Figurative Language and Poetry Terms

1. Figurative Language and Poetry Terms

2. Alliteration • The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. • EX: While I nodded, nearly, napping, suddenly there came a tapping.

3. Assonance • The repetition of vowel sounds within words. • EX: On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.

4. End Rhyme • Similar or identical sounds at the end of two lines of poetry. • EX: Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore! Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”

5. Internal Rhyme • Rhyme within a line of poetry • EX: Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before.

6. Repetition • Words repeated within a line of poetry. • EX: From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore.

7. Form • The way words are arranged in lines, the way lines are arranged in stanzas, and the way units of sound are organized in rhythm and rhyme. • Two kinds of form: Fixed and Irregular.

8. Fixed Form • Follows fixed (unchanging) rules. • Limited number of lines • Fixed meter • Fixed rhyme scheme • Definite structure Examples: Sonnet, ballad, epic, elegy, ode, blank verse

9. Irregular form or free verse • No rules- takes whatever shape it wants.

10. Anaphora • The same word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines. • EX: Or I guess the grass is itself a child Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic