Glossary (1) Flashcards
Alliteration
Where words start with the same letter. It’s often used in poetry to give a nice pattern to a phrase or to make it memorable. E.g the little I knew was less limited than now
Adjective
A word that describes something e.g big, fast, annoying.
Ambiguity
Where a word or phrase has two or more possible meanings
Assonance
When words share the same vowel sound but the consonants are different. E.g “trees” and “leads” in ‘On the Grasshopper and Cricket’
Ballad
A form of poetry that tells a story and can often be set to music
Blank verse
Poetry written in iambic pentameter that doesn’t rhyme
Caesura
A break in the rhythm of a line, often shown with punctuation marks
Colloquial
Sounding like everyday spoken language
Consonance
When words have the same consonant sounds but different vowel sounds e.g years, yours
Consonants
All the letters in the alphabet that aren’t vowels
Contrast
When two things are described in a way which emphasises how different they are. E.g a poet might contrast two different people or two different voices
Dialect
A variation of a language. People from different places or backgrounds might use different words or sentence constructions. E.g Scottish people say wee instead of small
Elegy
A poem written to mourn the death of someone
Emotive
Something that makes you feel a particular emotion e.g anger, sorrow, joy
Empathy
When someone feels as if they understand what someone else is experiencing and how they feel about it
End stopping
Finishing a line of poetry with the end of a phrase or sentence
Enjambment
When a sentence or phrase runs over from one line to the next
Euphemism
An indirect term for something upsetting or offensive
First person
When someone talks about them self, or a group of people which includes them, using words like I and me
Form
The type of poetry and its features (rhyme, rhythm, stanza length) e.g a sonnet, ballad, free verse
Free verse
Poetry that doesn’t rhyme and has no regular rhythm
Iambic pentameter
Poetry with a metre of ten syllables - five of them stressed, and five unstressed. The stress falls on every second syllable e.g be’neath’ her ‘gaze’ I ‘could’n’t ‘help’ but ‘slouch’
Imagery
Language that creates a picture in your mind. It includes metaphors and similes
Internal rhyme
When words within a single line of a poem rhyme e.g come ‘bounding’ and ‘surrounding’ me
Irony
When words are used in a sarcastic or comic way to imply the opposite of what they normally mean. It can also mean when there is a big difference between what people expect and what actually happens
Language
The choice of words used. Different kinds of language have different effects on the reader
Layout
The way a piece of poetry is visually presented to the reader e.g line length, whether the poem is broken up into different stanzas, whether lines create some kind of visual pattern
