Poetry Terms

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

The repetition at close intervals of the initial consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

A reference, explicit or implicit, to something in literature or history

Question 3

Anaphora

Answer 3

Repetition of an opening word or phrase in a series of lines

Question 4

Apostrophe

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Assonance

Answer 5

The repetition at close intervals of the vowel sounds of accented syllables or important words

Question 6

Ballad

Answer 6

A fairly short narrative poem written in a song like stanza form

Question 7

Cacophony

Answer 7

A harsh, discordant, unpleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds

Question 8

Caesura

Answer 8

A speech pause occurring within a line

Question 9

Consonance

Answer 9

The repetition at close intervals of the final consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words

Question 10

Didactic

Answer 10

Poetry having as a primary purpose to teach or preach

Question 11

End rhyme

Answer 11

Rhymes that occur at the ends of the lines

Question 12

End-stopped line

Answer 12

A line that ends with a natural speech pause, usually marked by punctuation

Question 13

Euphony

Answer 13

A smooth, pleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds

Question 14

Feminine rhyme

Answer 14

A rhyme in which the repeated accented vowel is in either the second or the third-last syllable of the words involved

Question 15

Figurative language

Answer 15

Language employing figures of speech; language that cannot be taken literally or only literally

Question 16

Figure of speech

Answer 16

Broadly, any way of saying something other than the ordinary way; more narrowly, a way of saying one thing and meaning another

Question 17

Fixed form

Answer 17

Any form of poem in which the length and pattern are prescribed by previous usage or tradition, such as sonnet, villanelle, and so on

Question 18

Free verse

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Imagery

Answer 19

The representation through language of sense experience

Question 20

Internal rhyme

Answer 20

A rhyme in which one or both of the rhyme words occur(s) within the line

Question 21

Masculine rhyme

Answer 21

A rhyme in which the repeated accented vowel sound is in the final syllable of the words involved

Question 22

Metonymy

Answer 22

A figure of speech in which some significant aspect or detail of an experience is used to represent the whole experience

Question 23

Onapotapia

Answer 23

The use of words that supposedly mimic their meaning in their sound

Question 24

Personification

Answer 24

A figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, an object, or a concept

Question 25

Phonetic intensive

Answer 25

A word whose sound, by an obscure process, to some degree suggest its meaning

Question 26

Rhetorical poetry

Answer 26

Poetry used artificially eloquent language; that is, language too high-flown for its occasion and unfaithful to the full complexity of human experience

Question 27

Run-on line

Answer 27

A line that has no natural speech pause at its end, allowing the sense to flow uninterruptedly into the succeeding line

Question 28

Sentimental poetry

Answer 28

Poetry that attempts to manipulate the reader’s emotions in order to achieve a greater emotional response than the poem itself really warrants

Question 29

Simile

Answer 29

A figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike

Question 30

Synecdoche

Answer 30

A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole

Question 31

Synesthesia

Answer 31

Presentation of one sense experience in terms usually associated with another sensation

Question 32

Allegory

Answer 32

A narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface one