Poetry Terms (pdf) Flashcards
Alliteration
Repetition of initial consonant sounds
- Usually used to describe something
- “On the bald street breaks the blank day”
Allusion
Reference to person, place, thing, event, or idea in history or literature to suggest an emotion or idea
- Allusions are often direct references to a well-known thing
- Garden of Eden = paradise
Apostrophe
Figure of speech in which the poem’s speaker is talking to someone absent, dead, or nonhuman, as if it were alive, present, and could reply
- When the speaker talks to something that isn’t real/human as it were real/human
- “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” - Juliet is talking to Romeo even though she really isn’t
Assonance
Repetition, at close intervals, of vowel sounds
- “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”; repeats long ‘e’ and short ‘i’ sounds
Ballad
Fairly short narrative poem written in song like stanza form
- Descriptive poems are basically short songs
- ABAB
- Written in iambic verse
Consonance
Repetition, at close intervals, of consonant sounds found within or at end of words
- “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”; repeats ‘p’ sound
Couplet
2-line stanza, which may or may not rhyme
- Found in Romeo and Juliet, when they’re saying good night to each other
- “Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow/ That I shall say good night till it be morrow”
End rhyme
Words that rhyme at the end of the line
- “It runs and creeps/ For awhile, till it sleeps”
Eye rhyme
Words that look alike, but doesn’t sound alike
- cough and bough
Figurative language
Words that are literally inaccurate but are used to describe or define something
- Language makes use of similies & metaphors to compare and equate something to another
Fixed form
Poetry that is categorized by its pattern of lines, meter, rhymes, and stanzas
- Poems that follow strict rules
- Sonnet, ballad, and villanelle
Free verse
Poetry that is not in fixed form; also known as open form
Imagery
Describing what’s around you using the five senses
- Olfactory (smell)
- Audiotory (sound)
- Gustatory (taste)
- Tactile (touch)
- Visual (sight)
Internal rhymes
Rhymes within the line(s)
- “I wished upon a beautiful moon in June and hope/ that soon I will fall in love”
Lyric
Short poem that expresses the writer’s thoughts and emotions through first person. Characterized by its musical qualities
Metaphor
Comparing without using “like” or “as”
Narrative poem
A poem that tells a story (narrative)
Meter
Recurrence of rhythmic stresses or accents in a regular patter
- Pattern of rhythmic stresses and/or accents
Onomatopoeia
Sound words
Personification
Giving human characteristics to a non-human thing
Poetry
Literature written in meter or verse. Characterized by language chosen for its sound and suggestive power and by such literary techniques such as structured meter, rhyme, and metaphor
Prose poem
Poem written in prose format
- No fixed lines
- Written in paragraph form
Quatrain
Four-line stanza
Rhyme
Two or more words that repeat the same end sounds
- Perfect rhyme
- Send, bend, trend
