Poetry Techniques Flashcards
(22 cards)
Alliteration
When more than one word begins with the same letter
“Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire”- Exposure
Ambiguous language
Language that could have more than one meaning
“His bloody life in my bloody hands” - Remains. Is he frustrated? Annoyed? Guilty?
Anaphora
Successive phrases or lines begin with the same words
Parallelism, relates phrases together and emphasises their importance
Assonance
Repeated vowel sounds
“Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence” - Exposure
Ceasura
A pause in the middle of a line, shown by comma, dash or full stop.
“of reeds and stalk-crickets, || fiddling the dank air…”
Consonance
Repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
Contrast
Showing two oposing descriptions/ideas for effect
Emotive language
Language intended to create an emotional response
“Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us…” - Exposure
Enjambment
Continuing a sentence on the next line
creates rhythm and shows high emotion
Internal Rhyme
Lines whose middle and end words rhyme
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary” – Edgar Allen Poe
Irony
It is a humorous or sarcastic use of words or ideas, implying the opposite of what they mean
“he earns his living” - War Photographer. Ironic as he is earning a living from people that have died.
Juxtaposition
Normally unassociated (or opposite) ideas placed next to eachother
Metaphor
When you make a comparison saying something IS something else
“Solutions slop in trays” - War Photographer
Motif
A recurring idea. Details whose repetition adds to the works deeper meaning
Onomatopoeia
Sounds like what it is describing. i.e. a sound effect
“spits lake a tame cat / turned savage” - Storm on the Island
Oxymoron
Two contrasting words placed NEXT TO eachother
“marriage hearse” - London
Paradox
A self-contradictory statement
“I can’t resist anything but temptation” - Oscar Wilde
Personification
Giving human attributes to abstract ideas, nature, or objects to create imagery. It must be used for effect and something only humans do.
“a huge peak … Upreared its head” - Extract from The Prelude
Phonetic Spelling
Spelling a word the was it sounds rather than using the dictionary spelling
“Dem tell me” - Checking Out Me History
Plosive Alliteration
When letters repeatedly / deliberately begin with the explosive sounds of b, c, g, d, k, p, or t
“He plunged past with his bayonet” - Bayonet charge
Rhetorical Question
A question that is posed without the expectation of an answer
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Rhythm
Incl. Line Length
A repeated pattern of long and short (stressed or unstressed) sounds
Indicates pace
