Poetry & Literary Terms Flashcards
alliteration
the repetition of consonant sounds in words that are close together
allusion
a reference to someone or something in history, literature, religion, politics, etc.
ambiguity
when a writer deliberately suggests two or more different or conflicting meanings in a work.
anapest
a metrical foot with two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable: un-der-foot
ballad
a song or poem that tells a story
blank verse
poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter
couplet
two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry
dactyl
a metrical foot with one long and two short syllables or one stressed and two unstressed syllables: po-et-ry
free verse
poetry that doesn’t have any meter or rhyme scheme
haiku
a short, unrhymed poem with 17 syllables, usually three lines with 5, 7, and 5 syllables.
iamb
a two-syllable word that has a stress on the second syllable: a-bove
iambic pentameter
a line of poetry with five iambic feet
idiom
an expression particular to a specific language that isn’t literal
lyric poem
a poem that doesn’t tell a story but expresses the feelings of the speaker
meter
a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry
Mood
The overall emotion in a work of literature
octave
an 8-line poem or first eight lines of a Petrarchan or Italian sonnet
ode
a lyric poem unusually long, on a serious subject and written in dignified language
oxymoron
a figure of speech that combines contradictory words in a brief phrase
paradox
a statement that seems contradictory but reveals the truth: Less is more
parallelism
repetition of words or phrases with similar structure
prose
an ordinary form of written or spoken language
refrain
a word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated for effect, several times in a poem
rhyme
the repetition of sounds and words that sound the same
rhythm
the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem
sestet
six lines of poetry, especially the last six in a sonnet
sonnet
a 14-line poem usually written in iambic pentameter
spondee
a metrical foot made of two syllables where both are stressed: child-hood
syntax
the order of words in a sentence
synthesia
a figure of speech where one sense is used in the juxtaposition to appeal to a different sense
trochee
a metrical foot made of two syllables, the first of which is stressed: gar-den
