English poetry terms

Juxtaposition

placing two things side by side for contrasting effect

Assonance

the repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words to create rhythm/musical effect

Lyric

A type of poetry expressing personal emotions or feelings

Hyperbole

Intended exaggeration to create irony, humor, or dramatic effect

Iambic pentameter

A pattern of ten syllables per line, with an unstressed-stressed pattern

ballad

A narrative poem with a song-like format that usually tells of a love story, historical events, or tragic tales

denotation

The literal or dictionary meaning of a word

consonance

The repetition of consonant sounds or of a consonant pattern, especially at the end of words

alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds in a series of words, adds rhythm or emotion

connotation

associated images rather than the literal meaning of a word

sonnet

a 14-line poem, often with a set rhyme scheme

theme

the main idea or message in a poem

tone

the attitude or feeling conveyed by the author in a poem

figurative language

language that creates figures of speech such as metaphors, similes, and personification.

blank verse

rhymed verse that closely resembles everyday conversation, always written in iambic pentameter

mood

the prevailing feeling created by work, aka atmosphere

ode

poem expressing praise to a scene or person

onomatopoeia

a device in which a word imitates the sound it represents

cacophony

words that have a harsh sound due to the presence of letters

allusion

reference to events or characters from history, myth, religion, pop culture…

apostrophe

animate or inanimate objects addressed as present or alive

euphony

the use of words that have a pleasing sound due to letters

free verse

poetry that is close to natural speech and has no regular pattern

visual imagery

language that creates pictures in the readers head

pun

a play on words

irony

a literary device involving contrast; types include dramatic,situational, and verbal

dramatic irony

contrasts what a character perceives and what the audience knows to be true

refrain

a word/phrase that is repeated within lines or stanzas

situational irony

contrasts what actually happens and what is expected to happen

verbal irony

contrasts what is said and what is meant

metaphor

a comparison that does not use like or as

oxymoron

a device that combines contradictory words for effect

personification

an inanimate object is given human traits

simile

comparison that uses like or as

eye rhyme

imperfect rhyme in which two words are spelled similarly but pronounced differently