one leap. Our arms stretched out

8 of their own will, and our body whirled and whirled, till it raised a wind to rustle through the leaves of the

9 bushes. Then our hands seized a branch and swung us high into a tree, with no aim save the wonder of

10 learning the strength of our body. The branch snapped under us and we fell upon the moss that was soft

11 as a cushion. Then our body, losing all sense, rolled over and over on the moss, dry leaves in our tunic, in

12 our hair, in our face. And we heard suddenly that we were laughing, laughing aloud, laughing as if there

13 were no power left in us save laughter.

34



14 Then we took our glass box, and we went on into the forest. We went on, cutting through the branches, and it

15 was as if we were swimming through a sea of leaves, with the bushes as waves rising and falling and rising

16 around us, and flinging their green sprays high to the treetops. The trees parted before us, calling us

17 forward. The forest seemed to welcome us. We went on, without thought, without care, with nothing

18 to feel save the song of our body.

____1. The attitude of the main character can be described by all of the following words

EXCEPT . . .

a. joyful b. triumphant c. adventurous d. playful

____2. The extended metaphor in the passage compares . . .

a. foliage to water

b. freedom to leisure

c. laughter to power

____3. In Line 18, the song of our body is an example of . . .

a. metaphor b. simile c. personification

____4. The underlined words in Lines 10-11 contain examples of all of the following

devices EXCEPT . . .

a. assonance b. consonance c. alliteration d. simile

____5. Lines 16-17 contain examples of . . .

a. metaphor b. simile c. personification

____6. All of the following lines are parallel in meaning EXCEPT . . .

a. our body whirled and whirled (Line 8)

b. rolled over and over (Line 11)

c. laughing, laughing aloud, laughing (Line 12)

d. rising and falling and rising (Line 15)

35


ANSWER KEY EXERCISES 1-16

EXERCISE 1: 1. v 2. conj 3. prep 4. n 5. prep 6. adv 7. adj 8. conj 9. pron

10. adj 11. n 12. v 13. adj 14. pron 15. prep 16. v 17. n

18. adv 19. adj 20. adv 21. n 22. pron 23. conj 24. adv 25. prep

EXERCISE 2: PASSAGE 1 1. a 2. c 3. c 4. a 5. b 6. c

PASSAGE 2 1. c 2. b 3. a 4. a 5. a 6. c

EXERCISE 3: PASSAGE 1 1. b 2. d 3. a 4. c 5. a 6. b

PASSAGE 2 1. a 2. c 3. a 4. b 5. a 6. c

EXERCISE 4: 1. C 2. CC 3. CC 4. C 5. CX 6. S 7. CC 8. CX 9. C 10. CX

11. CX 12. CX 13. CX 14. CX 15. CC 16. CX 17. CX 18. CX

19. CX 20. C 21. CX 22. S 23. CX 24. S 25. S

EXERCISE 5: 1. d.o. 2. p.a. 3. o.p. 4. p.a. 5. d.o. 6. p.n. 7. d.o. 8. p.a. 9. o.p.

10. p.a. 11. d.o. 12. i.o. 13. p.n. 14. o.p. 15. p.a. 16. p.a. 17. d.o.

18. o.p. 19. i.o. 20. p.n. 21. d.o. 22. p.n. 23. i.o. 24. i.o. 25. p.n.

EXERCISE 6: 1. inf 2. prep 3. appos 4. inf 5. prep 6. par 7. par 8. inf 9. par

10. ger 11. par 12. ger 13. prep 14. prep 15. ger 16. par 17. appos

18. inf 19. par 20. prep 21. appos 22. ger 23. par 24. inf 25. appos

EXERCISE 7: 1. inf adj 2. par adj 3. inf adv 4. par adj 5. inf d.o. 6. inf adv

7. inf d.o. 8. inf adv 9. par adj 10. ger o.p. 11. par adj 12. ger o.p.

13. ger d.o. 14. par adj 15. ger o.p. 16. inf d.o. 17. ger o.p.

18. inf adv 19. ger o.p. 20. inf d.o. 21. ger subj 22. inf adv

23. inf adj 24. inf adj 25. inf adv

EXERCISE 8: 1.adv 2. d.o. 3. adj 4. p.n. 5. d.o. 6. adj 7. d.o. 8. o.p. 9. adj

10. adj 11. subj 12. adv 13. adj 14. adj 15. d.o. 16. o.p. 17. adv

18. d.o. 19. adj 20. adv 21. d.o. 22. adj 23. adj 24. adv 25. adj

EXERCISE 9: 1. s 2. s 3. s 4. p 5. m 6. p 7. s 8. s 9. s 10. s 11. p 12. p

13. p 14. s 15. m 16. s 17. s 18. s 19. p 20. p 21. m 22. m

23. m 24. s 25. m

EXERCISE 10: 1. c 2. a 3. b 4. a 5. c 6. a 7. c 8. c 9. d 10. a 11. e 12. d

13. a 14. b 15. d 16. a 17. c 18. d 19. c 20. e 21. e 22. c 23. b

24. d 25. b

36


ANSWER KEY EXERCISES 1-16

EXERCISE 11: 1. a 2. b 3. c 4. a 5. a 6. b 7. c 8. e 9. c 10. b 11. c 12. c

13. b 14. d 15. a 16. d 17. c 18. b 19. c 20. b 21. a 22. a

23. c 24. c 25. a

EXERCISE 12: 1. c 2. a 3. e 4. a 5. c 6. e 7. e 8. e 9. a 10. d 11. d 12. d

13. a 14. a 15. a 16. b 17. b 18. b 19. e 20. e

EXERCISE 13: 1. c 2. b 3. a 4. c 5. a 6. c

EXERCISE 14: 1. c 2. a 3. c 4. d 5. d 6. a

EXERCISE 15: 1. b 2. a 3. a 4. d 5. d 6. c

EXERCISE 16: 1. b 2. a 3. a 4. c 5. c 6. d

37

LITERARY GLOSSARY

A Alexandrine. A line of poetry written in

iambic hexameter (six feet of iambs).

Allegory. A story with both a literal and

symbolic meaning.

Alliteration. The repetition of initial

consonant or vowel sounds in two or

more successive or nearby words.

Example: fit and fearless; as accurate

as the ancient author.

