Language Definitons

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

Repetition of identical consonant sounds.

e.g pick up your pens and proceed

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

Unacknowledged reference/quotation author assumes reader will recognise.

Question 3

Anaphora

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Apostrophe

Answer 4

Speaker in poem addresses person not present or animal/inanimate object/concept as though a person.

(Milton!)

Question 5

Assonance

Answer 5

Repetition of identical vowel sounds

e.g. deep green sea

Question 6

Ballad

Answer 6

Narrative poem consisting of quatrains (iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter) rhyming a-b-a-b

Question 7

Blank Verse

Answer 7

Unrhymed iambic pentameter e.g Shakespeare

Question 8

Caesura

Answer 8

Short but definite pause for effect in a line of poetry.(Carpe diem & Short life poetry)

Question 9

Carpe Diem

Answer 9

Seize the day

Question 10

Chiasmus (antimetabole)

Answer 10

Crossing/reversal of 2 elements.

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

Question 11

Common meter/hymn measure

Answer 11

Iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic triameter

e.g. Amazing Grace by John Newton.

Question 12

Consonance

Answer 12

Alliteration of the ‘s’ sound.

Question 13

Couplet

Answer 13

2 successive rhyming lines.

End a Shakespearean sonnet

Question 14

Diction

Answer 14

Level of formality a speaker uses.

Formal/high = proper

Neutral/middle = correct & simple

Informal/low = Relaxed & familiar

Question 15

Dramatic monologue

Answer 15

Addresses internal listener or reader.

Question 16

End-stopped line

Answer 16

Line ending in full pause (full-stop/semicolon)

Question 17

Enjambment

Answer 17

Line running over to next line

Question 18

Explication

Answer 18

Complete & detailed analysis of work of literature, often word-by-word & line-by-line

Question 19

Foot (prosody)

Answer 19

Measured combination of heavy and light stresses.

monometer - 1 foot

dimeter - 2 feet

trimeter - 3 feet

tetrameter - 4 feet

pentameter - 5 feet

hexameter - 6 feet

heptameter/septenary - 7 feet

Question 20

Heroic Couplet

Answer 20

2 successive rhyming lines of iambic pentameter

2nd is end-stopped

Question 21

Hymn meter/common measure

Answer 21

Quatrains of iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter. Rhyming a-b-a-b

Question 22

Hyperbole

Litote

Answer 22

Exaggeration for effect

Understatement for effect

Question 23

Iambic pentameter

Answer 23

Unstressed stressed foot

Most natural & common meter in English

Question 24

Image

Answer 24

Triggers mind to fuse together memories of sight, sounds, tastes, smells & sensations of touch.

Question 25

Internal rhyme

Answer 25

Exact rhyme within line of poetry.

Question 26

Metaphor

Answer 26

Saying one thing IS something else

Question 27

Metaphysical Conceit

Answer 27

Elaborate & extended metaphor/simile that links 2 unrelated things.

Question 28

Meter

Answer 28

Number of feet within a line of traditional verse. e.g iambic pentameter

Question 29

Octave

Answer 29

First 8 lines of Italian/Petrarchan sonnet Unified by rhyme, rhyme & topic

Question 30

Onomatopoeia

Answer 30

Word sounds like the sound it is describing. e.g buzz

Question 31

Paradox

Answer 31

Rhetorical figure embodying a contradiction that is true

Question 32

Personification

Answer 32

Uses human characteristics to describe an inanimate object/animal

Question 33

Petrarchan sonnet

Answer 33

Sonnet that divides into an octave & sestet. There is a change in topic between the two.

Question 34

Pyrrhic Foot (prosody)

Answer 34

2 unstressed feet..

Question 35

Refrain

Answer 35

Repeated seriews of words in response to main verse (ballad)

Question 36

Rhyme royal

Answer 36

Stanza form used by Chaucer. Usually in iambic pentameter with rhyme scheme of ababbcc

Question 37

Scan (scansion)

Answer 37

Process of marking beats in a poem to establish prevailing metrical pattern.

Question 38

Sestet

Answer 38

6 line stanza/unit of poetry

Question 39

Shakespearean sonnet

Answer 39

14 line poem written in iambic pentameter, composed of 3 quatrains & a couplet rhyming abab

Question 40

Simile

Answer 40

Saying something is like or as something else

Question 41

Stanza

Answer 41

Paragraph in a poem

Question 42

Synaesthesia

Answer 42

Rhetorical figure describing 1 sensory impression in terms of a different sense. e.g. green thought

Question 43

Syntax

Answer 43

Word order & sentence structure

Question 44

Volta

Answer 44

Turning point in a Petrarchan sonnet.

Question 45

Pejorative Laudatory

Answer 45

Negative Positive