1. Poetry Terms

2. Free Verse
Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme. This poetry imitates the natural rhythms of speech.

3. Blank Verse
Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank means not rhymed.
Verse used by William Shakespeare.

4. Iambic Pentameter
Five iambs - The most important verse in poetry form in the English epic and dramatic poetry.

5. Sonnet
A fourteen line poem, a lyric, and usually in iambic pentameter.

6. Ballad
A fairly short narrative poem written in a songlike stanza form.

7. Lyric
Poetry that does not tell a story but aims at expressing an author’s thoughts or emotions.

8. Imagery
Word pictures that appeal to the five senses

9. Catalog Poem A catalog poem is built on a list of images.
Sometimes it builds into a rolling rhythm.

10. Scene
A setting which includes time and place
Setting may be implied or stated directly

11. Haiku A Japanese poetry form 17 syllables, 5-7-5
presents images from everyday life
Contains seasonal word or symbol
Presents a moment of discovery or enlightenment

12. Extended Imagery
Images that continue through several lines of poetry.

13. Example of Extended Imagery
“Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears,
A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match.”
Robert Browning
From “Meeting at Night”

14. An overused word, worn-out expression or phrase
Cliche
An overused word, worn-out expression or phrase

15. Allusion
A reference to a statement, person, place, event, or thing that is known from literature, history, religion, myth, politics, sports, science, or pop culture.

16. Symbolism
A person, place, thing, or event that stands for itself and something beyond itself.

17. Figures of Speech

18. Simile
A figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike, using such words or phrases as like, as, than, similar to, resembles, or seems.

19. Metaphor
A figure of speech in which an implicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike.

20. Personification
A figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, an object, or a concept.

21. An exaggeration for effect
Hyperbole
An exaggeration for effect

22. Rhyme
Repetition of similar sounds or words, within a line or at the end of a line

23. Half-rhyme Also called near rhyme or slant rhyme
Words are alike in some sound but do not exactly sound the same
Example: now and know

24. Approximate Rhymes Near Rhymes Slant Rhymes
Two words are alike in some sound but do not rhyme exactly
Example:
now and know

25. Stanza Group of consecutive lines in a poem that form a single unit
Couplet 2
Tercet 3
Quatrain 4
Cinquain 5

26. Stanza Continued
Sestet 6
Heptastich 7
Octave 8

27. Rhyme Scheme
Applying the letters of the alphabet to new sounds of words at the end of each line.
I will go a
To the show a
We will eat b
At our seat b

28. Meters Monometer = 1 Dimeter =2 Trimeter =3 Tetrameter =4
Pentameter =5
Hexameter =6

29. Meter continued
Heptameter = 7
Octameter = 8

30. Sound Words

31. Repetition of consonant sounds in words that are close together
Alliteration
Repetition of consonant sounds in words that are close together

32. Consonance
Repetition of consonant sounds within the words in a line of poetry

33. Assonance
Repetition of similar vowel sounds that are followed by different consonant sounds
Example: base and fade
young and love

34. Repetition
Words, phrases, or lines that repeat in the poem

35. Internal Rhyme
Words that rhyme within one line of poetry.

36. Rhymes in the middle of a line
Internal Rhyme
Rhymes in the middle of a line
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary.”
Edgar Allan Poe, from “The Raven”

37. Words that sound like their meaning
Onomatopoeia
Words that sound like their meaning

38. Alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in language
Rhythm
Alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in language

39. A generally regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
Meter
Poetic feet
A generally regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables

40. Kinds of Feet Meter or Rhythm
Iamb da Dah
Trochee Dah da
Anapest da da Dah
Dactyl Dah da da
Spondee Dah Dah
These sounds are syllables or words.

41. Scansion
Reading in an exaggerated way to find the rhythm (meter).

42. Theme
The underlying meaning or idea of the poem

43. Oxymoron
A figure of speech that combines apparently contradictory ideas.
Example: jumbo shrimp

44. Apostrophe
A figure of speech in which a writer directly addresses an absent or dead person, an abstract quality, or something non-human as if it were present and capable of responding.

45. Implied Metaphor
Comparison that suggests rather than directly states that one think is something else.
Words suggest the nature of the comparison.

46. Narration
Type of writing or speaking that tells about a series of related events. (The other types of writing are description, exposition, and persuasion.)

47. Style The choice of words, phrases, and sentences
Placement on the page
Dialect or regional speech
Poetic forms, such as ode, ballad, sonnet, or lyric, to name a few

48. Diction
Choice of words

49. Speaker
The voice that is talking to us in a poem.

50. Pun
Play on multiple meanings of a word or two words that sound alike but with different meanings. Shakespeare was a great punster.

51. Dialect
Way of speaking that is characteristic of a particular region or a particular group of people.

52. A question asked but not intended by the speaker to be answered.
Rhetorical Question
A question asked but not intended by the speaker to be answered.

53. To represent as less than is the case
Understatement
To represent as less than is the case

54. Epithet
A short descriptive phrase pointing out an outstanding quality of a character.

55. Implied Ideas
Information in a poem that implies meaning, but it does not say explicitly.
Many poems ask the reader to “read between the lines.”

56. Irony Verbal - The difference between what one says and what one means
Situational – The difference between what seems appropriate and what really happens, or when what we expect to happen is in fact quite contradictory to what really does take place.

57. Irony Continued
Dramatic Irony – When the audience or the reader knows something important that a character in a play or story does not know.

58. Extended Metaphor
A comparison developed over several lines or the entire poem.

59. Analogy
An analogy is a comparison of two pairs of words. The words in each pair have the same relationship to each other.

60. Paraphrase
A restatement of the content of a poem designed to make its prose meaning as clear as possible.

61. Tone
The author’s attitude toward his/her material. Tone depends on word choice.

62. Conflict
Struggle or clash between opposing characters or between opposing forces.
External conflicts
Man vs. Man social
Man vs. Nature physical
Man vs. Fate metaphysical

63. Conflict Continued
Internal Conflict
Man vs. Himself- psychological

64. Rhyme Scheme
Assigning letters of the alphabet to rhyming lines in order to establish the kind of poem.

65. Rhymed Couplet
Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.

66. End-stopped Line
Punctuation at the end of the line.

67. Run-on Line
No punctuation at the end of the line, which means that the reader continues the phrases without pausing or stopping.

68. Shakespearean Sonnet
Three, four line stanzas, plus a couplet.Each stanza reflects a thought and the couplet give an answer or a conclusion.
Abab, cdcd, efef, gg

69. Italian Sonnet Also called Petrarchan Sonnet One octave, one sestet
The octave establishes a problem, the sestet gives a solution
Abba, abba, cde, cde

70. Prose Poem
A prose poem is a compact and rhythmic composition written in the form of a prose paragraph.
Like any poem, a prose poem often presents its message by means of a vivid figure of speech.

71. Dictionary definition of a word
Denotation
Dictionary definition of a word

72. All the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests
Connotation
All the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests

73. Dramatic Monologue
A dramatic monologue is a poem in which a character speaks to one or more listeners. The reactions of the listener must be inferred by the reader.