Allusion. A reference to a well-known

person, place, event, work of art, myth,

or religion. Example: Hercules, Eden,

Waterloo, Prodigal Son, Superman.

Amphibrach. A foot of poetry with an

unaccented syllable, an accented

syllable, and an unaccented syllable.

Example: another

Amphimacer. A foot of poetry with an

accented syllable, an unaccented

syllable, and an accented syllable.

Example: up and down.

Anadiplosis. A type of repetition in

which the last words of a sentence are

used to begin the next sentence.

Analogy. A comparison of two things

that are somewhat alike. Example: But

Marlow was not typical . . . to him the

meaning of an episode was not inside

like a kernel but outside, enveloping

the tale which brought it out only as a

glow brings out a haze . . . Heart of

Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

Anapest. A foot of poetry with two

unaccented syllables followed by one

accented syllable. Example: disengage.

Anaphora. A type of repetition in

which the same word or phrase is used at

the beginning of two or more sentences

or phrases.

Anecdote. A brief personal story about

an event or experience.

Antagonist. A character, institution,

group, or force that is in conflict with the

protagonist.

Antihero – A protagonist who does not

have the traditional attributes of a hero.

Antimetabole. A type of repetition in

which the words in a successive clause

or phrase are reversed. Example: “Ask

not what your country can do for you

but what you can do for your

country.” John F. Kennedy.

Antiphrasis. The use of a word or

phrases to mean the opposite of the

intended meaning. Example: In

Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Antony’s

use of “. . . but Brutus is an honorable

man . . .” to convey the opposite

meaning.

Apostrophe. A figure of speech in

which the speaker directly addresses an

object, idea, or absent person. Example:

Milton! thou should be living at this

hour. (London, 1802 by William

Wordsworth).

Archetypes. Primordial images and

symbols that occur in literature, myth,

religion, and folklore. Examples:

forest, moon, stars, earth mother.

warrior, innocent child, wizard.

38

LITERARY GLOSSARY

A

Aside. In drama, lines delivered by an

actor to the audience as if the other

actors on stage could not hear what he is

saying.

Assonance. The repetition of vowel

sounds in two or more words that do not

rhyme. Example: The black cat

scratched the saddle.

Asyndeton. The omission of

conjunctions in a series. Example: “ I

came, I saw, I conquered.” Julius

Caesar.

Atmosphere. The way that setting or

landscape affects the tone or mood of a

work.

B

Ballad. A songlike poem that tells a

story. Example: Barbara Allan.

Bathos. Sentimentality.

Bildungsroman. A novel that deals

with the coming of age or growing up of

a young person from childhood or

adolescence to maturity. Example: Pip

in Great Expectations, Huckleberry

Finn, or Luke Skywalker in Star Wars.

Blank verse. Poetry written in

unrhymed iambic pentameter. Example:

Shakespeare plays.

Burlesque. Low comedy, ridiculous

exaggeration, nonsense.

C

Cacophony. The unharmonious

combination of words that sound harsh

together.

Caesura. A natural pause or break in a

line of poetry. In scansion the symbol //

is used to mark a caesura.

Canto. A section of a long poem.

Caricature. Writing that exaggerates or

distorts personal qualities of an

individual.

Chiaroscuro. The contrasting of light

and darkness.

Cinquain. A five-line stanza.

Classicism. A literary approach that

imitates the literature and art of ancient

Greece and Rome that stresses order,

balance, reason, and idealism.

Climax. The high point in the plot,

after which there is falling action. May

coincide with crisis.

Colloquialism. A local expression that

is not accepted in formal speech or

writing.

Comedy. A work of literature that has a

happy ending.

Comic relief. Humorous action or lines

spoken in a serious point in a play.

Example: The Porter Scene in

Macbeth, Act II, scene iii).

Conceit. In poetry, an unusual,

elaborate comparison. Example: John

Donne compares separated lovers to the

legs of a drawing compass.

39

LITERARY GLOSSARY

C

Concrete poem. A poem that takes the

shape of its subject. Example: Easter

Wings by George Herbert).

Conflict. The struggle between

characters and other characters, forces of

nature, or outside forces beyond their

control, internal conflict within a

character who struggles with moral

choices and matters of conscience.

Connotation. The universal

associations a word has apart from its

definition. Example: Connotations of

the word witch are: black cat, cauldron,

Halloween, broomstick, and evil spell.

Consonance. The repetition of a

consonant at the end of two or more

words. Example: Hop up the step.

Context. The words and phrases

surrounding a word.

Couplet. A pair of rhyming lines in the

same meter.

Crisis. The point at which the

protagonist experiences change, the

turning point.

D

Dactyl. A poetic foot with one accented

syllable followed by two unaccented

syllables. Example: multitude.

Denotation. The definition or meaning

of a word.

Denouement. The falling action or final

revelations in the plot.

Description. Words that paint a picture

of a person, place, or thing using details

and sensory imagery.

Dialect. Regional speech that identifies

a character’s social status.

Dialogue. Conversation between two or

more characters.

Diction. Word choice.

Doppelganger. A look-alike, double, or

twin. Example: Charles Darnay and

Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities.

Double entendre. A statement that has

two meanings, one of which is

suggestive, sexual, or improper.

Dramatic irony. When the reader or

audience knows or understands

something that a character does not

know.

Dramatic monologue. When a

character speaks to a silent listener.

Dynamic character. A character who

undergoes change as a result of the

actions of the plot and the influence of

other characters.

Dysphemism. A coarse or rude way of

saying something. The opposite of

euphemism. Example: A euphemism

for die would be pass away. A

dysphemism would be croak.

40

LITERARY GLOSSARY

D

Dystopia. The opposite of utopia.

Literally bad place. Examples of

literature about dystopia include Anthem

by Ayn Rand, 1984 by George Orwell,

and Brave New World by Aldous

Huxley.

E

Elegy. A formal poem about death.

Elision. The omission of part of a word.

Example: o’er for over, and e’re for

ever.

Ellipsis. Three periods (. . .) that signify

the omission of one or more words.

Epic. A long narrative poem about the

adventures of gods or a hero. Example:

Beowulf, The Odyssey by Homer.

Epilogue. A concluding statement.

Epiphany. A sudden insight or change

of heart that happens in an instant.

