Glossary of Terms Flashcards
What does ‘alliteration’ mean?
Where words that are close together start with the same sound.
Example: “Flowing Flakes that Flock”
What does ‘ambiguity’ mean?
Where a word or phrase has two or more possible interpretations.
What does ‘assonance’ mean?
When words share the same vowel sound but their consonants are different.
Example: “Might fly our lves like paper kites”
What does ‘autobiographical’ mean?
Describing something in the poet’s life.
What does ‘blank verse’ mean?
Poetry written in iambic pentameter that doesn’t rhyme.
What does ‘caesura’ mean?
Plural: ‘Caesurae’
A pause in a line of poetry.
What does ‘chronological’ mean?
When events are arranged in the order in which they happened.
What does ‘colloquial’ mean?
Sounding like everyday spoken language.
What does ‘consonance’ mean?
Repetition of a consonant sound in nearby words,
Example: “numb as a smashed arm”
What does ‘dialect’ mean?
A variation of language spoken by people of a particular place or background. Dialects might include different words or sentence constructions.
What does ‘dramatic monologue’ mean?
A form of poetry that uses the assumed voice of a single speaker who is not the poet to address an implied audience.
Example: ‘My Last Duchess’ or ‘War Photographer’.
What does ‘emotive’ mean?
Something that makes you feel a particular emotion.
What does ‘empathy’ mean?
When someone understands what someone else is experiencing and how they feel about it.
What does ‘end-stopping’ mean?
Finishing a line of poetry with the end of a phrase or sentence.
What does ‘enjambment’ mean?
When a sentence or phrase runs over from one line or stanza to the next.
What does ‘euphemism’ mean?
An indirect word or phrase used instead of something upsetting or offensive, or to conceal meaning.
Example: The narrator of ‘My Last Duchess’ says “all smiles stopped” to avoid saying that his wife died.
What does ‘first person’ mean?
When a poet writes about themselves or their group.
What does ‘form’ mean?
The type of poem and its features, like the number of lines, rhyme, and rhythm.
What does ‘free verse’ mean?
Poetry that doesn’t rhyme and has no regular rhythm or line length.
What does ‘half-rhyme’ mean?
Words that have a similar, but not identical end sound.
Example: Crisp and Grasp
What does ‘homonyms’ mean?
Words that are spelt and pronounced the same, but have different meanings.
Example: Tissue
What does ‘iambic pentameter’ mean?
Poetry with a metre of ten syllables. Five stressed, and five unstressed. The stress falls on every second syllable.
Example: “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall.”
What does ‘iambic tetrameter’ mean?
Like iambic pentameter but with a metre of eight syllables. Four stressed, and four unstressed.
Example: “But most through midnight streets I hear.”
What does ‘imagery’ mean?
Language that creates a picture in your mind. It includes metaphors, similes, and personification.
