Poetic Terms Flashcards
Acrostic
A poem in which the beginning, middle or last letters of each line form a word when read vertically
Alliteration
The repetition of the same consonant sound. It is used to highlight the feeling of sound or movement to intensify meaning:
“Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Pepper”
Assonance
Repetition of identical vowel sounds in order to achieve a particular effect. Long vowel sounds can slow down a line, making it sound sad and weary:
“A four foot box, a foot every year”
Ballad
A simple song written as a narrative poem which tells a story through dialogue. Most commonly written in four-line verse with a regular rhythm
Couplet
A two line stanza
Diction
The Choice of Words or Language Used
Elegy
A slow, thoughtful peom written for someone who has died
End Stopped Lines
A line of poetry with a pause or stop at the end
Enjambment
A running over of the sense and grammatical structure from one line to another, or between stanzas. The enjambed line has no punctuation at the end:
“Small round hard stones click
under my heels”
Form
How a poem is structured or organised
Free Verse
Poetry written with lines of irregular verse and often without rhyme
Hyperbole
A figure of speech which uses exaggeration to emphasise a point
Imagery
Language that appeals to the senses. The use of pictures, figures of speech and description to suggest ideas, feelings, objects and actions which create a vivid picture in your mind
Metaphor
An image where one thing is said to be something else. Like the simile, it is based on a point of similarity, but this image identifies them completely:
“Stick is the whip”
Onomatopoeia
Sounds of words which mime or resemble the sounds of the object being described
