free verse: a form of poetry that does not follow a set rhythm, scheme or pattern
lyric poem: express intense emotional thoughts and moods
ballads: a narrative poem with song like form usually based on folk legend, love story or legend
sonnet: a fourteen line poem which follows a set rhyme scheme
haiku: a seventeen syllable poem (5,7,5)
ode: a lyric poem full of noble feeling
blank verse: consists of unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter, best for dramatic verse in english and commonly used for long poems
mood: readers attitude towards the event of a poem
atmosphere: the feeling surrounding a poem
diction: a poets word choice
irony: a condition that is the opposite of what the reader is lead to expect
symbol: a concrete symbol that stands for an abstract concept
theme: the main message
tone: the authors attitude towards a subject
assonance: the repetition of the same vowel
consonance: the close repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after different vowels
imagery: descriptive language
sensory details: specific words that are used as images
cacophony: the use of hard sounds
euphony: the use of soft sounds
stanza: the divisions of a poem
Apostrophe: a type of poem in which a thing or person that is dead or incapable of understanding is addressed directly
denotation: the dictionary meaning
connotation: informal meanings
couplet: a pair of rhyming lines
thesis: the main idea or point
method of development: develop and support the thesis
example and illustration: using facts and statistics to prove a point
definition: very specific, dictionary meaning
contrast: use of differences between ideas to prove a point
compare: similarities and/or differences
cause/effect: author may give a cause and discuss the effects
classification: using categories to classify things
description: using detail to make a point
narration: use of stories to contribute to the essays point
process analysis: used to explain a point step by step
pronoun reference: using pronouns instead of restating people or things
parallel structure: using the same grammatical tense which clarifies a point
punctuation: allow for extra thoughts, dashes, parentheses, semi colon, colon
sequence of ideas: temporal: time reference, spatial: top/bottom, logical, chronological
appositive: adds extra information
repetition of key words and synonyms: using the same word, phrase or idea
transitions: using connecting words to join ideas and concepts
unity: makes the piece seem like one and flow together