LIterary Terms and Poetic Devices Flashcards
Theme
An idea, concept that recurs in or pervades a work of art or literature
Sonnet
A rigid 14 line verse form, with variable structure and rhyme scheme according to type
Simile
A figure of speech that compares unlike objects using the word “like” or “as”
Sestet
Form of stanza: 6 line stanza
Scansion
Analysis of the metrical pattern of a poem: beats per line, accent pattern
Narrative poetry
Poetic verse with regular rhyme scheme and meter, which tells a story
Lyric poetry
Poetry that focuses on expressing emotions or thoughts, rather than on telling a story
Eye Rhyme
Words that seem to rhyme based on spelling, but are pronounced differently in modern English
End-Stopped line
A line of poetry that ends in a full stop of punctuation, dash, colon, semi-colon, or period
Denotation
The literal dictionary meaning(s) of a word
Connotation
The emotional associations called up buy a word that goes beyond its dictionary meaning
Caesura
A pause, usually near the middle of a line of verse, greater Thant he normal pause, sometimes indicated by a comma in the middle of a line of poetry
Anthropomorphism
A type of personification in which human traits, emotions, or intentions describe non-human entities, especially animals
Stanza
A group of consecutive lines in a poem that forms a single unit
Rhyme
correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, especially when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry
Refrain
Refrain is a verse, a line, or a group of lines that appears at the end of stanza, then repeats, at the end of different stanzas
Personification
the giving of human qualities to a non-human object, through description
Onomatopoeaia
Word that phonetically mimics or resembles the sound of the thing it describes, ie. hiss, boom
Meter
A stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern within the lines of a poem
Metaphor
A figure of speech that compares unlike objects
Inversion
A change in normal word order especially the placement of a verb before its subject
Hyperbole
A rhetorical devices in which statements are exaggerated. May be used for serious, comic, or ironic effect
Free Verse
Poetry that has no regular meter or rhyme scheme
Enjambment
A line having no pause or end punctuation but having uninterrupted grammatical meaning continuing into the next line
