Elements of Poetry

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

Alliteration Is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words.

Example:

The snake sneaked past the snail.

The repetition of the same or similar sounds at the beginning of words: “What would the
world be, once bereft/Of wet and wildness?” (Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Inversnaid”)

matching initial consonants (short, ship)

Question 2

Assonance

Answer 2

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonants in two or more stressed syllables.

Example:

The green leaves fluttered in the breeze.

a preponderance of repeated vowels or vowel sounds (like stony and holy)

matching vowels (shake, hate); assonance is sometimes used to refer to slant rhymes

Question 3

Ballad

Answer 3

A ballad is a song-like narrative poem, usually written in rhymed stanzas of 4 to 6 lines that feature repetition and strong meter.

Question 4

Blank Verse

Answer 4

Blank Verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Question 5

Connotation

Answer 5

Connotation is the associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or primary meaning. Emotional association.

Question 6

Consonance

Answer 6

Consonance is the repetition of final consonant sounds in stressed syllables with different vowel sounds.

Example:

The king sang a song.

a preponderance of repeated consonants or vowel sounds

matching consonants (rabies, robbers)

Question 7

Denotation

Answer 7

Denotation is the literal meaning of a word.

Question 8

Dramatic Poetry

Answer 8

Dramatic Poetry is a poem that presents the speech of one or more speakers in a dramatic situation.

In dramatic poetry, the speaker is a persona who is not the poet and the poem is a theatrical enactment.

Question 9

English Sonnet

Answer 9

An English Sonnet is a 14 line lyric poem consisting of 3 quatrains and a couplet.

Usually rhymed abab cdcd efef gg

Question 10

Figurative Language

Answer 10

Figurative Language is language not meant to be interpreted literally.

Question 11

Free Verse

Answer 11

Free Verse is a type of poetry that exhibits language but does not follow fixed patterns.

(also “vers libre”)

Poetry composed of either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have no set meter

Question 12

Formal Verse

Answer 12

Formal Verse is poetry that follow fixed patterns.

Question 13

Haiku

Answer 13

Haiku is an unrhymed three-line lyric poem, usually focused on images from nature, in which line 1 and 3 have five syllables and line 2 has 7 syllables.

Remember 5-7-5

Question 14

Imagery

Answer 14

Imagery is descriptive language that creates word pictures.

Example:

“A thick-yellow haze hung over the city, blocking out building, blinding the sun.”

Question 15

Lyric Poetry

Answer 15

Lyric Poetry is a short poem that expresses the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker.

Lyric poems are highly musical short forms situated within the first person in which the speaker of the poem is often assumed to be the same as, or very similar to, the poet. For many centuries, poets, theorists and critics have debated the character of lyric poems. Building on the ideas of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), some critics said reading lyric poems is like overhearing someone speaking in a moment of intense, brief, solitary reflection. In this characterization, the speaker of the poem may address herself or the speaker may address a mysterious, beloved presence. If you are interested in books and articles that debate the meaning and character of lyric poems please ask for citations.

Question 16

Meter

Answer 16

Meter is rhythmic patterns built on the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in poems.

The arrangement of a line of poetry by the number of syllables and the rhythm of accented (or stressed) syllables

Question 17

Narrative Poetry

Answer 17

Narrative Poetry is a poem that tells a story.

Narrative poetry tells a story; and a story refers to a series of developing events with specific (though sometimes unreported) time frames, settings, and characters.

Telling a story with some semblance of characters, plots, locales, time frames, dialogue or scenes; ballads, epics, and lays are different kinds of narrative poems

Question 18

Ode

Answer 18

An ode is a lyric poem on a serious subject, usually written in precise structure.

A lyric poem that is serious and thoughtful in tone and has a very precise, formal structure; John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is a famous example of this type of poem.

Question 19

Rhyme

Answer 19

Rhyme is the repetition of alike sounds within the poetry.

The occurrence of the same or similar sounds at the end of two or more words; the pattern of rhyme in a stanza or poem is shown usually by using a different letter for each final sound; in a poem with an aabba rhyme scheme, the first, second, and fifth lines end
in one sound, and the third and fourth lines end in another.

Question 20

Exact or True Rhyme

Answer 20

Exact or True Rhyme are words that end in both the same vowel and the same consonant sounds.
Example:

sun and run

Question 21

Slant Rhyme

Answer 21

Slant rhyme are words that end in similar but not exact sounds.

Example:

prove and love

Question 22

End Rhyme

Answer 22

End rhyme are rhyming words that fall at the ends of two or more lines.

Example:

crawls, walls, and falls.

Question 23

Internal Rhyme

Answer 23

Internal rhyme are rhyming words placed within a line.

