| A | B |
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| accent | the same as "stress"; A syllable given more prominence in pronunciation than its neighbors is said to be accented. |
| allegory | A narrative or description that has a second meaning beneath the surface, often relating each literal term to a fixed, corresponding abstract idea or moral principle. |
| alliteration | The repetition at close intervals of the initial consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words |
| allusion | A reference to something in previous literature or history |
| apostrophe | A figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and could reply. |
| approximate rhyme (rime) | (also known as "imperfect rhyme," "near rhyme," "slant rhyme," or "oblique rhyme") A term used for words in rhyming pattern that have some kind of sound correspondence but are not perfect rhymes. EX: push-rush |
| assonance | The repetition at close intervals of the vowel sounds of accented syllables or important words. EX: hat--ran--amber; vein--made. |
| blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| cacophony | A harsh, discordant, unpleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds |
| caesura | A speech pause occurring within a line |
| connotation | What a word suggests beyond its basic dictionary definition; a word's overtones of meaning |
| consonance | The repetition at close intervals of the final consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words. EX: book--plaque--thicker |
| couplet | Two successive lines, usually in the same meter, linked by rhyme |
| denotation | The basic definition or dictionary meaning of a word. |
| end rhyme (rime) | Rhymes that occur at the ends of lines. |
| enjambment | in poetry, the running on of a sentence from one line or couplet to the next, with little or no pause. |
| euphony | A smooth, pleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds. |
| figurative language | Language employing figures of speech; language that cannot be taken literally or only literally. |
| figure of speech | Broadly, any way of saying something other than the ordinary way; more narrowly, a way of saying one thing and meaning another. |
| fixed form | A form of poem in which the length and pattern are prescribed by previous usage or tradition, such as sonnet and villanelle. |
| foot | The basic unit used in the scansion or measurement of verse. A foot usually contains one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables. |
| iamb | A metrical foot consisting of one unaccented syllable followed by one accented syllable. |
| trochee | A metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by one unaccented syllable. |
| anapest | A metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables followed by one accented syllable. |
| dactyl | A metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables. |
| spondee | A metrical foot consisting of two syllables equally or almost equally accented (EX: true--blue) |
| free verse | poetry that is characterized by varying line lengths, lack of traditional meter, and nonrhyming lines |
| hyperbole | an overstatement or exaggerated way of saying something |
| iambic pentameter | five feet of one unaccented syllable followed by one accented syllable |
| imagery | devices which appeal to the senses: visual, tactile, auditory, olfactory, kinetic |
| internal rhyme (rime) | A rhyme in which one or both of the rhyme-words occurs within the line. |
| irony | A situation or a use of language involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy--surprising, amusing, or interesting contrast; contrast between reality and expectation (three types: verbal, dramatic and situational) |
| metaphor | an implied comparison which does NOT use like or as |
| metonymy | substituting a word naming an object for another word closely associated with it. EX: Pay tribute to the crown. |
| masculine rhyme (rime) | Also known as single rhyme. A rhyme in which the repeated accented vowel sound is in the final syllable of the words involved. EX: scald--recalled. |
| feminine rhyme (rime) | A rhyme in which the repeated accented vowel is in either the second or third last syllable of the words involved. EX: ceiling--appealing; hurrying--scurrying |
| meter | the rhythmical pattern of a poem |
| octave | an eight line stanza |
| ode | a long, formal lyric poem with a serious theme |
| onomatopoeia | the use of a word to represent or to imitate natural sounds. EN: sizzle, buzz, pop, hiss, meow |
| overstatement | or hyperbole; A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used in the service of truth |
| oxymoron | A compact verbal paradox in which two successive words seemingly contradict one another. |
| paradox | a statement that seems contradictory, unbelievable, or absurd but that may actually be true in fact |
| parallelism | refers to the repeated use of phrases, clauses, or sentences that are similar in structure and meaning. Writers used this technique to emphasize important ideas, create rhythm, and make their writing forceful and direct. |
| personification | A figure of speech in which human characteristics are given to inanimate objects, ideas, or animals. |
| poetic inversion | words in reverse order for poetic effect, for rhythm, or to match a rhyme scheme |
| quatrain | A four-line stanza |
| rhythm | the metrical or rhythmical pattern in a poem |
| scansion | a system for describing more of less conventional poetic rhythms by dividing the lines into feet |
| sestet | A six-line stanza |
| simile | A figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike--using words like: as, like, than, similar to, resembles or seems |
| sonnet | 14 lines of iambic pentameter with a set rhyme scheme |
| English sonnet | (or Shakespearean sonnet) A sonnet rhyming ababcdcdefefgg. Its content or structure ideally parallels the rhyme scheme, falling into three coordinate quatrains and a concluding couplet, but it is sometimes structured like the Italian sonnet, into octave and sestet, the principal break in thought coming at the end of the eighth line. |
| Italian sonnet | (or Petrarchan sonnet) A sonnet consisting of an octave rhyming abbaabba and of a sestet using any arrangement of two or three additional rhymes, such as cdcdcd or cdecde. |
| stanza | A group of lines whose metrical pattern (and usually its rhyme scheme as well) is repeated throughout a poem |
| symbol | anything that stands for or represents anything else |
| synecdoche | figurative language in which part stands for the whole. EX: "Nice wheels" refers to a nice looking car. |
| tone | a writer’s attitude toward his subject conveyed through diction and detail |
| understatement | A figure of speech (meiosis, litotes) in which the literal sense of what is said falls short of the magnitude of what is being talked about |
| verse | Metrical language; the opposite of prose |
| monosyllabic | having one syllable |
| pun | A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words. |
| prosody | the study of poetic metre |
