POETRY TERMS Flashcards
The repetition of the same or similar sounds at the beginning of words.
Alliteration
A figure of speech in which words and phrases with opposite meanings are balanced against each other.
Antithesis
A poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a repeated refrain.
Ballad
Poetry that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Blank Verse
A natural pause or break in a line of poetry, usually near the middle of the line.
Caesura
In a poem, a pair of lines that are the same length and usually rhyme and form a complete thought.
Couplet
A poem that laments the death of a person, or one that is simply sad and thoughtful.
Elegy
A long, serious poem that tells the story of a heroic figure. For instance: the Iliad and the Odyssey
Epic
Poetry composed of either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have no set meter.
Free Verse
A Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. They often reflect on some aspect of nature.
Haiku
A figure of speech in which deliberate exaggeration is used for emphasis.
Hyperbole
A type of meter in poetry, in which there are five iambs to a line. (The prefix penta- means “five,” as in pentagon, a geometrical figure with five sides. Meter refers to rhythmic units.
Iambic Pentameter
A light, humorous poem of five usually anapestic lines with the rhyme scheme of aabba.
Limerick
A poem, such as a sonnet or an ode, that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet.
Lyric
A figure of speech in which two things are compared, usually by saying one thing is another, or by substituting a more descriptive word for the more common or usual word that would be expected.
Metaphor
Telling a story. Ballads, epics, and lays are different kinds of this form of poem.
Narrative
A lyric poem that is serious and thoughtful in tone and has a very precise, formal structure.
Ode
A figure of speech in which words are used to imitate sounds. Examples of such words are buzz, hiss, zing, clippety-clop, and tick-tock.
Onomatopoeia
A figure of speech in which things or abstract ideas are given human attributes: dead leaves dance in the wind, blind justice.
Personifaction
The occurrence of the same or similar sounds at the end of two or more words.
Rhyme
The principles and ideals of the Romantic movement in literature and the arts during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It favored feeling over reason and placed great emphasis on the subjective, or personal, experience of the individual. Nature was also a major theme.
Romanticism
A figure of speech in which two things are compared using the word “like” or “as.”
Simile
A lyric poem that is 14 lines long.
Sonnet
Two or more lines of poetry that together form one of the divisions of a poem.
Stanza