Epitaph. An inscription on a tomb or

gravestone.

Epithet. A word or phrase describing a

quality of a person, place, or thing that is

repeated throughout a work. Example:

wine-dark sea in Homer’s The Iliad.

Essay. A short nonfiction work about a

specific subject. Essays may be

narrative, persuasive, descriptive,

expository, or argumentative. Example:

Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Ethos. Moral nature or beliefs.

Euphemism. An indirect way of saying

something that may be offensive.

Example: Passed away instead of died,

senior citizens instead of old people.

Existentialism. 20th

century philosophy

concerned with the plight of the

individual who must assume

responsibility for acts of free will.

Characteristics are alienation, anxiety,

loneliness, absurdity. Example: The

Stranger by Albert Camus.

Extended metaphor. A metaphor that

is elaborated on and developed in several

phrases or sentences.

Extended personification. A

personification that is elaborated on and

developed in several phrases or

sentences.

Extended simile. A simile that is

elaborated on and developed in several

phrases or sentences.

F

Fantasy. A 20th

century literary

movement characterized by plots,

characters, and settings not based in

reality. Example: The Lord of the

Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien).

Falling action. All action that takes

place after the climax.

Farce. Comedy that involves horseplay,

mistaken identity, exaggeration, and

witty dialogue. Example: The Comedy

of Errors by William Shakespeare, The

Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar

Wilde.

41

LITERARY GLOSSARY

F

Fiction. Literature about imaginary

characters and events.

Figurative language. The use of

figures of speech to express ideas.

Figures of Speech. Include metaphor,

simile, hyperbole, personification, and

oxymoron.

First person narration. The story is

told from the point of view of one

character. Example: David Copperfield

by Charles Dickens, Huckleberry Finn

by Mark Twain.

Flashback. A plot device that allows

the author to jump back in time prior to

the opening scene.

Flat character. A one-dimensional

character who is not developed in the

plot. See static character.

Foil. A character who, through contrast,

reveals the characteristics of another

character. Dr. Watson is a foil to

Sherlock Holmes.

Foreshadowing. A clue that prepares

the reader for what will happen later on

in the story.

Free verse. Poetry that is not written in

consistent patterns of rhyme or meter.

H

Heptastich. A seven-line stanza.

Hero/Heroine. The main character, the

protagonist whose actions inspire and

are admired.

Heroic couplet. In poetry, a rhymed

pair of iambic pentameter lines.

Homophone. A word that sounds like

another word but has a different spelling.

Example: see/sea, two/too, here/hear,

fair/fare, threw/through.

Hyperbole. A figure of speech that uses

exaggeration. Example: Our chances

are one in a million. I like this car ten

times more than our other one. I will

love you till the seas run dry.

I

Iamb. A foot of poetry with one

unaccented syllable followed by one

accented syllable. Example: alone.

Idiom. A saying or expression that

cannot be translated literally. Example:

jump down someone’s throat, smell a

rat, jump the gun, bite the dust.

Inference. Information or action that is

hinted at or suggested, but not stated

outright.

Interior monologue. A device

associated with stream of consciousness

where a character is thinking to himself

and the reader feels like he is inside the

character’s mind.

Irony. The opposite of what is

expected. A reality different from

appearance.

42

LITERARY GLOSSARY

K

Kenning. A kind of metaphor used in

Anglo-Saxon poetry to replace a

concrete noun. Example: In Beowulf

the ship is called the ringed prow, the

foamy-necked, and the sea-farer.

L

Legend. A tale or story that may or may

not be based in fact, but which reflects

cultural identity. Example: Legends

about King Arthur, Robin Hood, and

other folk heroes.

Litotes. Understatement that makes a

positive statement by using a negative

opposite. Example: He’s not a bad

singer.

Lyric poem. A poem that expresses the

emotions and observations of a single

speaker, including the elegy, ode, and

sonnet.

M

Magical realism. In 20th

century art and

literature, when supernatural or magical

events are accepted as being real by both

character and audience. Example: One

Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel

Garcia Marquez.

Malapropism. The use of a word

somewhat like the one intended, but

ridiculously wrong. Example:

Huckleberry Finn’s use of diseased to

mean deceased.

Metaphor. A figure of speech in which

one thing is said to be another thing.

Example: Her eye of ice continued to

dwell freezingly on mine. ( Jane Eyre

by Charlotte Bronte).

Metaphysical poetry. A 17th

century

literary movement that includes English

poets John Donne, George Herbert, and

Andrew Marvell. Their poems featured

intellectual playfulness, paradoxes, and

elaborate conceits.

Meter. The rhythm in a line of poetry.

The number and types of stresses or

beats on syllables are counted as feet.

Examples: monometer (one foot),

dimeter (two feet), trimeter (three feet),

tetrameter (four feet), pentameter (five

feet), hexameter (six feet), and

heptameter (seven feet).

Metonymy. The use of an object

closely associated with a word for the

word itself. Example: Using crown to

mean king, or oval office to mean

president.

Mock epic. A poem about a silly or

trivial matter written in a serious tone.

Example: The Rape of the Lock by

Alexander Pope.

Monologue. A speech given by one

person.

Mood. Synonymous with atmosphere

and tone.

Motif. A recurring pattern of symbols,

colors, events, allusions, or imagery.

Myth. A fictional tale about gods or

heroes. Allusions to Greek, Roman,

Norse, and Celtic myths are common in

English literature.

43

LITERARY GLOSSARY

N

Narrative poem. A poem that tells a

story. Example: ballads (Barbara

Allen) and epics (Beowulf, The Rime of

the Ancient Mariner).

Narrator. The person telling the story.

Naturalism. A late 19th

century literary

movement that viewed individuals as

fated victims of natural laws. Example:

To Build a Fire by Jack London.

Neoclassicism. A literary movement

during the Restoration and 18th

century

(1660-1798) characterized by Greek and

Roman literary forms, reason, harmony,

restraint, and decorum.

Nonfiction. Prose writing about real

people, places, things, or events.

Novel. A long work of fiction that has

plot, characters, themes, symbols, and

settings.

Novella. A lengthy tale or short story.

O

Octave. An eight-line stanza.

Ode. A long, formal poem with three

alternating stanza patterns: strophe,

antistrophe, and epode.

