| Term | Definition |
|---|
| assonence | the repitition of a vowel sound |
| meter | regularized rhythm of stressed and unstressed syllables; accents occur at approx. equal intervals of time |
| Foot | a group of 2 or 3 syllables forming the basic unit of poetic rhythm |
| caesura | a break or pause (usually for sense) in the middle of a verse line |
| synaesthesia | the use of one kind of sensory experience to describe another |
| Consonance | the repetition of consonants (or consonant patterns) especially at the ends of words |
| alliteration | use of the same consonant at the beginning of each stressed syllable in a line of verse |
| personafacation | giving an inanimate object human qualities |
| pathetic fallacy | The attribution of human emotions or characteristics to inanimate objects or to nature; for example angry clouds; a cruel wind. |
| iambic | U/ |
| torchee | /U |
| anapest | UU/ |
| dactyl | /UU |
| diameteric | 2 fpl |
| trimetric | 3 fpl |
| tertametric | 4fpl |
| pentametric | 5 fpl |
| hexameter | 6fpl |
| heptameter | 7 fpl |
| scansion | The process of measuring the stresses in a line of verse in order to determine the metrical pattern of the line. |
| simile | a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with 'like' or 'as') |
| onomatopoea | words formed in imitation of natural sounds |
| hyperboly | extravagant exaggeration |
| allusion | passing reference or indirect mention |
| apostrophe | address to an absent or imaginary person |
| irony | The use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning |
| metonymy | substituting the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself (as in 'they counted heads') |
| Synechdoche | Uses a part to explain a whole or a whole to explain a part. ex. Lend me an ear. |
| Haiku | 3 unrhymed lines (5, 7, 5) usually focusing on nature |
| Anaphora | repetition of a word or phrase as the beginning of successive clauses |
| Villanelle | French verse form strictly calculated to appear simple and spontaneous; 5 tercets and a final quatrain, rhyming aba aba aba aba aba abaa. Lines 1,6,12, 18 and 3, 9, 15, 19 are refrain. |
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