Poetic Language, Poetic Forms, and Rhythm Analysis

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering literary devices, poetic forms, sound techniques, metrical structures, and line lengths.

Denotation

The dictionary definition of a word, describing or naming something in a detached, scientific manner.

Connotation

The secondary meaning or association of a word that indicates attitudes and values, adding flavor or wit beyond its literal definition.

Imagery

The recreation in words of objects perceived by the senses, or the descriptive effects created through figurative language.

Figurative Language

A manner of expression that deals with something by relating it to something else using figures of speech.

Metaphor

A figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two unrelated things or actions without using "like" or "as".

Simile

A figure of speech that makes an explicit comparison between a subject and an object or idea using "like" or "as".

Personification

A figure of speech that gives human characteristics to non-human things or disembodied ideas.

Metonymy

A figure of speech meaning "change of name," in which an object or idea is referred to by substituting the name of another closely associated object or idea.

Synecdoche

A specific type of metonymy in which the name of a part of something is used to signify the whole.

Allusion

An explicit or implicit reference to a well-known literary work, person, place, or event.

Symbol

An object or event that signifies something, or has a range of reference, beyond itself.

Hyperbole

A deliberate and often outrageous exaggeration of word meanings used to achieve particular effects.

Ambiguity

Language that is open to multiple interpretations or double meanings.

Paradox

A statement that is apparently self-contradictory or at odds with normal experience, yet reveals a hidden truth.

Oxymoron

A special kind of paradox that associates opposite terms in a single expression to reflect mixed attitudes.

Irony

A manner of expression meaning one thing while saying another, or any oblique rather than straightforward statement.

Open Form Poetry

Poetry that does not conform to any particular structure, stanzas, or metrical patterns, though it may contain rhymes and rhythm.

Closed Form Poetry

Poetry that adheres to a specific poetic structure related to stanzas, rhyme schemes, and metrical patterns.

Limerick

A 5-line closed form poem with an $aacca$ rhyme pattern, typically featuring anapestic trimeter and dimeter lines, often humorous in tone.

Haiku

A 3-line closed form stanza following a $5, 7, 5$ syllable pattern.

Ballad

A narrative poem that features a musical rhythm and can be sung.

Ode

A dignified and serious poem written for an occasion or on a particular subject, generally featuring a rhyming pattern.

Dramatic Monologue

A speech made to oneself or another, written to reveal both the situation at hand and the speaker's character.

Acrostic

A poem in which the initial letters of each line spell out a word or message.

Lyric

A short, often songlike poem with an emphasis on the speaker's emotion or reverie rather than narrative.

Sonnet

A 14-line poem, usually with lines containing 5 feet, following a regular rhyme scheme (such as Petrarchan or Shakespearean) and often containing a turn.

End-rhyme

Rhyme words placed specifically at the end of poetic lines.

Internal Rhyme

Words that rhyme within the same line of poetry.

Near Rhymes

Imperfect or slant rhymes that break up a rhyming sequence to prevent monotony and create an unsettling effect.

Eye-rhymes

Words that are spelled similarly but pronounced differently, appealing to sight rather than sound.

Alliteration

The repetition of identical initial consonant sounds in nearby words to add emphasis, force to rhythm, or reinforce a mood.

Onomatopoeia

A figure of speech in which a word imitates a sound or where the sound of the word reflects its meaning.

Consonance

The pairing of words with similar initial and ending consonants, but with differing vowel sounds.

Assonance

The echoing of similar vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of words with differing consonants.

Scansion

The formal analysis of the rhythm within a line or set of lines of poetry.

Metre

The rhythmic framework established by dividing a poetic line into equal parts based on rhythmic beats.

Foot

A division of a poetic line containing a specific combination of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Iambic Foot

A metrical foot consisting of one weak stress followed by one strong stress (x \buff /).

Spondaic Foot

A metrical foot consisting of two strong stresses (/ \buff /).

Caesura

A pause or break in a line of verse occurring where a phrase, clause, or sentence ends, indicated in scansion by $//$.

End-stopped Line

A line of poetry that concludes with a distinct grammatical pause.

Enjambment

The continuation of sense and sentence structure from one poetic line into the next without a pause.

Free Verse

Poetry that does not follow any regular meter, line length, or rhyming scheme, adhering instead to natural speech cadences.

Tone

The writer's attitude toward a subject or audience as expressed through an authorial voice, wording, imagery, and rhythm.