| Term | Definition |
|---|
| accent | same things as stress. a syllable given more prominence in pronunciation than its neighbors is said to be accented |
| alliteration | the repetition at close intervals of the initial consonant sounds |
| allusion | a reference to something in previous literature or history |
| anapest | a metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables followed by one accented syllable |
| apostrophe | a figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and could reply |
| assonance | the repetition at close intervals of the vowel sounds of accented syllables or important words |
| blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| cacophony | a harsh, discordant, unpleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds |
| couplet | two successive lines, usually in the same meter, linked by rime |
| dactyl | a metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables |
| denotation | the basic definition or dictionary meaning of a word |
| end rime | rimes that occur at the ends of lines |
| English Sonnet | three quatrains and concluding with one couplet. riming ababcdcdefefgg |
| Euphony | A smooth, pleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds |
| Figurative language | Language employing figures of speech; languages that cannot be taken literaly |
| Foot | the basic unit in the measurement of verse. |
| Free verse | non-metrical verse. poetry written is arranged in lines, with no fixed metrical pattern |
| Dramatic Irony | a device by which the author implies a different meaning from that intended by the speaker in a literary work |
| Italian sonnet | 8 lines with the pattern of abbabba and 6 lines with pattern of cdcdcd or cdecde |
| Metaphor | comparison without using like or as |
| Meter | Regularized rhythm |
| metrical pause | a pause that supplies the place of an accented syllable |
| mono-meter | a metrical line consisting of one foot |
| octave | eight line stanza |
| hyperbole | overstatement |
| paradox | a situation that is contradictory |
| paraphrase | a restatement of the content of the poem to make meaning clearer (candy is dandy but liquor is quicker) |
| pentameter | metrical line consisting of five feet |
| personification | human attributes are given to an animal, object, or concept |
| rhyme scheme | any fixed pattern of rimes characterizing a whole poem or its stanzas |
| sestet | six-line stanza |
| simile | comparison with like or as |
| sonnet | fourteen lines normally iambic pentameter with rhyme scheme either italian or English |
| spondee | one foot with two syllables equally accented (true-blue) |
| synecdoche | figure of speech in which part is used as a whole |
| tone | speakers attitude toward his subject |
| trochee | one accented syllable followed by unaccented syllable |
Combine with other sets
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