Poetry Glossary Flashcards
Alliteration
Repetition of the same consonant sounds at any place, but often at the beginning of words. Famous examples are tongue twisters.. ‘she sells sea shells…’
Assonance
Repetition or a pattern of the same vowel sounds
eg. Moses supposes his toeses are roses
Ballad
A poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend.
Carpe Diem
Latin to “seize the day”, encourages the reader to live for today.
Couplet
A pair of lines that are the same length and usually rhyme and form a acomplete thought. Shakes peare sonnets usually end in a couplet.
Elegy
A poem that laments the death of a person, or one that is siply sad and thoughtful.
Enjambment
Lines running into each other with no punctuation.
Feminine rhyme
A rhyme that occurs in a final unstressed syllable eg. pleasure/leisure
Haiku
Japeneses poem, 3 unrhymed lines of 5, 7 aqnd 5 syllables.
often reflects on some aspect of nature.
Hyperbole
Deliberate exaggeration is used for emphasis
eg. tons of money, waiting for ages
Imagery
Use of pictures, figures of speech and description to evoke ideas, feelings objects, actions, states of mind.
Limerick
A light, humorous poem with the rhyme scheme of a a b b a
Litotes
A figure of speech in which a positive is stated by negating its opposite
eg. no small victory, not a bad idea
Lyric
A poem, such as sonnet or ode, that expresses the thoughts and feelings of te poet. May resemble a song in form.
Masculine rhyme
A rhyme that occurs in a final stressed syllable.
eg. cat/hat, desire/fire
Metaphor
A figure of speech in which two things are compared, ususally be saying one thing is another
eg. the world is a stage, drowning in debt
* most important figure of speech to comment on in an essay
Narrative
Tells a story
egs. ballads, epics, lays
Ode
Lyric poem that is serious and thoughtful in tone. Has a precise, formal structure.
Onomatopoeia
Words are used to imitate sounds
eg. buzz, hiss, thump
Pastoral
Pictures country life ina peaceful, idealized way.
Personification
Non-human things or abstract ideas are given human attributes
eg. the sky is crying, dead leaves danced in the wind
Refrain
A phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated throughout a poem, usually after every stanza.
Rhyme
Same or similar sounds at the end of two or more words. Pattern of rhyme ina stanza or poem is shown usually by using a different letter for each sound.
