Poetry Element

. Italian sonnet or Petrarchan sonnet

(14 lines) An octave, which typically rhymes abbaabba, and a sestet, which may have varying rhyme schemes. Common rhyme patterns in the sestet are cdecde, cdcdcd, and cdccdc.

Alliteration

The repetition of the initial consonant sound in two or more words in a line of verse

Antithesis:

Balancing or contrasting one thing against another for effect

Example: Fair is foul and foul is fair.

anza Forms:

Triplet 3 line

Quatrain 4 line

Quintet 5 line

Sestet 6 line

Septet 7 line

Octave 8 line

9 line stanza

10 line stanza

Apostrophe

Addressing something nonhuman as if it were human

Example: Death, be not proud . . .

Assonance

e similarity or repetition of vowel sounds in two or more words with different consonant sounds

Example: She is free and eager to lead.

Ballad:

a type of poem that is meant to be sung and is both lyric and narrative in nature

Caesura

A little pause within a line.

Consonance

The repetition of consonant sounds that are NOT at the beginning of words in a line of verse

Example: Come live with me and be my love

Dead metaphor

a metaphor that has become so overused that we no longer realize that is a figure of speech—we simply skip over the metaphorical connection it makes.Examples: the roof of the mouth, the eye of the storm, the heart of the matter, and the arm of a chair

Direct metaphor:

Directly compares two things with a verb such as "is"

Example: My love is a red, red rose

Elegy

a sad poem, mourning the death of someone

End-stopped line:

A line of verse has a pause as its end (could be a comma, semi-colon, period, or other punctuation

English sonnet or Shakespearean sonnet

(14 lines) Three quatrains followed by a couplet The most common rhyme scheme for this sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg

Extended metaphor

A metaphor that is developed over several lines of writing

Hyperbole

Exaggeration for the sake of effect, for emphasis, not to be taken literally; overstatement

Example: I cried my eyes out.

Imagery

language that appeals to the five senses. The word image perhaps most often suggests a mental picture and visual imagery is the most frequently occurring kind of imagery in poetry. But an image may also represent a sound, a smell, a taste, a tactile experience, and an internal sensation.

Implied metaphor

Suggests a comparison WITHOUT using "is"

Example: My love blossoms and flowers

Inversion

term used to refer to the inverting of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase. Poets will use inversion to maintain a particular meter or rhyme scheme.

Irony

\: Saying the opposite of what is true

Example: War is kind.

Literary allusion

A reference to a person, place, or thing from previous literature

Lyric

a brief, personal poem that is especially musical and filled with emotion; sonnets, odes, and elegies are types of lyrics

Metaphor

Two dissimilar things are compared WITHOUT using words such as "like," "as," "than," or "resembles"

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which something closely related to a thing or suggested by it is substituted for the thing itself.

Example: Calling the judiciary "the bench, the king "the crown," the President "the White House."

Mixed metaphor

The inconsistent mixture of two or more metaphors; a common problem in bad writing, and they can often be unintentionally funny

Examples: Put it on the back burner and let it germinate; that's a very hard blow to swallow; let's set sail and get this show on the road

Narrative

: a story told in verse form; an epic is a narrative poem

Onomatopoeia

The use of words that imitate the sounds they define

Example: buzz, sizzle, hiss, gurgle

Paradox

An apparent contradiction which proves, upon closer examination, to be true

Example: Poor little rich girl

Perfect rhyme:

(exact rhyme) involves sounds that are exactly the same

Example: groaned/moaned

Personification

Giving human or animate qualities to nonhuman or inanimate things Example: The raindrops danced on the sidewalk.

Poetry defined

A kind of rhythmic, compressed language that uses figures of speech and imagery designed to appeal to our emotions and imagination. Poetry is also called verse.

Refrain

The repetition of one or more phrases or lines at definite intervals in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza

Repetition

Repeating a word or phrase within a poem

Reasons to use:

▪ Pleasing to the ear

▪ Emphasizes idea

▪ Gives poem structure

Rhyme

The similarity or likeness of sound in two or more words

Run-on line or Enjambment

When there is no pause or punctuation at the end of a line and the line flows into the next

Simile

9. Two dissimilar things are compared using words such as "like," "as," "than," or "resembles"

Sonnet

A fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in iambic pentameter, having one of several rhyme schemes

Stanza

A group of consecutive lines in a poem that form a single unit; a division of a poem that is often referred to as a "paragraph of poetry"

Symbol

Something concrete used to represent something abstract

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part of something is used to signify the whole.