Poetry Techniques and Definitions

Question 1

Closed form?

Answer 1

Regularity in rhyme, metre, and line length.

Question 2

Open form?

Answer 2

No regularity in rhyme or metre, generally called free verse

Question 3

Narrator?

Answer 3

The speaker and implied author of a work, from whose perspective we perceive.

Question 4

Couplet?

Answer 4

A pair of rhymed lines

Question 5

Refrain?

Answer 5

A phrase or line that is repeated.

Question 6

Stanza? What is a Quatrain? What is it also known as? Why is this misleading?

Answer 6

The divisions or units of a poem, like paragraphs, e.g. a quatrain is a stanza with four lines/Sometimes called a verse, this is a misleading as verse means poetry.

Question 7

What is Rhyme?

Answer 7

The matching of the sound of one word with another word.

Question 8

What is end rhyme?

Answer 8

Rhyme at the end of a line.

Question 9

What is internal rhyme?

Answer 9

A word in the middle of a line rhymes with one at the end.

Question 10

What is near rhyme?

Answer 10

Near rhyme is when the vowel sounds rhyme but the constants do not.

Question 11

What is ambiguity?

Answer 11

If something does not have a clear meaning or if it has several interpretations, it is ambiguous.

Question 12

What is assonance?

Answer 12

The repetition of similar vowel sounds in nearby words

Question 13

What is alliteration?

Answer 13

The repetition of sounds/letters at the start of a word.

Question 14

What is sibilance?

Answer 14

The production of a hissing ‘s’ sound usually through repetition of words beginning with s.

Question 15

What is cacophony?

Answer 15

A harsh discordant mixture of sounds to create disunity

Question 16

What is Euphony? Give an example.

Answer 16

Harmonious sounds that are pleasing to the ear. E.g. cellar door

Question 17

Enjambment?

Answer 17

When one line runs on to the next.

Question 18

Repetition?

Answer 18

The repeating of particular words or phrases.

Question 19

What is onomatopoeia?

Answer 19

Words that sound like what they describe.

Question 20

Oxymoron?

Answer 20

A figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear side by side.

Question 21

Literal language? Give an example.

Answer 21

Exactly what a word says e.g. “That run killed me” The runner is literally dead.

Question 22

Figurative language? Give an example.

Answer 22

The words have another meaning. E.g. “That run killed me” The runner is just really tired not dead.

Question 23

Irony?

Answer 23

Something contrary or opposite to what is expected.

Question 24

Adjective?

Answer 24

Describes a noun.

Question 25

Adverb?

Answer 25

Describes a verb.

Question 26

Personification?

Answer 26

Giving inanimate objects human characteristics.

Question 27

Simile?

Answer 27

A figure of speech that compares two things by using words such as like or as.

Question 28

Metaphor?

Answer 28

A figure of speech that compares two things without explicitly indicating it.

Question 29

Metonymy?

Answer 29

Calling something by something associated to it.

Question 30

Consonance?

Answer 30

The repetition of similar constant sounds in nearby words.