Poetry Terms Flashcards
Alliteration
The repetition at close intervals of the initial consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words
Allusion
A reference, explicit or implicit, to something in literature or history
Anaphora
Repetition of an opening word or phrase in a series of lines
Apostrophe
A figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and could reply
Assonance
The repetition at close intervals of the vowel sounds of accented syllables or important words
Ballad
A fairly short narrative poem written in a song like stanza form
Cacophony
A harsh, discordant, unpleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds
Caesura
A speech pause occurring within a line
Consonance
The repetition at close intervals of the final consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words
Didactic
Poetry having as a primary purpose to teach or preach
End rhyme
Rhymes that occur at the ends of the lines
End-stopped line
A line that ends with a natural speech pause, usually marked by punctuation
Euphony
A smooth, pleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds
Feminine rhyme
A rhyme in which the repeated accented vowel is in either the second or the third-last syllable of the words involved
Figurative language
Language employing figures of speech; language that cannot be taken literally or only literally
Figure of speech
Broadly, any way of saying something other than the ordinary way; more narrowly, a way of saying one thing and meaning another
Fixed form
Any form of poem in which the length and pattern are prescribed by previous usage or tradition, such as sonnet, villanelle, and so on
Free verse
Non-metrical poetry in which the basic rhythmic unit is the line, and in which pauses, line breaks, and formal patterns develop organically from the requirements of the individual poem rather than from established poetic forms
Imagery
The representation through language of sense experience
Internal rhyme
A rhyme in which one or both of the rhyme words occur(s) within the line
Masculine rhyme
A rhyme in which the repeated accented vowel sound is in the final syllable of the words involved
Metonymy
A figure of speech in which some significant aspect or detail of an experience is used to represent the whole experience
Onapotapia
The use of words that supposedly mimic their meaning in their sound
Personification
A figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, an object, or a concept
Phonetic intensive
A word whose sound, by an obscure process, to some degree suggest its meaning
Rhetorical poetry
Poetry used artificially eloquent language; that is, language too high-flown for its occasion and unfaithful to the full complexity of human experience
Run-on line
A line that has no natural speech pause at its end, allowing the sense to flow uninterruptedly into the succeeding line
Sentimental poetry
Poetry that attempts to manipulate the reader’s emotions in order to achieve a greater emotional response than the poem itself really warrants
Simile
A figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike
Synecdoche
A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole
Synesthesia
Presentation of one sense experience in terms usually associated with another sensation
Allegory
A narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface one
