English 10 - Poetry Terms

alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds in neighboring words, as in “down dropped the breeze, the breeze dropped down.”

allusion

A reference to a person, a place, an event, or a literary work that a writer expects the reader to recognize and respond to.

assonance

The repetition of similar vowel sounds in neighboring words, as in “So twice five miles of fertile ground.”

atmosphere

The prevailing mood or feeling of a literary work; it is often developed, at least in part, through descriptions of setting.

blank verse

Verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

caesura

A break or pause in a line of poetry.

conflict

A struggle between two opposing forces or characters in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem.

connotation

The range of secondary or associated significations and feelings which a word commonly suggests or implies.

consonance

The repetition of middle or final consonant sounds in neighboring words, as in “And all the air a solemn stillness holds.”

couplet

Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme. Shakespeare frequently closes a scene with a couplet.

denotation

A words primary signification or reference. The word “home” denotes the house where one lives but connotes privacy, intimacy, and coziness. That is the reason real estate agents like to use “home” instead of “house” in their advertisements

diction

A writer’s choice of words, particularly for clarity, effectiveness, and precision. A writer’s ______ can be formal, informal, abstract or concrete, simple or ornate.

end-stopped line

A line ending in a full pause, usually indicated with a period or semicolon.

enjabment

A line having no end punctuation but running over to the next line. Also called a run-on line.

figurative language

Language that contains figures of speech in order to create associations that are imaginative rather than literal.

apostrophe

a direct and explicit address either to an absent person or to an abstract or nonhuman entity. Summer, where have you gone?

hyperbole

an exaggeration used for special effect, such as having a “ton” homework.

metaphor

a comparison between two dissimilar things. The classroom was a madhouse.

metonymy

the name of an object, person, or idea is used to represent something with which is associated, such as referring to a monarch as “the crown.”

oxymoron

a combination of opposite or contradictory ideas or terms, such as “sweet sorrow” or “living death.”

personification

giving human traits to something nonhuman. The moon peeked out from behind the cloud.

simile

a comparison between two dissimilar things using specific works of comparison such as like, as, than, resembles. He runs like the wind.

synecdoche

the substitution of a part for a whole, such “wheels” to represent a car or “hands” to represent workers.

foreshadowing

The use of hints or clues in a narrative to suggest what action is to come. Writers use foreshadowing to create suspense and/or to prepare the reader for the end of the story.

free verse

Verse that has either no metrical pattern or an irregular pattern.

iamb

An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

iambic pentameter

A poetic line consisting of five verse feet (penta- is from a Greek word meaning “five”) with each foot an iamb—that is, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

imagery

Words or phrases that create pictures (images) in the reader’s mind. While images primarily appeal to our sense of sight (visual), they can appeal to other senses such as sound (auditory), touch (tactile), taste (gustatory), smell (olfactory), and motion (kinetic or kinesthetic).

irony

Broadly, a means of indirection. Comes in Verbal, Dramatic, Sarcastic, Situational, and Attitudinal.

meter

A generally regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.

mood

An alternative term for atmosphere.

motif

A recurring feature (such as a name, an image, or a phrase) in a work of literature, generally contributes in some way to the theme of a literary work.

motivation

The reasons, either stated or implied, for a character’s behavior.

onamonapia

The use of a word whose sound in some degree imitates or suggests its meaning (Boom!, Pow!, Wham!"

paradox

A statement that reveals a kind of truth, although it seems at first to be self-contradictory and untrue.

parallelism

The use of phrases, clauses, or sentences that are similar or complementary in structure or in meaning.

quatrain

Usually a stanza or poem of four lines. A _______ may also be any group of four lines unified by a rhyme scheme.

refrain

A word, phrase, line, or group of lines repeated regularly in a poem, usually at the end of each stanza.

rhyme

The repetition of sounds in two or more words or phrases that appear close to each other in a poem.

rhyme scheme

The pattern of rhymes in a poem.

rhythm

The arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables into a pattern.

setting

The time and place in which the events in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem occur.

sonnet

A fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter. Its rhyme scheme is usually abbaabba cdecde.

stanza

A group of poetic lines corresponding to paragraphs in prose; stanzaic meters and rhymes are usually repeating and systematic.

symbol

Any object, person, place, or action that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something larger than itself, such as a quality, an attitude, a belief, or a value.

syntax

The way that sequences of words are ordered into phrases, clauses, and sentences.

tercet

A three-line stanza or poem. Also called a triplet.

theme

The general idea or insight about life that a writer wishes to express in a literary work.

tone

The attitude a writer takes toward his or her subject, characters, or audience.

villanelle

An intricate verse form of French origin, consisting of five tercets and a concluding quatrain. The first and third lines of the first stanza are used as refrains in the succeeding stanzas and as the last two lines of the concluding stanza. Only two rhymes are allowed in it.