Poetry Terms Flashcards

A comprehensive set of flashcards covering academic poetry terminology defined in the lecture notes.

Allegory

A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds in closely positioned words or syllables.

Ambiguity

The quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness.

Anaphora

The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.

Apostrophe

A figure of speech in which the poet addresses an absent person, an abstract idea, or a thing.

Assonance

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in neighboring words.

Blank Verse

Unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter.

Caesura

A pause near the middle of a line of poetry, usually placed between syllables, but can be placed between words.

Consonance

The repetition of consonant sounds in close proximity, not limited to the initial letter of words.

Couplet

Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme and often have the same meter.

Diction

The choice of words and style of expression that an author makes and uses in a work of literature.

Enjambment

The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.

Epistrophe

The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.

Euphemism

A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt.

Free Verse

Poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter.

Hyperbole

Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

Imagery

Visually descriptive or figurative language used to represent objects, actions, or ideas.

Irony

The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

Metaphor

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.

Metonymy

A figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it is closely associated.

Meter

The rhythmic structure of a verse, defined by the pattern and number of feet in a line.

Motif

A distinctive feature or dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition.

Onomatopoeia

The formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g., cuckoo, sizzle).

Oxymoron

A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (e.g., deafening silence).

Paradox

A statement that contradicts itself but might have an underlying truth.

Pathetic Fallacy

The attribution of human feelings and responses to inanimate things or animals, especially in art and literature.

Personification

The attribution of human characteristics to something non-human.

Quatrain

A stanza of four lines, especially one having alternate rhymes.

Refrain

A repeated line or number of lines in a poem or song, typically at the end of each verse.

Rhyme Scheme

The ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem.

Sibilance

A figure of speech where strong 's' sounds are created deliberately to produce a hissing sound.

Simile

A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g., as brave as a lion).

Stanza

A group of lines forming a unit in a poem.

Symbol

A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa.

Tone

The general character or attitude of a place, piece of writing, situation, etc.

Understatement

The presentation of something as being smaller, worse, or less important than it actually is.

Verse

Writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme.