Poetry Terms Flashcards
Alliteration
Heads Up: Ms Beaucock never told us this
Alliteration is a literary device that repeats a speech sound in a sequence of words that are close to each other.
Ex. Peter picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Allusion
A reference to a person, event, fact, or place that appears in history or literature.
Ballad
A poem that is typically arranged in quatrains with rhyme scheme ABAB. It’s usually narrative.
Blank Verse
A poem with rhythm but no rhyme
Free Verse
A poem with no limits and restrictions. No rules.
Hyperbole
An overstatement or extreme exaggeration.
Ex. I’ve waited a thousand years for you.
Image/Imagery
The name given to the elements in a poem that spark of senses.
Irony (Dramatic)
When a character’s word or actions are known to the audience, but unknown to the character.
Irony (Situational)
When actions have effect that is opposite from what was intended.
Irony (Verbal)
When a person says or writes one thing, but means another.
Ex. Sarcasm
Metaphor
A comparison between two unlike things.
Ex. Life is a roller coaster.
Extended Metaphor
A comparison between two unlike things that continue throughout a series of sentences or lines in a poem.
Mood
The feeling of atmosphere that evokes a certain emotion from the reader. How the reader feels.
Onomatopoeia
(Ms. Beaucock didn’t teach us this either)
The formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named.
Ex. “giggle”
Oxymoron
(Ms. Beaucock’s definition didn’t make sense so I made up my own.)
2 words side by side that are the opposite of each other.
Ex. Pretty Ugly
Ex. Living dead
Paradox
Refers to the use of concepts or ideas that are contradictory to one another but as a whole have meaning.
Personification
When you give human traits to animals or objects.
Ex. The rain danced on the window panels.
Rhyme
The identity of sound between syllables or paired groups of syllables, usually at the end of the verse lines.
Internal Rhyme
Occurs when two or more words rhyme within a line of poetry.
Ex. The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew.
Ending Rhyme
Occurs when two or more words rhyme in 2 or more lines of poetry. (Basically if they rhyme at the end.)
Ex. The furrow followed free
Into that silent sea
Rhyme Scheme
The rhyming pattern of a poem.
Ex. ABAB
AABB
Rhyming Couplet/Rhyming Triplet
A pair of rhyming verse lines that form a unit. A rhyming triplet is the same, but with 3 rhyming verse lines instead of 2.
Ex for Rhyming Couplet: AA BB CC DD……
Ex for Rhyming Triplet: AAA BBB CCC DDD…
Rhythm
A pattern of sounds made by varying the stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem.
Simile
A figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared.
