Poetry Flashcards
Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. Note the repetition of the d sound in these lines.
Hyperbole
Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which the truth is exaggerated for emphasis or humorous effect.
Idiom
An idiom is a common figure of speech whose meaning is different from the literal meaning of its words. For example, the phrase “raining cats and dogs” does not literally mean that cats and dogs are falling from the sky; the expression means “raining heavily.”
Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things that are basically unlike but have something in common. Unlike similes, metaphors do not contain the word like or as. In “Ode to My Socks,” Pablo Neruda uses metaphors to compare his socks to multiple objects, including “two long sharks of lapis blue.”
Personification
Personification is a figure of speech in which human qualities are given to an object, animal, or idea. In “Incident in a Rose Garden” by Donald Justice, death is personified as someone who wears black and grins. In the following line by Shakespeare, morning is personified.
Internal rhyme
Rhyme that occurs within a single line of poetry
Slant rhyme approximate rhyme
End rhyme that is not exact but approximate
End Rhyme
Rhyme that occurs at the ends of lines of poetry
Rhythm
Rhythm is a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. Poets use rhythm to bring out the musical quality of language, to emphasize ideas, to create moods, to unify works, and to heighten emotional responses. Devices such as alliteration, rhyme, assonance, consonance, and parallelism often contribute to creating rhythm.k
Rhyme scheme
A rhyme scheme is a pattern of end rhymes in a poem. A rhyme scheme is noted by assigning a letter of the alphabet, beginning with a, to each line. Lines that rhyme are given the same letter.
Iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter is a metrical pattern of five feet, or units, each of which is made up of two syllables, the first unstressed and the second stressed. Iambic pentameter is the most common meter used in English poetry; it is the meter used in blank verse and in the sonnet.
Repetition
Repetition is a technique in which a sound, word, phrase, or line is repeated for emphasis or unity. Repetition often helps to reinforce meaning and create
an appealing rhythm. The term includes specific devices associated with both prose and poetry, such as alliteration and parallelism.
Pun
is a joke that comes from a play on words. It can make use of a word’s multiple meanings or of a word’s sound. In Romeo and Juliet, when Mercutio is fatally wounded, he says, “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man,” with a pun on the word grave, meaning both “solemn” and “a tomb.”
Blank Verse
is unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter. That is, each line of blank verse has five pairs of syllables. In most pairs, an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable. The most versatile of poetic forms, blank verse imitates the natural rhythms of English speech. Much of Shakespeare’s drama is in blank verse.
Free Verse
is poetry that does not contain regular patterns of rhythm or rhyme. The lines in free verse often flow more naturally than do rhymed, metrical lines and thus achieve a rhythm more like that of everyday speech. Although free verse lacks conventional meter, it may contain various rhythmic and sound effects, such as repetitions of syllables or words. Free verse can be used for a variety of subjects. Billy Collins’s poem “Today” is an example of free verse.
