English LITERATURE (Poetry-specific Terminology)

Question 1

Accentual verse

Answer 1

Verse with a fixed number of stresses per line.

Question 2

Alliteration

Answer 2

The repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words.

Question 3

Anaphora (Syntactic parallelism)

Answer 3

Repeating the structure of a line for effect

Question 4

Apostrophe

Answer 4

To address someone or something not present, which may be a personified obect or idea (O death, why?’

Question 5

Assonance

Answer 5

The repetition of similar vowel sounds

Question 6

Blank verse

Answer 6

Verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

Question 7

Caesura

Answer 7

A conscious pause in the line of poetry

Question 8

Common metre

Answer 8

Also known as ballad or hym metre. A poem written in four line stanzas, with an ABCB rhyme scheme and a syllable count of 8484 (stressed 4343)

Question 9

Couplet

Answer 9

A two line unit of poetry (often rhyming)

Question 10

End-stop

Answer 10

When a line of poetry ends with a full-stop or clear punctuation mark.

Question 11

Enjambement

Answer 11

When the line runs onto the next

Question 12

Foot

Answer 12

A basic unit of measurement in poetry.

Question 13

Free verse

Answer 13

Poetry without fixed structure

Question 14

Iamb

Answer 14

A ‘foot’ consisting of two syllables

Question 15

Iambic pentameter

Answer 15

Five iambs

Question 16

Iambic tetrameter

Answer 16

Contains four iambs

Question 17

Inversion, inverter syntac

Answer 17

When the poet changes the standard subject-verb-object word order for effect.

Question 18

Metre

Answer 18

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in lines of poetry

Question 19

Plosive

Answer 19

Words which begin with or contain ‘hard’ sound (t,k,p,b,g and d)