Poetry Terms Flashcards

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0
Q

Allegory

A

a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

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1
Q

Alexandrine

A

A line or verse with 6 iambic feet

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2
Q

Alliteration

A

the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

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3
Q

Allusion

A

an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.

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4
Q

Analogy

A

a comparison between two things, typically on the basis of their structure and for the purpose of explanation or clarification.

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5
Q

Apostrophe

A

an exclamatory passage in a speech or poem addressed to a person (typically one who is dead or absent) or thing (typically one that is personified).

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6
Q

Assonance

A

in poetry, the repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in nonrhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible (e.g., penitence, reticence ).

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7
Q

Ballad

A

a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. Traditional ballads are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally from one generation to the next as part of the folk culture.

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8
Q

Blank verse

A

verse without rhyme, esp. that which uses iambic pentameter.

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9
Q

Cacophony

A

a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds.

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10
Q

Conceit

A

a fanciful expression in writing or speech; an elaborate metaphor.
“the idea of the wind’s singing is a prime romantic conceit”

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11
Q

Concrete poetry

A

poetry in which the meaning or effect is conveyed partly or wholly by visual means, using patterns of words or letters and other typographical devices.

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12
Q

Consonance

A

the recurrence of similar sounds, esp. consonants, in close proximity (chiefly as used in prosody).

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13
Q

Couplet

A

Two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit.

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14
Q

Dialect

A

a particular form of a language that is peculiar to a specific region or social group.
“this novel is written in the dialect of Trinidad”

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15
Q

Diction

A

the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing.
“Wordsworth campaigned against exaggerated poetic diction”

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16
Q

Dramatic poetry

A

Written as it is to be spoken

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17
Q

Elision

A

the process of joining together or merging things, esp. abstract ideas.
“unease at the elision of so many vital questions”

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18
Q

Euphony

A

the quality of being pleasing to the ear, esp. through a harmonious combination of words.

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19
Q

Figurative language

A

expressing ideas indirectly; language used in a special way to create a special effect made up of words and phrases which don’t mean what they first appear to mean

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20
Q

Figure of speech

A

a word or phrase used in a nonliteral sense to add rhetorical force to a spoken or written passage.
“calling her a crab is just a figure of speech”

21
Q

Folk ballad

A

folk song: a song that is traditionally sung by the common people of a region and forms part of their culture

22
Q

Foot

A

a group of syllables constituting a metrical unit. In English poetry it consists of stressed and unstressed syllables, while in ancient classical poetry it consists of long and short syllables.

23
Q

Free verse

A

poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter.

24
Q

Hyperbole

A

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

25
Q

Iambic pentameter

A

a commonly used metrical line in traditional verse and verse drama. The term describes the particular rhythm that the words establish in that line.

26
Q

Imagery

A

visually descriptive or figurative language, esp. in a literary work

27
Q

Inversion

A

reversal of the normal order of words, typically for rhetorical effect but also found in the regular formation of questions in English.

28
Q

Irony

A

the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

29
Q

Lyrical poetry

A

typically express personal or emotional feelings and are traditionally the home of the present tense. They have specific rhyming schemes and are often, but not always, set to music or a beat.

30
Q

Metaphor

A

a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.

31
Q

Meter

A

the rhythm of a piece of poetry, determined by the number and length of feet in a line or the basic pulse and rhythm of a piece of music.

32
Q

Metonymy

A

the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant, for example suit for business executive, or the track for horse racing.

33
Q

Narrative

A

a spoken or written account of connected events; a story.

34
Q

Octave

A

a poem or stanza of eight lines; an octet.

35
Q

Onomatopoeia

A

the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g., cuckoo, sizzle ).

36
Q

Parallelism

A

the state of being parallel or of corresponding in some way.

37
Q

Personification

A

the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.

38
Q

Quatrain

A

a stanza of four lines, esp. one having alternate rhymes.

39
Q

Refrain

A

a repeated line or number of lines in a poem or song, typically at the end of each verse.

40
Q

Repetition

A

the action of repeating something that has already been said or written.

41
Q

Rhyme(end, approximate, internal)

A

correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, esp. when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry.
End: at the end of the line
Internal: within the line
Approximate: almost rhyming

42
Q

Rhyme scheme

A

the ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse.

43
Q

Rhythm

A

a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound.

44
Q

Sestet

A

The last six lines of a sonnet

45
Q

Simile

A

a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g., as brave as a lion, crazy like a fox ).

46
Q

Sonnet

A

a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line.

47
Q

Stanza

A

a group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse.

48
Q

Symbol

A

a thing that represents or stands for something else, esp. a material object representing something abstract.

49
Q

Trochee

A

a foot consisting of one long or stressed syllable followed by one short or unstressed syllable.