Poetry Strategies

Question 0

Conceit

Answer 0

Unconventional, logically complex, surprising metaphors.

Ex: Notion that a pair of lovers’ separation takes place in the fertile days of summer and fall as opposed to winter.

Question 1

Metaphor

Answer 1

Comparison between 2 unlike objects.

Question 2

Simile

Answer 2

Essentially a metaphor using “like” or “as.”

Question 3

Metonymy

Answer 3

Long-term metaphor using a physical object to represent actual object associated with it.

Ex: He is nothing but a suit. The White House… The Crown.

Question 4

Synecdoche

Answer 4

Using a body part to represent greater ideas.

Ex: Lend me your ears!

Question 5

Symbol

Answer 5

Something that means more than what it is; an object, person, situation, action that has both a literal and metaphorical meaning.

Question 6

Image

Answer 6

Description of something or someone; it is a picture captured in words.

Question 7

Idiom

Answer 7

Language specific to a dialect and cultural conventions.

Question 8

Diction

Answer 8

Style of expression, patterns of language, actual words selected.

Question 9

Allusion

Answer 9

A reference, explicit or implicit, to something in previous literature or history.

Question 10

End Stop

Answer 10

When a line stops in the middle. Often is marked by a semi-colon, colon, or period.

Question 11

Enjambment

Answer 11

Run-on sentence in poetry (sentence or phrase runs into next line).

Question 12

Caesura

Answer 12

Pause or breath Ina a poetic line. Look for commas, semi-colons, colons, periods, and other punctuation marks.

Question 13

Foot

Answer 13

2 syllables.

Question 14

Iamb

Answer 14

Ba BUM.

Question 15

Trochee

Answer 15

Metrical foot: accented syllables followed by unaccented syllable.

BA Bum.

Question 16

Spondee

Answer 16

Two equally accented syllables in a metrical foot.

BUM BUM.

Question 17

Dactyl

Answer 17

Metrical foot with one accented syllable followed by two unaccented.

BUM Ba Ba.

Question 18

Anapest

Answer 18

Metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables followed by one accented syllable.

Ba Ba BUM.

Question 19

Pentameter

Answer 19

5 feet.

Question 20

Di-Meter

Answer 20

Two metrical feet.

Question 21

Regular Meter

Answer 21

Consistent meter; you can hear a regular beat.

Question 22

Irregular Meter

Answer 22

Inconsistent meter; you cannot hear a regular beat.

Question 23

Blank Verse

Answer 23

Unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Question 24

Free Verse

Answer 24

No structure.

Question 25

End Rhyme

Answer 25

Rhyming last words of lines.

Question 26

Eye Rhyme

Answer 26

Imperfect rhyme but has similar vowel sounds.

Question 27

Slant Rhyme (Half Rhyme)

Answer 27

Last words kind of rhyme, close enough.

Question 28

Internal Rhyme

Answer 28

Rhyme within a line.

Question 29

Couplet

Answer 29

Two lines rhyming.

Question 30

Consonance

Answer 30

Repeating consonant sounds at beginning or end of words.

Ex: Bed and bad; bud and dab.

Question 31

Assonance

Answer 31

Repeating vowel sounds with no repeating consonants.

Ex: Leaping, deep people.

Question 32

Alliteration

Answer 32

Repeating sound of one specific consonant that is stressed and comes at the start of the words.

Ex: Sally sells seashells down by the seashore.

Question 33

Repetition

Answer 33

Repeating words.

Question 34

Onomatopoeia

Answer 34

Using words that sound like the sounds.

Ex: “Buzz.”

Question 35

Euphony

Answer 35

Pleasing, harmonious sounds.

Question 36

Cacophony

Answer 36

Displeasing, unharmonious sounds.

Question 37

Parallelism

Answer 37

Repeating grammar and syntax.

Question 38

Antithesis

Answer 38

Opposites.

Question 39

Anastrope

Answer 39

Inversion of usual syntax for rhetorical effect.

Question 40

Parentheses

Answer 40

( )

Question 41

Apposition (Appositive)

Answer 41

Noun or noun phrase that describes the preceding noun further.

Ex: My mother, the baker, breadwinner, and best friend.

Question 42

Ellipsis

Answer 42

…

Question 43

Asyndenton

Answer 43

Omission of conjunctions that ordinarily join clauses or sentences.

Question 44

Polysyndenton

Answer 44

Repetition of conjunctions to join clauses or sentences.

Question 45

Anaphora

Answer 45

Repetition of phrases typically at the beginning of line/phrase for rhetorical effect.

Ex: Mad world, mad dog!

Question 46

Climax

Answer 46

Arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in order of increasing importance.

Question 47

Apostrophe

Answer 47

Addressing someone or something absent from text rhetorically.

Question 48

Puns

Answer 48

Play on words.

Question 49

Personification

Answer 49

Imbuing abstractions or inanimate objects with human qualities.

Question 50

Hyperbole

Answer 50

Deliberate use of exaggeration.

Question 51

Litotes

Answer 51

Deliberate use of understatement, typically phrased in the negative; “That’s not unreasonable considering the options.”

Question 52

Rhetorical Question

Answer 52

Asking a question not for the purpose of electing an answer, but to assert or deny something.

Question 53

Irony

Answer 53

Incongruity between what is presented and what is meant; use of language to mean the opposite of its literal meaning.

Question 54

Oxymoron (Paradox)

Answer 54

An apparently contradictory statement that nevertheless contains truth.

Question 55

Aubade

Answer 55

Poem greeting the morning.

Question 56

Ballad

Answer 56

Popular narrative song usually passes down, usually rhyming.

Question 57

Dirge

Answer 57

Song of grief usually given at a funeral; shorter and less meditative than an elegy.

Question 58

Elegy

Answer 58

Laments someone’s death but ends with consolation and comfort.

Question 59

Hymn

Answer 59

Spiritual poem typically praising God.

Question 60

Ode

Answer 60

Tribute to something that is still present.

Question 61

Pastoral

Answer 61

Poem dealing with rural life.

Question 62

Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnet

Answer 62

14 lines: Octave, sestet, NO rhyming couplet.

8-6 or 4-4-3-3

Question 63

Shakespearean Sonnet

Answer 63

14 lines: 3 quatrains with rhyming couplet at end.

4-4-4-2

Question 64

Villanelle

Answer 64

Five 3-line stanzas and a final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas.

Question 65

Dramatic Monologue

Answer 65

Speaker addresses someone specific who is present but not speaking (not intending for audience).

Question 66

Soliloquy

Answer 66

Usually mostly in drama, when a speaker shares inner thoughts and feelings with the audience.

Question 67

Narrative Poem

Answer 67

Tells a story.

Question 68

Sestina

Answer 68

A lyrical fixed form consisting of six 6-line (usually unrhymed) stanzas in which the end words of the first stanza recur as end words of the following five stanzas in a successively rotating order and as the middle and end words of the three verses of the concluding tercet.