Poetry Term World Lit 10

Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds. Ex: On the bald street breaks the blank day.

Allusion

A reference to a person, place, thing, event or idea in history or literature used to suggest an emotion or idea.

Apostrophe

A figure of speech in which the poem’s speaker addresses someone absent or dead, or something nonhuman as if it were alive.

Assonance

The repetition, at close intervals, of vowel sounds.

Ballad

A fairly short narrative poem written in a songlike stanza form.

Consonance

The repetition, at close intervals, of consonant sounds found within or at the end of words.

Couplet

A 2-line stanza, which may or may not rhyme.

End rhyme

Rhyme that comes at the end of lines. Ex. 'It runs and it creeps / For awhile, till it sleeps.'

Eye rhyme

Words that look alike but do not sound alike. Ex: bough, cough; brow, blow.

Figurative language

Words that are literally inaccurate but are used to describe or define something.

Fixed form

Poetry that is categorized by its patterns of lines, meter, rhymes and stanzas.

Free verse

Poetry that is not in a fixed form. Also called open form.

Imagery

The use of images that appeal to one of the 5 senses.

Internal rhyme

Rhyme that occurs within one or several lines. Ex: 'I wished upon the most beautiful moon in June and hope that soon I will fall in love.'

Lyric

A short poem that expresses the personal emotions and thoughts of a first-person narrator.

Metaphor

An implied comparison in which the figurative word is substituted for the original term.

Meter

The recurrence of rhythmic stresses or accents in a regular pattern.

Narrative poem

A poem that tells a story.

Onomatopoeia

Use of a word that resembles the sound it denotes. Ex: buzz, bowwow, choo-choo.

Personification

Giving human characteristics to an animal, object or abstract concept.

Poetry

Literature written in meter or verse, characterized by sound and suggestive power.

Prose poem

A poem which is written in prose format; i.e. it has no fixed lines.

Quatrain

A four-line stanza.

Rhyme

Two or more words that repeat the same end sounds, also called perfect rhyme.

Rhyme scheme

The pattern of end rhymes denoted by lowercase letters.

Setting

The place and time in which a poem takes place.

Simile

An explicit comparison of one thing to another using connecting words like, as, than, similar to.

Slant rhyme

Words with similar sounds but are not perfect rhymes, also called approximate rhyme.

Sonnet

A 14-line poem that has followed specific rules of rhyme and meter.

Stanza

A group of lines in a poem.

Style

The author’s manner of expression resulting from choices about vocabulary and thematic elements.

Symbol

A figure of speech in which a person or thing stands for some other idea or abstract concept.

Theme

The central or unifying idea developed in a work.

Tone

The expression of the author’s attitude toward the subject matter.

Verse

Another name for poetry, referring to the fact that lines 'turn' at specific points.