ENG102 Elements of Poetry Flashcards

alliteration

the repetition of initial consonant sounds in consecutive or neighboring words

assonance

the repetition of vowel sounds in a series of words

consonance

the repetition of consonant sounds within words

rhyme

the repetition of concluding sounds in words appearing at the ends of lines or within the lines themselves

imaginary

the use of words or phrases that describe the senses

haiku

a short poem adhering to a rigid formal structure (three lines consisting of seventeen total syllables of five, seven, and five syllables; usually about nature)

lyric poem

a poem that recounts a story

speaker

the narrative voice who describes events, feelings and ideas to readers

simile

a comparison between two unlike items that uses "like" or "as"

personification

a special kind of comparison that gives life or human characteristics to inanimate objects or abstract ideas

hyperbole

an intentional exaggeration (saying more than is actually meant)• understatement - an intentional downplaying of an incident's significance (saying less than is actually meant)

rhythm

the regular recurrence of sounds in a poem

meter

the recurrence of regular units of stressed and unstressed syllables

Onomatopoeia

occurs when the sound of a word echoes its meaning

Stanza

a group of two or more lines with the same metrical pattern (and often with a regular rhyme scheme as well) separated by blank space from other such groups of lines

sonnet

a fourteen-line poem with a distinctive rhyme scheme and metrical pattern

tone

attitude of the speaker or author of a work toward the subject itself or the audience

narrative poem

a poem that recounts a story