1. plot
   character​ development
2. theme
   choice of language

If the essay asks HOW the writer did something, the tools of their trade are the topic of discussion. That means the question is asking about their choice and arrangement of words. It is not asking WHAT they were trying to do, which would be about plot and other elements.

1. 10
   19
2. 70
   27

A villanelle​ is a 19-line poem made up of triplets with repeating and alternating final lines. The last stanza is a quartet ending with both the final lines that repeated and alternated in the prior stanzas. A famous example of a villanelle is Dylan Thomas' poem, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night".

1. sextet
   quartet
2. octuplet
   triplet

A sonnet is a 14-line poem written in iambic pentameter. The first section is eight lines, called the octet. The sextet is the remaining six lines and typically represents a pivot in the emphasis of the poem.

1. Romantic poets
   Gothic novelists
2. Metaphysical poets
   Modernists

The Metaphysical poets include Donne as well as Andrew Marvell and others. Contemporaries of Shakespeare, their work is characterized by remarkably complex use of language, including borderline indecipherable conceits.

1. Jack Kirby
   William Thomas Beckford
2. Emma Orczy
   Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley wrote what is generally considered to be the first science fiction novel, "Frankenstein." She was in Geneva with her husband hosting a house party and they all challenged each other to write ghost stories.

1. The Youth
   The Dark Lady
2. The Rival Poet
   The Nasty Queen

The Nasty Queen is not a character in the sonnets. Indeed, it would be a really bad idea to annoy the queen at the time, since Elizabethan England was a police state and you could get your head removed for such things.

1. To please a patron
   To please the Queen
2. For fun
   He lost a bet.

Queen Elizabeth really loved the character of Falstaff so Shakespeare gave him his own play. This makes Merry Wives arguably one of the earlier spin-offs out there.

1. member of Parliament
   secretary
2. gardener
   chef

John Milton was an extremely politicial figure and worked many years for Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell was the leader of the Roundhead movement that cut the head off Charless II during the English Civil War.

1. His arm was like a tree.
   The black dog of depression followed her.
2. She smiled.
   The cake was full of rainbows.

A simile is where two things are compared in a way that acknowledges that the comparison is being made. For example, "This cake is like heaven" is a simile. Saying, "This cake is heaven" is not a simile as it is literally claiming the cake is heaven.

1. Ta-DAH
   TA-dah
2. TA-DAH
   Ta-dah-dah

A trochee is the opposite of an iamb. That means it's one long, stressed syllable followed by a short, unstressed one.

1. eight
   10
2. 12
   three

Tetrameter is eight syllables. That's different to pentameter which has 10. Tetrameter is one of the most simple forms to learn.

1. A couplet has two lines; a triplet has three.
   A couplet has four lines; a triplet has two.
2. A couplet rhymes; a triplet does not.
   They're the same thing.

A couplet has two lines and a triplet has three. Sometimes they rhyme, other times they don't! It depends on the poem.

1. girl and world
   hat and cat
2. sounds and round
   right and fight

Girl and world don't rhyme at all, as the vowel sounds are different. A half-rhyme has the correct vowels for a rhyme but not the correct consonants.

1. A peck of pickled peppers
   A woodchuck chucked.
2. Red lorry, yellow lorry
   All I want is a proper cup.

Alliteration means using the same first letter to create a recurring sound. For example, most tongue twisters involve one. The technique is also frequently used - albeit sparingly - in great poetry.

1. To be or not to be; that is the question.
   Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
2. Mike likes his new bike.
   Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

Consonance means the same vowel sounds are used. For example, in "Mike likes his new bike," the repeated K sound provides a continuity of sound. Consonance is an element in rhyming.

1. a runover line
   a repeated line
2. a short line
   a long line

Enjambement is when there is a runover line. The last two lines of Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" is an example: "Thus, though we cannot make our sun %0DStand still, yet we will make him run."

1. Charles Dickens
   Elizabeth Gaskell
2. Daniel Defoe
   Jane Austen

Defoe is considered the first novelist, as he wrote "Robinson Crusoe." There were previous prose works but none meet the modern definition of a novel. These days, novels are less confined by certain rules, such as including the protagonist's entire life.

1. Samuel Johnson
   Geoffrey Chaucer
2. Aelfric
   King Alfred

While there were earlier English language dictionaries, Dr. Johnson's was upposedly the first comprehensive one. He took more than 20 years to write it.

1. John Donne
   Ogden Nash
2. Lewis Carroll
   e e cummings

e e cummings does not capitalize his own name. His poems are a sort of shape poems, in which the words of the poem are laid out in a way that reflects the content of the poem.

