Poetry language Flashcards
Ambiguity
Where meaning is unclear or has two possibilities
Alliteration
Repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words
Archaic
Old fashioned language
Assonance
Repetition of similar vowel sounds (aeiou)
Colloquialisms
Ordinary/everyday speech and launguage- slang
Concrete nouns
Names given to real objects or things
Clichés
An overused phrase which as a result has lost its impact
Euphemism
Expressing an unpleasant idea in a less blunt and more pleasant way
Emotive language
Language written deliberately about a particular emotion in the reader
Extended metaphor
A recurrent metaphor which continues throughout a poem
Hyperbole
An exaggerated word or phrase for effect
Idiom
A word or phrase which means something different from its literal meaning. E.g. “Over the moon”
Imperatives
Commanding words or phrases
Irony
Saying one thing while meaning another (sarcasm but less blunt)
Juxtaposition
The deliberate positioning of words in a poem to create contrast
Lexical field
A number of words which all belong to the same topic or subject
Metaphor
A comparison of one thing to another saying one thing “is” another
Oxymoron
A figure of speech which joins together words of opposite meanings
Onomatopoeia
Words which sound like the thing they are describing
Personification
Where the poet gives something that isn’t human, human qualities
Pronouns
Replace proper nouns: he, she, we, they, it, her, him etc.
Pun
Wordplay which deliberately creates ambiguity by using words of similar sound for humorous effect
Repetition
When you use a word or phrase more than once
Sibilance
The presence of strongly emphasised s, sh, ch, z and j sounds in speech
