Poetry Terms Flashcards

Flashcards for poetry terms and definitions.

Allegory

A story whose characters, things, and events all have another meaning, often explaining ideas about good/evil or moral/religious principles.

Allusion

References to cultural, historical, geographical, or literary events, persons, or facts. They can be sources of meaning or confusion.

Diction

The use of words in a literary work, described as formal, informal, or slang.

Irony

The contrast between the actual meaning and the suggestion of another meaning.

Mood

The general feeling a reader experiences while reading a piece of literature; it creates an emotional response and understanding.

Paradox

An apparent contradiction that is nonetheless somehow true (e.g., 'the pen is mightier than the sword').

Satire

Writing that seeks to rouse a reader's disapproval of an object by ridicule.

Symbol

An object, action, person, or idea that represents not only itself but something greater.

Theme

The central meaning of a poem, its general statement about life or people.

Tone

The attitude a poem expresses about its subject matter (e.g., grateful, calming, playful, angry).

Alliteration

The repetition of stressed consonant sounds, usually to create an effect (e.g., 'Bobby bashed Billy's brain…').

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds, creating a soothing effect.

Cacophony

A harsh, unpleasant combination of sounds or tones, generally used for effect.

Consonance

The repetition of similar consonant sounds in a group of words, especially at the end of words with different preceding vowels.

Devices of Sound

Techniques of deploying word sounds to create effects, imitate other sounds, or reflect meaning.

End Rhyme

A rhyme that occurs at the end of a line of poetry and sets the rhyme scheme.

Internal Rhyme

A rhyme that occurs within a line rather than at the end.

Onomatopoeia

The use of words whose pronunciations suggest their meanings (e.g., buzz, hiss, cuckoo, zoom).

Apostrophe

A figure of speech in which someone (usually absent), some abstract quality, or a nonexistent person is directly addressed as though present.

Blank Verse

Verse comprised of unrhymed schemes, usually in iambic pentameter.

Caesura

A pause, usually near the middle of a verse line, indicated by the sense of the line.

Connotation

The overtones brought to a word through memories, emotions, experiences, and ideas.

Couplets

Any two lines working as a unit, whether they comprise a single stanza or a part of a larger stanza.

Denotation

The dictionary definition of a word.

End-Stopped

A line with a pause at the end, typically marked by punctuation.

Enjambment

The continuation of a sense or grammatical construction from one line of poetry to the next.

Figurative Language

Writing that uses figures of speech; words mean something other than their literal meaning.

Foot

A grouping of accented or unaccented syllables that creates a rhythmic pattern.

Free Verse

Lines of poetry written without regular rhyme or meter.

Hyperbole

Exaggeration for effect.

Juxtaposition

Positioning opposites next to each other to heighten contrast.

Imagery

Words or phrases that appeal to the senses to achieve intensity.

Metonymy

A figure of speech where a significant aspect or detail of an experience represents the whole.

Metaphor

A figure of speech that expresses an idea through the image of another object, suggesting an essence.

Oxymoron

A form of paradox that combines a pair of contrary terms into a single expression.

Parallelism

Similar grammatical structure within a line or lines of poetry.

Personification

Giving human qualities to something that is not human.

Simile

A figure of speech comparing two unlike things using 'like' or 'as'.