Omniscient narrator. When the

narrator’s knowledge extends to the

internal thoughts and states of mind of

all characters. Example: The Pearl by

John Steinbeck.

Onomatopoeia. A figure of speech that

uses words to imitate sound. Example:

clink, buzz, hum, splash, hiss, boom.

Ottava rima. A stanza containing eight

iambic pentameter lines with the rhyme

scheme abababcc. Example: Sailing to

Byzantium by William Butler Yeats.

Oxymoron. A figure of speech that

combines words that are opposites.

Example: sweet sorrow, dark victory,

jumbo shrimp.

P

Parable. A story that teaches a lesson.

Paradox. A statement that on the

surface seems a contradiction, but that

actually contains some truth. Example:

For when I am weak, then I am

strong. Saint Paul.

Paraphrase. The restatement of a

phrase, sentence, or group of sentences

using different words that mean the same

as the original.

Parallelism. Arranging words and

phrases consistently to express similar

ideas. Example: I like to hike, fishing,

and swimming. (Incorrect) I like hiking,

fishing, and swimming. (Correct).

Parataxis. Sentences, phrases, clauses,

or words arranged in coordinate rather

than subordinate construction. Example:

Every little while he locked me in and

went down to the store, three miles, to

the ferry, and traded fish and game

for whisky, and fetched it home and

got drunk and had a good time, and

licked me. (Huckleberry Finn by Mark

Twain).

44

LITERARY GLOSSARY

P

Parody. Witty writing that imitates and

often ridicules another author’s style.

Example: Ancient Mariner Dot Com

is a parody of The Rime of the Ancient

Mariner.

Pastoral. A poem set among shepherds

or rural life.

Pathos. Pity, sympathy, or sorrow felt

by the reader in response to an author’s

words.

Pentameter. Five feet of verse in a

poem.

Peroration. The last lines of an oration

in which the major points are

summarized.

Persona. The voice in a work of

literature. The persona may be the

narrator or the author who uses the

narrator to express ideas.

Personification. A figure of speech that

attributes human qualities to an

inanimate object. Example: The wind

sighed. The moon hid behind the

clouds.

Petrarchan sonnet. A sonnet divided

into two parts: 8 line octave that rhymes

abba abba, 6 line sestet that rhymes cde

cde. The octave presents a situation or

problem, and the sestet solves the

problem. Also called an Italian sonnet.

Picaresque. A story told in episodes

where the protagonist has adventures

and may be a rascal. Example:

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

Plot. The sequence of events in a story.

Poetic devices. Words with harmonious

sounds including assonance,

consonance, alliteration, repetition,

and rhyme.

Point of view. The perspective from

which a story is told.

Polysyndeton. The overuse of

conjunctions in a sentence.

Postmodern. Contemporary fiction

characterized by an antihero and

experimental style.

Prose. Written language that is not

poetry, drama, or song. Prose can be

fiction or nonfiction.

Protagonist. The main character.

Pun. A play on words. Example: He

wanted to become a chef, but he didn’t

have the thyme.

Pyrrhic. A foot of poetry with two

successive unaccented syllables.

Example: unsinkable.

Q

Quatrain. A four-line stanza.

R

Realism. Writing that is characterized

by details of everyday life.

45

LITERARY GLOSSARY

R

Refrain. Regularly repeated line or

group of lines in a poem or song.

Regionalism. Writing about a specific

geographic area using speech, folklore,

beliefs, and customs.

Repartee. A comeback, a quick

response.

Repetition. A poetic device that uses

the repeating of words, sounds, phrases,

or sentences.

Rhetoric. The art of persuasion. Words

used to persuade.

Rhyme. Words with identical sounds,

but different spellings. Example:

cat/hat, glare/air, tight/write.

Rhyme scheme. The pattern of rhyming

words. The last word in each line is

assigned a letter of the alphabet

beginning with a. Example: If the last

words in each of four lines are me (a),

grave (b), see (a), and save (b), the

rhyme scheme is abab.

Rising action. The path of the plot

leading to the climax.

Romance. A story about distant,

imagined events as opposed to realistic

experience. Originally referred to

medieval tales about knights and nobles.

Modern usage refers to sentimental love

stories.

Romanticism. 18th

-19th

century literary

movement that portrayed the beauty of

untamed nature, emotion, the nobility of

the common man, rights of the

individual, spiritualism, folklore and

myth, magic, imagination, and fancy.

Round character. A complex character

who undergoes change during the course

of the story. Example: Sydney Carton

in A Tale of Two Cities.

Run-on line. In poetry a line that does

not stop, but continues to the next line.

S

Sarcasm. A bitter remark intending to

hurt and express disapproval.

Satire. Writing that blends humor and

wit with criticism of institutions or

mankind in general. Noted satirists

include Chaucer, Dante, Voltaire,

Moliere, Swift, and Twain.

Scansion. The process of determining

the meter of a poem. Stressed syllables

are marked with a slanted line over the

sound. Unstressed syllables are marked

with a horseshoe over the sound. When

the pattern emerges, one can then

determine the meter and number of feet

in a line of poetry.

Sensory imagery. Language that

evokes images and triggers memories in

the reader of the five senses: sight,

sound, touch, taste, and smell.

Sestet. A six-line stanza.

Setting. The time and place where a

story takes place.

46

LITERARY GLOSSARY

S

Shakespearean sonnet. A sonnet with

three four-line quatrains and a two-line

couplet that ends the poem and presents

a concluding statement. The rhyme

scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. Also

called an English sonnet.

Short story. A brief work of fiction

with a simple plot, and few characters

and settings.

Simile. A figure of speech that

compares two things that are not alike,

using the words like, as, or than.

Example: eyes gleaming like live coals,

as delicate as a snowflake, colder than

ice.

Soliloquy. A long speech made by a

character who is alone, who reveals

private thoughts and feelings to the

reader or audience.

Sonnet. A fourteen-line lyric poem

about a single theme.

Speaker. The imaginary voice that tells

a poem.

Spenserian stanza. A stanza with nine

iambic lines rhymed ababbcbcc. All

lines are pentameters except the last line

written in hexameter or alexandrine.

Spondee. A foot of poetry with two

equally strong stresses. Example:

bathtub, workday, swing shift.

Stanza. Lines of poetry considered as a

group.

