Poetry Terms Flashcards
Blank verse
Verse that is unrhymed but with meter
Free verse
Verse that has no meter or rhyming pattern
Anaphora
Words repeating at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, lines, or sentences
Synecdoche
Uses a part of something to represent a whole or a whole to represent a part
Apostrophe
When a poet addresses an absent person, an abstract idea, or a thing
Caesura
A pause in a line of poetry
Verisimilitude
Likeness to the truth, such as the resemblance of a fictitious work to a real event, even if it is a far-fetched one
Alliteration
The repetition of sounds in a sequence of words
Diction
Word choice – the kind of words the author chooses - usually for a reason
Enjambed line
A ‘run-on’ line that carries over into the next to complete its meaning
Imagery
The visual (or other sensory) pictures used to render a discription more vivid and immediate
Simile
A figure of speech that compares two distinct things by using a connective words such as ‘like’ or ‘as’
Stanza
A ‘paragraph’ of a poem: a group of lines separated by extra white space from another group of lines
Symbol
An image that stands for something larger and more complex, often something abstract, such as an idea or set of attitudes
Tone
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
Hyperbole
A figure of speech composed of striking exaggeration
Onomatopoeia
A figure of speech in which the sound of a words immitates its meaning
Metaphor
A comparison that is made directly or less directly, but without pointing out a similarity by using words such as ‘like’, ‘as’, or ‘than’
Assonance
The repetition of vowel sounds without repeating consonants, sometimes called vowel rhymes
Personification
A figure of speech in which the poet describes an abstraction, a thing, or a nonhuman form as if it were a person
Refrain
A phrase or line repeated at intervals within a poem, especially at the end of a stanza
Cacophony
Harsh or discordant sounds, often the result of repetition and combination of consonants within a group of words
Euphony
The quality of being pleasing to the ear, especially through a harmonious combination of words
Iambic
u /
Trochaic
/ u
Anapestic
u u /
Dactyllic
/ u u
1 foot
Monometer
2 feet
Dimeter
3 feet
Trimeter
4 feet
Tetrameter
5 feet
Pentameter
6 feet
Hexameter
7 feet
Heptameter
8 feet
Octameter
9 feet
Nonameter
10 feet
Decameter
