Poetic Terms Review This activity will help you to remember the literary terms and sound devices associated with poetry. Tools A B Imagery language that appeals to the senses Denotation dictionary definition of a word Connotation emotions and ideas associated with a word Allusion reference to something in history or literature Irony discrepancy between expectation and reality or between words and intention Understatement a statement which means less than what is intended Hyperbole a statement of exaggeration Paradox an apparent contradiction that conveys truth Simile direct comparison of two essentially unlike things, using like or as Metaphor comparison of two unlike things Personification attribution of human characteristics to a creature, idea, or object Apostrophe direct address to an inanimate object or idea Symbol anything that has meaning of its own but also stands for something beyond itself Tone attitude revealed toward the subject Villanelle five tercets and one quatrain; the first and third lines of the first tercet are alternately repeated as final lines of the tercets which follow and are used together as a couplet in the quatrain Terza Rima iambic pentameter lines rhyming aba, bcb, cdc, etc. Blank Verse unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter Iamb a short followed by a stressed syllalbe Trochee a stressed followed by an unaccented syllable Anapest two short syllables foolwed by a stressed syllable Dactyl a stressed syllable followed by two unaccented syllables Spondee two stressed syllables Couplet Two successive lines, usually in the same meter, linked by rhyme Quatrain a four line stanza Tercet a three line stanza Ode a poem of praise, an inanimate thing is usually the focus Sonnet a fixed form of fourteen lines, normally in iambic pentameter, which conforms to either an Italian or English rhyming pattern Monometer a metrical line containing one foot Dimeter a metrical line consisting of two feet Trimeter a metrical line consisting of three feet Tetrameter a metrical line consisting of four feet Pentameter a metrical line consisting of five feet Hexameter a metrical line consisting of six feet Octave an eight line stanza Sestet a six line stanza Onomatopoeia The use of words that mimic their meaning in sound Foot the basic unit used in scansion or measurement of verse