Poetic Terms for WRT 219 Poetry Unit
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- Alliteration
- The repetition of the same consonant sounds in a sequence of words, usually at the beginning of a word or stressed syllable: "descending dew drops"; "luscious lemons."
- Ambiguity
- Allows for two or more simultaneous interpretations of a word, phrase, action, or situation, all of which can be supported by the context of a work. Deliberate ambiguity can contribute to the effectiveness and richness of a work
- Assonance
- The repetition of internal vowel sounds in nearby words that do not end the same, for example,"asleep under a tree," or "each evening." Similar endings result in rhyme, as in "asleep in the deep."
- Caesura
- A pause within a line of poetry that contributes to the rhythm of the line. A caesura can occur anywhere within a line and need not be indicated by punctuation
- Connotation
- Associations and implications that go beyond the literal meaning of a word, which derive from how the word has been commonly used and the associations people make with it. For example, the word eagle connotes ideas of liberty and freedom that have little to do with the word's literal meaning
- Consonance
- A common type of near rhyme that consists of identical consonant sounds preceded by different vowel sounds: home, same; worth, breath
- Couplet
- Two consecutive lines of poetry that usually rhyme and have the same meter. A heroic couplet is a couplet written in rhymed iambic pentameter.
- Elegy
- A mournful, contemplative lyric poem written to commemorate someone who is dead, often ending in a consolation. Elegy may also refer to a serious meditative poem produced to express the speaker's melancholy thoughts.
- End-stop
- A poetic line that has a pause at the end. End-stopped lines reflect normal speech patterns and are often marked by punctuation.
- Enjambment
- In poetry, when one line ends without a pause and continues into the next line for its meaning. This is also called a run-on line.
- Figures of speech
- Ways of using language that deviate from the literal, denotative meanings of words in order to suggest additional meanings or effects. Figures of speech say one thing in terms of something else, such as when an eager funeral director is described as a vulture
- Found poem
- An unintentional poem discovered in a nonpoetic context, such as a conversation, news story, or advertisement. Found poems serve as reminders that everyday language often contains what can be considered poetry, or that poetry is definable as any text read as a poem.
- Form
- The overall structure or shape of a work, which frequently follows an established design. Forms may refer to a literary type (narrative form, short story form) or to patterns of meter, lines, and rhymes (stanza form, verse form)
- Free verse
- Also called open form poetry, free verse refers to poems characterized by their nonconformity to established patterns of meter, rhyme, and stanza. Free verse uses elements such as speech patterns, grammar, emphasis, and breath pauses to decide line breaks, and usually does not rhyme.
- Image
- A word, phrase, or figure of speech (especially a simile or a metaphor) that addresses the senses, suggesting mental pictures of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings, or actions. Images offer sensory impressions to the reader and also convey emotions and moods through their verbal pictures.
- Metaphor
- A metaphor is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, without using the word "like" or "as." Metaphors assert the identity of dissimilar things, as when Macbeth asserts that life is a "brief candle."
- Meter
- When a rhythmic pattern of stresses recurs in a poem, it is called meter. Metrical patterns are determined by the type and number of feet in a line of verse
- Narrative poem
- A poem that tells a story. A narrative poem may be short or long, and the story it relates may be simple or complex.
- Onomatopoeia
- A term referring to the use of a word that resembles the sound it denotes. Buzz, rattle, bang, and sizzle all reflect onomatopoeia.
- Persona
- Literally, a persona is a mask. In literature, a persona is a speaker created by a writer to tell a story or to speak in a poem. A persona is a separate self, created by and distinct from the author, through which he or she speaks
- Prose poem
- A kind of open form poetry that is printed as prose and represents the most clear opposite of fixed form poetry. Prose poems are densely compact and often make use of striking imagery and figures of speech
- Quatrain
- A four-line stanza. Quatrains are the most common stanzaic form in the English language; they can have various meters and rhyme schemes
- Sentimentality
- A pejorative term used to describe the effort by an author to induce emotional responses in the reader that exceed what the situation warrants.
- Simile
- A common figure of speech that makes an explicit comparison between two things by using words such as like, as, than, appears, and seems: "A sip of Mrs. Cook's coffee is like a punch in the stomach."
- Sonnet
- A fixed form of lyric poetry that consists of fourteen lines, usually written in iambic pentameter. There are two basic types of sonnets, the Italian and the English.
- Stanza
- In poetry, stanza refers to a grouping of lines, set off by a space, that usually has a set pattern of meter and rhyme
- Symbol
- A person, object, image, word, or event that evokes a range of additional meaning beyond and usually more abstract than its literal significance. Symbols are educational devices for evoking complex ideas without having to resort to painstaking explanations that would make a story more like an essay than an experience
- Synecdoche
- Synecdoche is a kind of metaphor in which a part of something is used to signify the whole, as when a gossip is called a "wagging tongue," or when ten ships are called "ten sails." Sometimes, synecdoche refers to the whole being used to signify the part, as in the phrase "Boston won the baseball game."