Edexcel English literature poetry key words

Adjective

Word describing a noun

Adverb

Word describing a verb

Alliteration

Multiple words beginning with the same letter

Allusion

An echo of / reference to another text

Ambiguous

Something with multiple meanings / open to interpretation

Anaphora

repeating a word or phrase a the beginning of a successive clause

Anitheisis

using opposing/contrasting words

Assonance

when words share the same vowel sound

Alternating rhyme

when every other line rhymes

Bathos

either the sudden appearance of the commonplace in otherwise elevated content, or an anticlimax

Blank verse

verse written in iambic pentameter, which doesn't rhyme

Caesura

a break in the rhythm of the line, often with a full stop, comma or colon

Colloquial

informal language, like you'd use when talking with friends or peers

Connotation

the feelings or ideas associated with a word

Consonants

all the letters in the alphabet which aren't vowels

Consonance

repetition of the same consonant two or more time in short succession

Juxtaposition

putting two different things next to each other

Rhyming couplet

two lines next to each other which rhyme

Diction

the writer's word choice

Dramatic monologue

a speech or narrative by an imagined person who talks throughout, revealing elements about their character

Elegy

A poem written to mourn the death of someone

Emotive language

language which creates an emotion in the reader

End-stopped line

when a line of poetry has punctuation at the end

Enjambment

when a line of poetry runs over onto the next line with no punctuation stopping it

Euphemism

talking about upsetting or taboo things in an indirect way

First person narrative

the narrator refers to themselves as 'I' or 'we'

Foreshadowing/proleptic irony

giving clues about things which will occur later

Free verse

poetry that doesn't obey a strict form and has no regular rhythm

Half-rhyme

words, which come near rhyming, but do not really rhyme

Hyperbole

Over-exaggerated language

Iamb / iambic rhythm

unstressed beat followed by a stressed beat

Imagery

umbrella terms for similes, metaphors or symbols within the poem or text

Imperative

a command

Internal rhyme

rhyme which happens inside a single line of verse

Irony

saying one thing and meaning the opposite

Juxtaposition

two things being seen or places close together with contrasting effect

Line break

the point at which the line of poetry ends. Sometimes the meaning of a sentence can continue over a line or verse break

Metaphor

a comparison stating that something is something else

Meter

another word for the rhythm in a poem

Metanym

something small standing for something larger

Monosyllable/Monosyllabic

a word of one syllable

Noun

a person, place or thing

Onomatopoeia

words which sound like the thing they describe

Oxymoron

two contradictory ideas placed together (e.g. freezing heat)

Pathetic fallacy/Transferred epithet

when setting or weather reflects characters' emotions

Pathos/Pathetic

something creating sympathy

Pentameter

5 meterical feet of poetry in a line

Persona

the person speaking the poem - not always the same as the voice of the poet!

Personification

writing about a thing as though it is a person

Plosive

A sound spat out of the front of the mouth, like p, b or d

Polysyllabic

a word with multiple syllables

Pronoun

I, me, you, they, us

Refrain

a line which gets repeated in subsequent verses

Repetition

repeating lines

Rythm

a pattern of stressed and unstressed beats

Rhyme

when the end of the last word in a line matches with the end of a word in another line

Sibilance

multiple words with 's' in

Simile

a comparison saying that something is 'as' or 'like' something else

Sonnet

14 line of iambic pentameter

Stanza

a group of lines in a poem

Superlative

when a comparative like 'better or wetter' gets taken to the most extreme (i.e. best, or wettest)

Synecdoche

taking a part of something to represent the whole of it ('boots on the ground' means soldiers going into battle)

Syntax

the grammar of a sentence/the way in which words are organised to from a sentence

Tetrameter

4 unites of poetry in a line

Theme

an idea or topic that is important in a poem

Third person narrative

each and every character is referred to by the narrator as "he", "she", "it" or "they"

Tone

the mood or felling suggested by the words in the poem / the attitude of the writer towards their subject

Trochee/trochaic rhythm

stressed followed by an unstressed

Trimeter

3 units of poetry in a line

Understatment/litotes

talking about a positive thing in a subtle, understated way

Verb

a doing word

Verse

a group of lines in a poem

Vowels

a,e,i,o,u