The Wonderful World of Poetry: Terms You Just Need to Know Powe Spring 2015

Creating Meaning and Word Choice Speaker: the point of view of the poem; the narrative voice Audience: intended readers of a specific work Diction: author’s word choice Connotation: what a word suggests beyond its basic definition – Ex: Denotation: basic definition; dictionary meaning of a word – Ex: Tone: the poet’s attitude in style or expression toward the subject. This can refer to the mood of the poem itself, in the sense of atmosphere. – Ex: Theme: What the author is trying to point out about human nature; the story’s lesson/moral

Rhythm Definition: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line Syllables – basic units of pronunciation Stressed syllables?? What’s that???

Rhyme Definition: Correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words.

End rhyme: when the end words of a line rhyme – Example ? Internal rhyme: words that rhyme within the line Assonance: when the vowel sounds of a word agree but the consonants do not – Example? Consonance: when the consonant sounds agree but the vowels do not – Example? Masculine rhyme: one syllable rhyme – Example? Feminine rhyme: two syllable rhymes – Example?

Perfect rhyme: when the correspondence of rhyming sounds is exact – Example? Eye rhyme: when words look like they rhyme, but they are pronounced differently – Example? Ear rhyme: when words are spelled differently, but they sounds the same – Example? Slant rhyme: when changes are made to the vowel sounds of words meant to rhyme – Example?

Figurative Language Definition: speech or writing that differs from literal meaning in order to achieve a special effect or meaning, by using figures of speech

Alliteration: repetition of an initial sound throughout the line – Example? Onomatopoeia: when the sounds of words resembles the sound it represents – Example?

Metaphor: relationship between two different things, that one IS the another – Example? Simile: using “like” or “as” to directly imply similarities – Example? Allusion: a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance – Example?

Symbolism: when an image or object represents something other than itself – Example? Hyperbole: an exaggeration – Example? Understatement: the opposite of hyperbole – Example?

Irony: saying one thing, but meaning another Oxymoron: combines two words whose meanings nullify each other – Example? Personification: giving human attributes to ideas or objects – Example?