Static character. A character who

changes little in the course of the story.

Example: Jerry Cruncher in A Tale of

Two Cities, Tom Sawyer in Huckleberry

Finn.

Stream of Consciousness. A narrative

technique that imitates the stream of

thought in a character’s mind. Example:

The Sound and the Fury by William

Faulkner.

Style. The individual way an author

writes.

Subplot. A minor or secondary plot that

complicates a story. Example: Mr.

Micawber and his family in David

Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

Surrealism. 20th

century art, literature,

and film that juxtaposes unnatural

combinations of images for a fantastic or

dreamlike effect.

Suspense. Anticipation of the outcome.

Symbol. Something that stands for

something else. Example: the albatross

(guilt) in The Rime of the Ancient

Mariner; the handkerchief (infidelity)

in Othello, the red letter A (adultery) in

The Scarlet Letter.

Synecdoche. A figure of speech in

which the part symbolizes the whole.

Example: All hands on deck, I’ve got

some new wheels.

Syntax. Word order, the way in which

words are strung together.

47

LITERARY GLOSSARY

T

Tercet. A three-line stanza.

Terza rima. A three-line stanza first

used by Dante Alighieri in his The

Divine Comedy. The first and last lines

of each tercet rhyme. The middle line of

the first tercet rhymes with the first and

last lines of the next tercet, aba bcb cdc

ded.

Theme. A central idea.

Third person narration. When a story

is told by a voice from outside the story.

Example: Ethan Frome by Edith

Wharton.

Tone. The attitude toward a subject or

audience implied by a work of literature.

Trochee. A foot of poetry consisting of

one accented syllable followed by one

unaccented syllable. Example: monkey

Trancendentalism. A 19th

century

American philosophical and literary

movement that promoted the belief that

intuition and conscience transcend

experience and are therefore better

guides to truth than logic and the senses.

Characteristics are respect for the

individual spirit, the presence of the

divine in nature, the belief that divine

presence is everywhere (the Over-Soul, a

concept influenced by Hinduism).

Trope. In rhetoric, a figure of speech

involving a change in meaning, the use

of a word in a sense other than the

literal.

U

Understatement. Saying less than is

actually called for. Example: referring

to an Olympic sprinter as being pretty

fast.

Unreliable narrator. A narrator who is

not credible when it comes to telling the

story. Example: Chief Bromden in

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or

Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein.

Utopia. A perfect or ideal world.

W

Wordplay. Verbal wit.

48

GRAMMAR GLOSSARY

A

Abbreviation. A shortened form of a

word, usually followed by a period.

Example: Mr., Dr., U.S.A. Mrs.

Bennet’s best comfort was that Mr.

Bingley must be down again in summer.

(Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen).

Active voice. A verb is active if the

subject of the sentence is performing

the action. Example: Rikki-Tikki shook

some of the dust out of his fur and

sneezed. (Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard

Kipling).

Adjective. A word that describes.

An adjective modifies a noun or

pronoun. Example: Human madness

is oftentimes a cunning and most

feline thing. (Moby Dick by Herman

Melville).

Adjective clause. A clause that

modifies a noun or pronoun. Example:

The mother who lay in the grave, was

the mother of my infancy. (David

Copperfield by Charles Dickens).

Adverb. A word that describes a verb,

explaining where, when, how, or to what

extent. An adverb modifies a verb,

adjective, or another adverb. Example:

The time I spent upon the island is still

so horrible a thought to me, that I must

pass it lightly over. (Kidnapped by

Robert Louis Stevenson).

Adverb clause. A clause that modifies

a verb, adjective, or another adverb.

Example: As she kissed me, her lips

felt like ice. (Wuthering Heights by

Emily Bronte).

Antecedent. A word or group of words

that a pronoun refers to or replaces.

Example: He had a conscience, and it

was a romantic conscience. (Lord Jim

by Joseph Conrad).

Apostrophe. A punctuation mark (‘)

used in contractions to replace a letter,

or added to the last letter of a noun

followed by an s to indicate possession.

Example: Don’t turn me out of doors

to wander in the streets again. (Oliver

Twist by Charles Dickens).

Appositive. A noun, pronoun, or

phrase that identifies or extends

information about another noun or

pronoun in a sentence. Example:

At the man’s heels trotted a dog,

a big native husky, the proper wolf

dog. (To Build a Fire by Jack London).

C

Capitalization. The following words

are capitalized: brand names, business

firms, calendar items, course names with

numbers, first word of a direct quotation,

first word of a line of poetry, first word

of a sentence, geographical names,

government bodies, historical events,

institutions, interjections, languages,

proper nouns, proper adjectives, races,

religions, school subjects, seasons, special

events, titles of persons, publications,

works of art, movies, novels, plays, poems,

short stories, screenplays, essays, and

speeches, words referring to Deity, words

showing family relationship. Example:

The Pontelliers possessed a very charming

home on Esplanade Street in New Orleans.

(The Awakening by Kate Chopin).

49

GRAMMAR GLOSSARY

C

Clause. A group of words that has a

subject and a predicate. Clauses begin

with the words: as, that, what, where,

which, who, whose, until, since, although,

though, if, than. Example: At seven in

the morning we reached Hannibal,

Missouri, where my boyhood was

spent. (Life on the Mississippi by

Mark Twain).

Closing. In a letter, the words preceding

the signature at the end of a letter.

Example: Love, Best regards, Yours

truly, Sincerely. Example: Your

unworthy and unhappy friend, Henry

Jekyll (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by

Robert Louis Stevenson).

Collective noun. A singular noun that

names a group of persons or things.

Example: crowd, public, family, swarm,

club, army, fleet, class, audience. As for

the crew, all they knew was that I was

appointed to take the ship home. (The

Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad).

Colon: A punctuation mark (:) used

after any expression meaning “note

this.” Also used after the salutation in

a business letter, before a list, between

hour and minute, biblical chapters and

verses, and volumes and pages. A colon

never follows a verb or preposition.

Example: I had three chairs in my

house: one for solitude, two for

friendship, three for society. (Walden

by Henry David Thoreau).

