Poetry Terms Flashcards

Flashcards for poetry terms based on lecture notes.

Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds in words.

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds without repeating consonants.

Ballad

A poem in verse form that tells a story.

Blank verse

An unrhymed form of poetry where each line normally consists of 10 syllables in which every other syllable is stressed.

Caesura

A pause or sudden break in a line of poetry.

Canto

A main division of a long poem.

Consonance

The repetition of consonant sounds, not limited to the first letters of words.

Couplet

A pair of lines of verse of the same length that usually rhyme.

End rhyme

The rhyming of words that appear at the ends of two or more lines of poetry.

Enjambment

The running over of a sentence or thought from one line to another.

Foot

The smallest repeated pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poetic line.

Iambic

An unstressed followed by a stressed syllable (repeat).

Anapestic

Two unstressed followed by a stressed syllable (interrupt).

Trochaic

A stressed followed by an unstressed syllable (older).

Dactylic

A stressed followed by two unstressed syllables (openly).

Spondaic

Two stressed syllables (heartbreak).

Pyrrhic

Two unstressed syllables (seldom appears by itself).

Free verse

Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme.

Haiku

A form of Japanese poetry that has three lines: the first line has five syllables, the second has seven syllables, and the third has five syllables.

Heroic couplet (closed couplet)

Two successive rhyming lines that contain a complete thought.

Internal rhyme

Occurs when the rhyming words appear in the same line of poetry.

Lyric

A short verse that is intended to express the emotions of the author.

Meter

The patterned repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.

Onomatopoeia

The use of a word whose sound suggests its meaning.

Refrain

The repetition of a line or phrase of a poem at regular intervals, especially at the end of each stanza.

Repetition

The repeating of a word, a phrase, or an idea for emphasis or for rhythmic effect.

Rhyme

The similarity or likeness of sound existing between two words

Rhythm

The regular or random occurrence of sound in poetry. Regular rhythm is called meter. Random occurrence of sound is called free verse.

Sonnet

A poem consisting of fourteen lines of iambic pentameter.

Stanza

A division of poetry named for the number of lines it contains.

Verse

A metric line of poetry.