1. Jane Austen
   Charlotte Bronte
2. Mary Wollstonecraft
   Maya Angelou

Jane Austen is one of the most beloved and successful writers of all time. However, during her life, she was not very loved and could not make a living with her pen. Her wealthy brother had to support her.

1. Walter Scott
   George Eliot
2. Charles Dickens
   Daniel Deronda

Charles Dickens wasn't paid by the word, contrary to myth. He was paid by the installation, which is why his novels came out in serialized form.

1. Lord Byron
   Arthur Hallam
2. Archie Hughes
   Annabel Holland

Arthur Hallam was Tennyson's best friend. When Hallam died, Tennyson expressed his grief in a very long lyrical poem.

1. John Dryden
   Carol Ann Duffy
2. Andrew Motion
   John Betjeman

While Ben Jonson did receive a royal pension and Chaucer had a whole lot of patronage, the first official British Poet Laureate was John Dryden.

1. He got high.
   He came down from a high.
2. He had a visitor.
   He got bored.

Coleridge was indeed high when he came up with the poem, and then came down. However, his real problem was that the mailman arrived and they had a nice chat, during which he forgot the poem he'd planned.

1. The Year Without a Summer
   The Potato Famine
2. The Little Ice Age
   The Washington-Jefferson Storm

The Year Without A Summer was the result of the eruption of Mount Tambora. It was the reason for Turner's paintings being so expressive; that's just what the sky looked like. It also inspired a lot of other great art.

1. Lord Byron
   Samuel Taylor Coleridge
2. William Wordsworth
   Percy Bysshe Shelley

Lord Byron was a celebrity, always generating controversy and taking lovers from across society. He eventually went to Greece to fight against the Ottoman Empire and died of malaria.

1. the plot
   the message
2. the characters
   the use of language

Thematic elements are non-explicit messages, as opposed to dramatic elements which are explicitly expressed through the ​plot. For example, dramatically, George Eliot's "Middlemarch" is about a woman who marries an older man she believes is brilliant but is fooled. Thematically, it is about social expectations, duty, compassion, and judgment.

1. The trees bucked in the wind, like horses.
   A wave of emotion swept over over.
2. It's raining men.
   She was happy.

A metaphor is like a simile except it doesn't acknowledge itself; that is, it is non-literal. For example, when there are a lot of men around, it's not literally raining men, but there may still be plenty to go around!

1. Metaphor is primarily about use of speech; analogy is a logical argument.
   It doesn't, they're the same thing.
2. Metaphor and simile are the same thing and analogy is different.
   Analogy is about use of language; metaphor is about use of speech.

Metaphor is a figure of speech in which language is used in a non-literal way to illustrate the nature of something. Analogy is when two things are compared to highlight the nature of the first by literally comparing it to the second.

1. Indo-European
   Japanese
2. Romance languages
   Norse

Loan words are words that came from another language and then got adopted. While English borrows heavily from Norse and the Romance languages and is itself one of the Indo-European languages, it doesn't have a lot of words from Japanese.

1. cosplay
   brunch
2. ebonics
   toothpaste

Portmanteau words are when two words combine to make a new one, as in brunch (breakfast+luunch) or ebonics (ebony+phonics). Toothpaste is not a portmanteau because both its components are contained in the word in their entirety.

1. anything personal
   It's just a thing internet trolls say when they're losing.
2. It's an argument that leverages an irrelevant personal fact to undermine the speaker.
   It's an argument that leverages a relevant personal fact to undermine the speaker.

"Ad hominem" comes from the Latin "to the person." That is, it means dismissing a person's argument based on something personal that does not tell you whether they know what they are talking about. Thus, "You're a redhead, therefore you don't understand Shakespeare" is ad hominem. "You have never read any Shakespeare, therefore you don't understand Shakespeare" is a good argument.

1. feeling sad after reading or seeing a tragedy
   feeling drained after reading or seeing a tragedy
2. feeling a kind of relief or release after reading or seeing a tragedy
   feeling annoyed after reading or seeing a tragedy

Catharsis is the process of feeling strong emotions and then enjoying a sense of being spent as a result. Tragedy is not just about feeling sad​ when it is done well; it should also induce catharsis. Examples of this being done successfully include Milton's "Samson Agonistes" and Shakespeare's "Hamlet."

1. Richard Burbage
   Laurence Olivier
2. Edward Alleyn
   Shakespeare himself!

Richard Burbage was a celebrity in Elizabethan Theater and one of the greatest actors of all time. He was probably the first Lear, Hamlet, and Iago.

1. Siegfried Sassoon
   Wilfred Owen
2. David Jones
   Laurence Binyon

Wilfred Owen was killed in action in 1918, just seven days before the end of the war. He wrote about how futile the whole project was and his poems are among the most powerful to be produced during the conflict.