Poetry Test Vocab Flashcards

Personification

Taking a nonhuman object and giving it a human description

Synecdoche

When you use a part of something to represent the whole thing-Ex:”Nice wheels” when referring to a new/nice car.

Metaphor

Comparison that does not use “like” or “as”

Simile

Comparing two things using “like” or “as”

Emily Dickinson

Uses dashes in poems

Octave

An eight line stanza usually following an “ABBAABBA” rhyme scheme

Sestet

A six line poem or stanza or the final six lines of a sonnet.

Enjambment

The continuation of a sentence, phrase, or clause across a line break, stanza, or couplet with a terminal punctuation mark.

Slant Rhyme

Words that sound the same: Paid, Laid

Near Rhyme

Words that look the same:Daughter,laughter

Sonnet

Single Stanza long, fourteen lines, volta (usually on line 9), and usually written in iambic pentameter.

Italian Sonnet

The first 8 lines are called an octave and rhyme “ABBAABBA”, the remaining 6 are called a Sestet.

Spenserian Sonnet

Invented by Edmund Spenser, 14 lines, 3 quatrains, and 2 couplets, has a “abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee” rhyme Scheme, usually written in Iambic pentameter

English/Shakespearian Sonnet

Consists of 3 quatrains of alternating rhyme and a couplet, “Abab cdcd efef gg” rhyme scheme

Rhyme Scheme

The pattern of Rhymes at the end of each line (AABB, ABAB)

Juxtaposition

Placing two different images or meanings, and contrasting them.

Stanza

A grouping of lines

Quatrain

Four rhyming lines

Meter

Rhythm of the poem and how it sounds

Scansion

Determining the meter of the poem (scanning the poem)

Catalexis

Occurs when you have an established rhythm, and there is an excess or missing syllable.

Trimeter

Three feet of meter

Tetrameter

Four feet of meter in one line

Iambic meter

Unstressed, the stressed syllables. Ex.Begin

Trochaic meter

Stressed, then unstressed syllables. Ex.Wonder

Anapestic meter

Unstressed, unstressed, then stressed syllables. Ex.Understand

Dactylic meter

Stressed, unstressed, then unstressed syllables. Ex.Bicycle

Spondaic meter

Stressed, then stressed variables. Ex.Heartthrob (not very common)

1 foot of meter

monometer

2 feet of meter

dimeter

5 feet of meter

pentameter

6 feet of meter

Hexameter

7 feet of meter

Heptameter

8 feet of meter

octameter

9 feet of meter

nonameter

10 feet of meter

decameter

Poetic Diction

Specific word choice, use of metaphors, imagery, etc.

Onomatopoeia

Word where it sounds like the sound you are describing.

Alliteration

The repetition of the initial consonance/beginning sound (Sound, Steel, Stone)

Assonance

Repetition of a vowel sound (Weeds,bleeds)