Language Definitons Flashcards
Alliteration
Repetition of identical consonant sounds.
e.g pick up your pens and proceed
Allusion
Unacknowledged reference/quotation author assumes reader will recognise.
Anaphora
Repetition of same word or phrase at the beginning of a line throughout a piece/section of work.
Apostrophe
Speaker in poem addresses person not present or animal/inanimate object/concept as though a person.
(Milton!)
Assonance
Repetition of identical vowel sounds
e.g. deep green sea
Ballad
Narrative poem consisting of quatrains (iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter) rhyming a-b-a-b
Blank Verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter e.g Shakespeare
Caesura
Short but definite pause for effect in a line of poetry.(Carpe diem & Short life poetry)
Carpe Diem
Seize the day
Chiasmus (antimetabole)
Crossing/reversal of 2 elements.
e.g. Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
Common meter/hymn measure
Iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic triameter
e.g. Amazing Grace by John Newton.
Consonance
Alliteration of the ‘s’ sound.
Couplet
2 successive rhyming lines.
End a Shakespearean sonnet
Diction
Level of formality a speaker uses.
Formal/high = proper
Neutral/middle = correct & simple
Informal/low = Relaxed & familiar
Dramatic monologue
Addresses internal listener or reader.
End-stopped line
Line ending in full pause (full-stop/semicolon)
Enjambment
Line running over to next line
Explication
Complete & detailed analysis of work of literature, often word-by-word & line-by-line
Foot (prosody)
Measured combination of heavy and light stresses.
monometer - 1 foot
dimeter - 2 feet
trimeter - 3 feet
tetrameter - 4 feet
pentameter - 5 feet
hexameter - 6 feet
heptameter/septenary - 7 feet
Heroic Couplet
2 successive rhyming lines of iambic pentameter
2nd is end-stopped
Hymn meter/common measure
Quatrains of iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter. Rhyming a-b-a-b
Hyperbole
Litote
Exaggeration for effect
Understatement for effect
Iambic pentameter
Unstressed stressed foot
Most natural & common meter in English
Image
Triggers mind to fuse together memories of sight, sounds, tastes, smells & sensations of touch.
Internal rhyme
Exact rhyme within line of poetry.
Metaphor
Saying one thing IS something else
Metaphysical Conceit
Elaborate & extended metaphor/simile that links 2 unrelated things.
Meter
Number of feet within a line of traditional verse.
e.g iambic pentameter
Octave
First 8 lines of Italian/Petrarchan sonnet
Unified by rhyme, rhyme & topic
Onomatopoeia
Word sounds like the sound it is describing.
e.g buzz
Paradox
Rhetorical figure embodying a contradiction that is true
Personification
Uses human characteristics to describe an inanimate object/animal
Petrarchan sonnet
Sonnet that divides into an octave & sestet. There is a change in topic between the two.
Pyrrhic Foot (prosody)
2 unstressed feet..
Refrain
Repeated seriews of words in response to main verse (ballad)
Rhyme royal
Stanza form used by Chaucer. Usually in iambic pentameter with rhyme scheme of ababbcc
Scan (scansion)
Process of marking beats in a poem to establish prevailing metrical pattern.
Sestet
6 line stanza/unit of poetry
Shakespearean sonnet
14 line poem written in iambic pentameter, composed of 3 quatrains & a couplet rhyming abab
Simile
Saying something is like or as something else
Stanza
Paragraph in a poem
Synaesthesia
Rhetorical figure describing 1 sensory impression in terms of a different sense.
e.g. green thought
Syntax
Word order & sentence structure
Volta
Turning point in a Petrarchan sonnet.
Pejorative
Laudatory
Negative
Positive
