A level Poetry terms

Alliteration

Repetition of consonant sounds

Allusion

A reference to another work of literature, person, or event

Ambiguity

The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage.

Anaphora

The repetition of a word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines to create an auditory effect.

Antithesis

Contrasting or combining two terms, phrases, or clauses with opposite meanings.

Aphorism

A pithy, instructive statement or truism, like a saying.

Apostrophe

An address to a dead or absent person, or personification as if he or she were present.

Blank verse

Unrhyming iambic pentameter, also called heroic verse. This 10-syllable line is the predominant rhythm of traditional English dramatic and epic poetry, as it is considered the closest to English speech patterns.

Ballad

A popular narrative song passed down orally. In the English tradition, it usually follows a form of rhymed (abcb) quatrains alternating four-stress and three-stress lines. Folk (or traditional) ballads are anonymous and recount tragic, comic, or heroic stories with emphasis on a central dramatic event.

Caesura

A stop or pause in a metrical line, often marked by punctuation or by a grammatical boundary, such as a phrase or clause.

carpe diem poetry

poetry concerned with the shortness of life and the need to act in or enjoy the present

Couplet

A pair of successive rhyming lines, usually of the same length.

Dramatic monologue

A poem in which an imagined speaker addresses a silent listener, usually not the reader.

Ekphrasis

a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art

Elegy

a sad or mournful poem or song, often about someone who is dead

End-stopped

a line with a pause at the end

Enjambment

A run-on line of poetry in which logical and grammatical sense carries over from one line into the next.

Epigram

a witty saying expressing a single thought or observation

Epigraph

A quotation from another literary work that is placed beneath the title at the beginning of a poem or section of a poem.

Epitaph

(n.) a brief statement written on a tomb or gravestone

Free verse

Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme

Hyperbole

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

Iamb

an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

Imagery

Description that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)

Irony

the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

Kenning

A figurative compound word that takes the place of an ordinary noun. E.g. 'whale-path', 'mid-wood', 'petal-fall'

Lament

a passionate expression of grief or sorrow

Lyric

expressing the writer's emotions, usually briefly and in stanzas or recognized forms.

Metaphor

A comparison without using like or as

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which something is referred to by using the name of something that is associated with it

Motif

(n.) a principal idea, feature, theme, or element; a repeated or dominant figure in a design

Octave

8 line stanza

Ode

a lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter.

Onomatopoeia

A word that imitates the sound it represents.

Oxymoron

conjoining contradictory terms (as in 'deafening silence')

Paradox

a statement that seems contradictory but is actually true

Parody

A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule.

Pastoral

A work of literature dealing with rural life

Persona

A dramatic character, distinguished from the poet, who is the speaker of a poem.

Personification

A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes

Poet laureate

a poet who is honored by a government by being chosen for an official position

Poet's Corner

area in Westminster Abbey that is set aside for the burial and honoring of notable writers.

Pre-Raphaelites

wished to regain the spirit of simple devotion and adherence to nature. Characterized by pictorial elements, symbolism, sensuousness, attention to minute detail, an interest in the medieval and the supernatural

Quatrain

A four line stanza

Refrain

A phrase or line repeated at intervals within a poem, especially at the end of a stanza.

Rhyme

Repetition of sounds at the end of words

Romanticism

a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.

Sestet

six line stanza

Sonnet

a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line.

Petrarchan sonnet

a sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba, followed by a sestet with the rhyme pattern cdecde or cdcdcd

Simile

A comparison using "like" or "as"

Stanza

A group of lines in a poem

Sublime

The experience of the infinite, which is terrifying and thrilling because it threatens to overpower the perceived importance of human enterprise in the universe. The natural world and its wild, mysterious expanses act as a gateway to this experience.

Symbol

A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.

Synecdoche

a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa

Synesthesia

describing one kind of sensation in terms of another ("a loud color", "a sweet sound")

Tercet

three line stanza

Tetrameter

4 feet per line

Transcendentalism

A nineteenth-century movement in the Romantic tradition, which held that every individual can reach ultimate truths through spiritual intuition, which transcends reason and sensory experience.

Trimeter

3 feet per line

Hardy: I Look into My Glass= first 2 and last line of each stanza is iambic trimeter and 3rd line is iambic tetrameter- similar to a hymn.

Trochee

stressed, unstressed

Victorian

Following Romanticism, but continued many of the previous era's main themes, such as religious doubt and emphasising the value of the artist as genius. The writers of this period are known for their interest in questioning the supernatural and religious world, and a brooding sense that certain knowledge is impossible.

Villanelle

A 19 line form using only two rhymes and repeating two of the lines according to a set pattern

Volta

the turn of thought or argument