| A | B |
|---|
| ode | A lofty lyric poem on a serious theme |
| dramatic monologue | Poem that presents a speech of a single character in a dramatic situation |
| alliteration | Repetition of initial consonant sounds |
| blank verse | Unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter |
| figurative language | Writing or speech meant to be understood imaginatively instead of literally |
| ballad | A simple narrative poem in four-line stanzas, usually meant to be sung and usually rhyming abcb |
| narrative poem | Verse that tells a story |
| onomatopoeia | The use of words or phrases that sound like the things to which they refer |
| allegory | A work in which each element symbolizes something else |
| sonnet | A fourteen line poem that follows one of a number of different rhyme schemes |
| rhythm | The pattern of beats or stresses in a line of verse or prose |
| lyric poem | A highly musical verse that expresses the emotions of a speaker |
| epic poem | A long story, often told in verse, involving heroes and gods |
| personification | Figure of speech in which an idea, animal, or thing is described as if it were a person |
| Shakespearean sonnet | A sonnet that is divided into four parts: three quatrains and a final couplet |
| imagery | Language that creates a concrete representation of an object or an experience |
| consonance | A kind of slant rhyme in which the ending consonant sounds of two words match, but the preceding vowel sound does not |
| heroic couplet | A pair of rhyming iambic pentameter lines |
| dramatic poem | Verse that relies heavily on dramatic elements such as monologue or dialogue |
| assonance | Verse that relies heavily on dramatic elements such as monologue or dialogue |
| allusion | A reference made to a person, event, object, or work from history or literature |
| metaphor | Comparison between to unlike objects that does not use like or as |
| enjambment | The continuation of a thought from one line of poetry to the next with no pause or break |
| free verse/free form | Poetry that avoids use of regular rhyme, meter, or division into stanzas. |
| Petrarchan sonnet | An Italian sonnet that is divided into two parts: an octave and a sestet |
| elegy | A poem that laments the dead |
| slant rhyme | The rhyming sounds are similar but not identical |
| diction | word choice |
| denotation | the literal meaning of a word |
| conotation | associations and emotional meanings that go beyond the literal meaning of a word |
| symbol | person, object, image, word, or event that stands for itself and an additional, usually more abstract, meaning than its literal meaning |
| hyperbole | extreme exaggeration for emphasis or comic effect |
| simile | an explicit comparison between two unlike objects that uses "like" or "as" |
| metaphor | an implied comparision between two unlike objects that does not use the words "like" or "as" |
| oxymoron | word or phrase in which two seemingly contradictory elements are used together |
| understatement | figure of speech that says less than is intended |
| sentimentality | an author's effort to create emotional responses in the reader that exceed what is appropriate in a specific situation |
| rhyme | repetition of identical or similar concluding syllables |
| stanza | two or more consecutive lines that form a single unit in a poem |
| tone | the author's attitude toward the characters, subject, or reader in a literary work |
