Poetry Terms Only

Question 1

allegory

Answer 1

a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one; its events, actions, characters, settings, and objects represent specific abstractions or ideas

Question 2

alliteration

Answer 2

the same letter or consonant sound at the beginning of closely connected words

Question 3

allusion

Answer 3

an expression that calls something to mind without explicitly mentioning it; a brief reference to a person, place, thing, event, or idea in history or literature

Question 4

apostrophe

Answer 4

a passage addressed to a person who is dead or absent, or a personified thing

Question 5

assonance

Answer 5

the repetition of vowel sounds in closely connected words

Question 6

cliché

Answer 6

a predictable, overused phrase or opinion

Question 7

colloquialism

Answer 7

a word or phrase used on ordinary conversation and not generally in a literary context; includes, for example, slang expressions

Question 8

conceit

Answer 8

an elaborate metaphor with complex logic; an imaginative poetic image or writing that contains such an image, especially a comparison that is extreme or far-fetched

Question 9

dramatic irony

Answer 9

a meaning is understood by the audience of a work, but not by the work’s characters

Question 10

euphemism

Answer 10

a mild expression substituted for a harsh one

Question 11

hyperbole

Answer 11

exaggerated claims not meant to be taken literally; adds emphasis

Question 12

idiom

Answer 12

a group of words with a meaning that cannot be discerned from the meanings of the words themselves

Question 13

imagery

Answer 13

visually descriptive language that addresses the senses (sight, taste, etc.)

Question 14

metaphor

Answer 14

a meaning applied to an object to which it does not literally apply; comparison without ‘like’ or ‘as’

Question 15

metonymy

Answer 15

substituting the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself; more general than synecdoche, and can deal with situations in which the attribute of the thing is strongly associated with the thing but is not necessarily a part of it

Question 16

onomatopoeia

Answer 16

a word that sounds like the thing it describes

Question 17

oxymoron

Answer 17

combines normally contradictory terms; a condensed form of paradox

Question 18

paradox

Answer 18

a seemingly absurd statement that, upon further investigation, makes sense and seems true

Question 19

setting

Answer 19

the time and place of a literary work

Question 20

parallelism

Answer 20

the use of successive, repetitive verbal constructions for literary effect

Question 21

personification

Answer 21

applying human attributes to an inhuman object; a form of metaphor

Question 22

satire

Answer 22

a literary genre in which the shortcomings of individuals and society are ridiculed in order to incite change (usually to correct the issue)

Question 23

simile

Answer 23

an indirect comparison between two things using conjunctions (such as ‘like’ or ‘as’)

Question 24

situational irony

Answer 24

when an incongruity exists between what is expected to happen and what actually happens due to forces beyond human control

Question 25

synaesthesia

Answer 25

the description of one kind of sense perception using words meant to describe another

Question 26

symbol

Answer 26

a thing that actually stands for something else, such as a material object representing an abstract idea

Question 27

synecdoche

Answer 27

substituting a more inclusive term for a less inclusive one or vice versa; can be seen as a subset of metonymy in which the “part” referring to the “whole” is a component of the “whole,” rather than something that is just strongly associated with it

Question 28

tone

Answer 28

a manner of expression in writing; the author’s implicit attitude toward the reader or the people, places, and events in a work as revealed by the elements of the author’s style

Question 29

verbal irony

Answer 29

sarcasm; saying the opposite of what is meant

Question 30

zeugma

Answer 30

a figure of speech in which an adjective or verb is used with two nouns but is appropriate to only one of them or has a different sense with each