Poetry Terms Flashcards
Paraphrase
A prose restatement of the central ideas of a poem in your own language
Verse
A term used for lines composed in a measured rhythmical pattern, which are often, but not necessarily, rhymed
Anagrams
Words made from the letters of other words, such as read and dare
Theme
A central idea or meaning
Narrative poem
A poem that tells a story; may be short or very long
Epic
A long, narrative poem on a serious subject chronicling heroic deeds and important events
Cliche
Ideas or expressions that have become tired and trite from overuse
Stock response
Predictable, conventional reactions to language, characters, symbols, or situations
Sentimentality
Exploits the reader by inducing responses that exceed what the situation warrants
Diction
Choice of words
Poetic diction
The use of elevated language rather than ordinary language
Formal diction
Consists of a dignified, impersonal, and elevated use of language
Middle diction
Maintains correct language usage, but is less elevated than formal diction; it reflects the way most educated people speak
Informal diction
Represents the plain language of everyday use, and often includes idiomatic expressions, slang, contractions, and many simple, common words
Colloquial
Refers to a type of informal diction that reflects casual, conversational language and often includes slang expressions
Denotations
Literal, dictionary meanings of a word
Connotations
Associations and implications that go beyond a word’s literal meanings
Dialect
Spoken by definable groups of people from a particular geographic region, economic group, or social class
Persona
A speaker created by the poet
Ambiguity
Allows for two or more simultaneous interpretations of a word
Syntax
The ordering of words into meaningful verbal patterns
Tone
The writer’s attitude toward the subject, the mood created by all the elements in the poem
What does “carpe diem” mean?
Seize the day
Allusion
A brief cultural reference to a person, a place, a thing, an event, or an idea in history or literature
Image
A language that addresses the senses. Most common images in a poem are visual
Figures of speech
Broadly defined as a way of saying one thing in terms of something else. Although figures of speech are indirect, they are designed to clarify, not obscure, our understanding of what they describe
Simile
Makes an explicit comparison between two things by using words such as like, as, than, appears, or seems
Metaphor
Like a simile, makes a comparison between two unlike things, but it does so implicitly, without words such as like or as
Implied metaphor
A more subtle comparison; the terms being compared are not so specifically explained
Extended metaphor
A sustained comparison in which part or all of a poem consists of a series of related metaphors
Controlling metaphor
Runs through an entire work and determines the form or nature of that work
Synecdoche
A figure of speech in which part of something is used to signify the whole.
Ex: a neighbor is a “wagging tongue” (a gossip)
Metonymy
In which something closely associated with a subject is substituted for it
Ex: She preferred the silver screen [motion pictures] to reading.
Personification
The attribution of human characteristics to nonhuman things
Apostrophe
Often related to personification; an address either to someone who is absent and therefore cannot hear the speaker or to something nonhuman that cannot comprehend; provides an opportunity for the speaker of a poem to think aloud, and often the thoughts expressed are in a formal tone
Overstatement
Otherwise known as hyperbole; adds emphasis without intending to be literally true
Paradox
A statement that initially appears to be self-contradictory but that, on closer inspection, turns out to make sense
Oxymoron
A condensed form of paradox in which two contradictory words are used together
Symbol
Something that represents something else
Conventional symbol
Recognized by many people to represent certain ideas
