Poetry Vocabulary

Question 1

Define Anaphora

Answer 1

• Repetition of a word or a phrase
• Usually at the beginning of a line

Question 2

Define alliteration

Answer 2

The repetition of sounds in a sequence of words

Question 3

Define allegory

Answer 3

• narrative with two levels of meaning
  One stated and one unstated.

Question 4

Define apostrophe

Answer 4

Direct address to an absent or otherwise unresponsive entity
( someone or something dead, imaginary, abstract or inanimate)

Question 5

Define assonance

Answer 5

Repetition of vowel sounds

Question 6

Define beat

Answer 6

A stressed or accented syllable

Question 7

Define binary

Answer 7

Dual, twofold, characterised by two parts

Question 8

Define blank verse

Answer 8

Unrhymed iambic pentameter

Question 9

Define caesura

Answer 9

An audible pause internal to a line, usually in the middle.

Question 10

Define chiasmus

Answer 10

A crossed, rheotorical parallel

Question 11

Define climax

Answer 11

The high point
A moment of great tension or intensity

Question 12

Define consonance

Answer 12

Repetition of consonant sounds

Question 13

Define couplet

Answer 13

two lines of verse, usually rhymed

Question 14

Define diction

Answer 14

Word choice ( word class)

Question 15

Define elegy

Answer 15

A reflective poem that laments the loss of someone or something

Question 16

Define end stopped line

Answer 16

A line that ends with a punctuation mark

Question 17

Define enjambed line

Answer 17

A run on line that carries over to the next to complete its meaning

Question 18

Define foot

Answer 18

The basic unit of accentuate syllable
Combines a stress with one of more unstressed syllables

Question 19

Define free verse

Answer 19

Poetry where the rhythm does not repeat regularly

Question 20

Define imagery

Answer 20

The visual or other sensory picture to render a description that is vivid

Question 21

Define meter

Answer 21

A regularly repeating rhythm

Question 22

Define metonomy

Answer 22

A figure of speech

Question 23

Define ode

Answer 23

A genre of lyric

Question 24

Define prosody

Answer 24

The study of versification

Question 25

Define refrain

Answer 25

A phrase or line recurring at intervals

Question 26

Define rhythm

Answer 26

The patterns of stresses, unstressed syllables and pauses in language

Question 27

Define scansion

Answer 27

The identification and analysis of poetic rhythm and meter

Question 28

Define simile

Answer 28

A figure of speech that compares two distinct things by using like or as

Question 29

Define speaker

Answer 29

Usually the narrator of a prose text

Question 30

Define speech act

Answer 30

The manner of expression

Question 31

Define stanza

Answer 31

A paragraph of a poem

Question 32

Define symbol

Answer 32

An image that stands for something larger and more complex
Often something abstract such as an idea or a set of attitudes

Question 33

Define symbolism

Answer 33

The serious and relatively sustained use of symbols to represent or suggest other things or ideas

Question 34

Define synecdoche

Answer 34

A figure of speech I’m which part of something is used to represent the whole, e.g. wheels for car

Question 35

Define tone

Answer 35

The speakers or authors attitude towards the reader

Question 36

Define topos

Answer 36

A traditional theme or motif

Question 37

Define trope

Answer 37

A figure of speech such as a metaphor

Question 38

Define valediction

Answer 38

An act or utterance of farewell