Poetry Terms Flashcards
a literary device where words begin with letters belonging to the same sound group. Whether it is the consonant sound or a specific vowel group, the alliteration involves creating a repetition of similar sounds in the sentence.
Example: The Wicked Witch of the West went her own way.
Alliteration
refers to repetition of sounds produced by vowels within a sentence or phrase. Example: A long song
Assonance
repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase.
Example: She ate seven sandwiches on a sunny Sunday last year.
Consonance
a form of language in which writers convey something other than the literal meaning of their words.
Figurative Language
a literary device wherein the author uses specific words and phrases that exaggerate and overemphasize the statement in order to produce an exaggerated, more noticeable effect. The purpose of ____________ is to create a larger-than-life effect and overly stress a specific point.
Example: “I am so tired I cannot walk another inch” or “I’m so sleepy I might fall asleep standing here”.
Hyperbole
when the author uses words and phrases to create “mental images” for the reader.
Example: The cool, blue water flowed smoothly down the majestic waterfall.
Imagenary
rhyme between a word within a line and another word either at the end of the same line or within another line.
Example: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary.
Internal rhyme
a figure of speech that compares two subjects without the use of “like” or “as.” While a simile states that one thing is like another, a metaphor states that one thing is the other.
Example: The car was a speeding bullet.
Methaphor
the emotional feeling or atmosphere that a work of literature produces in a reader.
Mood
is a poem that tells a story.
Narrative story
the use of words to imitate the actual sound they represent.
Example: Crash went the plate as it fell from the shelf.
Onomatopoeia
a figure of speech in which a thing, an idea or an animal is given human attributes.
Example: The flowers danced in the gentle breeze.
Personification
a pattern of rhyming words placed at the end of the lines in the prose or poetry. Example: Roses are red (a) Violets are blue (b) Beautiful they all may be (c) But I love you (b) The above is an “a-b-c-b” rhyme scheme.
Rhyme scheme
repetition of stressed (/) and unstressed (x) syllables
Rhythm
a literary device in which the repetition of the same or similar sounds occurs in two or more words, usually at the end of lines in poem.
Example: You’re a poet and you didn’t know it.
Rhyme
