English Poetry terms Flashcards
(17 cards)
Consonance
The repetition of constant sounds, but not vowels, in a chunk of text. Ex: a worm named Maurice took the garden by storm
Symbol
An object or action that means something more than its literal meaning
Meter
The measured arrangement of sounds/beats in a poem, including the poet’s placement of emphasis and the number of syllables per line
Stanza
A unified group of lines in poetry . This is often marked by spacing between sections of the poem.
Ballad
A story/narrative in poetic form
Rhythm
The recurrence of stressed and unstressed sounds in poetry. Depending on how sounds are arranged, the rhythm of a poem may be fast or slow, choppy or smooth.
Assonance
The repetition of vowel sounds in a chunk of text
ex: “Ivan will try to light the fire”
Theme
The central meaning or dominant message the poet is trying to deliver to the reader.
Diction
The author’s specific word choice
Tone
The attitude the poem’s narrator (this may or not be the actual poet) takes towards a subject or character: serious, humorous, sarcastic, ironic, concerned, tongue in cheek, solemn, objective etc.
Free verse
Poetry that does not rhyme or have measurable meter
Onomatopoeia
A word that sounds like what it means
ex: buzz, click, bang, sizzle
Metaphor
A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things without using connecting words such as, “like” or “as”
ex: love is a battlefield
Allusion
A brief reference to a real or fictional person, event, place, or work of art.
Enjambment
This occurs when one line ends without a pause or any punctuation and continues onto the next line
ex: if this were a poem, this would be an example of the technique.
Alliteration
The occurance of the same letter or sound at the beging of adjacent or closely connected words
ex: “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes; a pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life
Verse
A single line of poetry
