Terms : Hide Images
| 7178494797 | accent | placement of stress on certain syllables | 0 | |
| 7183911079 | alliteration | repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close together | 1 | |
| 7888002012 | allusion | brief reference to familiar person/ thing/ incident (often Biblical, historical, mythological or literary) | 2 | |
| 7178494798 | ambiguity | multiplicity of meanings | 3 | |
| 7178494799 | anapest | two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable (e.g. the words "understand," "contradict") | 4 | |
| 7178494800 | anaphora | repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of 2+ sentences in a row (e.g. "Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed."- MLK jr. | 5 | |
| 7178494802 | apostrophe | a direct address to an object, an animal, an idea or an absent person as if they are capable of hearing it | 6 | |
| 7178494803 | assonance | repetition of similar nearby vowel sounds | 7 | |
| 7178494804 | ballad | usually simple narrative poem that accounts an exciting/dramatic episode and usually meant to be sung | 8 | |
| 7178494805 | ballad stanza | quatrain (4 lines) in which the 1st and 3rd lines have 4 stressed syllables, the 2nd and 4th lines have 3 stressed syllables and only the 2nd and 4th lines rhyme | 9 | |
| 7178494806 | blank verse | lines written in unrhymed iambic pentameter | 10 | |
| 7934129482 | cacophony | inharmonious sounds used for strong effect | 11 | |
| 7178494807 | caesura | pronounced pause in a line of poetry (usually near the middle) | 12 | |
| 7178494808 | canto | section or division of a long poem | 13 | |
| 7178494810 | conceit | an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different | 14 | |
| 7178494812 | connotation | the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase in addition to its strict dictionary definition | 15 | |
| 7178494813 | consonance | close repetition of identical consonant sounds around different vowels ("flip-flop," or at the end of words, "hip- bed") | 16 | |
| 7178494814 | couplet | a 2-lined stanza, poem or poetic saying | 17 | |
| 7178494815 | dactyl | 1 accented syllable followed by 2 unaccented syllables (e.g. the words "humanly" or "neighboring") | 18 | |
| 7178494818 | dirge | lyric verse that is a short funeral lament | 19 | |
| 7178494819 | doggerel | verse made comic because irregular metrics are made regular by stressing normally unstressed syllables | 20 | |
| 7178494820 | dramatic monologue | dramatic poem in which a single character makes an extended speech revealing his/her psychology at a significant moment | 21 | |
| 7178494821 | dramatic poetry | poetry that reveals character through speech and that consists entirely of monologue/dialogue | 22 | |
| 7178494822 | elegy | formal lyric poem, usually a meditation on death or some other very solemn occassion | 23 | |
| 7178494823 | elision | omission (usually of a vowel or unstressed syllable), i.e. o'er (for over), th' (the) | 24 | |
| 7178494824 | enjambment | poetic sentence which goes into the next line or verse with no end stop in between lines | 25 | |
| 7178494825 | epic | extended narrative poem, written in an elevated style, recounting the deeds of a legendary or actual hero | 26 | |
| 7934137405 | euphony | compatible harmonious sounds producing a harmonious effect | 27 | |
| 7178494826 | extended metaphor | comparison that runs throughout a work or large part of it | 28 | |
| 7887925103 | figurative language | makes use of figures of speech (techniques comparing dissimilar objects) | 29 | |
| 7178494827 | foot | basic unit of meter in poetry | 30 | |
| 7178494828 | free verse | poetry without rhyme or meter | 31 | |
| 7183927028 | hyperbole | a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement for effect (e.g. "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.") | 32 | |
| 7178494829 | iamb | poetic foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (e.g. the words "but soft") | 33 | |
| 7178494830 | iambic pentameter | meter in which the predominant foot is the iamb and there are 5 feet in a line (10 syllables) | 34 | |
| 7183927816 | imagery | the use of sensory language to evoke a picture or concrete sensation of a person, thing, place, or experience; appeals to sight, sound, taste, touch, or smell | 35 | |
| 7178494831 | inversion | variation of the normal word order which puts a modifier or the verb as first in the sentence | 36 | |
| 7183930016 | irony | a discrepancy between appearances/expectations and reality | 37 | |
| 7183931169 | verbal irony | occurs when someone says one thing but really means the opposite | 38 | |
| 7183931526 | situational irony | takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen or what would be appropriate to happen, and what actually happens | 39 | |
| 7183935859 | dramatic irony | takes place when a speaker/persona in a poem thinks one thing is true but the audience or reader knows better | 40 | |
