poetry terms

Question 1

NARRATIVE

Answer 1

A long story told in verse form; an epic is an example of a narrative poem

Question 2

LYRIC

Answer 2

A brief, personal poem that uses many sound devices, as well as rhythm and meter, and is filled with emotion; sonnets, odes and elegies are types of lyrics

Question 3

BALLAD

Answer 3

A type of poem that is actually meant to be sung and is both lyric AND narrative in nature

Question 4

RHYMED VERSE

Answer 4

Has regular meter and rhyme scheme

Question 5

BLANK VERSE

Answer 5

Unrhymed iambic pentameter

Question 6

FREE VERSE

Answer 6

No regular metrical rhythm or end rhyme

Question 7

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

Answer 7

Words or phrases that describe one thing in terms of another and is not meant to be taken on a literal level

Question 8

SIMILE

Answer 8

A comparison between two dissimilar things using words such as “like,” “than,” “as,” or “resembles.”

Question 9

METAPHOR

Answer 9

A comparison between two unlike things

Question 10

DIRECT METAPHOR

Answer 10

A comparison in which the literal term and figurative term are both named

Question 11

IMPLIED METAPHOR

Answer 11

A comparison in which the literal term is named and figurative term is only implied

Question 12

EXTENDED METAPHOR

Answer 12

A comparison – direct or implied – that is developed over more than one line of poetry

Question 13

SYMBOL

Answer 13

Something (object, person, situation or action) that means more than what it is

Question 14

SYNECDOCHE

Answer 14

Using a part of something to represent the whole

Question 15

METONYMY

Answer 15

The substitution of one word for another closely associated word

Question 16

MOTIF

Answer 16

Any recurring element that has symbolic significance to a literary work

Question 17

PERSONIFICATION

Answer 17

Giving human or animate qualities to an animal, an object or a concept

Question 18

APOSTROPHE

Answer 18

Addressing someone absent or dead or something nonhuman as if it were alive and present and could reply

Question 19

PATHETIC FALLACY

Answer 19

Using the setting, or nature, to parallel or mirror the mood of a character or of the story

Question 20

LITERARY ALLUSION

Answer 20

A reference to a person, place or thing from previous literature (often Biblical, mythological, Sheakespearean)

Question 21

HYPERBOLE

Answer 21

Exaggeration used for emphasis; overstatement

Question 22

LITOTES

Answer 22

A special form of understatement; it affirms something by negating the opposite

Question 23

ANTITHESIS

Answer 23

The pairing exact opposite or contrasting ideas in a parallel grammatical structure

Question 24

PARADOX

Answer 24

A seemingly contradictory or absurd statement that may actually be true

Question 25

OXYMORON

Answer 25

A short phrase in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction

Question 26

IMAGERY

Answer 26

Language that appeals to any of the five senses

Question 27

ALLITERATION

Answer 27

Repetition at close intervals of the initial consonant sounds of certain words

Question 28

CONSONANCE

Answer 28

Repetition at close intervals of middle or end consonant sounds of certain words

Question 29

ASSONANCE

Answer 29

The similarity and repetition of vowel sounds of certain words at close intervals

Question 30

ONOMATOPOEIA

Answer 30

The use of words that mimic their meaning in their sound

Question 31

REPETITION

Answer 31

Repetition of a word or a phrase within a poem in order to make it easier to remember, emphasize an important idea, and give the poem structural unity

Question 32

PARALLELISM

Answer 32

In poetry, the repetition of words or phrases in two or more lines

Question 33

ANAPHORA

Answer 33

In prose, the repetition of a word or phrase; typically found in writing at the beginning of successive sentences

Question 34

CATALOGING

Answer 34

The listing of words, images, or attributes

Question 35

REFRAIN

Answer 35

Repetition of a word, phrase, or line(s) at definite intervals in a poem, similar to a chorus in a song

Question 36

STANZA

Answer 36

A group of consecutive lines in a poem that form a single unit

Question 37

ENJAMBMENT

Answer 37

The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line or stanza

Question 38

END-STOPPED LINES

Answer 38

Lines in which both the grammatical structure and the sense reach completion at the end

Question 39

CAESURA

Answer 39

A pause within a line of verse, usually marked by punctuation

Question 40

INVERSION

Answer 40

The rearranging normal word order to emphasize a certain word or maintain meter and rhyme

Question 41

PERFECT RHYME

Answer 41

Repetition of accented vowel sound and all succeeding sounds

Question 42

IMPERFECT RHYME

Answer 42

Rhyme in which there is only a partial matching of sounds (also called near rhyme or slant rhyme)

Question 43

EYE RHYME

Answer 43

Rhyme that appears correct from spelling but does not rhyme because of pronunciation

Question 44

END RHYME

Answer 44

Rhyme that occurs between words found at the ends of two or more lines in a poem

Question 45

INTERNAL RHYME

Answer 45

Rhyme between words that occurs within a single line of poetry

Question 46

RHYME SCHEME

Answer 46

The pattern of end rhyme throughout a poem; marked with corresponding letters for each rhyming match

Question 47

METER

Answer 47

The regularized pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry; the intentional arrangement of language in which the accented syllables occur at equal intervals of time

Question 48

SCANSION

Answer 48

The process of marking lines of poetry to determine the meter; that is, marking the accented and unaccented syllables, dividing the lines into feet, identifying the most common type of foot, and noting significant variations from that pattern

Question 49

FOOT

Answer 49

The basic unit of meter; either consisting of 2 or 3 syllables