| A | B |
|---|
| alliteration | repetition of stressed initial sounds |
| allusion* | reference to person, place, or event outside of the specific work in which it is found |
| assonance | use of vowels that rhyme but not the consonants |
| consonance | rhymes in which vowels are the same but pronounced differently |
| hyperbole | exaggeration |
| understatement | expressing less than the whole (not exaggerating less than) |
| free verse | poetry written without regular meter or rhyming |
| iamb* | metrical foot in which one unstressed syllable is followed by one stressed syllable |
| pentameter* | five feet per line |
| onomatopoeia | word whose sound hints at its meaning |
| personification | attribution of human qualities upon inanimate or abstract objects |
| quatrain | a four-line stanza, usually rhymed |
| couplet | a pair of contiguous lines that are rhymed |
| enjambment* | continuation without pause from one line to the next |
| anapest | metrical foot; two unstressed syllables follwed by an accented syllable |
| apostrophe* | figure of speech in which author addresses an absent person or abstract idea |
| ballad | poem form of romance ending unhappily; dialogue form; quatrains with ABCB rhyme |
| blank verse* | unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| connotation | understood meaning due to use of word |
| dactyl | metrical foot - one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables |
| denotation | dictionary meaning of a word |
| diction* | author's choice of words in literature |
| elegy* | reflection of hero's life upon his death |
| epic poem | focus upon hero in series of adventures; grand scale; invocation of the muses; in media res; catalogues; historical |
| foot* | unit of meter that creates repeating pattern of stressed and unstress syllables in some specific combination |
| imabic pentameter | five iambs (unstressed, stressed) per line |
| idyll* | poetry that portrays pastoral scenes of contentment and peace |
| irony | impying something different from what is being said |
| metaphor | figure of speech in which one thing is assoicated or compared to another |
| meter* | regular recurrence of rhythmic sound pattern; number of feet per line |
| metonymy | word used to apply to sometihng associated with it |
| ode* | poem that addresses one in noble manner |
| oxymoron | contradictory term |
| simile | comparison of tow unlike things using "as" or "like" |
| sonnet (English / Shakespearean) | 3 quatrains (ABAB) and a couplet (AA) |
| sonnet (Italian / Petrarchan) | octave (ABBA) and sestet (CDE or CDC) |
| stanza | divisions within the poem |
| syncope* | omission of sounds within a word |
| synechdoche | part stands for the whole |
| tapinosis | giving a name to something which diminishes it in importance |
| virgule / virgula* | hatch mark denoting metrical foot |
| trochee* | metrical foot - stressed syllable followed by unsressed syllable |
