Poetry Terminology Flashcards Preview

English Lit - Poetry and Drama > Poetry Terminology > Flashcards

Flashcards in Poetry Terminology Deck (41)
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1
Q

Alliteration

A

The repetition of identical consonant sounds, most often the sounds of beginning words, in close proximity.

e.g. dashing dogs

2
Q

Allusion

A

Unacknowledged reference and quotations that authors assume their readers will recognise.

3
Q

Anaphora

A

Repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of a line throughout a work or the section of a work.

4
Q

Apostrophe

A

Speaker in a poem addresses a person not present or an animal, inanimate object, or concept as though it is a person.

5
Q

Assonance

A

The repetition of identical vowel sounds in different words in close proximity.

e.g. deep green sea

6
Q

Ballad

A

A narrative poem composed of quatrains (iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter) rhyming x-a-x-a. May use refrains.

7
Q

Blank verse

A

Unrhymed iambic pentameter.

e.g. Shakespeare’s plays

8
Q

Caesura

A

A short but definite pause used for effect within a line of poetry.

9
Q

Chiasmus (antimetabole)

A

A ‘crossing’ or reversal of two elements; antimetabole, a form of chiasmus, is the reversal of the same words in a grammatical structure.

e.g. Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

10
Q

Consonance

A

The counterpart of assonance; the partial or total identity of consonants in words whose main vowels differ. Used as half or ‘impure’ rhyme.

e.g. shadow, meadow/ pressed, passed/ sipped, supped

11
Q

Couplet

A

Two successive rhyming lines.

12
Q

Diction

A

Used to describe the level of formality that a speaker uses.

13
Q

Dramatic monologue

A

A type of poem, derived from the theatre, in which a speaker addresses an internal listener or the reader.

14
Q

End-stopped line

A

A line ending in a full pause, usually indicated with a full stop or semicolon.

15
Q

Enjambement

A

A line having no end punctuation but running over to the next line.

16
Q

Explication

A

A complete and detailed analysis of a work of literature, often word-by-word and line-by-line.

17
Q

Hyperbole

A

Overstatement - exaggeration for effect.

18
Q

Litotes

A

Understatement - for effect, often used for irony.

19
Q

Iambic Pentameter

A

An unstressed stressed foot.

20
Q

Image

A

References that trigger the mind to fuse together memories of senses.

21
Q

Internal Rhyme

A

An exact rhyme within a line of poetry.

22
Q

Metaphor

A

A comparison between two unlike things, this describes one thing as if it were something else.

23
Q

Metaphysical conceit

A

An elaborate and extended metaphor or simile that links two apparently unrelated fields or subjects in an unusual and surprising conjunction of ideas.

e.g. stiff twin compasses… the joining together of lovers like legs of a compass.

24
Q

Onomatopoeia

A

A blending of consonant and vowel sounds designed to imitate or suggest the activity being described.

25
Q

Paradox

A

A rhetorical figure embodying a seeming contradiction that is nonetheless true.

26
Q

Personification

A

Attributing human characteristics to nonhuman things or abstractions.

27
Q

Refrain

A

Repeated word or series of words in response or counterpoint to the main verse, as in a ballad.

28
Q

Double rhyme or trochaic rhyme

A

Rhyming of two syllables in which the first syllable is accented.

e.g. flower, shower

29
Q

Triple rhyme or dactylic rhyme

A

Rhyming words of three or more syllables in which any syllable but the last is accented.

e.g. macavity, gravity, depravity

30
Q

Eye rhyme

A

Words that appear to rhyme because they are spelled identically but pronounced differently.

e.g. bear/fear, dough/cough/through

31
Q

Slant rhyme

A

A near rhyme in which the concluding consonant sounds are identical but not the vowels.

e.g. sun/noon, should/food, slim/ham.

32
Q

Rhyme scheme

A

The pattern of rhyme, usually indicated by assigning a letter of the alphabet to each rhyme at the end of a line of poetry.

33
Q

Rhyme royal

A

Rhyme, usually in iambic pentameter, by the scheme ABABBCC

34
Q

Scan (scansion)

A

The process of marking beats in a poem to establish the prevailing metrical pattern.

35
Q

Anapest

A

Unstressed, unstressed, stressed

36
Q

Dactyl

A

Stressed, unstressed, unstressed

37
Q

Spondee

A

Stressed, stressed

38
Q

Sestet

A

A six-line stanza or unit of poetry

39
Q

Synaesthesia

A

A rhetorical figure that describes one sensory impression in terms of a different sense, or one perception in terms of a totally different or even opposite feeling.

e.g. darkness visible, green thought.

40
Q

Syntax

A

Word order and sentence structure.

41
Q

Volta

A

The ‘turning’ point of a Petrarchan sonnet, usually occurring between the octave and the sestet.