Example:

The mouse in the house woke the cat.

Question 24

Rhyme Scheme

Answer 24

A rhyme scheme is a set pattern of rhyme.

a pattern of rhyming lines in a poem

Question 25

Stanza

Answer 25

A stanza is a grouping of lines within poetry. Two or more lines of poetry that together form one of the divisions of a poem. The stanzas of a poem are usually of the same length and follow the same pattern of meter and rhyme

Question 26

Onomatopoeia

Answer 26

Onomatopoeia is the use of words to imitate sounds. Example: The bees buzzed, and the brook gurgled. A figure of speech in which words are used to imitate sounds; examples of onomatopoeic words are buzz, hiss, zing, clippety-clop, and tick-tock; Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale" not only uses onomatopoeia, but calls our attention to it: "Forlorn! The very word is like a bell/ To toll me back from thee to my sole self!"; another example of onomatopoeia is found in this line from Tennyson's Come Down, O Maid: "The moan of doves in immemorial elms,/ And murmuring of innumerable bees." The repeated "m/n" sounds reinforce the idea of "murmuring" by imitating the hum of insects on a warm summer day.

Question 27

Metaphor

Answer 27

Metaphor are words comparing unlike things. Example: The air was wet wool, heavy and warm. A figure of speech in which two things are compared, usually by saying one thing is another, or by substituting a more descriptive word for the more common or usual word that would be expected; some examples of metaphors: all the world's a stage; he was a lion in battle Extended Metaphor a comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem

Question 28

Personification

Answer 28

Personification is giving non-human things human qualities. A figure of speech in which things or abstract ideas are given human attributes: dead leaves dance in the wind, blind justice.

Question 29

Sestet

Answer 29

Sestet is a group of 6 lines in poetry that share a rhyming pattern.

Question 30

Simile

Answer 30

Simile is comparing unlike things using "like" or "as".

Question 31

Octet

Answer 31

Octet is a group of 8 lines in poetry that share a rhyming pattern.

Question 32

Accent

Answer 32

An emphasis given to a syllable or word; the word "poetry" has an accent (or stress) on the first syllable

Question 33

Sibilance

Answer 33

A repetition of the "s" sound; like a hissing effect

Question 34

Antithesis

Answer 34

A figure of speech (or rhetorical figure) in which words and phrases with opposite meanings are balanced against each other; an example of antithesis is "To err is human, to forgive, divine." (Alexander Pope)

Question 35

Allegory

Answer 35

A narrative or collection of ideas that stands in or represents ideas that stand apart from the events or ideas literal meaning

Question 36

Apostrophe

Answer 36

Words that are spoken to a person who is absent or imaginary, or to an object or abstract idea; the poem God's World by Edna St. Vincent Millay begins with an apostrophe: "O World, I cannot hold thee close enough!/Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!/Thy mists that roll and rise!"

Question 37

Caesura

Answer 37

A natural pause or break in a line of poetry, usually near the middle of the line. There is a caesura right after the question mark in the first line of this sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning: "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways"

Question 38

Conceit

Answer 38

A greatly extended and developed metaphor; an example of a conceit can be found in Shakespeare's sonnet "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" and in Emily Dickinson's poem "There is no frigate like a book"

Question 39

Enjambment

Answer 39

The continuation of a complete idea (a sentence or clause) from one line to the next line without a pause (including such a continuation across stanzas); an example of enjambment can be found in the first line of Joyce Kilmer's poem Trees: "I think that I shall never see/ A poem as lovely as a tree" enjambment comes from the French word for "to straddle"

Question 40

Envoy

Answer 40

The shorter final stanza of a poem, as in a ballade; generally, in an Elizabethan or Shakespearean sonnet, the last two lines (usually rhymed) are called a volte

Question 41

Epic

Answer 41

A long, serious poem that tells the story of a heroic figure; two of the most famous epicpoems are the ILIAD and the ODYSSEY by Homer, which tell about the Trojan War and the adventures of Odysseus on his voyage home after the war

Question 42

Epigram

Answer 42

An epigram is a very short, witty poem: "Sir, I admit your general rule, That every poet is a fool, But you yourself may serve to show it, That every fool is not a poet." (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

Question 43

Epigraph

Answer 43

An epigraph is a quotation of phrase set at the beginning of a document

Question 44

Epitaph

Answer 44

An epitaph is a descriptive word or phrase that has become a fixed formula; sometimes appearing on a tombstones

Question 45

Epithet

Answer 45

Epithet is a term that replaces or is added to the name of a person, like "clear-eyed Athena," in which "clear-eyed" is the epithet; or a term of insult or abuse: "the shoplifter hurled epithets at the guard who had arrested her" A descriptive word or phrase that is frequently used to characterize a person or thing. Example: The "father of this country" is usually meant to mean George Washington. The "big apple" usually means New York City.