Comma. A punctuation mark (,)

used after the salutation and closing

of a letter, between parts of a

compound sentence, in a series,

after an introductory clause or

prepositional phrase, to set off

appositives and nonessential phrases

and clauses, with coordinate adjectives,

with dates and addresses, parenthetical

expressions, quotation marks, and two

or more adjectives. Example: They

talked much of smoke, fire, and blood,

but he could not tell how much might

be lies. (The Red Badge of Courage

by Stephen Crane).

Common noun. A word that names a

person, place, or thing. Example: A

night on the sea in an open boat is a

long night. (The Open Boat by

Stephen Crane).

Complement. A word that completes

the meaning of an active verb. (direct

object, indirect object, predicate

adjective, and predicate nominative.

Complex sentence. One independent

clause and one or more subordinate

clauses. Example: About midnight,

while we still sat up, the storm came rattling over the Heights in full fury.

(Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte).

Compound adjective. An adjective

formed by two words separated by a

hyphen and treated as one word.

Example: He is a sweet-tempered,

amiable, charming man. (Pride and

Prejudice by Jane Austen).

50

GRAMMAR GLOSSARY

C

Compound complement. Two or more

words used as direct objects of the same

verb, objects of the same preposition,

predicate nominatives or predicate

adjectives of the same verb, or indirect

objects of the same understood

preposition. Example: I have a rosy

sky and a green flowery Eden in my

brain. (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte).

Compound-complex sentence. Two or

more independent clauses and one or

more subordinate clauses. Example: It is an honest town once more,

and the man will have to rise early

that catches it napping again. (The

Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg by

Mark Twain).

Compound noun. A noun composed of

more than one word. Example: The kiss

was a turning-point in Jude’s career.

(Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy).

Compound preposition. A preposition

composed of more than one word.

Example: because of, on account of, in

spite of, according to, instead of, out of.

Example: The sun came up upon the

left, out of the sea came he! (The Rime

of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel

Taylor Coleridge).

Compound sentence. A sentence

consisting of two or more independent

clauses. Example: I was now about

twelve years old, and the thought of

being a slave for life began to bear

heavily upon my heart. (Narrative of

the Life of Frederick Douglass).

Compound subject: Two or more

subjects that share the same verb.

Example: Bartleby and I were alone.

(Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman

Melville).

Compound verb. Two or more verbs

that share the same subject. Example:

He rose, dressed, and went on deck.

(Benito Cereno by Herman Melville).

Conjunction. A word that connects

words or groups of words. Examples:

and, or, nor, but, yet, for, so. Every

little while he locked me in and went

down to the store, three miles, to the

ferry, and traded fish and game for

whisky, and fetched it home and got

drunk and had a good time, and licked

me. (Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain).

Contraction. A word formed by

combining two words, using an

apostrophe to replace any missing

letters. Example: Denmark’s a

prison. (Hamlet by William Shakespeare).

D

Dash. A punctuation mark used to

set off abrupt change in thought, an

appositive, a parenthetical expression

or an appositivethat contains commas.

Example: My brother fired – once –

twice – and the booming of the gong

ceased. (The Lagoon by Joseph Conrad).

Declarative sentence. A sentence that

makes a statement. Example: I was

born a slave on a plantation in Franklin

County, Virginia. (Up From Slavery by

Booker T. Washington).

51

GRAMMAR GLOSSARY

D

Demonstrative pronoun. A pronoun

used to point out a specific person, place,

thing, or idea. Example: this, that, these,

those. This was the noblest Roman of

them all. (Julius Caesar by

William Shakespeare).

Dependent clause. Another name for

subordinate clause.

Direct object. A noun or pronoun that

receives the action of the verb.

Example: I sound my barbaric yawp

over the roofs of the world. (Song of

Myself by Walt Whitman).

Direct quotation. The exact words spoken. Quotation marks are used

before and after a direct quotation.

Example: “I have the advantage of

knowing your habits, my dear

Watson,” said he. (The Crooked

Man by Arthur Conan Doyle).

E

Elliptical clause. A subordinate clause

in which a word or words are omitted,

but understood. Example: I thought

[that] the heart must burst. (The

Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe).

Ellipsis. A punctuation mark (. . .)

indicating the omission of words or

a pause. Example: “Oh! Ahab,” cried

Starbuck . . . “See! Moby Dick seeks

thee not.” (Moby Dick by Herman

Melville).

Essential phrase or clause. Necessary

to the meaning of a sentence and

therefore not set off with commas.

Also called restrictive. Example:

Ethan was ashamed of the storm

of jealousy in his breast. (Ethan

Frome by Edith Wharton).

Exclamation point. A punctuation

mark (!) used after an interjection and

at the end of an exclamatory sentence.

Example: Scrooge, having no better

answer ready on the spur of the moment,

said “Bah!” again; and followed it up

with “Humbug!” (A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens).

Exclamatory sentence. Expresses

strong emotion and ends with an

exclamation point. Example: O Romeo,

Romeo, brave Mercutio is dead!

(Romeo and Juliet by William

Shakespeare).

Expletive. A word inserted in the subject

position of a sentence that does not add to the

sense of the thought. Example: There is only

one thing in the world worse than being talked

about, and that is not being talked about.

(The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde).

G

Gerund. A verbal ending in ing used as

a noun. Example: Saying is one thing,

and paying is another. (The Mayor of

Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy).

Gerund phrase. A gerund with all of

its modifiers. Example: The coming

of daylight dispelled his fears, but

increased his loneliness. (White Fang

by Jack London).

52

GRAMMAR GLOSSARY

H

Helping verbs. A verb that precedes the

main verb. Example: am, is, are, has

have, had, shall, will, can, may, should,

would, could might, must, do, did, does.

And the Raven, never flitting, still is

sitting, still is sitting on the pallid bust of

Pallas just above my chamber door.

(The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe).

Hyphen. Punctuation mark (-) used to

divide words at the end of a line,

between certain numbers (sixty-two), to

separate compound nouns and

adjectives, between some prefixes and

suffixes and their root words. Example:

Why didn’t you tell me there was danger

in men-folk? (Tess of the D’Urbervilles

by Thomas Hardy).

I

Imperative sentence. A sentence that

gives a command or makes a request.

Example: Fetch me the handkerchief!

(Othello by William Shakespeare).

Indefinite pronoun. A word that refers

to an unnamed person or thing.

