Glossary terms Flashcards
40 terms
Diction
choice of words and/or grammatical constructions (i.e., formal, colloquial, jargon, slang,
etc.)
Connotation
suggested or associated meaning. (skeleton = death)
Denotation
-dictionary definition. (skeleton = bony structure)
Imagery
- sensory content of poems; appeals to the five senses.
Tone
the attitude of the author, evident from the diction, use of symbolism, irony, and figures of
speech. (Tone can be described as playful, sad, happy, humorous, etc.).
simile
items from different classes are compared by a connective such as “like,” “as,” or
“than” or by a verb such as “appears” or “seems.” If the objects compared are from the same
class, e.g., “New York is like Chicago,” no simile is present. An appropriate simile: “She is like
the rose.”
metaphor
items from different classes are implicitly compared, WITHOUT a connective
such as “like” or “as.” (“She is the rose, the glory of the day.”)
metonymy
something is named that replaces something closely related to it. (In the
following passage, James Shirley names certain objects [“Scepter and crown,” “scythe
and spade”], using them to replace social classes [powerful people and poor people]
to which they are related:
synecdoche
the whole is replaced by the part, or the part by the whole. (“He has a
new set of WHEELS.” “Give me a HAND.”)
personification
giving human qualities to abstractions or inanimate objects such as love,
beauty, etc. (“The cat, disappointed, wondered where I’d been all day.” ; “When love calls,
wild hearts fly.”)
apostrophe
an address to a person or thing not literally listening. (“O Santa, bring me that
Porsche I’ve always wanted….” “O lovely rose, your perfume fills the air.”)
Irony
without using figures of speech, speakers may use this device, saying things that are
not to be taken literally, forming a contrast.
verbal irony
- contrast between what is said and what is meant.
sarcasm
heavy, mocking verbal irony. Almost never found in literature.
understatement
saying less than what is meant. (to Bill Clinton: “I suppose you have
a FEW things on y our mind….”)
hyperbole (overstatement)
exaggeration. (“He died a thousand deaths.”
situational irony
contrast between what is intended and what is accomplished.
Paradox
an apparent contradiction. (“He who would save his life must lose it” or “The child
is father of the man.”)
Allusion
- a reference in a literary work to a person, place, or thing in history or another
work of literature.
Symbol
an image loaded with significance beyond literal definition; suggestive rather than
definitive.
natural symbols
symbols recognized as standing for something in particular even by
people from different cultures. (Rain usually stands for fertility or the renewal of life; a
forest–mental darkness or chaos; a mountain–stability, etc.).
conventional symbols
symbols which people have agreed to accept as standing for
something other than themselves (a poem about the cross would probably be about
Christianity; similarly, the rose has long been a symbol for love).
Stanza
a rhythmical unit in which lines of poetry are commonly arranged (from an Italian word
meaning “room” or “stopping-place”).
Meter
a pattern of stressed (accented) sounds in English poetry (meter from the Greek word for
“measure”).
rhyme
the repetition of sounds
alliteration
- sometimes defined as the repetition of initial sounds (“All the awful auguries,”
or “Bring me my bow of burning gold”), and sometimes as the prominent repetition of a
consonant (“after life’s fitful fever”).
assonance
the repetition, in words of proximity, of identical vowel sounds preceded and
followed by differing consonant sounds. (Whereas tide and hide are rhymes, tide and mine
are assonantal.)
consonance
the repetition of identical consonant sounds and differing vowel sounds in
words in proximity (fail/feel, rough/roof, pitter/patter). Sometimes consonance is more
loosely defined as the repetition of a consonant (fail/peel).
Onomatopoeia
the use of words that imitate sounds, such as hiss or buzz.
couplet
a stanza of two lines, usually, but not necessarily, with end-rhymes.
triplet (or tercet)
a three-line stanza, usually with one rhyme
quatrain
a four-line stanza, rhymed or unrhymed
sonnet
a closed, fixed form. A fourteen-line poem, predominantly in iambic pentameter.
villanelle
a closed, fixed French form; 5 tercets and a quatrain.
blank verse
English poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.
free verse
rhythmical lines varying in length, adhering to no fixed metrical
pattern, and usually unrhymed. Seems formless but is not. Form or pattern often largely
based on repetition and parallel grammatical structure.
Lyric poem
rie. Whereas a narrative is set in the past, telling what happened, a
lyric is set in the present, catching a speaker in a moment of expression. (A lyric can, of
course, glance forward or backward.)
elegy
a lyric poem that is melancholy or mournfully contemplative; sometimes
laments a death.
ode (hymn)
a lyric poem that is long, elaborate, and on a lofty theme such as
immortality or a hero’s victory.
Narrative poem
a poem whose main purpose is to tell a story.
