Poem Vocabulary: Know The Lingo Flashcards
Alliteration
The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
EX: “From Forth the Fatal Loins of these two Foes;
A pair of star-cross’d Lovers take their Life.
Allusion
A brief reference to a real or fictional person, event, place, or work of art.
Assonance
The repetition of vowel sounds in a chunk of text.\
EX: “Ivan will trY to LIght the fIre.” (L is supposed to be lower case)
Ballad
A story/narrative in poetic form.
Consonance
The repetition of consonant sounds, but not vowels, in a chunk of test
EX: A worM naMed Maurice took the garden by storM.
Diction
The author’s specific word choice.
Enjambment
This occurs when one line ends without a pause or any punctuation and continues onto the next line.
EX: If this were a poem,
THIS WOULD BE
AN EXAMPLE OF THE TECHNIQUE
Free Verse
Poetry that does not rhyme or have a measurable meter.
Metaphor
A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things without using connecting words such as “like” or “as.”
EX: Love is a battlefield.
Simile
A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things using connecting words such as “like” or “as.”
EX: Love is like a battlefield.
Meter
The measured arrangement of sounds/beats in a poem, including the poet’s placement of emphasis and the number of syllables per line.
Onomatpoeia
A word that sounds like what it means.
EX: buzz, click, bang, sizzle
Rhythm
The recurrence of stressed and unstressed sounds in poetry. Depending on how sounds are arranged, the rhythm of a poem may be fast or slow, choppy or smooth.
Stanza
A unified group of lines in poetry. This is often marked by spacing between sections of the poem.
Symbol
An object or action that means something more than its literal meaning.
