Poetic Terms (AP Language Midterm)
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33 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 lyric | A songlike poem (originally played on the lyre) |
| narrative | a story poem |
| dramatic | demonstrates a conflict, often using the third-person voice |
| allusions | references to people, objects, or events outside the poem |
| paraphrase | to put what the poem means into your own words |
| aubade | a song or lyric poem lamenting the arrival of dawn to separate two lovers (Romeo and Juliet, Troilus and Criseyde, Penelope and Odysseus) |
| onomatopoeia | a word whose sound imitates its meaning; sound is meaning |
| cliche | a word or phrase that has become dull from overuse |
| alliteration | repeating an initial consonant sound first sound in the word repeats (Peter Piper picked a peck...) |
| consonance | repeating a consonant sound (within a word) e.g. rollrock, highroad, roaring" |
| assonance | repeating a vowel sound |
| euphony | flowing and pleasing sound without disruption (vowels and smooth consonants like the letters l, m, n, y, w) |
| cacophony | a group of harsh sounds |
| diction | a poem's entire word choice, the selection taken from the poet's whole knowledge of language |
| image | a word description of any sense impression, not necessarily the visual |
| concrete | definite and particular items can be understood through the senses, can be felt, seen, smelled, etc. |
| abstract | words that are general and which refer to qualities and ideas (truth, hot) |
| literal image | aims to replicate in words the object or experience -- realistically, without comparing it to anything else |
| figurative image | likens an object or experience to something else |
| simile | comparison using the words "like" or "as" |
| metaphor | stating the comparison by calling the thing, idea, etc. something else e.g. My mother is home. The man is a pig. |
| synesthesia | one sensory perception expressed in terms of a different sense e.g. "I know the seven fragrances of the rainbow." |
| personification | an emotion or something inhuman (e.g. mountain, love, tree) is given human qualities |
| oxymoron | contrary words right next to each other |
| conceit | a bold and/or extended simile or metaphor |
| symbol | an image or action that stands for more than itself |
| archetypes | images that have universal meaning e.g. the connection between spring and renewal |
| persona | allows a poet to speak through the voices of others rather than a personal "I" |
| dramatic monologue | a poem spoken by a persona who tells someone else a story or an event of significance |
| epistle | a poem written as a letter |
| soliloquy | another special use of "I" a character is debating an action, not telling about an event - private, used in plays to let the audience in on the inner thoughts of an actor (Hamlet's "to be, or not to be") |
| public voice poem | a poem that uses "we" to speak for a group of believers or participants in a common situation |
| didactic | a moral lesson is intended |
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