Poetic Devices ~ Definitions

Question 1

What is Alliteration?

Answer 1

Repetition of initial consonant sounds in a group or words close together

Question 2

What is Assonance?

Answer 2

Repetition of a vowel sound

Question 3

What is Consonance?

Answer 3

Repetition of a consonant sound

Question 4

What is Onomatopoeia?

Answer 4

The use of words which imitate sound

Question 5

What is Repetition?

Answer 5

The purposeful re - use of words and phrases

Question 6

What is Rhyme?

Answer 6

The use of words with matching sounds. Can be internal or at the ends of lines

Question 7

What is Rhythm?

Answer 7

The pace or beat of the poem - can vary from line to line

Question 8

What is Imagery?

Answer 8

Words that appeal to the senses

Question 9

What is a Simile?

Answer 9

A comparison between two unlike things using like or as

Question 10

What is a Metaphor?

Answer 10

A comparison saying something is something else

Question 11

What is Personification?

Answer 11

Giving human qualities or characteristics to animals or inanimate objects

Question 12

What is Symbolism?

Answer 12

A word, phrase or image which stands for something

Question 13

What is a Rhetorical Question?

Answer 13

A question which does not expect an answer

Question 14

What is Colloquial Language?

Answer 14

Non - standard English, slang

Question 15

What is Emotive Language?

Answer 15

Words and phrases that cause an emotional response in the reader

Question 16

What is Free Verse?

Answer 16

Lines with no regular structure, rhyme or rhythm

Question 17

What is a Couplet?

Answer 17

A pair of lines, usually rhymed

Question 18

What is Enjambment?

Answer 18

A line ending, in which the syntax, rhythm and thought are continued into the next line

Question 19

What is Caesura?

Answer 19

A natural pause or break in a line of poetry, indicated by punctuation