At one point in the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads (1800), Wordsworth quotes a parody of simple verses by Samuel Johnson and compares it with a stanza of a children's song called "Babes in the Wood". Then he writes: In both of these stanzas the words, and the order of the words, in no respect di...

In A Plea for Captain John Brown, Thoreau writes: Treason! Where does such treason take its rise? I cannot help thinking of you as you deserve, ye governments. Can you dry up the fountains of thought? High treason, when it is resistance to tyranny here below, has its origin in, and is first comm...

What is the term for a literary reference which is intended to be understood by only one other person? I came across this term some years ago but did not record it - wrongly assuming I could easily Google it when needed.