Poetry Terms

Front 1

alliteration

Back 1

the repetition of initial consonant sounds, or of syllables beginning with the same consonant sound, in two or more words making up a phrase or clause. these sounds should begin words stressed on their initial syllables

Front 2

allusion

Back 2

casual reference to a famous literary or historical figure, or to some event in literature or histroy

Front 3

anapest

Back 3

a poetic foot consisting of three syllables with two unaccented syllables followed by an accented one

Front 4

antithesis

Back 4

strong contrast in ideas

Front 5

aphorism

Back 5

concise statement of an idea or rule of conduct

Front 6

apostrophe

Back 6

words addressed to someone or something absent as if present

Front 7

assonance

Back 7

repetition in words close to one another of vowels similar in sound which are followed by different consonant sounds

Front 8

blank verse

Back 8

unrhymed verse having five feet per line, with the second syllable of each foot accented

Front 9

caesura

Back 9

a break or pause in the rhythm or meter of a line of verse, usually in the middle of the line

Front 10

chiasmus

Back 10

a kind of balance within a sentence or wihthin two clauses achieved by an inversion of hte second of two parallel phrases. if you place on phrase above the other and connect the parallel parts, you form an "X"

Front 11

colloquialism

Back 11

a word or expression accepted in informal conversational use but not in formal writing

Front 12

connotation

Back 12

meaning suggested by or associated with a word or phrase, in addition to its exact meaning

Front 13

consonance

Back 13

at the end of lines, use of words in which the final consonants are similar but the vowels that preced them differ

Front 14

couplet

Back 14

two successive lines of poetry usually of the same length, that rhyme

Front 15

dactyl

Back 15

poetic foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables

Front 16

diction

Back 16

manner in which aords are chosen and used

Front 17

didactic verse

Back 17

verse whose main pupose is to teach a moral lesson

Front 18

ellipsis

Back 18

omission of one or more words necessary for complete construction but which can be supplied by the reader

Front 19

enjambment

Back 19

continuing on of a sentence from one line or couplet into the next without a stop at the end of the line. this is also known as a run-on line

Front 20

envoy

Back 20

concluding stanza added to certain verse forms

Front 21

epigram

Back 21

a short poem with a witty or satirical point

Front 22

epithet

Back 22

an adjective or adjective phrase used to point out a characteristic of a person or a thing

Front 23

feminine ending

Back 23

an extra unstressed syllable added to the end of a line, usually in anapestic or iambic meter

Front 24

figure of speech

Back 24

an expression using words in an unusal sense to suggest a picture or to add vividness of style

Front 25

free verse

Back 25

verse that has an irregular pattern of meter and incorporates a variety of rhythmical effects. the stanza form is irregular and rhyme is usually absent

Front 26

hyperbole

Back 26

deliberate exaggeration to create an effect, not meant to be taken literally

Front 27

iambic pentameter

Back 27

line of ten syllables divided into five feet, each composed of one unaccented and one accented syllable, in that order

Front 28

inversion

Back 28

reversal of the normal order of words in a sentence, usually to gain emphasis

Front 29

irony

Back 29

method of expression in which the intended meaning of the words used is the direct opposite of their usual sense

Front 30

litotes

Back 30

expressing something by the negative of its opposite

Front 31

medial rhyme

Back 31

rhyme occurring within a line

Front 32

metaphor

Back 32

a figure of speech that omits "like" or "as" to imply a comparison

Front 33

meter

Back 33

the rhythm of poetry, generally falling into a regular pattern of accented syllables

Front 34

metonymy

Back 34

a figure of speech using a commonly associated word to describe the object

Front 35

octet

Back 35

the first eight lines of a sonnet, particularly the Italian sonnet, which generally state the theme of the poem

Front 36

ode

Back 36

an elaborate poem on an exalted theme

Front 37

onomatopoeia

Back 37

a poetic device that uses words, the sounds of which correspond to their meaning

Front 38

oxymoron

Back 38

a figure of speech in which two seemingly contradictory terms are combined for emphasis or effect

Front 39

paradox

Back 39

a statement that is, or seems to be, contradictory

Front 40

pathetic fallacy

Back 40

an expression that assigns human emotions to natural or inanimate things

Front 41

personification

Back 41

a figure of speech that addresses ideas, qualities, abstractions, or inanimate things as human beings

Front 42

poetic foot

Back 42

a single unit of petic rhythm consisting of one or more unaccented syllables and one accented syllable

Front 43

pun

Back 43

a play on words

Front 44

quatrain

Back 44

a stanza of four lines

Front 45

refrain

Back 45

a word or group of words repeated at regular interrvals in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza

Front 46

repetition

Back 46

the deliberate restating of a phrase or line for effect

Front 47

rhyme

Back 47

the use of words that end in the same sound; in verse the rhyme usually comes at the end of the line

Front 48

rondeau

Back 48

an intricate verse pattern consiting of fifteen lines, the ninth and fifteenth acting as a refrain, in three stanzas using the rollowing rhyme scheme: aabba, aabc, aabbac

Front 49

sarcasm

Back 49

a figure of speech which, like irony but harsher in tone, expresses meaning by use of the opposite

Front 50

satire

Back 50

a form of literary composition that criticizes some aspect of mankind and holds it up to humorous inspection

Front 51

scansion

Back 51

a technical division of a poetic line into its basic rhytmic feet

Front 52

sestet

Back 52

the last six lines of a sonnet, generally making comment on the theme set in the first eight lines

Front 53

simile

Back 53

a figure of speech which, using "like" or "as," expresses a comparison directly

Front 54

sonnet

Back 54

a poem of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter that follows a definited rhyme scheme

Front 55

stanza

Back 55

a unit in a poem, roughly analogous to a paragraph in prose; consists of two, three, four, five, and even more lines

Front 56

symbol

Back 56

an object that represents a psychological, philosophical, social, or religious significance

Front 57

synedoche

Back 57

a figure of speech that uses the part to represent the whole

Front 58

terza rima

Back 58

an intricate rhyme scheme that fits tercets (three-line groupings) into the following pattern: aba, bcb, cdc, ded, and so on

Front 59

trasnferred epithet

Back 59

an adjective used to describe a noun with which it is not normally associated, thus adding vividness to the figure

Front 60

trochee

Back 60

a poetic foot, consisting of two syllables, with an accented syllable preceding an unaccented syllable