Studied by 2 people
Paradox
A statement that initially appears to be contradictory but on closer inspection makes sense.
Antithesis
The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure. Es: Speech is silver, but silence is gold.
Parallelism
Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses. Ex: She likes cooking, jogging, and reading.
Apostophe
A speaker directly addresses something or someone not living.
Pun
A play on words where the juxtaposition of meaning is ironic or humorous.
Epigram
A short quotation or verse that precedes a poem (or any text) that sets the tone, provides a setting, or gives some other context for the text.
Speaker
The narrative voice of a poem (usually not the author). Some have more than one.
Litotes
Deliberate use of understatement.
Synesthesia
Imagery that involves the use of one sense to evoke another. Ex: the color is loud.
Metaphysical conceit
An elaborate, intellectually ingenious metaphor.
End-stopped
Line that ends where one would normally pause in speech or punctuate in writing.
Refrain
A line or group of lines that are periodically repeated throughout a poem. (Similar to the chorus in a song).
Enjambment
A run-over line in poetry.
Haiku
Japanese. Three lines that follow 5,7,5 syllable pattern.
Elizabethean/English Sonnet
14 lines of iambic pentameter. Rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Three quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet.
Petrarchan'/Italian sonnet
Rhyme scheme ABBAABBA CDECDE
Villanelle
19 lines of five tercets (rhyme scheme is ABA). A concluding quatrain (rhyme scheme ABAA). Lines one and three of the first tercet serve as refrains in a pattern that alternates through line 15. This pattern is repeated again in lines 18 and 19.
Ballad
Short poem in song format (sometimes with refrains) that tells a story.
Elegy
A poem, the subject of which is death of a person or, in some cases, an idea.
Epic
Long, adventurous tale with a hero who is generally on a quest.
Lyric
Expresses love, inner emotions, and tends to be personal; usually written in first-person.
Narrative
The poet tells a story with characters and a plot.
Ode
A serious lyric poem, originally Greek.
Prose
Looks and may read like a paragraph but has poetic elements like imagrey, figurative language, and concise diction.
Epigram
A brief, witty poem that is often satirical.
Idyll/pastoral
Short, descriptive narrative, usually a poem, about an idealized country life.
