Poetic Devices Flashcards

Flashcards for review of poetic devices.

Poetic Device

A deliberate use of words, phrases, sounds, and even shapes to convey meaning.

Anaphora

The repetition of a word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines.

Enjambment

Incomplete syntax at the end of a line; the meaning 'runs over' or 'steps over' from one poetic line to the next, without punctuation.

Epiphora

A stylistic device in which a word or a phrase is repeated at the ends of successive clauses.

Alliteration

The repetition of similar sounds, generally at the beginning of words and usually by means of consonants or consonant sound clusters in a group of words.

Allusion

In literature, this is a reference to another work.

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds in non-rhyming words.

Blank Verse

Poetry written without rhyme.

Consonance

The repetition, at close intervals, of the final consonants of accented syllables or important words especially at the ends of words.

Hyperbole

An exaggeration of fact used either for serious or comic effect.

Imagery

Refers to the way words create or suggest pictures in the reader’s mind – what we see, hear, smell, feel, or taste.

Metaphor

A comparison that is only suggested or implied, with no clear indication of a relation between the two items.

Metre

The beats in each line of a poem. The combination of stressed and unstressed syllables that make up the lines in poetry.

Motif

A recurring feature, such as a name, an image, or a phrase, in a work of literature.

Onomatopoeia

The use of a word in which the sound imitates or suggests its meaning.

Oxymoron

A phrase where two or more words are diametrically opposed.

Paradox

A statement that reveals a kind of truth, although it seems at first to be self-contradictory and untrue.

Personification

A figure of speech in which something nonhuman is given human qualities.

Rhythm

A strong, regular repeated pattern of movement or sound.

Sibilance

A type of literary device and figure of speech wherein a hissing sound is created in a group of words through the repetition of 's' sounds.

Simile

A figure of speech comparing two essentially unlike things through the use of words 'like' or 'as'.

Symbol

Any object, person, place, or action that has a meaning in itself and that also stands for something larger than itself, such as a quality, an attitude, a belief, or a value.