Literary Terms : Classicism, Climax, Circumlocution or Periphrasis, Comic Relief, Conceit

Classicism:

A doctrine of art and literature which was followed by the ancient   Greeks and Romans. It is opposite to romanticism. Its main features  are:

a)         Restraint or control ( over imagination);

b)         Predominance of reason over emotion;

c)         Importance to form rather than to content;

d)         Symmetry or unity of design and aim;

 e) Clarity, simplicity and balance;

f)          Respect for tradition;

g)         Precision;
Literary Terms: Catastrophe, Catharsis, Chiasmus, Chorus, Classic

Climax:

The peak of importance in a play or in a story. It is the point at which the rise of action ends and the fall of action begins. The  climax of Macbeth, for example, is the point at which, so far ambitious and brave, Macbeth first gets afraid at the appearance Of Banquo's ghost. It is the turning point of his fall. A statement may Literary Terms  also have a climax. Example: "He smiles, he laughs and he roars". The climax is at the end of this sentence.

Circumlocution or Periphrasis:

A roundabout way of stating or writing ideas. In it a lot of words are  used where a few serve the purpose. For example:

            The Peer now spreads the glittering forfex wide,

 To in close the Lock; now joins it , to divide.

Even then , before the fatal engine closed,

A wretched Sylph too fondly interposed;

(Pope: The Rape of the Lock)

The meaning expressed in these lines could have been expressed by a short sentence. Poets use it to impart undue importance which  produces ironic laughter.
Literary Terms :Alliteration, Allusion, Anapest , Anti-climax or Bathos

Comic Relief:

A humorous scene in between serious scenes of a tragedy. Its purpose  is to relieve the tension and heighten the tragic effect by contrast. The comic scenes of Dr. Faustus are bright examples. Act-111, SceneIV, of this play is a comic relief. In it Wagner makes fun of the clown. This comic scene is preceded and followed by serious scenes  marking Faustus' damnation.

Conceit:

A figure in which two far fetched objects (images) of very different nature are compared. It surprises its readers by its ingenious discovery and delights them by its intellectual quality. A famous example is Donne's comparison between two lovers' souls and the two arms of a pair of compasses in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning":

 If they be two, they are two so

A stiff twin compasses are two;