Key Literacy Poetry Terms

Question 1

The repetition of consonant sounds, particularly at the start of words.

Answer 1

Alliteration:

Question 2

A reference to another piece of literature, work of art, person, place etc.

Answer 2

Allusion:

Question 3

A word or expression which has two or more possible meanings.

Answer 3

Ambiguity:

Question 4

Giving human qualities or feelings to something which isn’t human.

Answer 4

Anthropomorphism:

Question 5

The repetition of vowel sounds.

Answer 5

Assonance:

Question 6

A local or regional expression which may not be understood by outsiders.

Answer 6

Colloquialism:

Question 7

The repetition of consonants or consonant patterns, usually at the end of words.
The words need not rhyme or contain the same vowel sounds. ‘Think, blank’; ‘Stroke, luck’.

Answer 7

Consonance:

Question 8

An established technique, literary device or practice.

Answer 8

Convention:

Question 9

Two lines, usually rhyming and having the same metre, which form a complete thought.

Answer 9

Couplet:

Question 10

A particular category of writing. Each genre has its own style, form etc.

Answer 10

Genre:

Question 11

Figurative language (metaphors, similes etc.)

Answer 11

Imagery:

Question 12

A poem in which personal and subjective feelings are expressed. Lyric poems are usually
short and songlike.

Answer 12

Lyric:

Question 13

A set of eight lines.

Answer 13

Octet:

Question 14

A word which sounds like its meaning: ‘squelch’, ‘slap’, ‘thud’, ‘screech’, ‘cheep’.

Answer 14

Onomatopoeia:

Question 15

A seeming contradiction. “Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales
again.” (C.S. Lewis to his godchild, Lucy Barfield, to whom he dedicated The Lion, the Witch and
the Wardrobe)

Answer 15

Paradox:

Question 16

A character assumed by the poet. Derek Mahon adopts the persona of Bruce Ismay in
‘After the Titanic’.

Answer 16

Persona:

Question 17

The representation of an abstraction or a thing as a human or some sort of
divine being. For example, the idea of death is often represented by the Grim Reaper.

Answer 17

Personification:

Question 18

A group of four lines of verse.

Answer 18

Quatrain:

Question 19

A group of six lines of verse.

Answer 19

Sestet:

Question 20

Words which make or contain an ‘s’ or ‘sh’ sound. ‘The hissing snake…’

Answer 20

Sibilance:

Question 20

A poem consisting of fourteen lines arranged according to a prescribed scheme.
Shakespearean sonnets consist of three quatrains and a couplet. The couplet usually sums up the
main idea (theme) of the poem or looks at the theme in a fresh way.

Answer 20

Sonnet:

Question 21

Something which represents something else. Symbols have a deeper meaning than signs
and can sometimes provoke strong, emotional responses.

Answer 21

Symbol:

Question 22

A group of three lines of verse. The lines often rhyme.

Answer 22

Tercet:

Question 23

The attitude or feeling implied by the style of writing. A tone may be melancholy or
optimistic, for example. The tone may change one or more times during the course of the poem.

Answer 23

Tone

Question 24

A formal, ordered poem which consists of nineteen lines divided into five tercets
(three-line stanzas) and a quatrain (four-line stanza). There are only two rhymes throughout, and
two refrains. The two refrains are used as the first and third lines of the first stanza, and thereafter
alternately repeated as the final line of the remaining tercets. The refrains come together again as
the final two lines of the quatrain. (This sounds quite complicated until you look at the poem and
see how straightforward it actually is.) Villanelles are associated with thoughts of death and grief.

Answer 24

Villanelle:

Question 25

This comes from the Italian word for ‘turn’. A volta is the turn in thought in a sonnet that is
often indicated by such initial words as ‘but’, ‘yet’ or ‘and yet’.

Answer 25

Volta