Poetry/Shakespearean Sonnets

Term/Concept

Definition

Example

iambic pentameter

• Unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Repeated by a process of 5 time with 10 syllables per line 

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

alliteration

Words that starts with the same letter 

• In detail: the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

• Sally sold seashells at the sea shore 

onomatopoeia

• Words that are sounds in a text 

• BOOM, BLAST, POW POW

repetition

• When a word or phrase is said or written again and again 

• I tell my mother for the millionth time, “Im coming, Im coming, Im coming!!” 

rhyme

• Correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, especially when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry.

• The cat sat on a hat

simile

• A figure of speech comparing two unlike things that is often introduced by like or as

• Lord Capulet’s words are as poisonous as a venous snake. 

metaphor

• A simile without “like” or “as”

• You are a tiger

personification

• An object that is given human like qualities 

• As I look upon the sun in the late morning sky, I see it smiling at me 

• The bowl of cereal that has been on my counter for weeks looks depressed 

hyperbole

• A word or phrase that is exaggerated 

• “A thousand kissed goodnight” - Romeo and Juliet 

allusion

• When the author refers to something or someone that is not in the story

When Mercutio mentions Queen Mab 

syntax

• An arrangement of words/phrases to create a well formed sentence 

• Home he ran to.

quatrain

• a stanza of four lines, especially one having alternate rhymes.

couplet (rhyming couplet)

The final rhyming pair at the end of a Shakespearean Sonnet.

• But in this feast, though joy and bliss I chase, 

• I’ve gorged on all, yet still, I feel displaced. 

volta

• A twist in the poem’s theme, often occurring before the end couplet.

• But in this feast, though joy and bliss I chase, 

• I’ve gorged on all, yet still, I feel displaced.