poetry

ANAPHORA

Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. This is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer’s point more coherent.

ANASTROPHE

Inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence. Purpose is rhythm or emphasis or euphony. It is a fancy word for inversion.

ANTITHESIS

Balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure.

ANTHROPOMORPHISM

attributing human characteristics to an animal or inanimate object (Personification)

APHORISM

brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life, or of a principle or accepted general truth. Also called maxim, epigram.

APOSTROPHE

calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or thing, or a personified abstract idea. If the character is asking a god or goddess for inspiration it is called an invocation. Josiah Holland ---“Loacöon! Thou great embodiment/ Of human life and human history!”

APPOSITION

Placing in immediately succeeding order of two or more coordinate elements, the latter of which is an explanation, qualification, or modification of the first (often set off by a colon). Paine

ASSONANCE

the repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds especially in words that are together.

CACOPHONY

Harsh sounds

EUPHONY

Soft sounds

CAESURA (pronounced see-ZOO-ra)

refers to a break or pause of a line of verse.

Initial Caesura

this is when the pause appears at or near the beginning of the line.

Medial Caesura

a pause in the middle of the line

most common type

Terminal Caesura

a pause appearing at or near the end of the line.

CLICHE

is a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse.

CONCEIT

an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different. Often an extended metaphor.

CONFESSIONAL POETRY

a twentieth century term used to describe poetry that uses intimate material from the poet’s life.

CONNOTATION

the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition.

COUPLET

two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry.

ELEGY

a poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died. (A Eulogy is great praise or commendation, a laudatory speech, often about someone who has died.)

ENJAMBMENT

the continuation of a sentence or clause across a line break.

EPIC

a long narrative poem, written in heightened language , which recounts the deeds of a heroic character who embodies the values of a particular society.

EPISTROPHE

Device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated at the end of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences (it is the opposite of anaphora).

EPITHET

an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

Words which are inaccurate if interpreted literally, but are used to describe.

FREE VERSE

poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme.

HYPERBOLE

a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement, for effect. “If I told you once, I’ve told you a million times….”

IMAGERY

the use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person , a thing, a place, or an experience.

INVERSION

the reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase.

JUXTAPOSITION

poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit. Martin Luther King

LITOTES

(li’ to teez) is a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form

LYRIC POEM

a poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of the speaker. A ballad tells a story.

METAPHOR

a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as, than, or resembles.

IMPLIED METAPHOR

does not state explicitly the two terms of the comparison

EXTENDED METAPHOR

is a metaphor that is extended or developed as far as the writer wants to take it. (conceit if it is quite elaborate).

DEAD METAPHOR

is a metaphor that has been used so often that the comparison is no longer vivid

MIXED METAPHOR

is a metaphor that has gotten out of control and mixes its terms so that they are visually or imaginatively incompatible. “The President is a lame duck who is running out of gas.”

MOOD

an atmosphere created by a writer’s diction and the details selected.

ONOMATOPOEIA

the use of words whose sounds echo their sense. “Pop.” “Zap.”

OXYMORON

a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. “Jumbo shrimp.” “Pretty ugly.” “Bitter-sweet.”

PARADOX

a statement that appears self-contradictory, but that reveals a kind of truth.

PARALLEL STRUCTURE (parallelism)

the repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures.

PARODY

a work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of the writer’s style.

PERSONIFICATION

a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes.

PUN

a “play on words” based on the multiple meanings of a single word or on words that sound alike but mean different things.

QUATRAIN

a poem consisting of four lines, or four lines of a poem that can be considered as a unit.

REFRAIN

a word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated, for effect, several times in a poem.

RHETORICAL QUESTION

a question asked for an effect, and not actually requiring an answer.

ROMANCE

in general, a story in which an idealized hero or heroine undertakes a quest and is successful.

SATIRE

a type of writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an attempt to bring about a change.

SIMILE

a figure of speech that makes an explicitly comparison between two unlike things, using words such as like, as , than, or resembles.

SOLILOQUY

a long speech made by a character in a play while no other characters are on stage.

STYLE

the distinctive way in which a writer uses language

SYMBOL

a person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something more than itself.

TONE

the attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience, revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization.

RHYTHM

a rise and fall of the voice produced by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in language. 

FOOT

is a rhythmic unit, a unit of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry

METER

is a combination of the number of type of foot and the number of feet.

IAMBIC / iambs

(- /)

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

TROCHAIC / trochees

(/ -)

Tell me not in mournful numbers

SPONDAIC / spondees

(/ /)

Break, break, break/ On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!

Anapestic

(- - /)

And the sound of a voice that is still

DACTYLIC

(/ - -)

This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlock