Poetry Lexicon

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

The repetition of beginning sounds, usually consonants, in neighboring words

Question 2

Allegory

Answer 2

A story with the second meaning hidden inside its literal one

Question 3

Allusion

Answer 3

Within a poem, a reference to a literary work or an event, person, or place outside of the poem

Question 4

Anaphora

Answer 4

Repetition in which the same word or phrase is repeated, often at the beginning of lines

Question 5

Anastrophe

Answer 5

A deliberate inversion of the normal order of words

Question 6

Annotation

Answer 6

Reader’s comments written on a poem

Question 7

Anthology

Answer 7

A book of poems by different poets

Question 8

Assonance

Answer 8

The repetition of vowel sounds in neighboring words

Question 9

Cadence

Answer 9

A rhythmic pattern that’s based on natural repetitions and emphases in speech

Question 10

Caesura

Answer 10

A slight but definite pause inside a line of porn created by the rhythm of the language or a punctuation mark, E. G., a period, dash, or colon in the middle of a line

Question 11

Cliché

Answer 11

An expression that has been used so often that it’s lost its freshness or meeting, he. G., A regular colors, as busy as a bee, a blanket of snow, note: the adjective form is clichéd

Question 12

Close Form

Answer 12

Poetry written to an end establish pattern, e.g., sonnet, Limerick, villanelle, pantoum, tritina, sestina, or rondel

Question 13

Collection

Answer 13

A book of poems by one poet

Question 14

Concrete

Answer 14

A real, tangible detail or example of something; opposite of abstract for general

Question 15

Couplet

Answer 15

A pair of lines, usually written in the same form

Question 16

Connotation

Answer 16

The emotions and associations that a word suggest beyond its literal meaning

Question 17

Denotation

Answer 17

The literal or dictionary meaning of a word

Question 18

Diction

Answer 18

A poet word choices

Question 19

Elegy

Answer 19

A poem of mourning or praise for the dead

Question 20

End-stopped line

Answer 20

When meaning and grammar pause at the end of a line; a

line-break at a normal pause in speech, usually At a punctuation mark; the opposite of an enjambed line or enjambment

Question 21

Enjambed line

Answer 21

The meaning and grammar of a line continue from one line to the next with no pause; also called a run–on line

Question 22

Epigraph

Answer 22

A quotation placed at the beginning of a poem to make the theme more resonant

Question 23

Figurative language

Answer 23

Comparisons between unrelated things or ideas: metaphor, simile, personification, and hyperbole are all types of figurative language, which reveals the familiar in new, surprising ways; the opposite of literal language

Question 24

Free verse

Answer 24

Poetry that doesn’t have a set rhythm, line length, or rhyme scheme; instead, it relies on the natural rhythms of speech; today the most widely practiced kind of poetry in the English language

Question 25

Form

Answer 25

The structure of a poem; how it is built

Question 26

Hyperbole

Answer 26

When a poet exaggerate on purpose for effect

Question 27

Image/Imagery

Answer 27

A sensory response evoked in the mind of a reader by the diction in a poem; not just visual but any sensory impression – sound, touch, taste, odor – inspired by language

Question 28

Irony

Answer 28

When a poet says one thing but means something else

Question 29

Line

Answer 29

A group of words in a row; the unit of a poem

Question 30

Line break

Answer 30

The most important point in a line of poetry: the pause or breath at the end of a line

Question 31

Literal language

Answer 31

The straightforward meanings of words; the opposite of figurative language

Question 32

Metaphor

Answer 32

A comparison in which the poet writes about one thing as if it is something else: A = B, with the qualities of B transferred to A

Question 33

Open form

Answer 33

See free verse (poetry that doesn’t have a set rhythm, line length, or rhythm scheme; instead, it relies on the natural rhythms of speech; today the most widely practiced kind of poetry in the English language)

Question 34

Oxymoron

Answer 34

A figure of speech that combines two words that contradict each other, e.g., bittersweet

Question 35

Personification

Answer 35

A comparison that gives human qualities to an object, animal, idea, or phenomenon

Question 36

Poet laureate

Answer 36

A title given to outstanding U.S pet by the Library of Congress, usually for one or two years

Question 37

Prose Poem

Answer 37

A piece of writing that has play features – rhythm, imagery, compression – but doesn’t rhyme, conform to a set rhythm, or break into lines

Question 38

Rhyme scheme

Answer 38

The pattern of rhyming in a poem; to describe the pattern, each line is assigned a letter, and lines that rhyme are given the same letter, e.g., abab

Question 39

Sensory diction

Answer 39

Language in a poem that evokes one of the five senses

Question 40

Simile

Answer 40

Kind of metaphor that uses like or as to compare two things: A is like B

Question 41

Speaker/persona

Answer 41

The voice that speaks the words of a poem, not necessarily the same person as the poet

Question 42

Stanza

Answer 42

A line or group of lines in a poem separated from other line by extra white space; a division in a poem that occurs at a natural pause or at a point where the poet wants to speed up or slow down poem, tone, change the setting, or introduce a new idea or character

Question 43

Symbol

Answer 43

A thing or action that represent something else in addition to itself

Question 44

Tercet

Answer 44

A unit of three lines, usually written in the same form

Question 45

Theme

Answer 45

An idea about life that emerges from a poem

Question 46

Tone

Answer 46

The attitude of the speaker or poet towards the subject of the poem or its reader

Question 47

Tricolon

Answer 47

A rhythm, pattern, emphasis used three times; a.k.a. “the power of three”

Question 48

Turn

Answer 48

A point in a poem when the meaning moves in a new, significant direction, or its theme emerges