question

the repetition of sounds in nearby words, most often involving the initial consonant of words.

answer

alliteration

question

an indirect reference to a text, myth, event, or person outside the poem itself.

answer

allusion

question

repetion of a word or line at the beginning of successive lines.

answer

anaphora

question

the repetition of vowel sounds in a line or series of lines.

answer

assonance

question

a narrative poem, impersonally related, that was meant to be sung. characterized by repition and often a repeated refrain.

answer

ballad

question

four line stanza where the 2nd and 4th lines are in iambic trimeter and rhyme and the 1st and 3rd are in iambic tetrameter and do not rhyme.

answer

ballad stanza

question

unrhymed iambic pentameter.

answer

blank verse

question

a sign, used in scansion, that marks a natural pause in speaking a line of poetry.

answer

caesura

question

what is suggested by a word, despite what it explicitly describes.

answer

connotation

question

a pair of lines, almost always rhyming, that form a unit.

answer

couplet

question

the direct and literal meaning of a word or phrase.

answer

denotation

question

a line break that coincides with the end of a sentence.

answer

end stop

question

three four-line stanzas and a couplet, rhymed abab cdcd efef gg.

answer

english (shakespearean) sonnet

question

the use of a line that runs on to a next line, without pause, to complete its grammatical sense.

answer

enjambment

question

a long poem, usually divided into "books", on a great or serious subject. traditionally, it celebrates the history of heros or heroins and uses grand or "high" language.

answer

epic

question

a metaphor that continues over an extended part of a poem.

answer

extended metaphor

question

(figures of speech) use of a word or words that go beyond the literal meaning to show or imply a relationship, evoking a further meaning.

answer

tropes

question

the basic unit, consisting of 2 or 3 syllables, into which a line is divided in scansion.

answer

foot

question

poetry that does not follow the rules of regularized meter and strict form.

answer

free verse

question

a pair of rhymed lines in iambic pentameter.

answer

heroic couplet

question

an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. (the foot)

answer

iamb

question

a figure of speech that relies on a likeness or analogy between two things to equate them and thus suggest a relationship between them.

answer

metaphor

question

the formal organization of the rythm of the line into regular patterns.

answer

meter

question

a figure that relies on a close relationship other than similarity in substituting a word or phrase for the thing meant. (ex. substituting a sceptor to represent a king.)

answer

metonymy

question

a recurrent device, formula, or situation that deliberately connects a poem with preexisting patterns and conventions.

answer

motif

question

poetry that tells a story and is characterized by linear, chronological, description.

answer

narrative

question

an extended lyric, usually elevated in syle, and with an elaborate stanzic structure.

answer

ode

question

rhyme that does not perfectly match in vowel or consonant sound.

answer

off-rhyme

question

the use of a word that sounds like the thing denoted (cuckoo, boom, buzz)

answer

onomatopoeia

question

a figure of speech that combines two apparently contradictory words (ex: same difference).

answer

oxymoron

question

a poem that portrays the simple life of country folk.

answer

pastoral

question

a voice assumed by the author of the poem.

answer

persona

question

treating an abstraction as if it were a person, endowing it with human-like qualities.

answer

personification

question

an attack, sometimes indirect, on institutions or social injustice.

answer

protest poem

question

lines of verse divided into feet, which are scanned by syllable length rather than stress.

answer

quantitative meter

question

4-line stanza.

answer

quatrain

question

the analysis of a line of poetry to determine its pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, usually divided into feet.

answer

scansion

question

a direct, explicit comparison of one thing to another that usually draws the connection with the words "like" or "as."

answer

simile

question

a form of poetry, usually one stanza, with several different types of rhyme scheme. It is always 14 lines and usually in iambic pentameter.

answer

sonnet

question

a word or image that stands for something else in a vivid but indeterminate way: it suggests more than what it actually says.

answer

symbol

question

the formal arrangement of words in a sentence.

answer

syntax

question

the statement a poem makes about its subject.

answer

theme

question

the attitude taken in or by a poem toward the subject and theme.

answer

tone

question

rhyme words that have only their vowel sounds in common.

answer

vowel rhyme

question

two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one (unabridged)

answer

anapest

question

a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones (screwdriver)

answer

dactyl

question

an octave (8 lines) and a sestet (6); typically rhymed abba abba cdecde. there are many variations, but most have a two part division and a rhetorical turn of argument.

answer

italian (petrarchan) sonnet

question

two successive unstressed or lightly stressed syllables.

answer

pyrrhic

question

a stressed symbol followed by another syllable of approximately equal stress (hot dog)

answer

spondee

question

a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one (liar)

answer

trochee

question

the turn in thought in a sonnet that is often indicated by such initial words as But, Yet, or And yet. The volta occurs between the octet and sestet in a Petrarchan sonnet and sometimes between the 8th and 9th or between the 12th and 13th lines of a Shakespearean sonnet.

answer

volta

question

the attribution of human characteristics to animals or inanimate objects

answer

anthropomorphism

question

part for the whole; "all hands on deck"

answer

synechdoche

question

same internal consonant sound

answer

consonance

question

a phrase juxtaposed for tension, works together with its opposite to give meaning

answer

antithesis

question

extra feet or syllables at the end

answer

hypermetric

question

any meter that ends with a stress

answer

rising meter

question

any meter that ends with an unstressed syllable

answer

falling meter

question

meter arranged by number of stresses, not by the number of feet

answer

accentual meter

question

ability to mean more than one thing

answer

ambiguity

question

two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one

answer

anapest

question

An attempt to supplement (or replace) verbal meaning with visual devices from painting and sculpture

answer

concrete poetry

question

Metaphors that dominate or organize an entire poem

answer

controlling metaphors

question

Poetry written in the voice of one or more characters assumed by the poet

answer

dramatic poetry

question

A reference that recalls a word, phrase, or sound in another text

answer

echo

question

A line break that coincides with the end of the sentence

answer

end stop

question

A mental representation of a particular thing able to be visualized (and often able to be apprehended by senses other than sight)

answer

image

question

A figure in which what is stated is the opposite of what is meant or expected

answer

irony

question

A five-line light poem, usually in anapestic rhythm. The first, second, and fifth lines are rhymed trimeter; lines three and four are rhymed dimeter. The rhymes are frequently eccentric, and the subject matter is often nonsensical or obscene.

answer

limerick

question

any fairly short poem in the voice of a single speaker, usually expressing personal concerns rather than describing a narrative or dramatic situation

answer

lyric

question

A poem written about or for a specific occasion, public or private

answer

occasional poem

question

The repetition of the same ('perfect rhyme') or similar sounds, most often at the ends of lines

answer

rhyme

question

A poem in which the use of symbols is so pervasive and internally consistent that the larger referential world is distanced, if not forgotten

answer

symbolic poem

question

Rhyme words that have only their vowel sounds in common

answer

vowel rhyme

Poetry Terms Test Questions – Flashcards

Unlock all answers in this set

Haven't found what you were looking for?

Search for samples, answers to your questions and flashcards