Poetry Terms 2022 Flashcards
(124 cards)
1
Q
Denotation (Kiersten)
A
The denotation of a word is its literal definition—its dictionary definition.
Example: “denotation of the word “blue” is the color blue, but its connotation is “sad””
Example Sentence:
The blueberry was very blue.
2
Q
Anaphora (Kiersten)
A
The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of sentences, phrases, or clauses.
Example: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.”
3
Q
Parallelism (Kiersten)
A
The repetition of the same grammatical form in two or more parts of a sentence.
Example: I like to jog, bake, paint, and watch movies
4
Q
Syntax (Kiersten)
A
The set of rules that determines the arrangement of words in a sentence.
Example: “The boy ran hurriedly,” reads differently than, “Hurriedly, the boy ran.”
5
Q
Iambic Feet (Kiersten)
A
Consists of two syllables. Has one unstressed syllable followed by another stressed syllable.
Example: amuse (a-MUSE), portray (por-TRAY), delight (de-LIGHT)
6
Q
Simile (Karsten)
A
A comparison using “like” or “as”
Example: She remembered how one teacher, Mrs. Horn, had a “nose like a hook….” (Viramontes, “Under the Feet of Jesus”)
7
Q
Personification (Audrey)
A
Giving person-like qualities to non-human objects
Example: the wind howled, the trees groaned, the car wheels screeched
8
Q
Understatement (May)
A
Understatement is an expression of lesser strength than what the speaker or writer actually means or than what is normally expected.
Example: Hurricane “It looks like it rained last night.”
9
Q
Colloquial Diction (Lily M)
A
Use of informal, local expressions or slang
Example: “I am going to order a pop with my sandwich” (pop is midwestern, pop v soda)
10
Q
Eye/sight Rhyme (May)
A
An instance in which the endings of two or more words appear to rhyme but do not
Example: move and love
11
Q
Iambic Feet (Lily M)
A
Unstressed syllable followed by stressed syllable
Examples: amuse (a-MUSE), delight (de-LIGHT), return (re-turn)
12
Q
Slang
A
A type of language that consists of words and phrases that are regarded as very informal, are more common in speech than writing and are typically restricted to a particular context or group of people.
Example: Grass is slang for marijuana
13
Q
Euphony (Kaitlyn A)
A
the quality of being pleasing to the ear, especially through a harmonious combination of words
Example: Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are
14
Q
Synecdoche (May)
A
A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa
Example: Ask for her hand in marriage
15
Q
Scansion (Lily M)
A
Breaking up poem’s lines or verses into metrical feet and identifying the stressed / unstressed syllables
*it’s an action to help the reader recognize regularity and variation in a poem, an example would be scanning a line of a verse to determine its rhythm
16
Q
Couplet(Lily Wang)
A
A pair of successive rhyming lines, usually of the same length.
Example: Good night! Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow / That I shall say good night till it be morrow.
17
Q
Quatrain(Lily Wang)
A
A four-line stanza, lines 2 and 4 must rhyme.
Example: ABAB, ABCB
18
Q
Visual Imagery(Lily Wang)
A
The poet appeals to the reader’s sense of sight by describing something the speaker or narrator of the poem sees.
Example: The white frost creeping up on the windowpane made her look at her car covered under a 3-inch thick blanket of the snow.
19
Q
Metaphor(Lily Wang)
A
An object in a poem is described as being the same as another otherwise unrelated object.
Example: Life is a highway. Her eyes were diamonds.
20
Q
Dactylic Feet (Kaitlyn A)
A
A long syllable followed by two short syllables, as determined by syllable weight
Example: Hickory, dickory, dock
21
Q
Meter (Lily M)
A
The basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse
Examples: Iambic, trochaic, dactylic, anapestic, and spondaic
22
Q
Tactile Imagery (Kaitlyn A)
A
Description that stimulates your sense of touch
Example: the soft, smooth blanket grazed the chair as I walked by
23
Q
Anapestic Feet (Kaitlyn A)
A
Poetic meter that has four anapestic metrical feet per line. Each foot has two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable
Example: The stockings were hung by the chimney with care
24
Q
Metonymy (Hannah O)
A
A figure of speech in which the name of an object or concept is replaced with a word closely related to or suggested by the original.
