1. Poetry Terms

2. Alliteration The repetition of a beginning consonant sound.

3. Allusion References to people, places, things, etc., that the poet expects us to understand.

4. Apostrophe when words are addressed to a person or thing - absent or present - or to a personified idea such as death

5. Assonance the repetition of vowel sounds within words ex. “Tiny white sea lice”

6. Blank Verse unrhymed iambic pentameter But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?

7. Consonance the close repetition of the same consonant sounds within and at the end of words ex. “…he sweats from pores round as goblets full of swamps.”

8. Couplet two consecutive and rhyming lines that are usually equal in length ex. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

9. Elegy a poem of meditative nature, usually one of grief

10. Euphemism a mild, inoffensive word or expression used in place of one that is harsh or unpleasant ex. to pass away for die eliminate for kill

11. Figurative language intentional departure from normal language to gain strength and freshness of expression, to create a picture quality and poetic effect

12. Foot a combination of accented and unaccented syllables which make a metrical unit a foot may incorporate syllables from different words/may cut across words

13. Hyperbole exaggeration for emphasis

14. iamb one unaccented syllable followed by one accented syllable

15. More Feet anapest = three accented syllables in a row dactyle = one accented + two unaccented spondee = two accented trochee = one accented + one unaccented

16. Free verse verse which does not conform to any fixed pattern rhyme and rhythm occur only incidentally

17. Imagery words that bring to mind visual, auditory, tactile, or other sensory thoughts, feelings and memories

18. Lyric any short poem that seems to be especially musical and expresses, in most instances, the poet’s clearly revealed thoughts and feelings

19. Metaphor a figure of speech in which two things are compared without the use of like or as ex. Love is a rose.

20. Meter the pattern or rhythm determined by the accented and unaccented syllables in a line of poetry meter is established by the repetition of a dominant foot

21. Meter - continued monometer = one foot dimeter = two feet trimeter = three feet tetrameter = four feet pentameter = five feet hexameter = six feet ex. iambic pentameter is a line of verse consisting of five iambs

22. Mood the frame of mind or state of feeling created by a piece of writing ex. sorrowful mood sentimental mood

23. Narrative poem poem that tells you a story

24. Ode a lengthy dignified poem expressing exalted or enthusiastic emotion

25. Onomatopoeia words that imitate sound enables the writer to express sense through sound ex. splash, buzz, pow, murmur

26. Parody a humorous imitation of a serious piece of writing

27. Personification gives human qualities to non-human things

28. Quatrain a four-line stanza

29. Rhyme the repetition of syllable sounds at the ends of words ex. beautiful, dutiful

30. Rhyme scheme the pattern of end rhyme in a poem marked with letters, beginning with “a” and continuing through the alphabet

31. Simile a comparison using like or as ex. Love is like a rose

32. Sonnet a poem consisting of 14 lines usually written in iambic pentameter Petrarchan and Shakespearean/English

33. Stanza a group of related lines that forms a section of a poem

34. Symbol an image that carries meaning beyond itself

35. Tone the author’s attitude towards the subject