| 7178494833 | litotes | form of understatement in which an affirmation is made by means of negation (e.g. "the wearers of petticoat and farthingale..stepping forth into the public ways and wedging their not unsubstantial personals if occasion were, into the throng"-- Hawthorne) | 41 | |
| 7178494834 | lyric poetry | poetry that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of the speaker | 42 | |
| 7178494836 | madrigal | lyric poem designed to be sung without instruments | 43 | |
| 7183944767 | metaphor | a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as "like" or "as" (e.g. "life is but a walking shadow") | 44 | |
| 7178494837 | metaphysical conceit | often startling and elaborate comparison between apparently dissimilar things | 45 | |
| 7178494838 | meter | rhythmically arranged patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables. One basic unit of meter is a foot. The following terms refer to number of feet per line: monometer dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, heptameter, octometer. | 46 | |
| 7178494839 | metonymy | figure of speech in which a word is substituted by something closely associated with the word itself; a "stand in" for another word (i.e. "crown" for king, "The White House" for president/people who work there, "pen" for written word, "sword" for military might, "dish" for entire plate of food) | 47 | |
| 7178494840 | octave | 8-line poem or stanza | 48 | |
| 7178494841 | ode | a long lyric poem, serious in subject, formal in style and complex in form | 49 | |
| 7183955569 | onomatopeoia | the use of words whose sounds echo their sense (e.g. "pop," "zap") | 50 | |
| 7183956640 | oxymoron | a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase (e.g. "jumbo shrimp," "pretty ugly," "bitter-sweet") | 51 | |
| 7178494843 | paradox | statement that appears self-contradictory, but that reveals a kind of truth | 52 | |
| 7178494844 | parallelism | use of repeated structures in nearby phrases, clauses, sentences or lines of poetry | 53 | |
| 7178494845 | parody | piece of writing that imitates a piece of writing and makes it seem amusing | 54 | |
| 7178494846 | pastoral | work that depicts simple pleasure in rural life | 55 | |
| 7178494847 | pentameter | metrical line consisting of 5 feet | 56 | |
| 7183961770 | personification | a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, attitudes, or other characteristics | 57 | |
| 7934169123 | phonetic intensives | the idea that certain sounds evokes or connects to certain ideas images, or emotions. (e.g. the "fl" in "flash" and "flicker" conjures images of moving light; the "st" in "staunch," "sturdy," or "steady" suggests strength) | 58 | |
| 7178494848 | phyrric | 2 unstressed syllables (e.g. the "to a" and "in a" in the line "To a green thought in a green shade.") | 59 | |
| 7178494849 | prosody | study of versification (including meter, rhyme and stanza formation) | 60 | |
| 7178494850 | quatrain | 4-line stanza | 61 | |
| 7178494851 | refrain | a word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated for effect several times in a poem (usually at the end of a stanza) | 62 | |
| 7178494852 | rhyme scheme | sequence or pattern sounds | 63 | |
| 7178494853 | rhythm | a rise and fall of the voice produced by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in a language; it is the flow of pronounced sound heard in the mind's ear (whereas meter refers to the patterns that sounds follow when a poet has arranged them into metrical verse) | 64 | |
| 7178494855 | scansion | means of studying the elements by which the poet has handled his/her rhythmical effects | 65 | |
| 7178494856 | sestet | 6-line poem or stanza | 66 | |
| 7183965816 | simile | a figure of speech that makes an explicit comparison between two unlike things using words such as "like" or "as" | 67 | |
| 7178494857 | sonnet | 14-line poem having a regular rhythm and pattern or rhyme | 68 | |
| 7178494858 | spondee | metrical foot consisting of 2 accented syllables (e.g. the word "sunshine") | 69 | |
| 7178494859 | stanza | one of the divisions of a poem, usually composed of 2+ lines | 70 | |
| 7887864609 | symbol | something that stands for something larger and more complex (e.g. an idea, attitude), but also exists as an entity itself (e.g. a dove for peace) | 71 | |
| 7178494860 | synecdoche | form of metaphor in which a PART signifies the whole or vice versa (i.e. hand in marriage = commitment, sails = ships, redhead = person with red hair, wheels = vehicle) | 72 | |
| 7178494861 | synesthesia | figure of speech that takes 1 of the 5 senses and creates a picture/image of sensation | 73 | |
| 7178494862 | tercet | 3-line poem or stanza that rhymes | 74 | |
| 7178494863 | tetrameter | metrical line consisting of 4 feet | 75 | |
| 7178494864 | tone | the attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience; a writer can reveal tone through diction, figurative language, syntax, etc. | 76 |
