Literary Terms

Complication - something that introduces, usually unexpectedly, some difficulty, problem, change, ect.

Example: Romeo and Juliet. When Romeo sees Juliet for the first time he declares, "I never saw true beauty till tonight." The complication is that his family, the Montagues, have been feuding with Juliet's family for as long as anyone can remember.

Controlling metaphors - a symbolic story, where the whole poem may be a metaphor for something else.

Example:
Mary is a violet in autumn.
She bloomed too late,
purpling in the declining day.
Even now she opens brightly
as the red-leaved air
sharpens with frost.

Mary's autumnal violetness is the controlling metaphor for this little stanza.