Fig Lang and Poetry

Apostrophe

a figure of speech where a speaker directly addresses an absent person, an inanimate object, or an abstract idea in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Mark Antony addresses Caesar's corpse directly in the line, "O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth"

Conceit

an extended, elaborate metaphor that draws a surprising and detailed comparison between two seemingly unalike things John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," where he compares his separation from his lover to the two legs of a geometric compass

Hyperbole

an extreme over-exaggeration in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Romeo says Juliet's cheek "would shame those stars,"

Imagery

descriptive or figurative language that evokes mental pictures "The golden sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky with streaks of orange and pink"

Metonymy

substitutes a word or phrase for another with which it is closely associated William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar when Mark Antony says, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears"

Symbol

uses a tangible object, person, word, or action to represent an abstract idea or a deeper meaning the color red representing passion or anger

Synecdoche

a part of something is used to represent the whole, or the whole is used to represent a part

Synesthesia

where one sense is described using terms for another

Assonance

the repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in nonrhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible

Ballad

a song or poem that tells a story, often in short stanzas with simple language and a consistent rhyme scheme

Blank Verse

verse without rhyme, especially that which uses iambic pentameter (each line has 10 syllables).

Consonance

a form of rhyme involving the repetition of identical or similar consonants in neighboring words whose vowel sounds are different.

Heroic Couplet

a pair of rhymed lines, each in iambic pentameter (10 syllables), that form a complete, self-contained thought or unit of meaning

Iamb

a metrical foot consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable. the sound of the words "to-DAY" or "de-FINE," where the first syllable is unstressed and the second is stressed

Iambic Pentameter

a line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable the first line of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Elegy

a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead. Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"

Enjambment

the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza "April is the cruelest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain"

Epic Poetry

a long narrative poem, often of high literary merit, that recounts the deeds of a hero, typically involving significant events in a culture or nation's history or mythology Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, John Milton's Paradise Lost

Free Verse

poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter. The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams

Lyric Poetry

a form of poetry that expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically of the poet or a persona within the poem "Sonnet 18" by William Shakespeare: A famous example that compares a loved one to a summer's day.

Ode

a lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter. John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn," which explores themes of beauty, time, and art by addressing the urn directly.

Slant Rhyme

a type of rhyme with words that have similar, but not identical sounds "Hill" and "full."

Terza Rima

an Italian-born poetic form composed of interlocking three-line stanzas (tercets) with a specific rhyme scheme: (A) O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, (B) Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead (A) Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing

Villanelle

a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gentle into that good night," a 19-line poem with five tercets and a final quatrain, featuring two refrains and an ABA rhyme scheme.