Poetry Terms

Front 1

Terza Rima

Back 1

an arrangement of triplets, especially in iambs, that rhyme aba bcb cdc, etc.c as in Dante's Divine Comedy

Front 2

Eye Rhyme or Sight Rhyme

Back 2

where 2 words are spelled similarly but pronounced differently and have come into general use through "poetic license" also known as artistic license. Ex: alone and gone

Front 3

Villanelle

Back 3

a 19 line poem with 2 rhymes throughout consisting of 5 tercets and a quatrain, with the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the other tercets and with both repeated at the close of concluding quatrain.

Ex: Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night

Front 4

Enjambment

Back 4

the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza

Ex: "in Just-"

Front 5

Anaphora

Back 5

the use of a word referring to or replacing a word used earlier in a sentence, to avoid repetition, such as "do" in "I like it and so do they."

Front 6

Caesura

Back 6

a pause near the middle of a line

Ex: "sing a song of sixpence// a pocket full of rye"

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Epistrophe

Back 7

repetition of a word at the end of successive clauses or sentences

Ex: "The Merchant of Venice"

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Anastrophe

Back 8

the inversion of the usual order of words or clauses

Ex: Yoda

Front 9

Chiasmus

Back 9

when words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order, in the same or a modified form;

Ex: 'Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds.'

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Euphony

Back 10

the quality of being pleasing to the ear, especially through a harmonious combination of words

Ex: "Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness"

Front 11

Cacophony

Back 11

A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds

Ex: I detest war because cause of war is always trivial.

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Synecdoche

Back 12

a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in "Cleveland won by six runs"

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Antonomasia

Back 13

substitution of an epithet or title for a proper name e.g. "the Bard" for Shakespeare

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Synesthesia

Back 14

the production of a sense impression relating to 1 sense or part of the body by stimulating another sense or part of body

Ex: Dante's "The Divine Comedy"

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Litote

Back 15

understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary ( as in "not a bad singer" or "not unhappy")

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Metonymy

Back 16

substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant, for example "suit" for "business executive"

Front 17

Parallelism

Back 17

use of successive verbal constructions that correspond in grammatical structure, sound, meter, meaning, etc.Ex: "Like father, like son"