| Term | Definition |
|---|
| poetry | A kind of rhythmic, compressed language that uses figures of speech and imagery designed to appeal to our emotions and imagination |
| narrative | a story told in verse form; an epic is a narrative poem |
| lyric | a brief, personal poem that is especially musical and filled with emotion; sonnets, odes, and elegies are types of lyrics |
| sonnet | A fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in iambic pentameter, that has one of several rhyme schemes (Shakespearean sonnet has 3 quatrains followed by a couplet; the most common rhyme scheme for this sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg) |
| ballad | a type of poem that is meant to be sung and is both lyric and narrative in nature |
| simile | Two dissimilar things are compared using words such as "like," "as," "than," or "resembles" |
| metaphor | Two dissimilar things are compared WITHOUT using words such as "like," "as," "than," or "resembles" |
| direct metaphor | Directly compares two things with a verb such as "is" |
| implied metaphor | Suggests a comparison WITHOUT using "is" |
| extended metaphor | A metaphor that is developed over several lines of writing |
| dead metaphor | a metaphor that has become so overused that we no longer realize that is a figure of speech—we simply skip over the metaphorical connection it makes. |
| mixed metaphor | The inconsistent mixture of two or more metaphors; a common problem in bad writing, and they can often be unintentionally funny |
| personification | Giving human or animate qualities to nonhuman or inanimate things |
| synecdoche | The word for something is used to mean the whole |
| symbol | Something concrete used to represent something abstract |
| apostrophe | Addressing something nonhuman as if it were human |
| literary allusion | A reference to a person, place, or thing from previous literature |
| hyperbole | Exaggeration for the sake of effect, for emphasis, not to be taken literally; overstatement |
| irony | Saying the opposite of what is true |
| antithesis | Balancing or contrasting one thing against another for effect |
| paradox | An apparent contradiction which proves, upon closer examination, to be true |
| alliteration | The repetition of the initial consonant sound in two or more words in a line of verse |
| consonance | The repetition of consonant sounds that are NOT at the beginning of words in a line of verse |
| assonance | The similarity or repetition of vowel sounds in two or more words with different consonant sounds |
| onomatopoeia | The use of words that imitate the sounds they define |
| repetition | Repeating a word or phrase within a poem |
| refrain | The repetition of one or more phrases or lines at definite intervals in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza |
| stanza | A group of consecutive lines in a poem that form a single unit; a division of a poem that is often referred to as a "paragraph of poetry" |
| rhyme | The similarity or likeness of sound in two or more words |
| perfect rhyme | (exact rhyme) involves sounds that are exactly the same |
| imperfect rhyme | (approximate or slant rhyme) involves words that sound similar, but are not exactly the same |
| eye rhyme | Depends on spelling rather than sound; words that look like they should rhyme, but do not |
| end rhyme | Occurs between words found at the ends of two or more lines in a poem |
| internal rhyme | Between words, occurs within a single one of poetry |
| rhyme scheme | The pattern or sequence in which end rhyme occurs throughout a poem. The first end sound is represented with an "a," the second end sound is represented with a "b," and so on. When the first sound is repeated at the end of another line within the poem, it is also designated as "a." |
| rhythm | The pattern of stressed ( ) and unstressed ( ) syllables in words in a line of poetry; rhythm may be regular or irregular |
| meter | A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry |
| foot | A unit of meter; can consist of two or three syllables; lines of poetry are classified according to the number of feet in a line |
| scansion | The process of marking lines of poetry to show the type of feet and the number of feet they contain |
| iambic foot | A two syllable foot with the stress on the second syllable; the most common foot of the English language |
| rhymed verse | Consists of a verse with end rhyme and regular meter |
| blank verse | Consists of unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| free verse | Consists of lines of poetry that do not have a regular rhythm and do not rhyme |
| denotation | The literary, dictionary definition of a word. |
| connotation | All the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests |
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