1. Literary Terms for Grade 10
Poetry
Literary Terms for Grade 10

2. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

3. “Language of the Imagination”
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
“Language of the Imagination”
Definition:
Language based on some sort of comparison that is not Literally true

4. METAPHOR

5. “Speak in imaginative shorthand”
METAPHOR
“Speak in imaginative shorthand”
Definition:
comparison between unlike things which some reasonable connection is instantly revealed.
More forceful: uses ‘is’ to compare ideas

6. DIRECT METAPHOR

7. DIRECT METAPHOR Definition: States that something IS something else.
Example: X is Y

8. IMPLIED METAPHOR

9. IMPLIED METAPHOR Definition:
Implies or suggests a comparison between things that have very little in common.
Ways of saying something that can open our eyes to a new way of seeing the world.

10. EXTENDED METAPHOR

11. “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair”
EXTENDED METAPHOR
Definition:
A Metaphor that develops its comparison over several lines or even an entire poem.
“Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair”

12. FIGURE OF SPEECH

13. This is never literally true
FIGURE OF SPEECH
Definition:
language shaped by the play of the imagination, in which one thing is compared to something that seems to be entirely different.
This is never literally true

14. SIMILE

15. SIMILE
Definition:
A figure of speech that uses the words like, as, than, and resembles to compare things that have little or nothing in common.

16. PERSONIFICATION

17. PERSONIFICATION Definition:
When we attribute human- like qualities to a non-human thing or to an abstract idea.
“The future calls”

18. SYMBOL

19. “Skull and crossbones for danger”
SYMBOL
Definition:
An ordinary object which has extraordinary meaning attached to it.
“Red roses for love”
“Skull and crossbones for danger”

20. SYMBOLIC MEANING

21. SYMBOLIC MEANING Definition:
The deeper layer of meaning suggested by a work’s literal, or surface, meaning.
“And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

22. Internal Conflict and External Conflict

23. CONNOTATION

24. Housman’s “Loveliest of Trees”
CONNOTATION
Definition:
All the associations and emotions that are attached to a word.
Housman’s “Loveliest of Trees”

25. AMBIGUOUS

26. Frost’s “Mending Wall”
AMBIGUOUS
Definition:
Allowing for opposing interpretations, or meanings.
Frost’s “Mending Wall”

27. SPEAKER

28. SPEAKER
Definition:
The voice that talks directly to the reader in a poem; the speaker is not always the poet.
Masters “George Gray”

29. TONE

30. TONE
Definition:
The attitude of the writer or the speaker toward the subject of the poem or toward the audience.
Can be inferred from words and details.
Hongo’s “The Legend”

31. IDIOM

32. Clifton’s “Miss Rosie”-
IDIOM
Definition:
An expression that is peculiar to a particular language. It means something different from the literal meaning of each word.
Clifton’s “Miss Rosie”-
“I stand up”

33. FREE VERSE

34. Means: “Freedom from rules”
FREE VERSE
Definition:
Poetry that does not have regular meter or rhyme. Usually captures natural rhythms of ordinary speech.
Means: “Freedom from rules”

35. BLANK VERSE

36. BLANK VERSE Definition:
Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter (no rhyme pattern, 10 syllables).

37. Italian (Petrarchan) And English (Shakespearean)
SONNET
Italian (Petrarchan)
And
English (Shakespearean)

38. SONNET
Definition:
Fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in iambic pentameter.
Italian: two parts
octave(eight lines) and sestet (six)
English: four parts
three quatrains (four lines) and couplet (pair of rhymed lines)

39. IAMBIC PENTAMETER

40. IAMBIC PENTAMETER Definition:
Used in Shakespeare, when each line contains five iambs and a total of ten syllables.

41. RHYME

42. RHYME
Definition:
Repetition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following them in words that are close together in a poem.

43. RHYMED COUPLET

44. RHYMED COUPLET Definition: A two-line unit in a poem that rhymes.
In a Shakespearean sonnet, the last pair of lines( labeled gg ).

45. END RHYME

46. END RHYME
Definition:
Rhyme which occurs at the end of lines in a poem.

47. RHYME SCHEME

48. RHYME SCHEME Definition:
A pattern of rhymed lines in a poem. This is indicated by labeling each new end rhyme with a letter of the alphabet.
Example: abab cdcd efef gg (E. Sonnet)

49. INTERNAL RHYME

50. INTERNAL RHYME Definition:
Rhyme that occurs within a line or lines of poetry.
“The warm sun is failing, the bleak wind is wailing,” -Shelley

51. APPROXIMATE RHYME

52. Blade/ blood; flash/ flesh
APPROXIMATE RHYME
Definition:
Words that sound similar, but do not rhyme exactly. Also called half rhyme, slant rhyme or imperfect rhyme.
Blade/ blood; flash/ flesh

53. QUATRAIN

54. QUATRAIN
Definition:
A four-line unit in poetry, normally found in a sonnet.

55. RHYTHM

56. RHYTHM
Definition:
Musical quality in language, produced by repetition.
Established by:
*a meter,
*repetition of grammatical structures *using pauses
*varying line lengths
*balancing long and short words and phrases.

57. METER

58. METER
Definition:
A generally regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry.

59. SCANNING

60. SCANNING
Definition:
Analyzing the metrical pattern of a poem. Also called scansion.
Meter is measured in units called feet.

61. FOOT

62. FOOT
Definition:
Usually consists of one stressed syllable and one or more unstressed syllable.
Examples: iamb dactyl
trochee spondee
anapest

63. BALLAD

64. Folk Ballad is one type is this poem.
Definition:
Song or song-like poem that tells a story. It is a story-poem that is meant to be sung.
Use: simple language
meter
refrain
Folk Ballad is one type is this poem.

65. REFRAIN

66. REFRAIN
Definition:
Whole lines or stanzas repeated at regular intervals.

67. TANKA

68. TANKA
Definition:
A Japanese poetic form, containing five (5) unrhymed lines and a total of thirty-one (31) syllables.
Evokes a strong feeling with a single image.

69. ONOMATOPOEIA

70. ONOMATOPOEIA Definition:
Use of a word whose sound suggests its meaning.
buzz, splash, knock, bark

71. ALLITERATION

72. ALLITERATION Definition:
Repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together.
“Where the quail is whistling betwixt the woods and the wheat-lot.” -Whitman

73. ASSONANCE

74. ASSONANCE Definition:
Repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds in words that are close together.
“I lie down by the side, Of my darling, of my darling, my life and my bride.”
-Edgar Allen Poe

75. PROSE POEM

76. PROSE POEM Definition:
A short piece that is written in the form of prose but uses the elements of poetry. Usually evokes powerful images that make the writer’s world easy to see and feel.