Poetry Terms

1. Poetry Terms

2. Stanza • A group of lines in a poem • Considered a unit • Separated by spaces

3. Figurative Language • Writing that is not meant to be interpreted literally • Creates vivid impressions by comparing dissimilar things • Ex: metaphors, similes, personifications • Example: • The people that I love the best • jump into work head first, • Without dallying in the shallows.

4. Metaphor • A figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else • Implies comparison • Example: Juliet is the sun.

5. Simile • A figure of speech that uses like or as to compare 2 unlike ideas • Examples: • John is as red as a beet. • Claire is as flighty as a sparrow.

6. Personification • The use of figurative language in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics • Example: • the cry of the guitar • the laughter of the hyenas

7. Onomatopoeia • The use of words that imitate sounds • Examples: whirl, thud, sizzle, hiss

8. Tone • The writer’s attitude toward the readers and the subject • Examples: formal or informal serious or playful bitter or ironic sympathetic grieving

9. Imagery • The use of descriptive or figurative language to appeal to the reader’s senses. • Creates word pictures (images) • Uses details of sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, or movement • Example: hearing ghostly marching on pavement stones

10. Assonance • The repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonants in 2 or more stressed syllables • Example: “weak and weary”

11. Speaker • The imaginary voice assumed by the writer of a poem. • Often not identified by name • May be person, animal, thing, or abstraction • Ex: Dickinson as dead person

12. Alliteration • The repetition of beginning consonant sounds • Emphasizes words, imitates sounds, creates musical effects • Example: I grew like a thin, stubborn weed, watering myself whatever way I could.

13. Allusion • A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work or work of art • Example of biblical allusion: “The Magi . . . were wise men . . . who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger.”

14. Connotation • This refers to the set of ideas associated with a word in addition to its dictionary meaning • Example: Dunbar’s “caged bird” connotes sad, trapped creature • Example: “previously owned vehicle” instead of “used car”

15. Denotation • The dictionary meaning of a word • Independent of other associations • Example: lake • Denotes inland body of water • Connotes vacation or fishing spot

16. Rhyme • The repetition of sounds at the ends of words • Example: Poe: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered/ weak and weary.”

17. Symbol • A sign, word, phrase, image, or other object that stands for or represents something else • Object has own meaning but represents abstract ideas • Examples: • Flag symbolizes country • Scarlet ibis symbolizes Doodle and other people who struggle

18. Repetition • Use of any language element – a sound, word, phrase, clause, or sentence – more than once • Used for musical effects and for emphasis • Examples: • alliteration, assonance, rhyme, rhythm repeat sounds • Refrain repeats line or lines

19. Refrain • Regularly repeated line or group of lines Seen in songs often (the chorus)

20. Rhythm • The pattern of beats or stresses in language • Some poems have a specific pattern or meter • Example: There was a young lady named brightWhose speed was far faster than light • Prose and free verse use natural rhythms of everyday speech

21. Fixed Form • These are stanzas with a repeated or predictable pattern • Words in each stanza may rhyme or sound alike • The length and rhythm of the stanzas are related • The number of syllables in a line can be fixed

22. Free Form or Free Verse • Lacks structure or pattern • Words may not rhyme • Lines do not match in number of syllables, length, or rhythm

23. Lyric Poem • This is writing that is musical verse: uses rhythm, alliteration, and rhyme • Observations and feelings of 1 speaker • Sung with lyre in ancient times

24. Sonnets • A fourteen line lyric poem with a theme • Usually written in iambic pentameter • Shakespeare wrote some very famous sonnets

25. Narrative Poem • This poem tells a story • Examples: • “Casey at the Bat”: humorous narrative poem • Poe’s “Raven”: serious narrative poem

26. Ballad • This is a songlike poem that tells a story • Often adventure and romance • Most written in 4 to 6-line stanzas, regular rhythms and rhyme schemes, often a refrain

27. Limerick • This is a humorous, rhyming, five-line poem • Specific meter and rhyme scheme

28. Concrete Poem • This is a poem with a shape that suggests the subject

29. Haiku • 3-line verse form • 1st and 3rd lines have 5 syllables • 2nd line has 7 syllables • Single vivid emotion with images from nature