Poetry

Question 1

Define: ALLEGORY

Answer 1

Allegory is a story, poem or picture than can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning.

Question 2

Define: ALLITERATION

Answer 2

Alliteration is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of closely connected words.

Question 3

Define: APOSTROPHE

Answer 3

Apostrophe is a figure of speech in which some absent or nonexistent person or thing is addressed as if present and capable of understanding.

Question 4

Define: BALLAD

Answer 4

Ballad is a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. Traditional ballads are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally from one generation to the next as part of the folk culture.

Question 5

Define: BLANK VERSE

Answer 5

Blank verse is verse without rhyme, especially that which uses iambic pentameter.

Question 6

Define: CACOPHONY

Answer 6

Cacophony is a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds.

Question 7

Define: CONNOTATION

Answer 7

Connotation is an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.

Question 8

Define: COUPLET

Answer 8

Couplet is two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme.

Question 9

Define: EUPHONY

Answer 9

Euphony is a pleasant sound word.

Question 10

Define: FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

Answer 10

Figurative language is language with meaning that is different from the literal interpretation.

Question 11

Define: FREE VERSE

Answer 11

Free verse is poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter.

Question 12

Define: HYPERBOLE

Answer 12

Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement or claims not meant to be taken literally.

Question 13

Define: IMAGERY

Answer 13

Imagery is words that create sensory impressions.

Question 14

Define: JUXTAPOSITION

Answer 14

Juxtaposition is two things being seen or placed closed together with contrasting effects.

Question 15

Define: LITERAL

Answer 15

Literal is taking words in their usual or most basic sense without metaphor or allegory.

Question 16

Define: LYRICAL

Answer 16

Lyrical is expressing the writer’s emotions in an imaginative and beautiful way.

Question 17

Define: METAPHOR

Answer 17

Metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable; saying something is something else.

Question 18

Define: METONYMY

Answer 18

Metonymy is the substitution of a related idea. For example, a suit for a business executive or the track for horse racing.

Question 19

Define: MOOD

Answer 19

Mood is a temporary state of mind or feeling.

Question 20

Define: NARRATIVE

Answer 20

Narrative is telling a story.

Question 21

Define: ONOMATOPOEIA

Answer 21

Onomatopoeia is the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (eg. cuckoo, sizzle).

Question 22

Define: OXYMORON

Answer 22

Oxymoron is a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (eg. faith unfaithful kept him falsely true).

Question 23

Define: PARADOX

Answer 23

Paradox is a self-contradictory statement that has truth.

Question 24

Define: PARAPHRASE

Answer 24

Paraphrase is to express the meaning of something written or spoken using your own words.

Question 25

Define: PERSONIFICATION

Answer 25

Personification is giving human characteristics to something non-human.

Question 26

Define: RHYME

Answer 26

Rhyme is correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, especially when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry.

Question 27

Define: RHYTHM

Answer 27

Rhythm is a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound.

Question 28

Define: SATIRE

Answer 28

Satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices.

Question 29

Define: SIMILE

Answer 29

Simile is a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind. It is used to make a description more emphatic or vivid.

Question 30

Define: SITUATIONAL IRONY

Answer 30

Situational irony is a literary device that you can easily identify in literary works. Simple, it occurs when incongruity appears between expectations of something to happen, and what actually happens instead.

Question 31

Define: SONNET

Answer 31

Sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes. In English, the poem is typically ten syllables per line.

Question 32

Define: STACCATO

Answer 32

Staccato is with each sound or note sharply detached or separated from the others.

Question 33

Define: STANZA

Answer 33

Stanza is a group of lines clumped together in a poem.

Question 34

Define: SYMBOL

Answer 34

Symbol is something concrete representing something abstract.

Question 35

Define: THEME

Answer 35

These is a general statement of truth.

Question 36

Define: TONE

Answer 36

Tone is the feelings and attitudes of the speaker or writer.

Question 37

Define: UNDERSTATEMENT

Answer 37

Understatement is the presentation of something as being smaller, worse or less important that it actually is.