Poetry Vocabulary
About this set
Created by:
henryd204891 on March 7, 2012
Subjects:
Description:
Maher Poetry Unit Vocabulary
Classes:
Log in to favorite or report as inappropriate.
Order by
84 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 speaker | the voice used by an author to tell a story or speak a poem. the speaker is often a created identity, and should not automatically be equated with the author's self |
| metaphor | a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, without using like or as |
| verse | a generic term used to describe poetic lines composed in a measured rhythmical pattern that are often, but not necessarily, rhymed |
| theme | the central meaning or dominant idea in a literary work; provides a unifying point around which plot, characters, setting, point of view, symbols, and other elements of a work are organized |
| lyric | usually a brief poem that expresses the personal emotions and thoughts of a single speaker |
| narrative poem | a poem that tells a story |
| paraphrase | a prose restatement of the central ideas of a poem, in your own language |
| epic poem | a long narrative poem on a serious subject chronicling heroic deeds and important events |
| diction | choice of words |
| jargon | a category of language defined by a trade or a profession |
| denotation | the literary, dictionary meanings of a word |
| connotation | association and implications that go beyond a word's literal meanings |
| persona | a speaker created by a poet |
| ambiguity | allows for 2 or more simultaneous interpretations of a word, phrase, action, or situation, all of which can be supported by the context of a work |
| syntax | the ordering of words into meaningful verbal patterns |
| tone | the writer's attitude toward the subject, the mood created by all the elements in a poem |
| dramatic monologue | a type of poem in which a character (the speaker) addresses a silent audience in such a way as to reveal unintentionally some aspect of his or her temperament or personality |
| carpe diem | "seize the day" (theme in which male urges female love shouldn't be delayed because time is short) |
| allusion | a brief reference to a person, place, thing, event, or idea in history or literature |
| image/imagery | language that addresses the senses |
| figure of speech | a way of saying one thing in terms of something else |
| simile | makes an explicit comparison between two things by using words such as like, as, than, appears, or seems |
| implied metaphor | doesn't explicitly identify that one thing is the other |
| extended metaphor | extended comparisons in which part or all of the poem consists of a series of related metaphors |
| synecdoche | a figure of speech in which part of something is used to signify the whole |
| metonymy | something closely associated with a subject is substituted for it |
| apostrophe | an address either to someone who is absent and therefore cannot hear the speaker or to something nonhuman that cannot comprehend |
| hyperbole | exaggeration; adds emphasis without intending to be literally true |
| understatement | a figure of speech that says less than is intended |
| paradox | a statement that initially appears to be self-contradictory but that, on closer inspection, turns out to make sense |
| oxymoron | a condensed form of paradox in which two contradictory words are used together |
| allegory | a narration or description usually restricted to a single meaning because its events, actions, characters, settings, and objects represent specific abstractions or ideas |
| irony | a technique that reveals a discrepancy between what appears to be and what is actually true |
| situational irony | the discrepancy between what appears to be true and what actually exists |
| verbal irony | saying something different from what is meant |
| satire | an example of the literary art of ridiculing a folly or vice in an effort to expose or correct it |
| ballad | tells a story that was sung from one generation to the next until it was finally transcribed |
| onomatopoeia | the use of a word that resembles the sound it denotes |
| alliteration | the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of nearby words |
| assonance | the repetition of the same vowel sound in nearby words |
| euphony | lines that are musically pleasant to the ear and smooth |
| cacophony | lines that are discordant and difficult to pronounce |
| rhyme | a way of creating sound patterns; consists of two or more words that repeat the same sounds |
| end rhyme | rhyme that appears at the end of a line |
| internal rhyme | places at least one of the rhymed words within the line |
| consonance | an identical consonant sound preceded by a different vowel sound |
| rhythm | the recurrence of stressed and unstressed sounds |
| stress | places more emphasis on one syllable than on another |
| meter | when a rhythmic pattern of stresses recurs in a poem |
| scansion | consists of measuring the stresses in a line to determine its metrical pattern |
| foot | the metrical unit by which a line of poetry is measured |
| line | measured by the number of feet it contains |
| iambic | one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable |
| trochaic | one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable |
| anapestic | two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed one |
| dactylic | one stressed followed by two unstressed |
| blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| monometer | a line with one foot |
| dimeter | a line with two feet |
| trimeter | a line with three feet |
| tetrameter | a line with four feet |
| pentameter | a line with five feet |
| hexameter | a line with six feet |
| heptameter | a line with seven feet |
| octameter | a line with eight feet |
| spondee | a two-syllable foot in which both syllables are stressed |
| caesura | a pause within a line |
| form | a poem's overall structure or shape |
| stanza | consists of a group of lines,set off by a space, that usually has a set pattern of meter and rhyme |
| rhyme scheme | the pattern of end rhymes |
| couplet | consists of two lines that usually rhyme and have the same meter; frequently not separated by space on a page |
| heroic couplet | consists of rhymed iambic pentameter |
| tercet | a three-line stanza |
| triplet | a tercet in which all three lines rhyme |
| quatrain | a four-line stanza |
| ballad stanza | consists of alternating eight and six-syllable lines. usually have abcb rhyme scheme |
| sonnet | consists of fourteen lines, usually written in iambic pentameter |
| Italian (Pertrarchan) sonnet | divided into two parts. the first eight lines typically rhyme abbaabba. the final six lines may vary |
| octave | eight lines |
| sestet | six lines |
| Shakesperean (English) sonnet | organized into three quatrains and a couplet, which typically rhyme abab cdcd efef gg |
| elegy | a lyric poem written to commemorate someone who's dead |
| ode | characterized by a serious topic and formal tone |
| free verse | composed of lines that cannot be scanned for a fixed or predominant meter; most don't rhyme |
First Time Here?
Welcome to Quizlet, a fun, free place to study. Try these flashcards, find others to study, or make your own.