1. Ms. Helton’s English I CP Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Poetry Terms
Ms. Helton’s English I CP
Tuesday, January 5, 2016

2. Alliteration
A stylistic device in which a number of words, having the same first consonant sound, occur close together in a series.

3. Allusion
A reference to a mythological, literary, or historical person, place, or thing.

4. Assonance
The repetition of accented vowel sounds in a series of words: e.g., “cry” and “side” have the same vowel sound and so are said to be in assonance.

5. Cliché
An expression that has been overused to the extent that it loses its original meaning or novelty. A cliché may also refer to actions and events which are predictable because of some previous events.

6. Consonance
The repetition of a consonant sound within a series of words to produce a harmonious effect: e.g., “And each slow dusk a drawing- down of blinds.” The “d” sound is in consonance. The “s” sound is also in consonance.

7. Epic
A long narrative poem that tells of the adventures of heroes who in some way embody the values of their civilizations.

8. *Figurative Language
Describes one thing in terms of something else. For example: similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, synecdoche, and metonymy, etc.

9. Free Verse
Free verse is a literary device that can be defined as poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm and does not rhyme with fixed forms.

10. Hyperbole
A deliberate exaggeration in literature.

11. Imagery
The use of words or phrases that appeal to the five senses to create vivid pictures in the reader’s mind.

12. *Metaphor
A comparison of two unlike things (not using “like” or “as”).

13. Meter
The rhythmical pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse.

14. The use of words that imitate sound.
Onomatopoeia
The use of words that imitate sound.

15. Personification
A figure of speech in which an animal, object, or idea is given human form or characteristics.

16. Repetition
The recurrence of sounds, words, phrases, lines, or stanzas in a speech or piece of writing.

17. Rhyme
The repetition of sounds in words that appear close to each other in a poem. End rhyme occurs at the end of lines; internal rhyme is within a line. Slant rhyme is approximate rhyme. A rhyme scheme is the pattern of end rhymes.

18. Rhythm
The pattern of beats created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables, particularly in poetry.

19. *Simile
A comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of the words “like” or “as.”

20. The voice or persona in the poem.
Speaker
The voice or persona in the poem.

21. A group of lines within a poem.
Stanza
A group of lines within a poem.

22. Enjambment
The running-over of a sentence or phrase from one poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation; the opposite of end-stopped.

23. Narrative vs. Lyric Poems
Narrative: Tells a story
Lyric: Expresses personal emotions or feelings, and is typically told in the first person

24. Pronouns and Antecedents
Pronouns: Replace nouns
Antecedents: What the pronoun replaces or the noun to which it refers

25. In each stanza of Poe’s “The Raven”:
Find the following:
Internal Rhyme and End Rhyme
Repetition
Mood and Tone (Diction, Detail, and Imagery to help)
Enjambment
Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance

26. “The Raven” (Edgar Allan Poe, first stanza)
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door— Only this and nothing more.”

27. “The Raven” (second stanza)
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December; And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore— For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore— Nameless here for evermore.