Example: All, any, anybody, anything,

both each, either everybody, everyone

everything, few, many, most, neither,

nobody, none no one, nothing, others,

several, some someone, something. By

the pricking of my thumbs, something

wicked this way comes. (Macbeth by

William Shakespeare).

Independent clause. A clause that

expresses a complete thought and can

stand alone as a sentence. Example:

The artist must possess the courageous soul that dares and defies. (The

Awakening by Kate Chopin).

Indirect object. A noun or pronoun

that precedes a direct object and answers

the questions to or for whom? or to or for

what? Example: The horse made me a

sign to go in first. (Gulliver’s Travels by

Jonathan Swift)

Infinitive. A verbal that begins with

to that is used as a noun, adjective, or

adverb. Example: to walk, to read,

to imagine. I sold the watch to get the

money to buy your combs. (The Gift

of the Magi by O. Henry).

Infinitive phrase. An infinitive with its

object and modifiers. Example: To see

him leap and run and pursue me over

hedge and ditch was the worst of

nightmares. (Treasure Island by Robert

Louis Stevenson).

Interjection. A word that is used to

express strong feeling that is not related

grammatically to the rest of the sentence.

Example: Oh! No mortal could support

the horror of that countenance.

(Frankenstein by Mary Shelley).

Interrogative sentence. A sentence

that asks a questions and ends with a

question mark. Example: Is there no

pity sitting in the clouds that sees into

the bottom of my grief? (Romeo and

Juliet by William Shakespeare).

Intransitive verb. A verb that does not

require an object. Example: By degrees

Rip’s awe and apprehension subsided.

(Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving).

53

GRAMMAR GLOSSARY

I

Inverted order. A sentence that does

not follow the typical order of

subject-verb-object. Example: Work

in the coal mine I always dreaded. (Up

From Slavery by Booker T. Washington).

Irregular verb. A verb that does not

form the past tense or past participle

by adding ed or d to the present tense.

Example: But at night came his

revelry: at night he closed his shutters,

and made fast his doors, and drew out

his gold. (Silas Marner by Geroge Eliot).

L

Linking verb. A verb that links the

subject with a predicate nominative

or a predicate adjective. Example:

is, became, remain, look, appear, seem.

Example: Miss Daisy Miller looked

extremely innocent. (Daisy Miller by

Henry James).

Loose sentence. An independent clause

followed by a dependent clause.

Example: I didn’t go shopping

because it was raining.

M

Modifiers. Words that describe or

provide more meaning to a word.

Modifiers include adjectives, adverbs,

articles, prepositional phrases, verbals,

and clauses.

N

Nominative pronoun. A pronoun

used as a subject or predicate

nominative. Example: I am a man

more sinned against than sinning.

(King Lear by William Shakespeare).

Nonessential phrase or clause. Not

necessary to the meaning of a sentence

and therefore set off with commas.

Also called nonrestrictive. Example:

There stood, facing the open window,

a comfortable, roomy armchair. (The

Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin).

Noun. A word that names a person,

place, thing, or idea. Example: This

time he was aware that it was the club,

but his madness knew no caution.

(The Call of the Wild by Jack London).

Noun clause. A subordinate clause used

as a subject, direct object, object of a

preposition, appositive, or predicate

nominative. Example: What saves us

is efficiency – the devotion to efficiency.

(Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad).

O

Object of preposition. The noun or

pronoun with its modifiers that follows

a preposition. Example: Along the Paris

streets, the death-carts rumble hollow and

harsh. (A Tale of Two Cities by

Charles Dickens).

Objective case. Pronouns used as direct

objects, indirect objects, or as objects of

a preposition. Example: For he today

that sheds his blood with me shall be my

brother. (Henry V by William

Shakespeare).

54

GRAMMAR GLOSSARY

O

Objective complement. A noun or adjective

that renames or describes a direct object.

Example: O God, I could be bounded

in a nutshell and count myself a king of

infinite space, were it not that I have bad

dreams. (Hamlet by William Shakespeare).

P

Parallelism. Arranging words and

phrases consistently to express similar

ideas. Example: I like to hike, fishing,

and swimming. (Incorrect) I like hiking,

fishing, and swimming. (Correct).

Parenthetical expression. Words that

are not grammatically related to the rest

of a sentence, set off by parentheses (( )).

Example: He had passed his life in

estimating people (it was part of the

medical trade), and in nineteen cases

out of twenty he was right. (Washington

Square by Henry James).

Participial phrase. A participle with its

modifiers and complements. Example:

In the morning, looking into each

other’s faces, they read their fate. (The

Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte).

Participle. A verbal ending in ing,

ed, d, or an irregular form that is used

as an adjective. Example: I am not

in the giving vein today. (Richard III

by William Shakespeare).

Parts of Speech. The parts of speech

are verb, noun, adjective, adverb,

preposition, pronoun, interjection, and

conjunction.

Passive voice. Indicates that the subject

receives the action of the verb in a

sentence. Example: The red sun was

pasted in the sky like a wafer. (The Red

Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane).

Period. A punctuation mark (.) used

at the end of a declarative sentence or

an abbreviation. Example: Such are

the true facts of the death of Dr.

Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran.

(The Adventure of the Speckled Band

by Arthur Conan Doyle).

Periodic sentence. A dependent clause

followed by an independent clause.

Example: Because it was raining, I

didn’t go shopping.

Personal pronoun. Refers to a

particular person, place, thing, or idea.

Example: I, me, we, us, you, he, him,

she, her, it, they, them.

Phrase. A group of related words

that do not have a subject or a verb.

Example: Climbing to a high chamber,

in a well of houses, he threw himself

down in his clothes on a neglected

bed, and its pillow was wet with

wasted tears. (A Tale of Two Cities


Possessive pronoun. A pronoun form

used to show ownership. Example: my,

mine, our, ours, your, yours, his, hers, its,

their, theirs. My Intended, my ivory ,my

station, my river, my – everything belonged

to him. (Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad).

Predicate. A group of word or words

that tells something about the subject.

Example: Joe laid his hand upon my

shoulder with the touch of a woman.

(Great Expectations by Charles

Dickens).

55

GRAMMAR GLOSSARY

P

Predicate adjective. An adjective that

modifies the subject in a sentence with a

linking verb. Example: No one is so

thoroughly superstitious as the godless

man. (Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet

Beecher Stowe).

