Poetry Terminology

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Dramatic Monologue
A poem that has been created in the form of a speech or narrative by a fictional character or narrator. The speaker unintentionally reveals aspects of their character when describing a particular situation, person or event.
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Epigraph
An epigraph is a phrase, quotation or poem that is written at the beginning of a document. It seeks to introduce the piece, to summarise the piece, or to link the work to a wider literary canon.
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Rhyming Couplets
A rhyming pair of consecutive lines in a verse.
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Enjambment
The continuation of a sentence, without a pause, in a verse that extends beyond the end of a line, couplet or stanza.
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Iambic Pentameter
A line of verse with five metrical feet, In poetry, the use of an iambic pentameter seeks to give the poem a conversational quality.
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Iambic Tetrameter
A line of verse with four metrical feet, consisting of a short (unstressed) syllable followed by a long (stressed) syllable. In poetry, the use of an iambic tetrameter also seeks to give the poem a conversational quality but also mimics a heartbeat.
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Simile
A comparison between something and another thing of a different kind. The effect of this is that it makes description more emphatic and vivid.
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Metaphor
An application of a word or phrase to another object or action which is not literally relevant.
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Repetition
This is a literary device that repeats the same words or phrases numerous times to make an idea more understandable.
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Alliteration
The occurence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of successive or closely connected words.
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Assonance
The resemblance of sound between syllables or nearby words. The rhyming of two or more stressed vowels or identical consonants with different vowel sounds both count as assonance.
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Sibilance
A specific type of alliteration that relies on the repetition of soft consonant sounds in words. They create a whoosing or a hissing sound.
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Fricative
A fricative consonant (also referred to as a spirant) is an f, th or v sound.
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Plosive
A plosive speech sound comes from words beginning with t, k, p and b.
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Ellipsis
The omission of speech or words from a sentence. In writing, dots or hyphens usually show ellipsis.
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Contraction
A word produced by combining two or more words and omitting some of the letters and sounds.
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Catalectic Meter
A line that is metrically incomplete and lacks a syllable at the end of the incomplete foot.
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Parallelism
The use of consecutive verbal constructions in poetry or prose which gramatically correlate in structure, sound, meter and meaning.
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Binary opposition
A pair or related terms or concepts that are antithetical in meaning.
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Tricolon
A rhetorical term for a series of three parallel words, phrases or clauses.
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Hyperbole
An exaggerated statement or claim that should not be taken literally.
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Oxymoron
A figure of speech that features contradictionary terms which appear in conjuction with each other.
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Compound Noun
Two or more existing words put together to create one noun.
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Semantic Field
A lexical set of related words or items.
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Caesura
A break between words with a metrical foot.Conjuc
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Conjunction
A word used to join together clauses or sentences.
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Deixis
A word or phrase that indicates the time and place or situation in which a speaker is speaking.
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Anaphora
The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of sucessive clauses.
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Extended Metaphor
A comparison between two unlike things that continues through a series of sentences or paragraphs.
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Syndetic Listing
Words and phrases connected by conjunctions.
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Asyndetic Listing
Words and phrases not connected by conjunctions.
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Adverbial Phrase
A group of two or more words which modify a verb.
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Dynamic Verb
A verb that shows continued or progressive action.
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Stative Verb
A verb that shows a state or situation.
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Anastrophe
The inversion of the usual order of words or clauses.
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Temporal Preposition
A word used to describe the position of an event in time.
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Juxtaposition
Two things placed close together that are completely contrasting.
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Sestet
The last six lines of a sonnet or poem.
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Quatrain
A stanza consisting of four lines, particularly with alternate rhymes.
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Lexical Polysemy
Association of one word with two or more meanings.
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Exclamative
A word or phrase which signals an exclamation.
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Declarative
A statement in the form of making a declaration or stating something.
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Interrogative
A word or phrase which signals a question.
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Imperative
A verb or phrase that signals a command or draws attention.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

An epigraph is a phrase, quotation or poem that is written at the beginning of a document. It seeks to introduce the piece, to summarise the piece, or to link the work to a wider literary canon.

Back

Epigraph

Card 3

Front

A rhyming pair of consecutive lines in a verse.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

The continuation of a sentence, without a pause, in a verse that extends beyond the end of a line, couplet or stanza.

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

A line of verse with five metrical feet, In poetry, the use of an iambic pentameter seeks to give the poem a conversational quality.

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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