Poetry 10 Terms

Poem piece of writing that presents vivid experiences, ideas, or emotions by appealing to the imagination of the reader. Poems produce their effect through the use of images, sound, and rhythm.

Symbol something that stands for something else, especially for something abstract  

Allusion an indirect reference Examples “I was surprised his nose was not growing like Pinocchio’s.” “When she lost her job, she acted like a Scrooge, and refused to buy anything that wasn’t necessary.” “He was a real Romeo with the ladies.”

Lyric short poem expressing personal thoughts and feelings

Meter the rhythm of the poem

Foot – unit of rhythm iambic foot: unstressed, stressed (today, abstain, the right) trochaic foot: stressed, unstressed (counter, chemist, once upon a midnight)

Kinds of Poems

Sonnets lyric poems fourteen lines long usually in iambic pentameter Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains (four-line stanzas) and a couplet (two lines) to a strict end-rhyme scheme (abab cdcd efef gg)

Ode a poem expressing lofty emotions – express and event or are addressed to nature or to a person, place, or thing.

Ballad narrative poem that tells a story

epic a long poem that is often about a heroic character. The Iliad and the Odyssey are examples of epics

Alliteration repetition of consonant sounds Example “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes; A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.” (From the prologue to Act 1. This is an example of alliteration with the “f” and “l.”) 

Assonance repeated vowel sounds Example "Those images that yet Fresh images beget, That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea." (W.B. Yeats, "Byzantium") "Flash with a rash gimme my cash flickin' my ash Runnin with my money, son, go out with a blast." (Busta Rhymes, "Gimme Some More," 1998)

Onomatopoeia words that suggest the sound of the thing they describe (buzz, pop, bang, hum)

Rhyme repetition of the same sounds

Simile a comparison between two things using like or as:

Apostrophe figure of speech addressed to someone who is dead or absent, or to an inanimate object Example "Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour: England hath need of thee . . .." (William Wordsworth, "London, 1802") "Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone Without a dream in my heart Without a love of my own. (Lorenz Hart, "Blue Moon")

Metonymy figure of speech that uses an attribute of a thing or something associated with the thing to stand for the thing itself Example "The pen is mightier than the sword,"

Synecdoche like metonymy except that a part of something is used to stand for the whole thing (many hands make light work) Example At the Olympics, you will hear that Canada won a gold medal in an event. That actually means a team from Canada, not the country as a whole.   If “the world” is not treating you well, that would not be the entire world but just a part of it that you've encountered.

Personification the attribution of human characteristics to non-human things

Symbolism – use of one thing to represent something else