Glossary for poetry terms

Question 1

alliteration

Answer 1

a series of repeated consonants in a line of poetry

Question 2

colloquial

Answer 2

the language of everyday conversation

Question 3

connotation

Answer 3

meanings the word implies

Question 4

diction/lexicon

Answer 4

the choice of words

Question 5

enjambement

Answer 5

when a line of poetry doesn’t pause at the end but runs on to the next line

Question 6

image

Answer 6

a picture created in your head by the words on the page

Question 7

imagery

Answer 7

any figurative language like metaphors, similes and personification

Question 8

metaphor

Answer 8

language which is not meant literally, but which helps you understand the poet’s ideas

Question 9

onomatopoeia

Answer 9

words which imitate sounds

Question 10

personification

Answer 10

a type of metaphor where an object, idea or thing is written about as if it were a person

Question 11

rhythm

Answer 11

the pattern of beats in a poem; is it regular or uneven

Question 12

rhyme

Answer 12

the matching of sounds

Question 13

half-rhyme

Answer 13

where the sounds nearly match

Question 14

setting

Answer 14

where and when the events take place

Question 15

simile

Answer 15

when you say something is like or as something else

Question 16

stanza

Answer 16

an individual verse in a poem

Question 17

symbol

Answer 17

an image which stands for something else

Question 18

theme

Answer 18

the topic covered by the poem, rather than what just happens in it

Question 19

tone

Answer 19

the attitude of the poem towards the subject and also towards the audience

Question 20

assonance

Answer 20

the repetition of vowel sounds

Question 21

caesura

Answer 21

a pause within a line of poetry

Question 22

elegy

Answer 22

poem mourning the death of someone

Question 23

end-stopped

Answer 23

when the ending of the line in a poem also matches with the pause in the sentence; opposite of enjambment

Question 24

metre

Answer 24

a repeated pattern of rhythm in a poem

Question 25

oxymoron

Answer 25

a figure of speech where two contrasting ideas are brought together

Question 26

persona

Answer 26

the speaker from whose point of view the poem is told

Question 27

plosives

Answer 27

strong explosive letters like p,b,t,k

Question 28

monologue

Answer 28

a poem where a single person is speaking

Question 29

sonnet

Answer 29

a 14 line poem with 5 beats per line and a rhyme scheme

Question 30

sibilance

Answer 30

hissing sound