Poetic Terms

Poetic Terms

Alliteration - When the beginning of words start with the same consonant or vowel sounds in stressed syllables – and the words are close together, the effect is called alliteration.

Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Assonance - The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sentence or a line of poetry.

                       Example: I rose and told him of my woe.

Allusion - A brief reference, explicit or indirect, to a person, place, and event or to another work or passage. The writer expects the reader to recognize the reference. Allusions may be historical, mythological, literary or biblical.

               Example: “This place is like a Garden of Eden.”  This is an example of a biblical allusion to the garden of God in the Book of Genesis.

Couplet: A couple is made of two people, two things, two of everything. And so in verse a couplet                 is made up of two lines that rhyme.

                Example:  “But if the while I think of thee, dear friend, \n               All losses are restored and sorrows end.” \n                                 -Shakespeare \n

Hyperbole - A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to give a statement impact. \n

                Examples: I will just die if I do not go to the party.

                                          I walked a million miles to get here.

Imagery: A concrete representation of a sense impression, a feeling or an idea.  

                Example:  Anything that creates vivid mental pictures (appeals to sight, smell, taste, touch and sound).

Metaphor: A figure of speech in which 2 unlike things are compared without using the words “as”,                         “like” or “than”.

                   Example: He is a fish when it comes to swimming.  

Onomatopoeia: When a word is used that demonstrates a sound.

Examples: buzz, zap, crunch, bang

Oxymoron: A word or group of words that is self-contradicting.

       Examples:  bittersweet, plastic glass or jumbo shrimp.

Paradox: An apparent contradiction that, upon deeper analysis, contains a degree of truth.

          Examples: Some of us are not all here.

                                    The more I learn, the less I know.

Personification: A figure of speech in which animals, ideas, and inanimate objects are given human form, character traits or personality.        

Example: The kettle whistled on the stove.

Simile:        A figure of speech in which 2 unlike things are compared using the words “like”, “as” or “than”.

              Example: Her eyes are as blue as the ocean.

Mood: The feeling created in the work of literature.  

            Example: Is it bright and cheerful or dark and frightening?

Theme: The controlling idea or central insight in a poem or piece of literature.  It is the author’s underlying meaning or main idea that he/she is trying to convey.  The theme may be the author’s thoughts about a topic or view of human nature.

               Examples: Forgiveness, appearance vs. reality, love etc.

Tone: The author’s attitude toward the subject matter.

           Examples:  comic, condescending, cheerful, serious, playful, somber, threatening etc.