| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Alliteration | The repletion of initial consonant sounds in words |
| Allusion | Literary reference to another familiar person, place or event |
| Anapest | Unstressed + unstressed + stressed |
| Anaphora | Repetion of words at beginnings of phrases or sentences |
| Assonance | Repetition of vowel sounds |
| Consonance | The repetition of consonants sounds, not limited to the beginnings of words. |
| Couplet | Group of 2 lines |
| Dactyl | Stressed + unstressed + unstressed |
| Dialect | Unique pronunciation of words that occur in specific geographical regions or classes. Sounds of words, not their meanings |
| Diction | The author’s choice of words based on their correctness, clarity, for effectiveness. Jargon, slang and archaic language |
| Elizabethan/Shakespearean | A poem that consists of 3 quatrains (group of 4 lines) and one rhyming couplet (2 lines). Ababcdcdefefgg rhyme scheme. Usually a question or theme is set forth in quatrains and answered in couplet. |
| End rhyme | When a rhyme occurs at the end of the line |
| Enjambment | When one line of poetry runs into the next without pause |
| Extended metaphor | A metaphor that is developed throughout the story. |
| Eye rhyme | Words that look as if they would rhyme |
| Figurative language | Language used non literally to create a special feeling or effect. |
| Figures of speech | Literary device used to create a special effect of comparison usually with some sort of comparison. |
| Fixed form | A poem that has a prescribed metrical arrangement, rhyme scheme, and or number of lines: Limericks, Haikus, Sonnets, Sestinas, Villanelles |
| Foot | smallest pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poetic line |
| Free verse | Poetry that does not have regular meter or rhyme scheme |
| Haiku | A 3 line poem with syllables 5-7-5 |
| Hyperbole | Extreme exaggeration or over statement that emphasizes an idea. (The line was 1000 miles long) |
| Iamb | unstressed + stressed |
| Imagery | Creation of images based on senses, sights, smells –ect… |
| Implied metaphor | A metaphor that is not actually stated but is implied (Refers to wings and beak but not to the bird) |
| Internal rhyme | Rhymes that occur within the lines of poetry |
| Irony | When the reader expects something but the exact opposite occours |
| Italian/Petrarchan | A poem that has an octave (8 lines) and a sestet (6 lines) The octave poses question and the sestet answers it. Abbaabba cdecde rhyme scheme |
| Meter | Patterned repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry |
| Mood | The overall feeling evoked in the audience or reader of a poem |
| Narrative | A type of poem that tells a story |
| Near/slant rhyme | Almost rhyme |
| Octave | Group of 8 lines |
| Paradox | A statement that contradicts itself |
| Parallelism | The use of phrases, clauses, or sentences that are similar or complementary in structure or in meaning |
| Personification | Speaking or writing of an animal/object/idea as if it were a person. Human emotions or qualities to nonhuman things |
| Quatrain | Group of 4 lines |
| Refrain | The repletion of a line of phrase at regular intervals especially at the end of stanzas |
| Repetition | Repeating of words, phrases, images or ideas to make a point or to make a rhythmic effect |
| Rhyme | Similarity or likeness of sound that exists between 2 words. |
| Rhythm | The regular or random occurrence of sound in poetry |
| Scansion | Analysis of metrical patterns of verse; marking stressed and unstressed syllables |
| Sestet | Group of 6 lines |
| Simile | A comparison of two unlike things that uses a word of comparison such as like, as, or resembled |
| Sonnet | Poem that has 14 lines rhymed in iambic pentameter |
| Speaker | The voice of a poem, people that the author creates to narrate the poem. Do not assume that the person and the author are the same |
| Spondee | Stressed + stressed |
| Stanza | A fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem |
| Substitution | The use of a foot other than the one regularly demanded by the meter |
| Symbol | Objects, characters, figures, sounds or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts |
| Tone | Attitude the author has about the subject or audience. |
| Trochee | Stressed + unstressed |
| Understatement | A way of emphasizing an idea by talking about it as it was no big deal |
| Villanelle | A 19 line poem with 5 triplets and 1 quatrain. a1ba2|aba1|aba2|aba1|aba2|aba1a2 |
Combine with other sets
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