Question 46

Epithalamium

Answer 46

Epithalamium is a poem in honor of a bride and bridegroom

Question 47

Feminine rhyme

Answer 47

This term is admittedly a very problematic and sexist or potentially sexist construction; nevertheless, for reference, this term refers to a rhyme that occurs in a final unstressed syllable: pleasure/leisure, longing/yearning

Question 48

Figure of speech

Answer 48

Figure of speech is a verbal expression in which words or sounds are arranged in a particular way to achieve a particular effect; figures of speech are organized into different categories, such as alliteration, assonance, metaphor, metonymy, onomatopoeia, simile, and synecdoche (see this alphabetical list for definitions of these terms)

Question 49

Foot

Answer 49

Two or more syllables that together make up the smallest unit of rhythm in a poem; for example, an iamb is a foot that has two syllables, one unstressed followed by one stressed; an anapest has three syllables, two unstressed followed by one stressed

Question 50

Hyperbole

Answer 50

Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which deliberate exaggeration is used for emphasis; many everyday expressions are examples of hyperbole: tons of money, waiting for ages, a flood of tears, etc. Hyperbole is the opposite of litotes

Question 51

Hypotaxis

Answer 51

Hypotaxis is the syntactic subordination of one clause to another, generally using many conjunctions:"As we ran and we sang and we told jokes and we laughed, we became as one"; or "we loved and we gave and we died and we lived again"

Question 52

Irony (Verbal)

Answer 52

Irony (Verbal) is saying the opposite of what is meant

Question 53

Irony (Situational)

Answer 53

Irony (Situational) is when the meaning of the context (or situation) runs counter to the action

Question 54

Irony (Dramatic)

Answer 54

Irony (Dramatic) is doing the opposite of what is meant

Question 55

Line

Answer 55

Line is the major rhythmic, typographic unit of expression within a poem; a sentence is NOT the same as a line of poetry because a sentence can span across many lines of poetry; students, please remember the following definition of a sentence: a sentence is a group of clauses or phrases forming a complete syntactic unit, usually with a subject and a predicate, which expresses an assertion, a question, a command, a wish, an exclamation, or the performance of an action; and in writing, a sentence usually begins with a capital letter and concludes with appropriate ending punctuation—like a period, exclamation mark, or question mark; and when speaking, pauses and end-points in a sentence are often distinguished by characteristic patterns of stress, pitch, and pause

Question 56

Litotes

Answer 56

Litotes is a figure of speech in which a positive is stated by negating its opposite; some examples of litotes: no small victory, not a bad idea, not unhappy; litotes is the opposite of hyperbole

Question 57

Masculine rhyme

Answer 57

This term is admittedly a very problematic and sexist or potentially sexist construction; nevertheless, for reference, this term refers a rhyme that occurs in a final stressed syllable: cat/hat, desire/fire, observe/deserve

Question 58

Metonymy

Answer 58

Metonymy is a figure of speech in which one word is substituted for another with which it is closely associated; for example, in the expression "The pen is mightier than the sword," the word pen is used for "the written word," and sword is used for "military power"

Question 59

Parataxis

Answer 59

Parataxis is a rhetorical and syntactic arrangement in which clauses are strung together in series, without subordination: "We ran, we sang, and we told jokes"

Question 60

Last-syllable (also called "masculine")

Answer 60

It is a rhyme in which the stress is on the final syllable of the words (rhyme, sublime)

Question 61

Second-to-last syllable (also called "feminine")

Answer 61

It is a rhyme in which the stress is on the penultimate (second from last) syllable of the words (picky, tricky)

Question 62

Dactylic

Answer 62

Dactylic is a rhyme in which the stress is on the antepenultimate (third from last) syllable (cacophonies, Aristophanes)

Question 63

Syllabic

Answer 63

Syllabic is a rhyme in which the last syllable of each word sounds the same but does not necessarily contain vowels. (cleaver, silver, or pitter, patter)

Question 64

Imperfect (or near)

Answer 64

It is a rhyme between a stressed and an unstressed syllable (wing, caring)

Question 65

Weak (or unaccented)

Answer 65

It is a rhyme with an extra syllable on one word (bend, ending)

Question 66

Semirhyme

Answer 66

It is a rhyme with an extra syllable on one word (bend, ending)

Question 67

Forced (or oblique)

Answer 67

It is a rhyme with an imperfect match in sound (green, fiend; one, thumb)

