Poetry Set 1 Definitions

ap lit

Accent

The emphasis or stress placed on a syllable in poetry

Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds in words close together

Allusion

A reference to a well-known person, event, or work of art/literature

Ambiguity

When a word, phrase, or statement has multiple meanings or interpretations

Apostrophe

A figure of speech where the speaker addresses an absent person, an abstract idea, or a thing

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds within non-rhyming words

Ballad

A narrative poem or song, often in a traditional style, recounting a story in a simple verse form

Ballad stanza

A four-line stanza, usually rhyming ABCB, with alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter

Blank verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter (five feet of unstressed-stressed syllables)

Cacophony

Harsh, discordant sounds in a line or passage of literature

Caesura

A pause or break in a line of poetry, often in the middle of a line

Connotation

The emotional or cultural association with a word, beyond its literal meaning

Consonance

The repetition of consonant sounds, typically within or at the end of words

Couplet and Heroic couplet

Two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry; a heroic couplet is two rhymed lines in iambic pentameter

Diction

The choice of words in a particular piece of writing or speech

Elegy

A poem of mourning, often for someone who has died

End-stopped line

A line of poetry that ends with a punctuation mark, signaling a pause

Enjambment

The continuation of a sentence or phrase from one line of poetry to the next, without a pause

Epic

A long, narrative poem detailing the adventures of a hero

Epigram

A short, witty, and often paradoxical statement or poem