Poetry Key Terms Flashcards
Closed form
Regularity in rhyme, meter and line length
Open form
No regularity in rhyme or meter, usually called free verse
Narrator
The speaker and implied author of the work, from whose perspective we perceive
Couplet
A pair of rhymed lines
Refrain
A phrase or line that is repeated
Stanza
The divisions or units of a poem, like paragraphs
Quatrain
A stanza with four lines
Rhyme
The matching of the final sound of one word with another
End rhyme
Rhymes at the end of a line
Internal rhyme
A word in the middle of a line rhymes with one at the end
Near rhyme
The vowel sounds rhyme but the consonants don’t
Meter
Reoccurring stresses or accents in lines, somtimes called rhythm
Foot
A unit composed of stressed and unstressed syllable
Masculine stress
Rising stress
Feminine stress
Falling stress
Ambiguity
If something has many meanings
Assonance
The repetition of similar vowel sounds in nearby words
Consonance
The repetition of similar consonant sounds in nearby words
Alliteration
The repetition of sounds at the start of words nearby
Sibilance
The production of a hissing ‘s’ sound
Cacophony
A harsh discordant mixture of words to create disunity
Euphony
Harmonious sounds that are pleasing to the air
Enjambment
When one line runs onto the next
Repetition
The repeating of particular words or phrases
