Poetry Terms

Front 1

Narrative Poetry

Back 1

A type of poetry that tells a story

Front 2

Dramatic Poetry

Back 2

A type of poetry that utilizes the techniques of drama; the speaker is clearly someone other than the poet

Front 3

Lyric Poetry

Back 3

A type of poem with highly musicacl verse that expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker

Front 4

Ballad

Back 4

A poem that tells a story, often of a single historical or legendary person; often one dealing with love and romance

Front 5

Haiku

Back 5

a three-lined Japanese verse form.

Front 6

Speaker

Back 6

Characters with their own points of view -- their own attitudes, backgrounds, and ways of looking at reality. Their thoughts and feelings may be similar to the author or they may be utterly different

Front 7

Dramatic Monologue

Back 7

A poem or speech in which a fictional character expresses his or her thoughts and feelings within a developing situation

Front 8

Consonance

Back 8

The repetition in two or more words of the final consonants in stressed syllables

Front 9

Assonance

Back 9

The repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonants in two or more stressed syllables

Front 10

Alliteration

Back 10

The repetition of the initial consonant sounds usually at the start of words

Front 11

Onomatopoeia

Back 11

The use of words to imitate sounds or suggest a sound

Front 12

Symbol

Back 12

Something that has its own meaning but that stands for or represents something else

Front 13

Theme

Back 13

A central message or insight into life

Front 14

Inference

Back 14

To draw a conclusion about something; an educated guess

Front 15

Mood

Back 15

The feeling created in the reader when reading a poem

Front 16

Imagery

Back 16

Descriptive language used to create word pictures

Front 17

Tone

Back 17

The writer's attitude toward his/her audience or subject

Front 18

Figurative Language

Back 18

Writing or speech not meant to be interrupted literally; language that uses the three figures of speech: metaphor, simile, personification

Front 19

Metaphor

Back 19

A figure of speech comparing one thing to another without using like or as; one thing is said to be another

Front 20

Extended Metaphor

Back 20

as in a regular metaphor, a subject is spoken or written of as though it were something else. However, an extended metaphor differs from a regular metaphor in that several comparisons are made

Front 21

Simile

Back 21

A figure of speech where like or as are used to make a comparison between two unlike ideas

Front 22

Personification

Back 22

A type of figurative language in which a non-human subject is given human characteristics

Front 23

Sensory Words

Back 23

Writing or speech that appeals to one or more of the 5 senses

Front 24

Sonnet

Back 24

A fourteen-line lyrics poem; 3 quatrains and 1 couplet; usually rhyming

Front 25

Shakespearean Sonnet

Back 25

Consists of 3 quatrains and 1 couplet; a 14-lined poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter; abab cdcd efef gg

Front 26

Repetition

Back 26

The use of a sound, word, phrase, clause, or sentence more than once

Front 27

Quatrain

Back 27

A stanza or poem made up of four lines with rhythm and rhyme

Front 28

Rhyme Scheme

Back 28

The regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem; the rhyme scheme of a poem is indicated by different letter of the alphabet for each new rhyme

Front 29

Rhyme

Back 29

The repetition of sounds at the ends of words

Front 30

End Rhyme

Back 30

When the rhyming words come at the ends of lines

Front 31

Internal Rhyme

Back 31

rhyming words appear in the same line in a poem

Front 32

Couplet

Back 32

A pair of rhyming lines, usually in the same length and meter

Front 33

Meter

Back 33

the pattern of accented and unaccented syllables that form the basis of the poem's rhythm. Meter signifies the number of rhythmic beats, or 'feet' in the a line and the arrangement of accented and unaccented syllables in each foot

Front 34

Iamb

Back 34

One unstressed and one stressed syllable in a 5-foot line

Front 35

Blank Verse

Back 35

Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

Front 36

Free Verse

Back 36

Verse without a regular arrangement of accented and unaccented syllables; it is free of restrictions of a set rhythmical pattern for each line. However, since it is divided into lines, the movement from one line to the next establishes a kind of rhythm

Front 37

Rhythm

Back 37

The arrangement, or pattern, of accented and unaccented syllables. The beat.

Front 38

Structure

Back 38

Described in terms of stanza, form, and meter

Front 39

Stanza

Back 39

A group of lines in a poem, considered a unit. Often, they are separated by spaces

Front 40

Allusion

Back 40

a reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art.