Literary Terms --- Poetry Flashcards
Repetition of words or sounds within lines or at the ends of lines
Rhyme
Pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
Rhythm or Meter
Words or phrases that recreate a feeling (appeals to one of the five senses)
Imagery
Images that depart from standard wording to achieve a particular meaning or effect
Figures of Speech
An exaggeration — can be for serious or for comic effect
Hyperbole
“I will love thee until the seas go dry.”
Hyperbole
A direct comparison of two unlike things
Metaphor
“He was an eagle, soaring above our heads.”
Metaphor
A statement that first appears false, but is actually true
Paradox
“When we live no more, we may live forever.”
Paradox
Giving human qualities to something non-human
Personification
“Because I could not stop for death / He kindly stopped for me.”
Personification
A comparison between two unlike things using like or as
Simile
“What happens to a dream deferred? / does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”
Simile
A part of an object standing for the whole thing
Synecdoche
“Hungry mouths to feed”
Synecdoche
Language used to make certain sounds
Musical Devices
The repetition of the first sound of several words
Alliteration
“Start their silent swinging”
Alliteration
Words whose sound suggests their meaning
Onomatopoeia
Clang
Onomatopoeia
Buzz
Onomatopoeia
Pop
Onomatopoeia
Rip
Onomatopoeia
The repetition of similar vowel sounds (sometimes used instead of end rhyme)
Assonance
“Beneath a deep and dreamless sleep”
Assonance
The repetition of similar consonant sounds at the end of accented syllables
Consonance
“Blue spurt of a lighted match”
Consonance
The narrator of a poem
The speaker
Putting the words of a poem into one’s own words
Paraphrase
