Poetic Terms Flashcards

1
Q

Apostrophe

A

A poem addressed to an absent or dead person/thing

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2
Q

Ekphrasis

A

A vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning

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3
Q

Synecdoche

A

A figure of speech in which a part of something stands for the whole

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4
Q

Metonymy

A

Figure of speech in which a related term is substituted for the word itself. Often the substitution is based on a material, casual, or conceptual relationship between things

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5
Q

Allegory

A

An extended metaphor in which the characters, places, and objects in a narrative carry figurative meaning. Often religious, moral, or historical in nature

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6
Q

Paradox

A

Related to oxymoron, creates a new phrase or concept out of a contradiction

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7
Q

Hyperbole

A

A figure of speech composed of a striking exaggeration

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8
Q

Litote

A

A deliberate understatement for effect; the opposite of hyperbole

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9
Q

Conceit

A

An often unconventional, logically complex, or surprising metaphor whose delights are more intellectual than sensual

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10
Q

Irony

A

Implies a distance between what is said and what is meant

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11
Q

Verbal Irony

A

A comment differs from what is meant to be said; sarcasm

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12
Q

Dramatic Irony

A

When the audience knows a key piece of information that a character in a play, movie or novel does not; scary movies

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13
Q

Situational Irony

A

When the actual result of a situation is contradicts what you’d expect the result to be

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14
Q

Satire

A

Use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues

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15
Q

Parody

A

Comic imitation of another author’s work or characteristic style

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16
Q

Pun

A

Wordplay that uses homonyms (different words that are spelled identically) to deliver two or more meanings at the same time

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17
Q

Meter

A

Rhythmical pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse

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18
Q

Foot

A

Basic unit of measurement of accentual-syllabic meter; stressed and unstressed syllables

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19
Q

Iamb

A

Unstressed / Stressed

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20
Q

Trochee

A

Stressed / Unstressed

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21
Q

Anapest

A

Unstressed / Unstressed / Stressed

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22
Q

Dactyl

A

Stressed / Unstressed / Unstressed

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23
Q

Spondee

A

Stressed / Stressed

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24
Q

Onomatopoeia

A

A figure of speech in which the sound of a word imitates its sense

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25
Q

Cacophony

A

Harsh or discordant word sounds; the opposite of Euphony

26
Q

Euphony

A

Use of phrases and words that are noted for possessing an extensive degree of notable loveliness or melody in the sound they create

27
Q

Syncope

A

Shortening of a word by omitting sounds, syllables or letters from the middle of the word

28
Q

Synesthesia

A

Blending or intermingling of different senses in description

29
Q

English/Shakespearean Sonnet

A

Composed of three quatrains and a terminal couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg

30
Q

Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet

A

Consisting of an octave rhyming abba abba and a sestet rhyming in any of various patterns (as cde cde or cdc dcd)

31
Q

Couplet

A

A pair of successive rhyming lines, usually of the same length

32
Q

Heroic Couplet

A

Written in a sequence of rhyming pairs and iambic pentameter and features prominently used in epic and narrative poetry

33
Q

Octave

A

An eight-line stanza or poem

34
Q

Quatrain

A

A four-line stanza

35
Q

Sestet

A

A six-line stanza

36
Q

Tercet

A

A three-line poetic unit

37
Q

Sestina

A

Usually unrhymed, consisting of six stanzas of six lines each and three-line envoy

38
Q

Villanelle

A

Five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain; first and third lines of stanza repeat

39
Q

Elegy

A

A melancholy poem that laments its subject’s death but ends in consolation

40
Q

Epic

A

Long narrative poem in which a heroic protagonist engages in an action of great mythic or historical significance

41
Q

Lyric

A

Originally a composition meant for musical accompaniment

42
Q

Ode

A

A formal, often ceremonious lyric poem that addresses and often celebrates a person, place, thing, or idea

43
Q

Aubade

A

A love poem or song welcoming or lamenting the arrival of the dawn

44
Q

Ballad

A

A popular narrative song passed down orally

45
Q

Pastoral Imagery and Poetry

A

Description of the countryside

46
Q

Consonance

A

Repetition of consonants

47
Q

Assonance

A

Repetition of vowels

48
Q

Personification

A

A figure of speech in which the poet describes an abstraction , a thing, or a nonhuman form as if it were a person

49
Q

Blank Verse

A

Unrhyming iambic pentameter, also called heroic verse; 10-syllable line is the predominant rhythm

50
Q

Free Verse (Open Form)

A

Non-metrical, non-rhyming lines that closely follow the natural rhythms of speech

51
Q

Masculine Rhyme

A

Rhymes that are a single stressed syllable at the very END of a line in poetry

52
Q

Feminine Rhyme

A

Rhymes matching two or more syllables in which the final syllables are unstressed

53
Q

Enjambment

A

The running-over of a sentence or phrase from one poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation; the opposite of end-stopped

54
Q

Internal Rhyme

A

Rhyme involving a word in the middle of a line and another at the end of the line or in the middle of the next

55
Q

Slant Rhyme

A

Words sound similar, but they aren’t close enough to make a full rhyme

56
Q

End-Stopped Line

A

Metrical line ending at a grammatical boundary or break such as a dash or closing parenthesis; punctuation such as a colon, semicolon, or a period

57
Q

Anaphora

A

Repetition of a word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines

58
Q

Anastrophe

A

A form of literary device wherein the order of the noun and the adjective in the sentence is exchanged

59
Q

Chiasmus

A

Repetition of any group of verse elements in reverse order; rhyme scheme ABBA

60
Q

Caesura

A

Stop or pause in metrical line, often marked by punctuation or by a grammatical boundary such as a phrase or clause