POETRY TERMS:

Question 1

poem:

Answer 1

words organized in such a way that there is a pattern of rhythm, rhyme and/or meaning, the relationships between words are emphasized in poetry, so the various word-clusters or verses have a collective impact on the reader/listener

Question 2

speaker:

Answer 2

the voice used by a poet to speak a poem.

-the speaker is not the same as the author—poets and storytellers make things up (fiction).

Question 3

Types of Poems:

Answer 3

1. Ballad
2. Concrete
3. Free Verse
4. Lyric
5. Narrative
6. Sonnet

Question 4

ballad:

Answer 4

a long poem that tells a story, usually a folk tale or legend, in rhyme; often set to music

Question 5

concrete:

Answer 5

experiments with the very materials of the poem itself: words, letters, format

- The final product demonstrate the poem’s meaning
- Concrete poems rely heavily on the visual or phonetic to get across their meaning

Question 6

free verse:

Answer 6

modern poetry that has no regular pattern of rhythm, rhyme or line length.
-Free verse poems experiment with words to create images for the reader

Question 7

lyric:

Answer 7

shorter poems of intense feeling and emotion.
-Some are modern free verse poems and others are more “old-fashioned” poems that have rhythm and rhyme. Types: sonnet, ode, and elegy

Question 8

narrative:

Answer 8

a poem that tells a story.

-Narratives may or may not rhyme, but they almost always follow the plot structure of a short story.

Question 9

sonnet:

Answer 9

a fourteen-line lyric written in iambic pentameter.

-Sonnets follow a rigid rhyme scheme.

Question 10

alliteration:

Answer 10

repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of a series of words. ex. (cold coffee colored)

Question 11

assonance:

Answer 11

is defined as the act of repeating a vowel sound in a phrase or sentence. ex. (“Hear the mellow wedding bells” )

Question 12

cacophony:

Answer 12

the use of words with sharp, harsh, hissing, sounds. ex. ( “…the jaws that bite, the clawsthat catch!”)

Question 13

consonance:

Answer 13

repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase. ex. (Mike likes his new bike)

Question 14

euphony:

Answer 14

refers to the use of phrases and words that are noted for possessing an extensive degree of notable loveliness or melody in the sound they create; euphony is the opposite of cacophony
ex.( So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see)

Question 15

onomatopoeia:

Answer 15

words that sound like what they mean.

• Onomatopoeia is also known as imitative harmony.
  ex. (buzz, hiss)

Question 16

metaphor:

Answer 16

a direct comparison between two dissimilar items.

ex. (She is a monster is a metaphor comparing a girl to a monster)

Question 17

personification:

Answer 17

a comparison between a non-human item and a human so that the non-human item is given human characteristics.
ex. (The trees stretched their arms to the sky)

Question 18

simile:

Answer 18

using like or as

ex. (She is as innocent as an angel)

Question 19

allusion:

Answer 19

a reference in one piece of literature to something from another piece of literature; can also be references to person/events/places in history, religion, or myth.

Question 20

cliché:

Answer 20

a phrase, line or expression that has been so overused, it is boring and commonplace.
ex.( “it was a dark and stormy night”)

Question 21

figurative Language:

Answer 21

imaginative language that makes a poem rich to a reader.

• Figurative language often relies on comparison devices like simile, metaphor, and personification to make the point.
• Figurative language is the opposite of literal language.

Question 22

hyperbole:

Answer 22

a deliberate exaggeration to make a point.

ex. (I am hungry enough to eat the fridge)

Question 23

imagery:

Answer 23

poets create pictures in the reader’s mind that appeal to the sense of sight; they also create descriptions to appeal to the other four senses.

Question 24

literal language:

Answer 24

the literal meaning of the poem, which ignores imagery, symbolism, figurative language and any imagination on the part of the poet or the reader.

Question 25

juxtaposition:

Answer 25

is a technique in which two or more ideas, places, characters, and their actions are placed side by side in narrative or poem, for the purpose of developing comparisons and contrasts.

Question 26

mood:

Answer 26

the emotion of the poem, the atmosphere.

-usually through word choice or description.

Question 27

oxymoron:

Answer 27

is a pair of single word opposites placed side by side for dramatic effect.
ex. ( “cold fire” or “sick health”)

Question 28

paradox:

Answer 28

a large oxymoron.

ex. (the enemy of my enemy is my friend)

Question 29

repetition:

Answer 29

deliberately repeated words, sounds, phrases, or whole stanzas.
-Repetition is used to make a point in the poem

Question 30

shift:

Answer 30

occurs when speakers of writers alter their style or tone in a piece

Question 31

symbol:

Answer 31

something that represents something else.

ex. ( a dove often represents the concept of peace)

Question 32

symbolism:

Answer 32

is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities, by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense

Question 33

tone:

Answer 33

the narrator’s attitude toward the subject of the poem and, sometimes, toward the reader of the poem.
-Tone is NOT THE SAME AS MOOD, although the two can overlap

Question 34

understatement:

Answer 34

opposite of hyperbole.

ex. (a person might say to a hospitalized car crash victim, “I bet that hurt.”)

Question 35

couplet:

Answer 35

two lines of poetry that rhyme.
ex. (Roses are red, violets are blue
Sugar is sweet and so are you)

Question 36

octave:

Answer 36

eight lines of poetry that have a rhyme scheme.

Question 37

quatrain:

Answer 37

four lines of poetry that have a rhyme scheme.

-Quatrains often have an abab, abcb, or aabb rhyme scheme.

Question 38

sestet:

Answer 38

six lines of poetry that have a rhyme scheme.

Question 39

stanza:

Answer 39

another word for “verse paragraph”

Question 40

rhyme:

Answer 40

when sounds match at the end of lines of poetry, they rhyme (technically, it is end-rhyme).

Question 41

rhyme scheme:

Answer 41

the pattern of rhyme in a poem, indicated with letters of the alphabet.

Question 42

rhythm:

Answer 42

a pattern of sound in a poem; it may be a regular or irregular pattern; is the musical beat of the poem