Poetic Terms

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

The repetition of the same consonant sounds at any place, but often at the beginning of words. Some famous examples of alliteration are tongue twisters.

She sells seashells by the seashore.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Question 2

Assonance

Answer 2

The repetition or a pattern of (the same) vowel sounds as in the tongue twister:

Moses supposes his toeses are roses.

Question 3

Ballad

Answer 3

A poem that tells story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a repeated refrain. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is an example of a ballad.

Question 4

Carpe Diem

Answer 4

A Latin expression that means ‘seize the day’. Carpe dime poems urge the reader to (or the person to whom they are addressed) to live for today and enjoy the pleasures of the moment. A famous carpe diem poem by Robert Herrick begins ‘Gather ye rosebuds while ye may…’

Question 5

Couplet

Answer 5

In a poem a pair of lines that are the same length and (usually) rhyme and form a complete thought. Shakespearean sonnets usually end in a couplet.

Question 6

Elegy

Answer 6

A poem that laments the death of a person, or one that is simply sad and thoughtful. An example of this type of poem is Gray’s ‘Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard.’

Question 7

Enjambement

Answer 7

A line ending in which the sense continues with no punctuation, into the following line or stanza.

‘But in contentment I still fell
The need of some imperishable bliss.’

Question 8

Feminine Rhyme

Answer 8

A rhyme that occurs in a final unstressed syllable:

pleasure/leisure, longing/yearning

Question 9

Haiku

Answer 9

A Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven and five syllables. Haiku often reflects on some aspect of nature.

Question 10

Hyperbole

Answer 10

A figure of speech in which deliberate exaggeration is used for emphasis. Many everyday expressions are examples of hyperbole:

tonnes of money, waiting for ages, a flood of tears, etc.

Hyperbole is the opposite of litotes.

Question 11

Imagery

Answer 11

The use of pictures, figures of speech and description to evoke ideas, feelings, objects actions, states of mind etc.

Question 12

Limerick

Answer 12

A light humorous poem of five lines with the rhyme scheme of aabba.

Question 13

Litotes

Answer 13

A figure of speech in which a positive is stated by negating its opposite. Some examples of litotes:

no small victory, not a bad idea, not unhappy.

Question 14

Lyric

Answer 14

A poem, such as a sonnet or an ode, that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet. A lyric poem may resemble a song in form or style.

Question 15

Masculine Rhyme

Answer 15

A rhyme that occurs in a final stressed syllable:

cat/hat, desire/fire, observe/deserve.

Question 16

Metaphor

Answer 16

A figure of speech in which two things are compared, usually by saying one thing is another, or by substituting a more descriptive word for the more common or usual word that would be expected. Some examples of metaphors:

the world’s a stage, he was a lion in battle, drowning in debt and a sea of troubles.

It is probably the most important figure of speech to comment on in an essay.

Question 17

Narrative

Answer 17

Telling a story. Ballads, epics and lays are different kinds of narrative poems.

Question 18

Ode

Answer 18

A lyric poem that is serious and thoughtful in tone and has a very precise, formal structure. John Keats’ ‘Ode to a Grecian Urn’ is a famous example of this type of poem.

Question 19

Onomatopoeia

Answer 19

A figure of speech in which words are used to imitate sounds. Examples of onomatopoeic words are:

buzz, hiss, zing, clippetey-clop, cock-a-doodle-do, pop splat, thump, tick-tock.

Another example of onomatopoeia is found in this line from Tennyson’s ‘Come Down, O Maid’:

‘The moon if doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees’

The repeated m/n sounds reinforce the ideas of ‘murmuring’ by imitating the human of insects on a warm summer day.

Question 20

Pastoral

Answer 20

A poem that pictures country life in a peaceful, idealized way.

Question 21

Personification

Answer 21

A figure of speech in which nonhuman,an things or abstract ideas are given human attributes:

the sky is crying, dead leaves danced in the wind, blind justice.

Question 22

Refrain

Answer 22

A phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated throughput a poem, usually after every stanza.

Question 23

Rhyme

Answer 23

The occurrence of the same or similar sounds at the end of two or more words.

The pattern of rhyme in a stanza or poem is shown usually by using a different letter for each final sound. In a poem with an aabba rhyme scheme, the first, second, and fifth lines end in one sound, and the third and fourth lines end in another.

Question 24

Rhyme scheme

Answer 24

The pattern that is made by the rhyme within each stanza or verse.

Question 25

Simile

Answer 25

A figure of speech in which two things are compared using the word ‘like’ or ‘as’. An example of a simile using like occurs in Langston Hughe’s poem ‘Harlem’:

‘What happens when to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?’

Question 26

Sonnet

Answer 26

A lyric poem that is 14 lines long. Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnets are divided into two quatrains and a six-line ‘sestet’, with rhyme scheme abba abba cdecde (or cdcdcd). English (or Shakespearean) sonnets are composed of three quatrains and a final couplet, with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. English sonnets are written generally in iambic pentameter. The volta (break) marks a change in the initial line of thought or feeling at the end of the octave or eighth line.

Question 27

Stanza

Answer 27

Two more lines of poetry that together form one of the divisions of a poem. The stanzas of a poem are usually of the same length and follow the same pattern of meter and rhyme.

Question 28

Stress

Answer 28

The prominence or emphasis given to particular syllables. Stressed syllables usually stand out because they have long, rather than short, vowels, or because they have a different pitch or are louder than other syllables.

Question 29

Symbol

Answer 29

When a word, phrase or image ‘stands for’ and idea or theme.

The sun could symbolise life and energy, or a red rose could symbolise romantic love.