Poetry AO1 Glossary

for mini test in class

allegory

an extended metaphor where characters or objects carry figurative meaning

allusion

brief and intentional reference to a historical, mythic, or literary person or event

anadiplosis

repition of one sentence at the beginning of the very next

anaphora

repition of words at the beginning of sucessive phrases or lines

anthropomorphism

personification
when human qualities are attirbuted to anything inhuman

assonance

repitition of vowels/vowel rhyme

aysndeton

omission of a conjuction between parts of a sentence

blank verse

unrhyming iambic pentameter

caesura

stop in a metrical line, often marked by punctuation

chremamorphism

giving characteristics of an object to a person

dramatic monolouge

poem when an imagined speaker addresses a silent listener, not the reader

ecolouge

brief and dramatic pastoral poem, set in a rural place but discussing urban issues

end stopped

metrical line ending at the grammar boundary

enjabment

when sentences run over from one poetic line to the next with no punctuation

free verse

nonrhyming lines that closely follow the natural rhythm of speech

fricative

consonant sound produced by making your mouth block the passage of the airstream

imagery

elements of a poem that invoke any of the five sense to make a mental image

litotes

dileberate understatement for effect

motif

central image in a literary work

onomatopoeia

when the sound of a word imitates its sense

panegyric

poem of effusive praise

persona

a dramatic character who is the speaker of the poem but not the poet

personification

when the poet describes something nonhuman as human

plosive

sounds usually associated with the letters p,t and k

polysndeton

use of several conjuctions in close sucession

quatrain

four line stanza, rhyming

refrain

line repeated at intervals in a poem

synsthesia

blending of different sense modalities

terce

poetic unit of three lines rhymed or unrhymed