Question 68

Half rhyme

Answer 68

Matching final consonants (bent, ant)

Question 69

Pararhyme

Answer 69

All consonants match. (tell, tall)

Question 70

Eye rhyme

Answer 70

Eye rhymes or sight rhymes refer to similarity in spelling but not in sound (cough, bough, or love, move)

Question 71

Mind rhyme

Answer 71

This kind of rhyme is "heard" only when generated by the poetic context; example: "this sugar is neat / and tastes so sour"; the word "neat" paired with sour may make the reader think of "sweet" and a recognition of "sweet and sour" may come to mind; a mind rhyme often steers the language away from direct over-used expressions (like sweet and sour) while implying them indirectly

Question 72

Tail rhyme

Answer 72

``` Tail rhyme (also called end rhyme or rime couée) a rhyme in the final syllable(s) of a verse (the most common kind) ```

Question 73

Internal rhyme

Answer 73

An internal rhyme is a word at the end of the line rhymes with a word in the interior of the line

Question 74

Holorhyme

Answer 74

A holorhyme is when two entire lines rhyme

Question 75

Rhythm

Answer 75

It is the organization of beats, stresses, or accents in a line of poetry, a musical phrase, or a Sentence

Question 76

Sentence

Answer 76

A sentence is a group of clauses or phrases forming a complete syntactic unit, usually with a subject and a predicate, which expresses an assertion, a question, a command, a wish, an exclamation, or the performance of an action; and in writing, a sentence usually begins with a capital letter and concludes with appropriate ending punctuation—like a period, exclamation mark, or question mark; and when speaking, pauses and end-points in a sentence are often distinguished by characteristic patterns of stress, pitch, and pause

Question 77

Simile

Answer 77

A simile is a figure of speech in which two things are compared using the word "like" or "as." An example of a simile using like occurs in Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem": "What happens to a dream deferred?/ Does it dry up/ like a raisin in the sun?"

Question 78

Stress

Answer 78

Stress is the prominence or emphasis given to particular syllables; stressed syllables usually stand out because they have long, rather than short, vowels, or because they have a different pitch or are louder than other syllables

Question 79

Symbol

Answer 79

Objects, characters, or ideas that stand for specific meanings, themes, concepts, or other abstractions; the whale in the novel Moby Dick symbolized humans battle with the forces of nature

Question 80

Synecdoche

Answer 80

A figure of speech in which a part is used to designate the whole or the whole is used to designate a part; for example, the phrase "all hands on deck" means "all men on deck," not just their hands; the reverse situation, in which the whole is used for a part, occurs in the sentence "The U.S. beat Russia in the final game," where the U.S. and Russia stand for "the U.S. team" and "the Russian team," respectively

Question 81

Trope

Answer 81

A figure of speech, such as metaphor or metonymy, in which words are not used in their literal (or actual) sense but in a figurative (or imaginative) sense

Question 82

Concrete Poem

Answer 82

A poem in which the words are arranged on a page to suggest a visual representation of the subject.

Question 83

Couplet

Answer 83

Two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry. If the two rhyming lines express a complete thought, they are called a closed couplet. Example: If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, ye woman, if you can.

Question 84

Elegy

Answer 84

A poem of mourning, usually written about someone who has died. Most are written to mark a person's death, but some extend their subject to reflect on life, death, and the fleeting nature of beauty.

Question 85

Iamb

Answer 85

A metrical foot in poetry that has an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in the word protect.

Question 86

Iambic Pentameter

Answer 86

A line of poetry that contains five iambic feet. Example: In May, when sea winds pierced our solitudes.

Question 87

Imagism

Answer 87

A twentieth-century movement in European and American poetry that advocated the creation of hard, clear images, concisely expressed in everyday speech.

Question 88

Octave

Answer 88

An eight-line poem, or the first eight lines of Petrarchan, or Italian, sonnet. In Petrarchan, the octave states the subject of the sonnet, or poses a problem or question.

Question 89

Quatrain

Answer 89

A poem consisting of four lines, or four lines of a poem that can be considered a unit.

Question 90

Scanning

Answer 90

The analysis of a poem to determine its meaning.

Question 91

Sestet

Answer 91

Six lines of poetry, especially the last six lines of Petrarchan, or Italina, sonnet.

Question 92

Spondee

Answer 92

A metrical foot consisting of two syllables, both of which are stressed. Example: nineteen

Question 93

Trochee

Answer 93

A metrical foot made up of an accented syllable followed by an unaccented syllable, as in the word taxi.

Question 94

Allusion

Answer 94

A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art

Question 95

Bildungsroman

Answer 95

A coming of age story