Example: The Show - Owen Sheers
“leaving a crocodile pit of cameras / flashing their teeth for more”
25
Oxymoron (Hannah O)
A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction.
Example: Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespare
"Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!"
26
Auditory Imagery--Audrey
Using sound-based words to describe a situation; appealing to the reader's sense of hearing in writing
Example: "And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn / Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft" from "To Autumn" by John Keats
27
Consonance (grace)
A speech sound that -when combined with a vowel- can make a syllable. This style of writing is when the same speech sound is repeated in a sentence. ex: He struck a streak of bad luck. Or Mike liked his new bike
28
Extended Metaphore (grace)
Use of a single metaphor that is revisited throughout the story or poem, or contains similie and metaphor. ex: The thunderous roar of the ceiling's collapse was loud enough to wake the dead.
29
Internal Rhyme (grace)
A rhyme involves a word in the middle of a sentence and a word nearer to the end of the sentence. ex: I'm in heaven with Kevin! There is the glue in my shoe.
30
Slang (Hannah O)
Words that are very specific to a region and time, and have been recently coined.
Example: 2 mothers in a h d b playground - Arthur Yap
"come, cheong, quick go home & bathe / ah pah wants to take you chya-hong in new motor-car"
31
Onomatopoeia (grace)
A word that is spelled/formed according to a sound that can be heard or made (bam, sizzle, cuckoo)
32
Synecdoche (Hannah O)
When a piece is used to represent a whole.
Example: Sujata Bhatt - Search for My Tongue
"Search for my tongue"
33
Stanza (Katarina)
A group of lines in poetry, usually offset by a blank line or indentation
Example: The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
34
Tone--Audrey
The attitude with which the poet views their poem's narrator (not what it makes the reader feel, but what the poet themselves feels)
35
Couplet (Katarina)
Two lines of a verse that are joined by a rhyme and have the same meter
Example: On a branch an owl was perching
For his dinner he was searching
36
Antithesis (Ryn)
A contrast or opposition between two things that is established through parallel of words, phrases, or sentences
Ex: "...it was the season of life, it was the season of darkness." (From "A Tale of Two Cities")
37
Pun--Audrey
Using words and their definitions in a joke
Example: "A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two-tired" (instead of "too tired")
38
High Diction (Lily T)
Formal or elevated diction used in formal settings such as research papers
Ex. "It would be a privilege to assist you with the formation of this institution."
39
Synesthesia (Lily T)
When an author blends the senses to describe something
Ex. "The shiny screeching car flew past me."
40
Olfactory Imagery (Lily T)
Using smell as a way to describe an object or memory
Ex. "The sweet scent of fresh apple pie always reminded me of my grandma."
41
Overstatement (Lily T)
Expressing something strongly; exaggerating
Ex. "That fish I caught this weekend was bigger than me!"
42
Octave/Octet (Stella)
An eight line stanza
Example:
When Eve walked among
the animals and named them—
nightingale, redshouldered hawk,
fiddler crab, fallow deer—
I wonder if she ever wanted
them to speak back, looked into
their wide wonderful eyes and
whispered, Name me, name me.
(Ada Limon)
43
Exact Rhyme (Allie W)
exact rhyme occurs when the exact vowel sound on the stressed syllable and the following consonant sounds are repeated in another word
example: Macbeth:
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,
44
Onomatopoeia (Bree)
Figure of speech that imitates the sound.
Example: "Yet the ear, it fully knows, By the twanging, And the clanging, How the danger ebbs and flows." (Poe, "The Bells")
45
Auditory Imagery (Stella)
a form of mental imagery that is used to organize and analyze sounds when there are no actual sounds present
Example: While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,/As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. (Edgar Allan Poe)
46
Gustatory Imagery (Allie W)
the poet appeals to the reader's sense of taste by describing something the speaker or narrator of the poem tastes
example: William Carlos Williams, this is just to say
"I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold"
47
Exact Rhyme (Bree)
The repetition of the same stressed vowel sound as well as any consonant sounds that follow the vowel.
