Poetry Vocabulary 1 Flashcards
Accent
A stressed syllable. Poets use accents to establish patterns that emphasize certain words.
Alliteration
The repetition of a consonant sound: Babbling baby Bobby bounces blue balloons.
Assonance
The repetition of a vowel sound:
Caesura
A pause in the middle of a line. A caesura may help control our reading response; often it is punctuated with a comma or semi- colon; rarely it is punctuated with an empty space. Sometimes the natural rhythm of the sentence will require a pause even without marking.
End-Stopped
A line that comes to a conclusion with a period or semi-colon; this is in contrast to enjambment (see below). End-stopped lines tend toward more formality and more rigid forms.
Enjambment
A line that does not stop but carries right along to the next line, thereby giving greater flexibility to the lines of poetry, and often more informality.
Eye rhyme
A rhyme that doesn’t sound like the other word but does look like it.
Onomatopoeia
Sound = sense. “Bang!” “Crash” “Buzz” all sound like what they are describing.
Rhyme
Words that sound alike.
Rhythm
A pattern or cadence of sound developed in a poem.
Spondee
Two accents in a row for emphasis.
Allegory
A metaphor that is extended throughout a whole story
Allusion
when a poem refers to another text or an event
Ambiguity
Something is amigos when there might be more than one meaning
Hyperbole
Overstatement to make a point
