Poetry Terms

Flashcards of poetry terms and definitions.

Juxtaposition

Placing two things side by side for contrasting effect (wealth/poverty darkness/light).

Assonance

The repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds within nearby words for musical effect (example: We chatted and laughed as we ambled along)

Lyric

A type of poem characterized by emotions and personal feelings.

Hyperbole

Intended exaggeration, a device often used to create irony, humor or dramatic effect.

Iambic Pentameter

In poetry, a pattern of ten syllables per line, each pair beginning with an unstressed and ending with a stressed syllable.

Ballad

A narrative poem with a song-like form that usually tells of a love story, historical event, or heroic tale.

Denotation

The literal or dictionary meaning of a word.

Consonance

The repetition of consonants or of a consonant pattern, especially at the ends of words, as in blank and think or strong and string.

Alliteration

The repetition of the initial consonant sound in a series of words. It adds rhythm or emphasizes emotion (The menacing moonlight created mystery).

Connotation

Associated images rather than the literal meaning of a word.

Sonnet

14-line poem having a set rhyme scheme such as abab cdcd eff gg

Theme

The main idea or message in a poem.

Tone

The author's attitude towards his/her subject.

Figurative Language

Language that uses figures of speech, such as simile, metaphor, personification; used to create imagery.

Blank Verse

A type of unrhymed verse that closely resembles everyday conversation, is always in iambic pentameter, and is used in Shakespearean plays and other forms of drama.

Mood

The prevailing feeling created in or by a work, also known as the atmosphere

Ode

A poem that offers praise of a scene or to a person.

Onomatopoeia

Device in which a word imitates the sound it represents.

Understatement

The opposite of exaggeration; writing or saying less than intended.

Cacophony

The use of words that have a harsh or discordant sound due to the presence of letters such as c, k, g, b, and p (examples: clobber, squawk, guttural).

Allusion

Reference to events or characters from history, myth, religion, literature, pop culture, etc.

Apostrophe

Animate or inanimate objects are addressed as if they were present or alive (example: Death be not proud!).

Euphony

The use of words that have a pleasing or melodic sound due to letters such as s, f, m, w and v (examples: slumber, mellow).

Free Verse

Poetry that is close to natural speech and that has no regular pattern of line length, rhyme, or rhythm.

Imagery

Language that creates pictures in a reader's mind to bring life to the experiences and feelings described in a poem. Often, the words the poet chooses appeal to the reader's senses.

Pun

A play on words.

Irony

A literary device involving contrast. Types include dramatic, situational, and verbal.

Dramatic Irony

Contrasts what a character perceives and what the audience and one or more of the characters know to be true.

Refrain

A word or phrase that is repeated within lines or stanzas of a poem.

Situational Irony

Contrasts what actually happens with what was expected to happen.

Verbal Irony

Contrasts what is said and what is meant.

Metaphor

An implied comparison that does not use like or as.

Oxymoron

A device that combines contradictory words for effect

Personification

A technique in which inanimate objects or concepts are given human qualities, form, or actions.

Simile

A comparison that uses like or as

Eye Rhyme

Imperfect rhyme in which two words are spelled similarly but pronounced differently (move/love; bough/though; come/home; laughter/daughter)