POETRY TERMS

Free verse• Varying line lengths, lack of meter, and nonrhyming lines.

Blank verse• Unrhymed lines in iambic pentameter.

• Most of Shakespeare’s plays.

Couplet• Two rhyming lines of iambic pentameter that present a

single idea. All of Shakespeare’s sonnets end this way.

• So long as men can breathe or eyes can see• So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

“Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?” -- Shakespeare

Iamb• A metrical foot in poetry: one unstressed syllable followed

by a stressed syllable. Often iambs are used in sets of five called iambic pentameter (all of Shakespeare’s sonnets are iambic pentameter).

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?Thou are more lovely and more temperate.

Hyperbole• Drastic overstatement.

• “I’m starving!” “There were a million people at the concert.”

Enjambment• The continuation of a sentence from one line to another.

Oh, may I join the choir invisibleOf those important dead who live againIn minds made better by their presence; liveIn pulses stirred to generosity,

-- “The Choir Invisible,” George Eliot

What effect does this have?

Ballad• Narrative poem originally meant to be sung.

“Scarborough Fair.”

Elegy• A poetic lament of someone’s death.

Epic• An epic poem celebrates mighty heroes and heroines.

Typically has elevated language and a grand style.

• Epic poems like The Iliad and The Odyssey• Movies of epic heroes in Star Wars and Lord of the Rings.

More Terms and Figurative Language

Repetition• Something happens or is stated again. Reoccurring.

Alliteration• Use of similar consonant sounds at the beginning of

phrases.• “The wind whipped against my face.”

Anaphora • The regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of several

phrases or successive clauses for rhetorical effect.

• "Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,As to behold desert a beggar born, And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,And purest faith unhappily forsworn,And gilded honour shamefully misplac'd,And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,And right perfection wrongfully disgrac'd,And strength by limping sway disabledAnd art made tongue-tied by authority,And folly--doctor-like--controlling skill,And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,And captive good attending captain ill:Tir'd with all these, from these would I be gone,Save that, to die, I leave my love alone."

• -- Shakespeare’s Sonnet 66

Assonance• The repetition of internal vowel sounds.

• EXAMPLE: Example: I made my way to the lake.

Consonance• Repetition of internal or ending consonant sounds of

words close together in poetry. • Example: I dropped the locket in the thick mud.

Enjambment• Ending a line of poetry mid-sentence. Used to

emphasize word choice, images, and influence the rhythm of the poem.

• Updike’s poem “Dog’s Death”

Allusion• Literary, historical, religious, or mythological

reference.

• EXAMPLE: Arnold’s “Dover Beach” “Sophocles long ago / Heard it on the Aegean, and it

brought / into his mind the turbid ebb and flow / of human misery…”

Symbolism• An element in a literary work that figuratively stands

for something else. • A symbol is also a metaphor, but it must usually be an

object that refers to something else in the work. Often a symbol communicates the major themes of the work.

• Examples of common symbols in literature:Seasons – Spring(youth), Summer(love), Fall (aging),

Winter (death).Light/Dark – good / evilWater -- cleansingForests – a place of personal challenge, interior conflict

Personification• Giving inanimate objects human characteristics.

• “The air conditioner sputtered and coughed until it just died.”

• Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror” p 912

Apostrophe To address an abstract or inanimate entity.

“To a Wasp” on p. 906

HyperboleExaggeration, adding emphasis without intending to be

true.

“There were a million people at the party.”

p. 907 “To His Coy Mistress” – The speaker uses hyperbole to convey his adoration for his love.

Oxymoron • When two words of contradictory meaning are used

together for rhetorical effect, often humorous.

• “Tight slacks,” "wise fool,” “jumbo shrimp,” “deafening silence.”

Paradox Seemingly contradictory statements that may be true.

In the 1960s, war protesters would “fight for peace.”

p. 908, “The Unkindest Cut”

(Oxymorons are tighter contradictions, usually two words. Paradoxes can be bigger in concept – like if Kanye West and Taylor Swift wrote a song together.)

Juxtaposition• To place ideas side by side for comparison. Can

create humor or conflict in a poem or story.

• For instance, if the first stanza of a poem is about love, and the second part is about death.

• Or half of a poem uses imagery from Summer and the other half uses Winter imagery.

• June Carter and Johnny Cash are a juxtaposition.

Antithesis• The juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas in

balanced or parallel word, phrases, or grammatical structure.

• “To err is human, to forgive divine.” – Alexander Pope

Asyndeton• A style in which conjunctions are omitted, producing

a fast-paced, more rapid prose.

• “I came, I saw, I conquered.” --Caesar

Synecdoche• When part of something is used to signify the whole.

A criminal is placed “behind bars” (in prison).

Or when the whole is used to signify the part.

Marion won the volleyball game. (Marion refers to the volleyball team)

Metonymy• When something closely associated with a subject is

substituted for it.

• She preferred the silver screen (referring to movies).

STOP FOR LIT CLASSES

Connotation• Implied suggested meaning, apart from its explicit

definition. Subtext.

EXAMPLE

Denotation• Literal meaning, strict dictionary definition.

Context• The words, phrases, or passages that surround a

piece of writing that help explain its full meaning.

• Often if you don’t understand a certain passage, looking for context can help elucidate the confusing passage’s meaning.

Metaphor• One thing compared to another. Deepens the meaning

and expands the visual image.

• “On the court, he was a tiger prowling the field.”

• How is this different than just saying “On the court he was a competitive player”?

Simile• One thing compared to another using “like” or “as.”

• “On the court, he was like a tiger prowling the field.”