Literary Terms For Ninth Grade Poetry

Front 1

Definition: Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words

Antonym: assonance

Back 1

"windows where"
"silent sea"

Front 2

Definition:
Repetition of vowel sounds in words that do not rhyme

Antonym: alliteration

Back 2

“Frogs dwell here and
crickets too.”

Front 3

Form of language spoken by a certain social or ethnic group or in a geographic area

Back 3

"Ya'll come"
"goobers"
"roomatiz"

Front 4

Definition:
Language that expresses ideas beyond the usual meaning of the words; includes figures of speech such as simile,
metaphor, personification
Antonym: Literal language,
means what it says

Back 4

“Floors are flowers"
"...a house of lace;"
"The Grass divides as with a Comb—"

Front 5

Quality that makes somone or something funny or amusing

Back 5

It was funny that the boy ate the fish that had offered him wishes after it had laughed at him when he set it free.

Front 6

Indirect reference to a famous person, place, or event that the author thinks readers will know

Back 6

Scotland Yard
Admiralty
"Peke"

Front 7

A pair of rhymed lines

Back 7

“Floors are flowers—take a few.
Ferns grow here and daisies too.”

Front 8

Conversation between two or more characters

Back 8

“My boy,” quoth he,
“Please set me free and I’ll
grant your wish. A kingdom of
wisdom? A palace of gold? Or all the goodies your fancies can hold?” So I said, “OK,” …

Front 9

Poetry that does not have regular rhyme and meter

Back 9

"in quiet night
the horns honking up from the street
make mad voices
to other horns, tires shriek
to other tires, brakes shriek
to other brakes."

Front 10

Definition:exaggeration
making a person, an action, or an object greater than it really is
Antonym: understatement

Back 10

"He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity."

Front 11

Mental pictures or images; words and phrases
that appeal to the senses_sight, hearing, smell,
taste, and touch

Back 11

"Ain't no ceiling, only blue
Jays dwell here and sunbeams too."

Front 12

Definition: A short poem that is songlike

Antonym: Narrative poem, one that tells a story

Back 12

A poem that expresses one speaker's thoughts or feelings.
Example: "Song of the Open Road by Carl Sandburg"

Front 13

Feelings that the writer creates for the reader

Back 13

sadness, grief, shock, horror, fear, love, happiness, etc.

Front 14

figure of speech that
gives human qualities to an animal,
object, or idea

Back 14

Example: spider with a spinning wheel

Front 15

Repetition of one or more lines in each stanza of a poem

Back 15

Example: Repetition of
"the bells, bells, bells, bells,
bells, bells, bells..." in
Edgar Allen Poe's "The Bells."

Front 16

Situation in which what happens is the opposite of what the reader expects

Back 16

It was ironic that the fish asked the boy if he wanted his wishes granted, but the boy ate the fish.

Front 17

Definition:
A figure of speech that compares two unlike things but does not use "like" or "as"

Antonym: Simile

Back 17

“Floors are flowers—take a few.”

Front 18

Definition:
Use of words such as pow, buzz, and crunch
whose sounds suggest their meaning

Back 18

"Whoosh, swoosh—too-whit, too-woo,
Bats dwell here and hoot owls too."

Front 19

Definition: author’s voice,
usually first or third person

Back 19

First person: “Several of Nature’s People I know, and they know me."

Front 20

Definition: a sound, word,
phrase, or line that is
repeated

Back 20

"Henceforth..."
"Henceforth..."