Example: "And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side" (Poe, "Annabel Lee")
48
Tercet (Allie W)
any three lines of a poem
example: Dylan Thomas, do not go into that good night
"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
49
Apostrophe (Stella)
refers to a speech or address to a person who is not present or to a personified object
Example: Wild nights - Wild nights!/Were I with thee/Wild nights should be/Our luxury! (Emily Dickinson)
50
Internal Rhyme (Bree)
A single line has multiple rhyming words
Example: "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary" (Poe, "The Raven")
51
Metonymy (Allie W)
A figure of speech in which a related term is substituted for the word itself.
example: “the pen is mightier than the sword,"
in this case, the pen might be education or written word while the sword is the military
52
Personification (Stella)
describes an abstraction or a nonhuman thing as if it were a person
Example: If winter were a person, she would be a girl with frosty hair. (Olivia Kooker)
53
Tercet (Bree)
A stanza of poetry with three lines
Example: "He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring'd with the azure world, he stands. (Alfred, Lord Tennyson "The Eagle")
54
Stanza (Gabby)
a division of a poem consisting of a series of lines arranged together in a usually recurring pattern of meter or rhyme
55
Quatrain (Abby)
A stanza of four lines, especially those with alternate rhymes
(Example:
"Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And immortality.” (Dickinson, Because I Could Not Stop for Death”))
56
Couplet (Gabby)
Two successive lines of verse forming a unit marked usually by rhythmic correspondence, rhyme, or the inclusion of self-contained utterance [a pair of lines that rhyme]
57
Connotation (Gabby)
The idea or feeling that a word invokes by adding to the literal meaning of the actual word itself. Ex. 'Good' connotation=positive feeling, 'bad' connotation = negative feeling.
58
Sestet (Abby C)
The last six lines of a sonnet
(Example: I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
(Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "How do I Love Thee))
59
Gustatory Imagery (Evan)
Appealing to the reader's sense of taste by describing something the speaker or narrator tastes.
60
Metaphor (Abby C)
A figure of speech that describes something by saying it's something else
(Example: The white blanket of snow)
61
Tone (Eva)
The general character or attitude of a piece of writing, situation, etc.
I’m ready. I’m ready to go. Take care of yourself. Tell mama I have forgiven her. (Sad tone)
62
Visual Imagery (Gabby)
Mental imagery that involves the sense of having "pictures' in the mind.
63
Consonance (Priscilla)
a literary device that refers to the repetition of the same consonant sounds in a line of text.
Ex: Paddy's potatoes were prepared to perfection.
64
Paradox (Abby C)
65
Pun (Eva)
A joke exploiting possible meanings of the word.
Ex: The pigs were a squeal
66
Onomatopoeia (Priscilla)
the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it.
Ex: Hiss, Buzz
67
High diction (Eva)
Formal or elevated language often used in papers or academic texts.
Ex: "I refuse to accept your proposal"
68
Synesthesia (Eva)
Using one sense to describe another
Ex: “Back to the region where the sun is silent.”
69
Extended Metaphor (Priscilla)
An extended metaphor is a rhetorical technique that explains a concept by directly mentioning another concept and drawing multiple parallels between them.
Ex: You're a snake! Everything you hiss out of your mouth is a lie
70
Internal Rhyme (Priscilla)
rhyme between a word within a line and another word either at the end of the same line or within another line
Ex: Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December
71
Inexact / Slant Rhyme (Evan)
A type of rhyme with words that have similar, but not identical sounds.
72
Anaphora (Ashley)
Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a series of clauses, poet lines or sentences. It’s often seen in poetry and speeches, intended to provoke emotional response to the audience.
(Example: I have a dream speech by Martin Luther King Jr)
73
Metonymy (Evan)
74
Denotation (Ashley)
The specific and exact definition of a word
(For example, "the color is blue", meaning the color is blue)
75
Assonance (Ashley)
Repetition of identical or similar vowel sound in a series of words, phrases or syllabus
(Example: Clap your hands, and stamp your feet. In this example, the repetition of the short /a/ sound is used.)
76
Understatement(CJ)
the description of something as having much less of a particular quality than it does
77
Alliteration (Ashley)
Alliteration describes a series of words in quick succession that all start with the same letter or sound.
(Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers!)
78
Oxymoron (Evan)
A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction
79
Olfactory Imagery (Annika DK)
when writers use imagery to appeal to the reader's sense of smell
ex: during Christmastime, the house was filled with the scent of pine needles and fresh baked sugar cookies
80
Oxymoron(CJ)
words or phrases that creates a paradox or contradictory statement
81
Cacophony (Colin)
A combination of words or phrases that sound harsh, jarring, and generally unpleasant. Example: "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! The frumious Bandersnatch!"
82
Inexact/Slant Rhyme(CJ)
Not a perfect rhyme---very similar or slightly different endings
83
Slang(CJ)
unconventional words/phrases--> casual and can be obscenea
84
Colloquial Diction (Annika DK)
the use of informal, local diction or slang
ex: those Michiganders are going to the sick beach!
85
Overstatement (Annika DK)
using language to exaggerate the meaning of a statement
ex: I was literally DYING because I was so hungry.
86
Scansion (Annika DK)
the use of visual cues to find weak and strong syllables in poetry
ex: For then | my list' | ning soul | you move With pleas | ures that | can ne | ver cloy (breaks to emphasize)
87
Connotation
A suggestion made by the use of a certain word in literature. Helpful in setting the mood of a story
Example:
He was a guest in my home (positive connotation)
He was an intruder in my home (negative connotation)
88
Visual Imagery
Using the qualities of how something looks in order to convey an image in the reader's head
Example: The golden rays of the setting sun reflected upon the clear waters of the lake
89
Cacophony (Aidan R.)
Harsh and unpleasant sounds (often consonants) used in succession. Frequently used to express mood.
(Example: Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! The frumious Bandersnatch! (Lewis Carroll, "Jabberwocky"))
90
Cacophony (Aidan R.)
Harsh and unpleasant sounds (often consonants) used in succession. Frequently used to express mood.
(Example: The nasal whine of power whips a new universe…
Where spouting pillars spoor the evening sky... (Hart Crane, "The Bridge"))
91
Rhyme Scheme (Aidan R.)
Having a structure of lines that rhyme with each other. Rhyming lines are often marked with letters to indicate such. For example, it might take the form of AABB or ABAB
(Example: Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are! (Jane Taylor, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"))
92
Jargon (Aidan R.)
Using specialized language only used in a certain context or field.
(Example: ...and he said something about corroborating evidence, which made me sure he was showing off. (Harper Lee, "To Kill a Mockingbird"))
93
Heroic Couplet (Aidan R.)
Paired, rhyming lines of poetry in Iambic Pentameter
(Example: Soon had their hosts in bloody battle join'd;
But westward to the sea the sun declin'd.
Intrench'd before the town both armies lie,
While Night with sable wings involves the sky. (Virgil, "Aeneid"))
94
Dactylic Feet (Ryn)
A metrical foot (repeated sequence) that consists of a long syllable followed by two short syllables.
Ex: The words "hickory" and "dickory" in "Hickory, dickory, dock"
95
Caesura (Ryn)
A metrical pause or break in the middle of a line of verse where one phrase ends and another begins (Usually expressed by two lines).
Ex: "It is for you we speak, // not for ourselves..." (From "Winter's Tale")
96
Elegy (Ryn)
A poem of reflection, lamentation, and/or mourning that reflects on death or loss.
Ex: "In Memoriam A.H.H." by Alfred Lord Tennyson
97
End-stopped (Ryn)
When a complete line of poetry ends at a grammatical boundary or break (such as a dash, closing parenthesis, comma, semicolon, colon, or period).
Ex: "In the mountains there you feel free. // I read, much in the night, and go south in the winter." (From "The Waste Land)
98
Euphony (Colin)
Opposite of cacophony. Translates to "good sounding." Example from Shakespeare: "So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."
