Poetry

A metrical writing chosen and arranged to create or evoke a specific emotional response through meaning, sound and rhythm.

Terminology

Alliteration – repetition of the same or very similar consonant sounds in words that are close together in a poem “Open here I flung the shutter, when with

many a flirt and flutter, /In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore.”

Allusion- reference to a statement, a person, place or event in history, literature, etc.

Terminology

Analogy- a comparison made between two things to show how they are alike in some respects

Assonance- repetition of similar vowel sounds that are followed by different consonant sounds.

Ballad – a song that tells a story

Terminology

Blank verse - poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

Connotation- the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests

Couplet- two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

I am his Highness’ dog at Kew;

Pray me, Sir, whose dog are you?”

Terminology

Denotation – the definition of a word Diction- A writer or speaker’s choice of

words Epic – a long story told in an elevated

language which relates the deeds of a “larger-than-life” hero who embodies the values of a particular society

Terminology

Free verse – poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme

Haiku – Japanese verse form consisting of three lines and usually seventeen syllables (5 first line, 7 second, 5 third)

Hyperbole – figure of speech using exaggeration to express an emotion. An overstatement. His shoes were the size of ocean liners.

Terminology

Idiom – expression peculiar to a particular language that means something different from the original meaning of each word Raining cats and dogs

Imagery - language that appeals to any of the senses

Inversion – reversal of the normal word order of a sentence

Terminology

Lyric poetry – poetry that does not tell a story but is aimed only at expressing a speaker’s emotions or thoughts.

Metaphor – a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things. Does not use LIKE or AS “My love is a red rose” Implied – does not directly say that something is

something else but uses words to suggest the nature of the comparison

“O, my love bursts into bloom” Extended - a metaphor that is developed over

several lines

Terminology

Meter – generally regular pattern of stress and unstressed syllables Iambic (*/) That time of year thou mayst in me behold

Trochaic (/*) Tell me not in mournful numbers

Anapestic (**/) And the sound of a voice that is still

Dactylic (/**) This is the forest primeval, the…

Terminology

Onomatopoeia – the expression of a sound through words “Bang”

Personification - giving human-like qualities to non human things “This poetry gets bored of being alone”

Refrain – repeated word, phrase, line or group of lines

Terminology

Rhyme – repetition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following them in words that are close together as in poems End - rhyme occurs at the end of a line of

poetry Internal – rhyme occurs within a line of

poetry Rhythm – musical quality in language

produced by repetition

Terminology

Simile – figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things using words similar to like, resemble, as, etc. “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”

Sonnet – a 14 line lyric poem that is usually in iambic pentameter and that has one of several rhyme schemes

Stanza – a group of consecutive lines in poetry that form a single unit

Terminology

Symbol – a person, place, thing or event that stands for itself and something beyond itself as well A Scale, An eagle, etc.

Theme – a central idea of a work of literature

Tone – an attitude a writer takes toward the audience, a subject or a character