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| 7944473640 | alliteration | The repetition of identical or similar sounds, normally at the beginnings of words. Gnus never know pneumonia. | 0 | |
| 7944473641 | allusion | A reference in a work of literature to something outside the work, especially to a well-known historical or literary event, person, or work. When T.S. Eliot writes, "To have squeezed the universe into a ball" in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," he is alluding to the lines "Let us roll our strength and all/ Our sweetness up into one ball" in Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress." | 1 | |
| 7944473642 | apostrophe | A figure of speech in which someone (usually, but not always absent), some abstract quality, or a nonexistent personage is directly addressed as though present. "Papa Above! Regard a Mouse." Emily Dickinson | 2 | |
| 7944473648 | conceit | An ingenious and fanciful notion or conception, usually expressed through an elaborate analogy, and pointing to a striking parallel between two seemingly dissimilar things. A conceit may be a brief metaphor, but it also may form the framework of an entire poem. | 3 | |
| 7944473649 | consonance | The repetition of similar consonant sounds in a group of words. The term usually refers to words in which the ending consonants are the same but the vowels that precede them are different. "add" and "read", "bill" and "ball", "born" and "burn" | 4 | |
| 7944473650 | couplet | A two-line stanza, usually with end-rhymes the same. aa, bb, cc, dd | 5 | |
| 7944473651 | diction | The use of words in a literary work. - formal: the level of usage common in serious books and formal discourse - informal: the level of usage found in the relaxed but polite conversation of cultivated people - colloquial: the everyday usage of a group, possibly including terms and constructions accepted in that group but not universally acceptable - slang: a group of newly coined words which are not acceptable for formal usage as yet | 6 | |
| 7944473652 | didactic poem | A poem which is intended primarily to teach a lesson Alexander Pope's Essay on Criticism is a good example of didactic poetry. | 7 | |
| 7944473653 | dramatic poem | A poem which employs a dramatic form or some element or elements of dramatic techniques as a means of achieving poetic ends. For example: dramatic monologue | 8 | |
| 7944473654 | dramatic monologue | A lyric poem in which the speaker tells an audience about a dramatic moment in his/her life and, in doing so, reveals his/her character. | 9 | |
| 7944473655 | elegy | A sustained and formal poem setting forth the poet's meditations upon death or another solemn theme. Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." | 10 | |
| 7944473656 | end-stopped | A line with a pause at the end. Lines that end with a period, a comma, a colon, a semicolon, an exclamation point, or a question mark are end-stopped lines. "True ease in writing comes from Art, not Chance, As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance." | 11 | |
| 7944473657 | enjambment | The continuation of the sense and grammatical construction from one line of poetry to the next. . . . .Or if Sion hill Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flow'd Fast by the oracle of God, . . . .Paradise Lost, John Milton | 12 | |
| 7944473659 | extended metaphor | An implied analogy, or comparison, which is carried throughout a stanza or an entire poem. | 13 | |
| 7944473660 | eye rhyme | Rhyme that appears correct from spelling, but is half-rhyme or slant rhyme from the pronunciation. "watch" and "match", "love" and "move" | 14 | |
| 7944473661 | figurative language | Writing that uses figures of speech (as opposed to literal language or that which is actual or specifically denoted). Figurative language uses words to mean something other than their literal meaning. Metaphor, irony, simile, etc. | 15 | |
| 7944473662 | free verse | Poetry which is not written in a traditional meter but is still rhythmical. "The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on." "The Fog," Carl Sandburg | 16 | |
| 7944473663 | half rhyme (slant rhyme) | Imperfect, approximate rhyme. It can be defined as a rhyme in which the stressed syllables of ending consonants match, however the preceding vowel sounds do not match. For example: Similar to these two words, "moon" and "run" and in the words "hold" and "bald" the ending consonant sounds are similar, whereas vowel sounds are different. | 17 | |
| 7944473664 | heroic couplet | Two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines rhymed aa, bb, cc with the thought usually completed in the two-line unit. "But when to mischief mortals bend their will, How soon they find fit instruments of ill!" "Rape of the Lock," Alexander Pope | 18 | |
| 7944473665 | hyperbole | A deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration. It may be used for either serious or comic effect. | 19 |
