Glossary 3 Flashcards
A device used in poetry to manipulate the sound of words, sentences or lines.
Poetic device
The repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words.
Alliteration
Example: “Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore”
Alliteration
Impact: creates a rhythm that is hard and fast, carrying the text forward
Alliteration
The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.
Assonance
Example: “From the molten-golden notes”
Assonance
Impact: creates a sense of emotional resonance, evoking feelings and emotions
Assonance
The repetition of the same consonant sound at the end of words or within words.
Consonance
Example: “Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door”
Consonance
Impact: creates harmony and resonance within the text
Consonance
The use of a word which imitates or suggests the sound that the thing makes.
Onomatopoeia
Example: Snap, rustle, boom, murmur
Onomatopoeia
Impact: used to create vivid imagery, convey atmosphere, evoke an auditory response, and enhance action scenes
Onomatopoeia
When a line of poetry contains a rhyme within a single line.
Internal rhyme
Example: “To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!”
Internal rhyme
Impact: creates a pleasing rhythm and musicality in written text, enhancing its auditory appeal
Internal rhyme
When a poet creates a rhyme, but the two words do not rhyme exactly – they are merely similar.
Slant rhyme
Example: “I sat upon a stone, / And found my life has gone.”
Slant rhyme
Impact: deepens the theme or mood by adding layers of complexity to the text
Slant rhyme
When the last word of two different lines of poetry rhyme.
End rhyme
Example: “Roses are red, violets are blue, / Sugar is sweet, and so are you.”
End rhyme
Impact: used to create a sense of closure or completeness at the end of a line
End rhyme
The pattern of a poem’s end rhymes.
Rhyme Scheme
Example: For example, the following lines have a rhyme scheme of a b a b c d c d:
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? a
Thou art more lovely and more temperate. b
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May. a
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. b
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines c
And often is his gold complexion dimmed d
And every fair from fair sometime declines c
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed d
Rhyme Scheme
Impact: brings order and cohesion to a poem
Rhyme Scheme
In every word of more than one syllable, one of the syllables is stressed, or said with more force than the other syllable(s).
Stressed and unstressed syllables
Example: In the name “Nathan,” the first syllable is stressed. In the word “unhappiness,” the second of the four syllables is stressed.
Stressed and unstressed syllables
Impact: conveys varying tones or moods within a poem, influencing how readers engage with the text
Stressed and unstressed syllables
A regular pattern to the syllables in lines of poetry.
Meter
Example: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary
Meter
Impact: reinforces the message and amplifies the feelings a poet wishes to share
Meter
Poetry that doesn’t have much meter or rhyme.
Free verse
Example: “I celebrate myself, and sing myself,/And what I assume you shall assume,/For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you./I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease/observing a spear of summer grass” Song of Myself by Walt Whitman
Free verse
Impact: lets language and emotion give form to their poems.
Free verse
Poetry that is written in lines of 10 syllables, alternating stressed and unstressed syllables.
Iambic pentameter
Example: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
Iambic pentameter
Impact: creates a pleasing rhythm in the reader’s ear and make the text more musical and memorable
Iambic pentameter
A 14 line poem written in iambic pentameter. Usually divided into three quatrains and a couplet.
Sonnet
Example: “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.” -My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun, by William Shakespeare
Sonnet
Impact: used to express a wide range of emotions, from joy and love to anger and sorrow
Sonnet
When a writer creates a list of items which are all separated by conjunctions. Normally, a conjunction is used only before the last item in a list.
Polysyndeton
Example: “I walked the dog, and fed the cat, and milked the cows.”
Polysyndeton
Impact: used to slow down the pace of the writing and/or add an authoritative tone.
Polysyndeton
When a word that has two or more meanings is used in a humorous way.
Pun
Example: “My dog has a fur coat and pants!” “I was stirred by his cooking lesson.”
Pun
Impact: used in a humorous way, to elicit a “jokey” tone, but they can also be used to enhance a reader’s interpretation
Pun
