english poetry terms

45 terms

alliteration

• the repetition of sounds, usually consonant sounds but sometimes some successive vowel sounds, at the beginning of words in the same line or in successive lines

• can be either assonance or consonance

• sound device

allusion

• reference to a person or place or event with which the reader is presumed to be familiar

• figurative language

apostrophe

• a digression in the form of an address to someone not present or to a personified object or an idea

• “O Death, Where is they sting?”

• figurative language

assonance

• the repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds

• may appear in the same lines or in successive lines

• “…molten-golden notes…”

• sound device

ballad

• a story told in verse and usually meant to be sung

• type

blank verse

• poetry using unrhymed iambic pentameter (ten syllables in a line)

• Shakesepeare

• form

cacophony or dissonance

• harsh sounding language '

• sound device

• opposite is euphony

caesura

• a stop or pause in a metrical line of poetry often marked by a dash, semicolon, colon, etc.

• form

connotation

• the implied or suggested meaning of a word or expression

• springtime usually makes most people think of things such as youth, rebirth, and romance

• think figurative

• other element

consonance

• repetition of final consonant sounds in the stressed syllables of words though the vowel sounds are different

• "And all the air a solemn stillness holds.”

• sound device

couplet

• two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

• form and sound device

denotation

• the literal or dictionary meaning or meanings of a word

• springtime: the season between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice

• think literal

• other element

diction

• a writer’s choice of words particularly for clarity, precision, and effectiveness

• major element

• “He was a gentleman from sole to crown. Clean-favored and imperially slim”

didactic poem

• a type of poem that teaches a lesson, presents a moral, or is somehow instructive

• type

dramatic poetry

• a poem that uses dialogue of the characters involved to tell a story or portray a situation

• type

elegiac poem

• a type of poem that meditates on death or has a serious theme

• type

enjambment

• the running over of a sentence or phrase from one verse to the next without end punctuation (run-on lines)

• form

euphony

• pleasing or sweet sound; a harmonious succession of words having a pleasing sound

• opposite of cacophony

• sound device

figurative language or figure of speech

• a word or phrase that departs from everyday literal language for the sake of comparison, emphasis, clarity, or freshness

• metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, synecdoche, puns, etc

• major element

free verse

• poetry that has no regular rhyme scheme, rhythm, or length

• similar to blank verse, but different because it has no meter

• form

hyperbole

• a figure of speech employing obvious exaggeration or overstatement for special effect

• figurative language

imagery

• the representation through language of sense experience

• major element

• visual imagery: an image that occurs within the mind’s eye

• auditory (aural) imagery: an image which represents a sound

• olfactory imagery: an image which represents a smell

• gustatory imagery: an image which represents a taste

• tactile imagery: an image which represents touch

internal rhyme

• the rhyming of the end word with a word in the middle of the line

• sound device?

lyric

• a poem, usually a short one, which expresses a speaker’s personal thoughts or feelings

• type

metaphor

• a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things that are basically dissimilar

• figurative language

meter

• the pattern created in a particular poem by the repetition of a basic grouping of accented syllables

• form

• foot: each grouping

• iambic: Da Dum (ex. return)

  • foot: iamb

• trochaic: Dum Da (ex turning)

  • foot: trochee

• anapestic: Da Da Dum (ex. resurrect)

  • foot: anapest

• dactylic: Dum Da Da (ex. curious)

  • foot: dactyl

• one foot: monometer

• two feet: diameter

• three feet: trimeter

• four feet: tetrameter

• five feet: pentameter

• six feet: hexameter

• seven feet: heptameter

• eight feet: octameter

metonymy

• the substitution of a term naming an object closely associated with the word in mind for the word itself

• figurative language

• “The Crown” = the king/queen

narrative poem

• a poem that tells a story

• type

onomatopoeia

• the use of words which in their pronunciation suggest their meaning

• sound device

personification

• a figure of speech in which something non-human is given human qualities

• figurative language

refrain

• a group of words, a line, or a group of lines repeated throughout the poem, usually at the end of each stanza'

• form and sound device

repetition

• a literary technique in which words or phrases are repeated at regular intervals to secure emphasis

• form or sound device

rhyme

• repetition of the same (or similar) sounds or sounds at the end of words

• usually, rhyming means the ending of two or more lines with words that sound alike

• form or sound device

rhyme scheme

• the pattern of rhyme in a poem.

• uses a different letter of the alphabet to stand for each different rhyming sound

• form or sound device

satiric poem

• a type of poem based on criticism of people and society through ridicule

• satirist aims to reduce practices attacked by laughing scornfully at them—and being witty enough to allow the readers to laugh also

• may employ other devices such as irony, hyperbole, fig lang

• type

scansion

• the indication of foot divisions and accents in metrical verse (see meter)

• other element

similie

• a figure of speech in which the comparison between two unlike things is expressed directly, usually by means of like or as

• figurative language

sonnet (Shakespearean or English Sonnet)

• a 14-line lyric poem in iambic pentameter consisting of three quatrains and a final couplet

• type

stanza

• a group of lines of verses treated as a unit and separated from other units by a space

• tercet: a 3-line stanza

• quatrain: a 4-line stanza

• form

symbol

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

• rose=love and beauty

• skull=death

• spring and winter=youth and old age

• figurative language

synecdoche

• a form of metaphor which in mentioning a part signifies the whole or the whole signifies the part

• “all hands on deck” = all sailors

• “counting heads” = counting whole people

• figurative language

tone

• the attitude the writer takes toward his/her subject through diction (creates a mood)

• cheerful, mournful, playful, informal, etc.

• major element

verbal irony

• saying the opposite of what one means

• In a sense, irony is the discrepancy between what is said and what is meant

• other element

verse

• a line of poetry

• form

villanelle

• a type of English poem consisting of 19 lines (5 tercets and a final quatrain)

• consists of only two rhymes with the first and third lines of the first tercet repeated alternately as a refrain closing the succeeding stanzas and joined as the final couplet of the quatrain (aba abaa)

• “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas