Structure

Question 1

antithesis

Answer 1

A figure of speech in which words and phrases with opposite meanings are balanced against each other.

Question 2

apostrophe

Answer 2

Words that are spoken to a person who is absent or imaginary, or to an object or abstract idea

Question 3

ballad

Answer 3

A poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a repeated refrain

Question 4

Blank Verse

Answer 4

poetry that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

Question 5

carpe diem

Answer 5

Carpe diem poems urge the reader (or the person to whom they are addressed) to live for today and enjoy the pleasures of the moment.

Question 6

classicalism

Answer 6

The principles and ideals of beauty that are characteristic of Greek and Roman art, architecture, and literature

Question 7

conceit

Answer 7

A fanciful poetic image or metaphor that likens one thing to something else that is seemingly very different.

Question 8

consonance

Answer 8

The repetition of similar consonant sounds, especially at the ends of words, as in lost and past or confess and dismiss.

Question 9

elegy

Answer 9

A poem that laments the death of a person, or one that is simply sad and thoughtful.

Question 10

Epithalamium

Answer 10

A poem in honor of a bride and bridegroom

Question 11

free verse

Answer 11

Poetry composed of either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have no set meter

Question 12

hyperbole

Answer 12

A figure of speech in which deliberate exaggeration is used for emphasis.

Question 13

idyll

Answer 13

Either a short poem depicting a peaceful, idealized country scene, or a long poem that tells a story about heroic deeds or extraordinary events set in the distant past

Question 14

liotes

Answer 14

A figure of speech in which a positive is stated by negating its opposite. Some examples of litotes: no small victory, not a bad idea, not unhappy. Litotes, which is a form of understatement, is the opposite of hyperbole

Question 15

metonymy

Answer 15

A figure of speech in which one word is substituted for another with which it is closely associated. For example, in the expression The pen is mightier than the sword, the word pen is used for “the written word,” and sword is used for “military power.”

Question 16

pastoral

Answer 16

A poem that depicts rural life in a peaceful, idealized way

Question 17

refrain

Answer 17

A phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated throughout a poem, usually after every stanza.

Question 18

trope

Answer 18

A figure of speech, such as metaphor or metonymy, in which words are not used in their literal (or actual) sense but in a figurative (or imaginative) sense

Question 19

allusion

Answer 19

Unacknowledged reference and quotations that authors assume their readers will recognize.

Question 20

anaphora

Answer 20

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

Question 21

diction

Answer 21

Diction is usually used to describe the level of formality that a speaker uses

Question 22

dramatic monologue

Answer 22

A type of poem, derived from the theater, in which a speaker addresses an internal listener or the reader.

Question 23

Triadic structure

Answer 23

an idea repeated 3 times (rule of 3)

Question 24

allegory

Answer 24

An extended metaphor in which the characters, places, and objects in a narrative carry figurative meaning.

Question 25

ambiguity

Answer 25

A word, statement, or situation with two or more possible meanings is said to be ambiguous

Question 26

anachronism

Answer 26

Someone or something placed in an inappropriate period of time.

Question 27

anthropomorphism

Answer 27

A form of personification in which human qualities are attributed to anything inhuman, usually a god, animal, object, or concept.

Question 28

circumlocution

Answer 28

the use of more words to convey what could be said in fewer, circumlocution is a way of saying something in a less direct manner.

Question 29

didactic poetry

Answer 29

Poetry that instructs, either in terms of morals or by providing knowledge of philosophy, religion, arts, science, or skills.

Question 30

dissonance

Answer 30

A disruption of harmonic sounds or rhythms.

Question 31

Haiku

Answer 31

A Japanese verse form most often composed, in English versions, of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. A haiku often features an image, or a pair of images, meant to depict the essence of a specific moment in time.

Question 32

irony

Answer 32

As a literary device, irony implies a distance between what is said and what is meant