99
Heroic couplet (Colin)
A rhyming pair of lines in iambic pentameter (an iambic pentameter is five repetitions of the pattern: unstressed syllable, stressed syllable.) Example: Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not dull;
Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full.
100
Tactile Imagery (Colin)
A description of something the writer physically feels through the sense of touch. Example: "As I tumbled down the hill, the loose rocks raced alongside me, pricking my hands and face like a hundred tiny knives."
101
Metaphor (Katelyn M)
A metaphor is a comparison between two things that states one thing is another
ex. "Life is a highway"
102
Paradox (Katelyn M)
As a figure of speech, it is a seemingly self-contradictory phrase or concept that illuminates a truth.
ex. “Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.”
103
Apostrophe (Katelyn M)
An address to a dead or absent person, or personification as if he or she were present.
ex. "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"
104
Personification (Katelyn M)
A figure of speech in which the poet describes an abstraction, a thing, or a nonhuman form as if it were a person.
ex. "The wind howled"
105
Sestet (Lainy)
The last six lines of an Italian sonnet (comes after the octave in a sonnet)
So answerest thou; but why not rather say:
"Hath man no second life? - Pitch this one high!
Sits there no judge in Heaven, our sin to see? -
More strictly, then, the inward judge obey!
Was Christ a man like us? Ah! let us try
If we then, too, can be such men as he!"
106
Octave ( Lainy)
An eight line stanza in a sonnet (normally before the sestet)
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent
107
Paradox( Lainy)
Something in a poem that doesn't quite make sense or contradicts itself
“Death, thou shalt die.”
108
Apostrophe (Lainy)
A personification of either something that isn't a person or a dead person.
Bird! No hungry generations tread thee down;
109
Eye/Sight Rhyme (Aidan)
A Rhyme in which two words are spelled similarly but pronounced differently. Ex: "Sean Bean"
110
Rhyme Scheme (Aidan)
A pattern of rhymes at the end of each line. Ex: I do not like green eggs and ham...
111
Synecdoche (Aidan)
A term for a part of something is made to represent the whole. Ex: New York lost by 5 runs.
112
Jargon (Aidan)
Special words that are used by specific profession or group that is difficult for others not in that group or profession to understand. Ex: AWOL which, is used in the military to describe a person whose whereabouts are unknown.
113
Euphony (Elyse)
Pleasing to the ear and harmonious sounding, are achieved by vowels that sound good together and are usually accompanied by serene imagery. Ex) "So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."
114
Dactylic Feet (Elyse)
A three-syllable metric pattern in which a stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables.
Ex) MEMories, FEverish,
115
Tactile Imagery (Elyse)
A description that stimulates your sense of touch. Can be texture, temperature, pain, weight, or movement.
Ex) The cat's fur felt as soft as a winter blanket.
116
Anapestic Feet (Elyse)
Two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable. Ex) on the ROAD, interRUPT, compreHEND
117
Syntax (Emily)
The deliberate order or arrangement of words in a sentence.
EX) "I hit the ball" NOT "Hit ball the I."
118
Parallelism (Emily)
Using similar terms, structure, and other grammatical elements in a sentence to emphasize.
EX) "I came, I saw, I conquered."
119
Trochaic Foot (Emily)
A rhythm composed of two (stressed and un stressed) syllables.
EX) "Bu-bble and tro-uble"
120
Enjambment (Emily)
The continuation of a sentence beyond a line break in poetry
EX) I had to run away
but I couldn't run fast enough.
121
Rhyme scheme (Kai)
A pattern of rhymes at the end of each line or stanza of a poem or verse.
EX) The sun is shining bright
This is a lovely sight.
122
Jargon (Kai)
Specific language for a trade, profession, or group.
EX) Why, may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillities, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks?
123
Cacophony (Kai)
A sound device using certain sounds to create harsh tones, usually with lots of consents or hissing sounds.
EX) 'Twas brilling, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
124
Heroic couplet (Kai)
Rhyming poem that uses themes of heroism.
EX) O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream
My great example, as it is my theme!
Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not dull;
Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full.
