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
Literary/contextual symbol
A setting, character, action, object, name, or anything else in a work that maintains its literal significance while suggesting other meanings
Allegory
A narration or description usually restricted to a single meaning because its events, actions, characters, settings, and objects represent specific abstractions or ideas
Didactic poetry
Designed to teach an ethical, moral, or religious lesson
Situational irony
Discrepancy between what appears to be true and what actually exists
Verbal irony
Saying something different from what is meant
Satire
An example of the literary art of ridiculing a folly or vice in an effort to expose or correct it
Dramatic irony
When a writer allows a reader to know more about a situation than a character does
Cosmic irony
When a writer uses God, destiny, or fate to dash the hopes and expectations of a character or humankind in general
Ballad
Traditionally a song, transmitted orally from generation to generation, that tells a story and that eventually is written down; usually cannot be traced to a particular author or group of authors
Literary ballad
A narrative poem that is written in deliberate imitation of the language, form, and spirit of the traditional ballad
Onomatopoeia
The use of a word that resembles the sound it denotes
Ex: quack, buzz, rattle, etc.
Alliteration
The repetition of the same consonant sounds at the beginnings of nearby words
Ex: descending dewdrops
Assonance
The repetition of the same vowel sound in nearby words
Ex: asleep under a tree
Euphony
Lines that are musically pleasant to the ear and smooth
Cacophony
Lines that are discordant and difficult to pronounce
Rhyme
A way of creating sound patterns
Eye rhyme
The spellings are similar, but the pronunciations are not, as with bough and cough, or brow and blow
End rhyme
The most common form of rhyme in a poem; rhyme is at the end of a line
Internal rhyme
Places at least one of the rhymed words within the line
Ex: dividing and gliding and sliding
Masculine rhyme
Describes the rhyming of single-syllabus words
Ex: grade or shade
Feminine rhyme
Consists of a rhymed stressed syllable followed by one or more identical unstressed syllables
Ex: butter, clutter; gratitude, attitude; quivering, shivering
Exact rhymes
Share the same stressed vowel sounds as well as sharing sounds that follow the vowel
Near rhyme/off rhyme/slant rhyme/approximate rhyme
Sounds are almost but not exactly alike
Consonance
An identical consonant sound preceded by a different vowel sound
Ex: home, same; worth, breath; trophy, daffy
Rhythm
Refers to the recurrence of stressed and unstressed sounds
Stress
Also known as accent; places more emphasis on one syllable than on another
Meter
When a rhythmic pattern of stresses recurs in a poem
Prosody
The overall metrical structure of a poem
Scansion
The process of measuring the stresses in a line of verse in order to determine the metrical pattern of the line
Foot
The metrical unit by which a line of poetry is measured; usually consists of one stressed and one or two unstressed syllables.
Rising meters
Refers to metrical feet which move from unstressed to stressed sounds, such as the iambic foot and the anapestic foot.
Falling meters
Refers to metrical feet that move from stressed to unstressed sounds, such as the trochaic foot and the dactylic foot
Line
Usually measured by the number of feet they contain
Iambic pentameter
A metrical pattern in poetry which consists of five iambic feet per line
Blank verse
Verse without rhyme, especially that which uses iambic pentameter
Spondee
A foot consisting of two stressed syllables, but is not a sustained metrical foot and is used mainly for variety or emphasis
Pyrrhic
A metrical foot used in formal poetry. It consists of two unaccented, short syllables
Masculine ending
A line ending in a stressed syllable
Feminine ending
A line ending in a stressless syllable
Caesura
A pause in a line of poetry that is formed by the rhythms of natural speech rather than by metrics; will usually occur near the middle of a poetic line but can also occur at the beginning or the end of a line.
End-stopped line
When a line of poetry ends with a period or definite punctuation mark, such as a colon
Enjambent
Incomplete syntax at the end of a line; the meaning runs over from one poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation
Form
The overall structure or shape of a work, which frequently follows an established design
Fixed form
A poem that may be categorized by the pattern of its lines, meter, rhythm, or stanzas
Free verse/Open form
Refers to poems characterized by their nonconformity to established patterns of meter, rhyme, and stanza; uses elements such as speech patterns, grammar, emphasis, and breath pauses to decide line breaks, and usually does not rhyme
Stanza
Refers to a grouping of lines, set off by a space, that usually has a set pattern of meter and rhyme
Rhyme scheme
Describes the pattern of end rhymes
Couplet
Two consecutive lines of poetry that usually rhyme and have the same meter
Heroic couplet
A heroic couplet is a couplet written in rhymed iambic pentameter.
Terza rima
Consists of an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme: aba, bcb, cdc, ded, and so on
Quatrain
A four-line stanza
Ballad stanza
Consists of alternating eight- and six-syllable lines
Sonnet
Consists of fourteen lines, usually written in iambic pentameter
Italian sonnet/Petrarchan sonnet
Divided into two parts: the octave and the sestet
Octave
The first eight lines; typically rhyme abbaabba
Sestet
The final six lines; common patterns are cdecde, cdcdcd, and cdccdc
English sonnet
More commonly known as the Shakespearean sonnet; organized into three quatrains and a couplet
Elegy
A mournful, contemplative lyric poem written to commemorate someone who is dead, often ending in a consolation.
Ode
A relatively lengthy lyric poem that often expresses lofty emotions in a dignified style; characterized by a serious topic, such as truth, art, freedom, justice, or the meaning of life; tone tends to be formal
Parody
A humorous imitation of another, usually serious, work; can take any fixed or open form, because parodists imitate the tone, language, and shape of the original in order to deflate the subject matter, making the original work seem absurd
