| A | B |
|---|
| allegory | a story in which the characters, settings, and events stand for abstract or moral concepts |
| alliteration | repetition of initial consonant sound |
| assonance | repetition of vowel sound, followed by different consonant sound |
| ambiguity | diction that develops many levels of interpretation or meaning to a poem through the use of words with multiple meaning |
| blank verse | poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| carpe diem | a thematic poem of seduction, urging one to take full advantage of time |
| caesura | a pause or break within a line of poetry, usually dictated by the natural rhythm of language |
| conceit | a fanciful, elaborate figure of speech that makes a surprising connection between two seemingly dissimilar things |
| concrete poem | a calligramme or poem whose shape mirrors or adds to the subject |
| connotation | the ideas and notions and feelings associated with a word |
| couplet | two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme |
| dactyl | an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables |
| denotation | the dictionary meaning of a word |
| diction | a writer’s word choice |
| dissonance | a harsh discordant combination of sounds (also called cacophony) |
| elegy | a poem that mourns the death of a person or laments something lost |
| enjambment | a line of poetry that continues onto the next line |
| euphony | a harmonious, pleasant combination of sounds |
| hyperbole | exaggeration used to express strong emotion or create a comic effect |
| iambic pentameter | a line of poetry made up of five iambs ( U/) |
| inversion | the placing of a sentence element out of its normal position either to gain emphasis or to secure a so-called poetic effect. |
| lyric poetry | poetry that focuses on expressing emotions or thoughts, rather than on telling a story |
| metaphor | a comparison between two unlike things, stating one thing is the other |
| metaphysical poetry | poetry based in intellectualism, many times employing complex conceits |
| narrative poetry | poetry that tells a story |
| octave | first eight lines of a Petrarchan sonnet whereby a problem is presented |
| onomatopoeia | the use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning |
| paradox | an apparent contradiction that is actually true |
| parallelism | a repetition of words, phrases or sentences that have the same grammatical structure, or that restate a similar idea |
| pastoral poetry | a type of poem that depicts rustic life in idyllic, idealized terms |
| personification | a kind of metaphor in which a nonhuman thing or quality is talked about as if it were human |
| Petrarchan Sonnet | a fourteen line sonnet, written in iambic pentameter, with the rhyme scheme ABBAABBACDECDE --its theme traditionally pertains to unrequited love |
| quatrain | a four line stanza unified by a rhyme scheme |
| end-stop line | a line of poetry that pauses or stops at the end |
| satire | a kind of writing that ridicules human weakness, vice, or folly in order to bring about social reform |
| scansion | indicating the metrical pattern of a poem |
| sestet | the last six lines of a Petrarchan sonnet whereby a problem is resolved |
| Shakespearean Sonnet | a fourteen line sonnet , written in iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG The couplet usually casts a new veneer of understanding to the poem |
| simile | a comparison between two unlike things, using a connective word such as like or as |
| Spenserian Stanza | a nine lined stanza with the rhyme scheme ABABBCBCC |
| spondee | two accented syllables next to one another |
| synecdoche | the part signifies the whole or the whole signifies the part. |
| theme | the main idea of a work |
| tone | the writer’s attitude toward the subject |
| trochee | an accented syllable followed by an unaccented syllable |
| understatement | a figure of speech that consists of saying less than what is really meant, or saying something with less force than is appropriate |
| alexandrine | a line of poetry made up of six iambs, that it, a line written in iambic hexameter |
| consonance | repetition of ending consonant sound |
| essay | a short peice of nonfiction prose that examines a single subject from a limited point of view |
| allusion | a reference to a statement, person, place, event, or thing that is known from literature, history, religion, myth, politics, sports, science, or pop culture |
| apostrophe | a figure of speech in which a speaker directly addresses an absent or dead person, an abstract quality, or something nonhuman as if it were present and capable of responding |
| catalogue | a list, emphasizing the depth, quality of something |
| convention | conspicuous features of subject, matter, form, or technique which recur in works of literature |
| epic simile | a comparison between two unlike things using like or as, and the comparison is sustained and developed elaborately |
| homonym | words that sound alike, but have different meanings |
| irony | a contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality--between what is said and what is really meant, between what is expected and what really happens, or between what seems to be true and is really true |
| oxymoron | a figure of speech that combines apparently contradictory or incongruous ideas in a compact two-word phrase |
| pun | a play on the multiple meanings of a word, or on two words that sound alike but have different meanings |
