limerick

five-line humorous verse with strict traditional rhythm and rhyme pattern

limited omniscient point of view

third-person narration in which story is seen through the mind(s) of one or a few characters

literary lore

stories that are written by a known author who carefully mimics the formulas of traditional literature such as Hans Christian Andersen's popular fairy tales

lyric poetry

songlike poetry with a compact expression of feeling

manga

a Japanese style of comic; modern form is post-World War II

memoir

a subgenre of autobiography with a more narrow focus and personal tone

mentor text

a text that serves as a good teacher; a timeless text superlative in its elegance, wit, or wisdom

metafiction

a work of fiction that reveals the act of writing fiction

metaphor

a figure of speech that compares two things by stating that one thing is another

meter

somewhat regular rhythm pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry

mise-en-abyme

a visual or verbal text placed inside another text as its smaller replica; story with a story or picture within a picture

myth

story originating in folk beliefs showing how the world works; can include supernatural forces cooperating with animals and humans

narration

one of the four main types of composition; story telling through words (the others are expository, description, and argumentation)

narrative order

sequence in which events are commonly recounted

narrative poetry

poetry that tells a story

noodlehead stories

gently humorous folktales featuring a dim-witted person who usually wins in the end, despite being foolish

nursery rhymes

brief stories that have been passed orally from generation to generation; told in brief rhyming verse; sometimes considered simplest introduction to poetry

objective (or dramatic) point of view

third-person narration in which actions and speeches are recorded without interpretation

off rhymes

imperfect rhymes, sometimes called "slant rhymes"; for example, ground and cloud

omniscient point of view

third-person narration in which action is told by an all-knowing writer