Predicate nominative. A noun or

pronoun that identifies, renames, or

explains the subject in a sentence with a

linking verb. Example: The scarlet

letter was her passport into regions

where other women dared not tread.

(The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel

Hawthorne).

Prefix. A word part added to the

beginning of a word to change its

basic meaning. Example: Do your

work and you shall reinforce yourself. (Self-

Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson).

Preposition. A word that shows the

relationship between a noun or

pronoun and another word in a

sentence. Example: I had worked

hard for nearly two years, for the

sole purpose of infusing life into an

inanimate body. (Frankenstein by

Mary Shelley).

Prepositional phrase. A group of

words that begins with a preposition,

ends with a noun or pronoun, and is

used as an adjective or an adverb.

Example: The mass of men lead

lives of quiet desperation.

(Walden by Henry David Thoreau).

Pronoun. A word that takes the

place of one or more nouns. Example:

Do all men kill the things they do

not love? (The Merchant of Venice

by William Shakespeare).

Proper adjective. A capitalized

adjective formed from a proper

noun. Example: I changed to the

Illinois edge of the island to see

what luck I could have, and I

warn’t disappointed. (Huckleberry

Finn by Mark Twain).

Proper noun. A capitalized noun that

names a particular person, place, thing,

or idea. Example: This is Inspector

Newcomen of Scotland Yard.

(Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert

Louis Stevenson).

Punctuation. Punctuation marks

include apostrophe, colon, comma,

dash, ellipsis, exclamation point,

hyphen, period, question mark,

quotation marks, and semicolon.

Q

Question mark. A punctuation

mark (?) used to indicate a question

or to end an interrogative sentence.

Example: Who in the rainbow can

show the line where the violet tint

ends and the orange tint begins?

(Billy Budd by Herman Melville).

Quotation mark. Punctuation mark (‘)

used to enclose a quotation or title within

a quotation. Example: “There’s a charming

piece of music by Handel called ‘The

Harmonious Blacksmith.’” (Great

Expectations by Charles Dickens).

56

GRAMMAR GLOSSARY

Q

Quotation marks. Punctuation mark (“)

used at the beginning and end of a

direct quotation, to enclose titles of

art works, chapters, articles, short

stories, poems, songs, and other parts

of books or magazines. Example:

Here in Milan, in an ancient

tumbledown ruin of a church, is the

mournful wreck of the most celebrated

painting in the world – “The Last

Supper,” by Leonardo da Vinci. (The

Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain).

R

Reflexive pronoun. A pronoun formed

by adding self or selves to a personal

pronoun. Example: myself, yourself,

himself, herself, itself, ourselves,

yourselves, themselves. The fault,

dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in

ourselves, that we are underlings.

(Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare).

Regular verb. A verb that forms its

past tense and past participle by adding

ed or d to the present tense. Example:

He ordered me like a dog, and I

obeyed like a dog. (David Copperfield


Relative pronoun. A pronoun that

relates an adjective clause to its

antecedent. Example: who, whom,

whose, which, that. Note: Adjective

clauses sometimes begin with where

and when. Example: There was

things which he stretched, but

mainly he told the truth. (Huckleberry

Finn by Mark Twain).

Restrictive phrase or clause. Another

name for essential phrase or clause.

S

Salutation. The opening greeting that

comes before the body of a letter. Use a

comma after the salutation in a friendly

letter and a colon after the salutation in a

business letter. My Dear Victor,

(Frankenstein by Mary Shelley).

Semicolon. A punctuation mark (;)

used to separate the independent clauses

of a compound sentence that are not

joined by conjunctions, before certain

transitional words (however, furthermore,

moreover, therefore, etc.), and between

items in a series if the items contain

commas. Example: Cowards die

many times before their deaths; the

valiant never taste of death but once.

(Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare).

Sentence. A group of words with a

subject and a verb that expresses a

complete thought. Example: The odor

of the sharp steel forced itself into

my nostrils. (The Pit and the

Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe).

Sentence fragment. A group of words

that lacks either a subject or a verb that

does not express a complete thought.

Example: Scrooge! a squeezing,

wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! (A

Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens).

Series. Three or more words or phrases

in succession separated by commas or

semicolons. Example: At a table he sat

and consumed beefsteak, flapjacks,

doughnuts, and pie. (The Cop and the

Anthem by O. Henry).

57

GRAMMAR GLOSSARY

S

Simple predicate. The verb. The main

word or phrase in the complete

predicate. Example: This cold night

will turn us all to fools and madmen.

(King Lear by William Shakespeare).

Simple sentence. A sentence that is one

independent clause. Example: Tom

appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket

of whitewash and a long-handled brush. (Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain).

Subject. A word or group of words that

names the person, place, thing, or idea

the sentence is about. Example: A long,

low moan, indescribably sad, swept over

the moor. (The Hound of the

Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle).

Subordinate clause. A clause that

cannot stand alone as a sentence

because it does not express a complete

thought. Also called a dependent clause.

Example: As Ichabod approached

this fearful tree, he began to whistle.

(The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by

Washington Irving).

Suffix. A word part added to the

end of a word that changes its meaning.

Example: A minority is powerless

while it conforms to the majority.

(Civil Disobedience by Henry

David Thoreau).

T

Tense. The form a verb takes to show

time. Example: present, past, future,

present perfect, past perfect, and future

perfect. Example: We will have rings

and things and fine array. (The Taming

of the Shrew by William Shakespeare).

Transitive verb. An action verb that

requires an object. Example: Vanity,

working on a weak head, produces

every sort of mischief. (Emma by

Jane Austen).

U

Understood subject. A subject that is

understood rather than stated. Example:

[You] Give me the worst first. (A Tale

of Two Cities by Charles Dickens).

V

Verb. A word or words that show the

action in the sentence and tell what the

subject is doing. Example: A girl learns

many things in a New England village.

(The House of the Seven Gables by

Nathaniel Hawthorne).

Verbal. A verb form used as

some other part of speech. The

three verbals are: participles,

gerunds, and infinitives.

Verbal phrase. The main verb

plus one or more helping verbs.

Example: would have made,

will be going, should do.

After such a fall as this, I

shall think nothing of tumbling

downstairs! (Alice’s Adventures in

Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style

Documents

Transcript of ANTHEM by Ayn Rand – Grammar and Style