Poetry Terms

Question 1

Blank verse

Answer 1

Verse that is unrhymed but with meter

Question 2

Free verse

Answer 2

Verse that has no meter or rhyming pattern

Question 3

Anaphora

Answer 3

Words repeating at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, lines, or sentences

Question 4

Synecdoche

Answer 4

Uses a part of something to represent a whole or a whole to represent a part

Question 5

Apostrophe

Answer 5

When a poet addresses an absent person, an abstract idea, or a thing

Question 6

Caesura

Answer 6

A pause in a line of poetry

Question 7

Verisimilitude

Answer 7

Likeness to the truth, such as the resemblance of a fictitious work to a real event, even if it is a far-fetched one

Question 8

Alliteration

Answer 8

The repetition of sounds in a sequence of words

Question 9

Diction

Answer 9

Word choice – the kind of words the author chooses - usually for a reason

Question 10

Enjambed line

Answer 10

A ‘run-on’ line that carries over into the next to complete its meaning

Question 11

Imagery

Answer 11

The visual (or other sensory) pictures used to render a discription more vivid and immediate

Question 12

Simile

Answer 12

A figure of speech that compares two distinct things by using a connective words such as ‘like’ or ‘as’

Question 13

Stanza

Answer 13

A ‘paragraph’ of a poem: a group of lines separated by extra white space from another group of lines

Question 14

Symbol

Answer 14

An image that stands for something larger and more complex, often something abstract, such as an idea or set of attitudes

Question 15

Tone

Answer 15

The speaker’s or author’s attitude toward the reader, addressee, or subject matter. It immediately impresses itself upon the reader, yet it can be quite difficult to describe and analyze

Question 16

Hyperbole

Answer 16

A figure of speech composed of striking exaggeration

Question 17

Onomatopoeia

Answer 17

A figure of speech in which the sound of a words immitates its meaning

Question 18

Metaphor

Answer 18

A comparison that is made directly or less directly, but without pointing out a similarity by using words such as ‘like’, ‘as’, or ‘than’

Question 19

Assonance

Answer 19

The repetition of vowel sounds without repeating consonants, sometimes called vowel rhymes

Question 20

Personification

Answer 20

A figure of speech in which the poet describes an abstraction, a thing, or a nonhuman form as if it were a person

Question 21

Refrain

Answer 21

A phrase or line repeated at intervals within a poem, especially at the end of a stanza

Question 22

Cacophony

Answer 22

Harsh or discordant sounds, often the result of repetition and combination of consonants within a group of words

Question 23

Euphony

Answer 23

The quality of being pleasing to the ear, especially through a harmonious combination of words

Question 24

Iambic

Answer 24

u /

Question 25

Trochaic

Answer 25

/ u

Question 26

Anapestic

Answer 26

u u /

Question 27

Dactyllic

Answer 27

/ u u

Question 28

1 foot

Answer 28

Monometer

Question 29

2 feet

Answer 29

Dimeter

Question 30

3 feet

Answer 30

Trimeter

Question 31

4 feet

Answer 31

Tetrameter

Question 32

5 feet

Answer 32

Pentameter

Question 33

6 feet

Answer 33

Hexameter

Question 34

7 feet

Answer 34

Heptameter

Question 35

8 feet

Answer 35

Octameter

Question 36

9 feet

Answer 36

Nonameter

Question 37

10 feet

Answer 37

Decameter