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Slideshow with examples: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1en4O3Wo6TIw9jKP8xTXJ6yGkOKRuPvXUVbaC6UwV3-A/edit#slide=id.p
Diction
The writer’s word choice.
Connotation
The imaginative associations we make with words.
Denotation
The dictionary definition of a word.
Etymology
The origin of a word and the historical development of its meaning.
Alliteration
Repetition of similar consonant sounds at the beginning of words in a line or lines of poetry or prose.
Assonance
Repetition of similar vowel sounds in a line or lines of poetry or prose.
Consonance
Repetition of similar consonant sounds at the ends of words in a line or lines of poetry or prose.
Onomatopoeia
The use of words that supposedly mimic their meaning in their sound (e.g., boom, click, pop).
Euphony
A smooth, pleasant sounding choice and arrangement of sounds.
Cacophony
A harsh, discordant, unpleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds.
Imagery
Language that expresses sense experience (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell).
Olfactory imagery
Smell imagery.
Tactile imagery
Touch imagery.
Visual imagery
Sight imagery.
Auditory imagery
Sound imagery.
Gustatory imagery
Taste imagery.
Organic imagery
Internal imagery (e.g., fluttering in the stomach).
Synesthesia
When one sense is blended with another (e.g., the buzzing red dress).
Figurative Language
Language that cannot be taken literally or only literally.
Simile
Comparison of two dissimilar things using like, as, as if, seems, etc.
Metaphor
Comparison of two dissimilar things without using like, as, as if, seems, etc.
Extended metaphor
A metaphor sustained or developed through a considerable number of lines or through a whole poem.
Personification
A figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, object, or concept.
Metonymy
A person or thing is represented by something closely associated with it.
Synecdoche
A part of a thing or person is used to represent the whole.
Symbol
An object, person, situation, or action that represents an abstract idea.
Allegory
A narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface.
Allusion
A reference to a famous person, place, thing, idea in literature or history.
Paradox
Two ideas that appear contradictory but create a kind of truth.
Oxymoron
Two words side-by-side that contrast but tell a truth (e.g., jumbo shrimp).
Apostrophe
A figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive.
Understatement
A figure of speech that consists of saying less than one means.
Hyperbole/Overstatement
A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used in service of the truth.
Irony
A situation, or a use of language, involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy.
Verbal irony
When what is said is the opposite of what is meant.
Iambic pentameter
A meter in which the majority of feet are iambs and the lines contain five iambic feet total.
Blank verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Free verse
Non-metrical verse.
Iambic foot
A metered foot in which there is a series of two syllables following the pattern of unstressed stressed.
Scansion
The system used to count feet and accented & unaccented syllables in a line of verse.
Caesura
A pause near the middle of a poetic line.
True rhyme/Rhyme
A word that has the same sound as another (same ending consonant letter and vowel sounds).
Slant rhyme/Near-rhyme/Imperfect rhyme
A rhyme in which the ending consonant sounds are similar.
Internal rhyme
Rhyme that occurs within the lines of the poem.
Eye rhyme
Words that look alike but do not rhyme at all.
Rhyme scheme
Any fixed pattern of rhymes in a poem.
Sonnet
A specific form of poetry, see FORMS sheet.
Ode
A poem written in praise of someone or something.
Homage
Special honor or respect shown publicly.
Ballad
A fairly short narrative poem written in songlike stanza form.
Elegy/Elegiac/Lament
A poem written for the dead or someone who has died.
Pastoral
A romanticization of rural life.
Terza rima
Tercets that are interlinked by a specific rhyme scheme: aba, bcb, cdc.
Couplet
Two line stanza (can rhyme), implies relationship between two things.
Tercet
Three line stanza, implies instability or a relationship among three things.
Quatrain
Four line stanza, implies stability.
Quintet
Five line stanza.
Sestet
Six line stanza.
Septet
Seven line stanza.
Octave
Eight line stanza.
Narrative poem
A poem that contains a 'story' or elements of a story.
Lyric poem
A poem in which the poet’s feelings and thoughts are the main focus.
Point of view (POV)
Refers to the perspective from which a poem is written.
Repetition
Repetition of diction, imagery, figurative language, or syntactical elements.
Anaphora
Repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of lines of poetry.
Selection of detail
Specific details used in description that help to develop character or enhance theme.
Syntax
Sentence structure.
Stanza
A grouping of lines into which poems are separated.
Line break
The place at which the poet ends a line.
End-stopped line
A line that ends with a natural syntactical pause.
Enjambment/Enjambed lines
The running-over of a sentence or phrase from one poetic line to the next.
Tone
The writer’s attitude toward his/her subject.
Speaker
The narrator of the poem.
Note 
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