Ekphrasis, which comes from the Greek words for “out” and “speech,” is a method used to describe a piece of art, whether real or imagined. Since ancient times, ekphrasis has been used in poetry and also appears in many other types of writing. It helps create strong feelings in readers by using vivid language and clear details to form mental pictures.
An eclogue is a type of poem written in a traditional style that focuses on rural or countryside themes. Poems in this category are sometimes referred to as bucolics. The word “eclogue” is also used to describe a type of music that aims to create the feeling of being in a pastoral setting.
“Little Sir Echo” is a song that was first written in 1917 by John Sylvester Fearis. The words of the song were written by Laura Rountree Smith. It became popular during the 1920s and 1930s as a song used at children’s camps.
A character is a person or being in a story, such as a novel, play, or film. A character can be completely made up or based on a real person. This means we can tell if a character is fictional or real.
A dystopia is a fictional world or society where people live in misery, are treated as less than human, and experience fear. It is a place, sometimes ruled by a government, where life is unpleasant or harmful, often because of strict control or serious harm to the environment. Dystopia is the opposite of utopia, a term created by Thomas More in 1516 to describe a perfect society.
Duple time (also called duple metre in British spelling) is a musical rhythm defined by having two main beats in each measure. This is shown by the top number in the time signature, which is usually 2, 4, or 8 (or multiples of these numbers). For example, time signatures like 2/4, 4/4, and 6/8 are common examples of duple time.
The size of a book is usually measured by comparing the height and width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. Libraries and publishers use a set of terms to describe the general sizes of modern books. These include folio (the largest), quarto (smaller), and octavo (even smaller).
Dumbshow, also called dumb show or dumb-show, is described in the Oxford Dictionary of English as “motions used to show meaning without speaking; mime.” In theatre, the term refers to a dramatic scene using mime, or a specific action performed in mime within a play to summarize, add to, or comment on the main story. According to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, Michael Dobson explains that dumbshow originated as a type of story from older plays that used symbols to teach lessons. It became popular in 16th-century English drama, especially in short plays called interludes that featured characters representing abstract ideas like virtues and vices.
A droll is a short, funny performance that began in England during the Puritan Interregnum, a time when there was no king. When theaters were closed, actors could not perform plays as they usually did. To earn money, they borrowed scenes from famous Elizabethan plays, added dancing and other entertainment, and performed these shows, sometimes without permission.
A dream vision or visio is a literary device where a dream or vision is described as revealing knowledge or truths not known in a normal waking state. This happens when someone is asleep. While dreams appear often in literature, the genre of visionary writing became popular suddenly and was especially common in early medieval Europe.