Poetic Terms (Harrison English)
poetry terms
Terms
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- sarcasm
- A verbal tone in which it is obvious from context that the speaker means the opposite of what he or she says.
- irony
- a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or discordance between what a speaker or a writer says; and what he or she means, or is generally understood.
- Symbol
- when an author uses an object or idea to suggest more than its literal meaning. A person, place, or event stands for something other than it is, usually something broader or deeper than it is.
- auditory imagery
- imagery stimulates the sense of hearing.
- end rhyme
- The rhyme occurring at the end of a line of verse, as opposed to a rhyme within the line (called internal rhyme).
- Stanza
- In poetry, this refers to a grouping of lines, set off by a space, that usually has a set pattern of meter and rhyme.
- eye rhyme
- words whose spellings would lead one to think that they rhymed (slough, tough, cough, bough, though, hiccough. Or: love, move, prove...)
- sestet
- A stanza consisting of exactly six lines.
- tone
- the poet's attitude toward the subject of the poem (this may be different from the speaker's attitude). We can identify the tone of the poem by noting the author's use of poetic devices such as diction, rhythm and syntax
- Simile
- a comparison that does use the words like or as, or a verb like seems or appears to draw two objects or images into a relationship.
- quatrain
- stanzas of four lines. It is the most common form of stanzaic organization. The four lines can be written in any rhyme scheme.
- octave
- A poetic stanza of eight lines, usually forming one part of a sonnet.
- couplet
- a stanza consisting of two successive lines of verse; usually rhymed
- alliteration
- repetition of consonant sounds
- verbal irony
- The contrast between what is said and what is actually meant.
- feminine rhyme
- A double rhyme on two syllables, the first stressed and the second unstressed.
- Theme
- The statement the poem/poet makes about its subject.
- figure of speech
- A form of expression in which the meanings of words are extended beyond the literal. The common ones are metaphor, simile, and analogy.
- internal rhyme
- Rhyme that occurs within a single line of verse.
- paradox
- a statement that appears to be absurd, untrue, or contradictory, but may actually be true.
- organic imagery
- internal or emotional sensation: hunger, thirst, fatigue, fear.
- olfactory imagery
- imagery stimulates the sense of smell.
- inference
- an educated guess based on previous information
- masculine rhyme
- a rhyme of one-syllable words, or multi-syllabic words with a stressed final syllable
- half rhyme
- A near rhyme; rhyme occurs only on the first syllable of the rhyming word, as in sad and madley.
- rhetoric
- The art of using language effectively as a tool for persuasion
- meter
- the organization of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.
- kinesthetic imagery
- imagery that recreates a feeling of physical action or natural bodily function (like a pulse, a heartbeat, or breathing).
- Allegory
- A figurative work in which a surface narrative carries a secondary, symbolic or metaphorical meaning.
- allusion (allude)
- a brief reference
- situational irony
- when an incongruity exists between what is expected to happen and what actually happens
- visual imagery
- imagery stimulates the sense of sight
- tactile imagery
- imagery stimulates the sense of touch.
- hyperbole
- An exaggeration; giving something more or less of a quality than it really has. This term is usually used as a put down, or to discredit what someone is saying.
- Metaphor
- a comparison that does not use the words like or as, or a verb like seems or appears to draw two objects or images into a relationship.
- assonance
- repetition of vowel sounds
- Personification
- a type of metaphor that gives living qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas; or human qualities (feelings, thoughts) to animals. It gives non-living things and animals the ability to think, feel emotions, or have human relationships.
- dramatic irony
- Occurs when the audience of a play or the reader of a work of literature knows something that a character in the work itself does not know.
- Imagery
- (as the term is used in literary discourse) is descriptive language that evokes sensory experience (in any or all sense modes), and is intended to make the reader feel more interested and more emotionally involved in the work by creating a mental image of the subject
- conceit
- A fanciful poetic image or metaphor that likens one thing to something else that is seemingly very different. An example can be found in Shakespeare's sonnet "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" and in Emily Dickinson's poem "There is no frigate like a book."
- gustatory imagery
- imagery stimulates the sense of taste.