Poetical Glossary

Question 1

Define Alliteration

Answer 1

repetition of the sound at a beginning of a word (Peter’s perfect pens)

Question 2

Define anaphora

Answer 2

repetition at the start of a line

Question 3

What is assonance

Answer 3

repetition of a vowel sound anywhere within a section of the poem

Question 4

Define Caesura

Answer 4

A break in the line (full stop in middle of line)

Question 5

Define Consonance

Answer 5

repetition of a consonant sound anywhere within a section of the
poem

Question 6

Define Contrast

Answer 6

A strong difference between two things (e.g. rich/poor)

Question 7

Define couplet

Answer 7

a pair of rhymed lines (or rhyming couplet)

Question 8

Define Enjambment

Answer 8

a flow on line (where the reader is forced to keep reading rather
than stop at the end of the line / stanza in order to maintain the meaning

Question 9

Define form

Answer 9

a specific type of poem, such as a sonnet or a haiku

Question 10

Define Fricatitives

Answer 10

these consonants create a turbulent flow of air. E.g. f and th

Question 11

Define lambic pentameter

Answer 11

Iambic pentameter – a line containing ten syllables where the stress alternates
from soft to heavy (five pairs of syllables)

Question 12

Define imagery

Answer 12

words so descriptive they create a picture in the reader’s mind

Question 13

Define Metaphor

Answer 13

an image created by referring to something as something else (He is
a pig)

Question 14

Define meter

Answer 14

the measurement of the rhythm of a poem

Question 15

Define octet

Answer 15

a stanza comprising eight lines

Question 16

Define ode

Answer 16

a poem in praise of something / usually addresses and exalts its subject

Question 17

Define onomatopoeia

Answer 17

words that sound like their meaning (crash/bang/pop)

Question 18

Define oxymoron

Answer 18

two words positioned together with contrasting ideas (beautiful
death)

Question 19

Define personification

Answer 19

giving an object human qualities (the wind whistled)

Question 20

Define plosives

Answer 20

sounds that explode from the mouth e.g B, P

Question 21

Define Quartet

Answer 21

A stanza of four lines

Question 22

Define repetition

Answer 22

words/phrases/sentences and structures repeated

Question 23

Define rhyme

Answer 23

repetition of a sound either at the end of the line or internally, within
the same line. Also: Half rhyme (where the words almost rhyme / Eye rhyme – where the words look as though they should rhyme but pronunciation means they do not

Question 24

Define rhythm

Answer 24

the use of meter and / or rhyme to give the poem a beat

Question 25

Define sestet

Answer 25

a stanza comprised of 6 lines

Question 26

Define sibilance

Answer 26

repeated s sound

Question 27

Define simile

Answer 27

a comparison of two things using ‘like’ and ‘as’ (as cold as ice)

Question 28

Define sonnet

Answer 28

a fourteen-line poem, usually associated with love

Question 29

Define stecatto

Answer 29

short and abrupt

Question 30

Define stanza

Answer 30

how lines are grouped in poems

Question 31

Define symbolism

Answer 31

symbol that represents an idea (cross = religion)