Poetry key terms

Question 1

Assonance

Answer 1

Repetition of vowel sounds between different consonants e.g. neigh, fade.

Question 2

Consonance

Answer 2

Repetition of indentical consonant sounds within 2 or more words in close proximity like boost and best. Or in svseral compound words like fulfil and ping pong.

Question 3

Dissonance

Answer 3

Harsh or grating sounds that don’t go together.

Question 4

Euphony

Answer 4

Harmonious sounds that succeed each other e.g. cellar door. Opposite of Cacophony - unpleasant and harsh sounds that succeed each other.

Question 5

Extended metaphor

Answer 5

Sustained comparison, often referred to many times in a piece of writing e.g. The Blue Flannel Suit.

Question 6

Figurative language

Answer 6

Language that contains figures of speech like similes and metaphors to create imaginative not literal associations.

Question 7

Metonymy

Answer 7

A figure of speech using the name of an object, person or idea to represent something with which is associated e.g, the crown - monarch.

Question 8

Oxymoron

Answer 8

A figure of speech made up of contradictory words or phrases e.g. wise fool.

Question 9

Pacing

Answer 9

The movement of a literacy piece from one point or section to another.

Question 10

Symbolism

Answer 10

The use of symbols or anything that is meant to be taken both literally and as a representation of something of great significance.

Question 11

Tone

Answer 11

The characteristic emotion or attitude of an author towards the character, subject and audience.

Question 12

Enjambment

Answer 12

Continuation of a sentence from one line of a poem to the next.

Question 13

Blank verse

Answer 13

The verse form consisting of unrhymed lines in iambic pentameter,

Question 14

Caesura

Answer 14

Pause in a line of verse, shown through natural speech patterns.

Question 15

Colloquial

Answer 15

Slang or ordinary language.

Question 16

Couplet

Answer 16

2 rhyming lines of iambic pentameter that present a single idea or connection.

Question 17

Syntax

Answer 17

The order/way words are put together to form phrases, clauses and sentences.

Question 18

Elegy

Answer 18

A poetic lament upon the death of a particular person.

Question 19

Free verse

Answer 19

Poetry that has varying line lengths, traditional meter and non rhyming lines.

Question 20

Iambic

Answer 20

Poetry that consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

Question 21

Metaphor

Answer 21

Implicit comparison of 2 dissimilar things.

Question 22

Connotation

Answer 22

What is inexplicitly implied by a word.

Question 23

Juxtaposition

Answer 23

2 lexis which are placed close together with contrasting effect e.g. white night.

Question 24

Quatrain

Answer 24

A poetic stanza of 4 lines.

Question 25

Simile

Answer 25

Comparison of tow things using like or as.

Question 26

Personification

Answer 26

Treating an abstraction or non-human object as if it were a person by giving it human characteristics.

Question 27

Onomatopoeia

Answer 27

A word which imitates the natural sounds of a thing e.g. the buzzing bee flew away.

Question 28

Rhythm

Answer 28

The modulation of stressed and unstressed sounds.

Question 29

Noun

Answer 29

Name, place or thing e.g. door.

Question 30

Adjective

Answer 30

Describes a noun.

Question 31

Adverb

Answer 31

Describes a verb, usually ends in ly e.g. quickly.

Question 32

Sibilance

Answer 32

The words in a phrase all starting with s e..g slithering snake swam through the swamp.

Question 33

End stop

Answer 33

A line in a poem that ends with a full stop.