English 100-Poetry Terms

Front 1

Persona orspeaker:

Back 1

the speaker of the poem, who needs to be differentiated from the author.

Front 2

Auditor:

Back 2

the person or persons spoken to in the poem. (The title sometimes reveals who is the auditor of the poem, such as “To his coy mistress”).

Front 3

Ode:

Back 3

a long lyric in elevated language on a serious theme.

Front 4

Epic:

Back 4

a long narrative poem about the exploits of a hero

Front 5

Lyric:

Back 5

poems that express the thoughts and feelings of the speaker about a range of experiences.

Front 6

Elegy:

Back 6

a lyric on the occasion of a death.

Front 7

Ballad:

Back 7

poems that tell a story with song-like qualities that often include rhyme and repeated refrains

Front 8

Dramatic monologue:

Back 8

a speech for a single character, usually delivered to a silent auditor. Ex. “My Last Duchess”

Front 9

Poetic Diction:

Back 9

the style and word choice for a poem: is it elevated language? Is it slang? Is it old-fashioned?

Front 10

Imagery:

Back 10

sensory details denoting specific physical experiences. Imagery describes sense experiences (the sound, sights, smells, tastes, and feel of specific objects/sensations).

Front 11

Onomatopoeia:

Back 11

refers to individual words like “buzz” or “thud” whose meanings are closely related to their sounds.

Front 12

Figurative Language:

Back 12

Language which goes beyond the literal description and has a suggestive effect on the reader. A figure of speech is an instance of figurative language such as metaphors, similes, and imagery.

Front 13

Metaphor:

Back 13

a direct comparison between two unlike things. Ex. “His words were sharp knives”

Front 14

Simile:

Back 14

a comparison using “like” “as” or “than” as a connective device. Ex. “He was old and useless like a paddle broken and warped.”

Front 15

Conceit:

Back 15

an extended or far-fetched metaphor, in most cases comparing things that have almost nothing in common.

Front 16

Metaphysical Conceit:

Back 16

refers to the extended comparisons favoured by the metaphysical poets such as Andrew Marvell and George Herbert. In the metaphysical conceit, metaphors have a much more purely conceptual, and thus tenuous, relationship between the things being compared.

Front 17

Hyperbole:

Back 17

an overstatement, a comparison using exaggeration

Front 18

Allusion:

Back 18

a metaphor making a direct comparison to a historical or literary event or character, a myth, a biblical reference, etc. (Ex. Herbert’s “Easter Wings” and the allusion to the Fall and Creation myth).

Front 19

Personification:

Back 19

giving human characteristics to non-human things or abstractions.

Front 20

Tone:

Enjambment: the running over of the sense and grammatical structure from one line into the next, without punctuated pause

Caesura: a pause in a line of poetry, often coinciding with a break between clauses or sentence (usually indicated by a mark of punctuation).

Stanza: lines of poetry that are grouped into blocks.

Couplet: paired rhyming lines (aa, bb, cc)

Quatrain: four line stanza (5 lines is Quintet; 6 lines is Sestet; 7 lines is Septet; 8 is an Octave).

Sonnet: consists of 14 lines of rhymed iambic pentameter.

Petrarchan sonnet/ Italian sonnet: usually 2 stanzas, an octave rhyming abbaabba and a sestet with a rhyme scheme cddc ee (variable). (Also different forms in Shakespearean sonnet and Spenserian sonnet).

Volta: a turn usually a conjunction or conjunctive adverb “but or “then” that may appear at the beginning of the sestet, signifying a change of direction in thought.

Back 20

the tone of voice of the speaker and the implied attitude toward the words he or she says.

Front 21

Assonance:

Back 21

the repetition of vowel sounds

Front 22

Alliteration:

Back 22

repetition of consonant sounds

Front 23

Metre:

Back 23

a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Ex. “to fall into despair”

Front 24

Iambic Pentameter:.

Back 24

the most common poetic metre, which includes one unstressed and one stressed syllable with five “feet” in one line.

Front 25

Free verse:

Back 25

is verse with no consistent metrical pattern.

Front 26

Enjambment:

Back 26

the running over of the sense and grammatical structure from one line into the next, without punctuated pause

Front 27

Caesura:

Back 27

a pause in a line of poetry, often coinciding with a break between clauses or sentence (usually indicated by a mark of punctuation).

Front 28

Stanza:

Back 28

lines of poetry that are grouped into blocks.

Front 29

Couplet:

Back 29

paired rhyming lines (aa, bb, cc)

Front 30

Quatrain:

Back 30

four line stanza (5 lines is Quintet; 6 lines is Sestet; 7 lines is Septet; 8 is an Octave).

Front 31

Sonnet:

Back 31

consists of 14 lines of rhymed iambic pentameter.

Front 32

Petrarchan sonnet/ Italian sonnet:

Back 32

usually 2 stanzas, an octave rhyming abbaabba and a sestet with a rhyme scheme cddc ee (variable). (Also different forms in Shakespearean sonnet and Spenserian sonnet).

Front 33

Volta:

Back 33

a turn usually a conjunction or conjunctive adverb “but or “then” that may appear at the beginning of the sestet, signifying a change of direction in thought.