English Ii Poetry Terms

Front 1

A natural pause or break in a line of poetry, usually near the middle of the line

Back 1

caesura

Front 2

The repetition of the inital consonant letter (at least two repetitions)

Back 2

alliteration

Front 3

A poetic expression that spans more than one line. These lines do not end with grammatical breaks, and their sense is not complete without the following line

Back 3

enjambment

Front 4

The repetition or pattern of similar vowel sounds

Back 4

assonance

Front 5

A line in which there is a grammatical pause maked by punctuation, such as a period, which coincides with the end of a line.

Back 5

end-stopped line

Front 6

A deliberate, extravagnet, and often outrageous exaggeration. It may be used for serious or comic effect

Back 6

hyperbole

Front 7

Figures of speech that compare two things either explicity by introducing words such as "like" or "as" or directly by substituting one word for another

Back 7

simile or metaphor

Front 8

Repetition of the same syntactical structure at the beginning of several successive lines or stanzas. The repetitions produce a sense of expectation, as the reader wonders what will come after them, at the end.

Back 8

anaphora

Front 9

Emphasizes a contrast between two expressions or ideas by juxtaposing them, often giving them a similar syntactical structure in order to underline the contrast still further: "You're easy on the eyes; hard on the heart."

Back 9

antithesis

Front 10

A direct address to an absent person, thing, or abstract idea, thus lending the person or thing a certain presence

Back 10

apostrophe

Front 11

Statements or dieas that seem contradictory at first, but that nevertheless reveal a certain truth

Back 11

paradox

Front 12

An elaborate and often surprising comparison between two apparently highly dissimilar things, an extended metaphor

Back 12

conceit

Front 13

A figure of speech that bestows human characteristics upon anything nonhuman, from an abstract idea to a physical force to an inanimate object to a living organism

Back 13

personification

Front 14

a fourteen-line sonnet consiting of two parts: the octave, eight lines with the rhyme scheme abbaabba, and the sestet, six lines usually following the rhyme scheme cdecde. The octave often poses a question or dilemma that the sestet answers or resolves

Back 14

Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet

Front 15

A line of poetry that is ten syllables long and contains five metrical feet, each foot consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable

Back 15

Iambic Pentameter

Front 16

A phrase that describes something in a way that, taken literally, minimizes its evident significance or gravity. Often used for humorous, ironic, or satiric effect

Back 16

Understatement

Front 17

A change of tone or emphasis occuring at line 9 in a Petrarchan sonnet

Back 17

Turn or Volta

Front 18

The repetition of final consonant sounds following different vowel sounds in proximate words

Back 18

consonance

Front 19

a fourteen-line sonnet consisting of three quatrains and a final couplet with the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg

Back 19

Shakesperian Sonnet

Front 20

Two successive lines of rhyming verse, often of the same meter

Back 20

Couplet