Poetic devices

Question 1

what is a simile?

Answer 1

Simile - direct comparison with ‘like’ or ‘as’

Question 2

what is personification?

Answer 2

Personification - giving human characteristics to nonhuman things

Question 3

what is a hyperbole?

Answer 3

Hyperbole - great exaggeration eg ‘i’m so hungry i could eat a horse’

Question 4

what is repetition?

Answer 4

Repetition - repeated use of sounds, words, concepts used for emphasis

Question 5

what is an onomatopoeia?

Answer 5

Onomatopoeia - word that sounds like what its describing/names

Question 6

what is caesura?

Answer 6

Caesarea - natural pause at the end of a lin (no full stop + sentence carries over to next line)

Question 7

what is enjambment?

Answer 7

Enjambment - pause where line carries over into the next stanza

Question 8

what is tone?

Answer 8

Tone - implied attitude of writer toward a concept/thing

Question 9

what is irony?

Answer 9

Irony - contrast between what is said vs what is meant

Question 10

what is pathos?

Answer 10

Pathos - appeal made to an audience’s emotions in order to evoke feelings.

Question 11

what is allusion?

Answer 11

Allusion - indirect reference to something

Question 12

what is an anaphora?

Answer 12

Anaphora - describes a poem that repeats the same phrase at the beginning of each line.

Question 13

what is ‘Apostrophe’?

Answer 13

Apostrophe - describes any instance when the speaker talks to a person or object that is absent from the poem. Poets employ apostrophes when they speak to the dead or to a long lost lover ( use apostrophe when writing an Ode to a Grecian Urn or an Ode to the Women in Long Island).

Question 14

what is blank verse?

Answer 14

Blank Verse - Blank verse refers to poetry written without rhyme, especially if that poetry is written in iambic pentameter.

Question 15

what is rhythm?

Answer 15

Rhythm - Rhythm refers to the pattern of long, short, stressed, and unstressed syllables in writing.

Question 16

what is allegory?

Answer 16

Allegory - is a story, poem, or other written work that can be interpreted to have a secondary meaning

Question 17

what is metonymy?

Answer 17

A figure of speech in which the name of an object or concept is replaced with a word closely related to or suggested by the original.

ie “crown” to mean “king”

Question 18

what is paradox?

Answer 18

One (such as a person, situation, or action) having seemingly contradictory qualities or phases.

ie ‘walking is dreaming’

Question 19

what is an extended metaphor?

Answer 19

An extended metaphor is a version of metaphor that extends over the course of multiple lines, paragraphs, or stanzas of prose or poetry.

Extended metaphors build upon simple metaphors with figurative language and more varied.

Question 20

what is anthropomorphism?

Answer 20

The attribution of human characteristics or behaviour to a god, animal, or object.