Poetry Terms

Creative Writing 12

What is figurative language?

Figurative language uses figures of speech and cannot be taken literally.

What is the difference between literal meaning and figurative meaning?

Literal meaning refers to the words' usual meanings, while figurative meaning goes beyond the literal to examine images, symbols, and figures of speech for connotative meanings.

What is alliteration?

Alliteration is the repetition of beginning consonant sounds in words. Example: 'In the summer the sun is strong.'

What is assonance?

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in words. Example: 'paid, same, make, rain.'

What is an allusion?

An allusion is a reference to a historical or literal person, event, or place, used to heighten the significance of a poetic image or prose passage.

What is a caesura?

A caesura is a pause in a line of poetry, usually indicated by punctuation such as a comma, semi-colon, or period.

What is connotation?

Connotation is the suggestion of a meaning beyond the literal definition of a word, encompassing a word's associative implications.

What is consonance?

Consonance refers to the repetition of consonant sounds anywhere in words. Example: 'Bring back the black jacket.'

What is denotation?

Denotation is the literal definition of a word, its dictionary definition.

What is enjambment?

Enjambment occurs when a line of poetry is not end-stopped by punctuation and runs into the next line.

What is hyperbole?

Hyperbole is an exaggeration that makes something seem much more or much less than it actually is. Example: 'He runs so fast he could catch a bullet.'

What is an idiom?

An idiom is an expression with a meaning different from the literal meaning of the individual words. Example: 'Sam had a chip on his shoulder after his teacher told him to put his phone away.'

What is imagery in poetry?

Imagery involves the use of vivid descriptions or figures of speech to create a mental image, incorporating the five senses.

What is a line in poetry?

A line is a basic structural grouping of words in poetry, determined by the type of poem and the desired effect.

What is a stanza in poetry?

A stanza is a basic structural grouping of lines in a poem, which can vary in number based on the poet's artistic goal.

What is a rhyme scheme?

A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyme at the end of lines in poetry, often labeled with letters of the alphabet.

What is a heroic couplet?

A heroic couplet consists of two consecutive lines of iambic pentameter that rhyme. Example: 'So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.'

What is an elegiac couplet?

An elegiac couplet consists of two consecutive lines, the first of which is dactylic hexameter and the second dactylic pentameter; they do not need to rhyme.

What is a quatrain?

A quatrain is a stanza consisting of four lines. Example: 'Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?'

What is a common meter?

Common meter is a four-line stanza with alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, typically following an a b a b rhyme scheme.

What is ballad meter?

Ballad meter is similar to common meter but the first and third lines are unrhymed, producing an a b c b rhyme scheme.

What is a refrain in poetry?

A refrain is a line or lines that are repeated in a poem to provide a sense of unity, though they do not need to be repeated exactly.