“How to Read Poetry” Terms

• Alliteration- repletion of the same letter at the beginning of a series of words (e.g. Amy ate apples.)

• Allusion- an indirect reference to something or someone well known (e.g. He’s a real Romeo with the ladies – Romeo and Juliet).

• Assonance- repetition of vowel sounds (e.g. The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plains)

• Ballad- a narrative poem consisting of stanzas of iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter (e.g. Amazing Grace)

• Bank Verse- no rhyme scheme, but does have iambic pentameter (five iambs per line,5 heart beats daDum, daDum, daDum, daDum, daDum) (e.g. "a lot of people think we speak in it.)

• Caesura- a pause in a line of poetry that is formed by the rhythms of natural speech (e.g. Cause baby you’re a firework ||come on show them what you’re worth)

• Couplet- tiny stanzas that sometimes rhyme (e.g. "How like Eve's apple doth thy beauty grow,/If thy sweet virtue answer not thy show!").

• Diction- word choice (e.g. Should you call your crush "sweetie," "dearest," "darling," "beloved," "boo," "sugar pie," or "Hey, you"?).

• End Rhyme- rhyme that occurs at the ends of lines. (e.g. In Flanders fields the poppies blow/ Between the crosses, row on row,/That mark our place; and in the sky/ The larks, still bravely singing, fly./ Scarce heard amid the guns below.)

• Enjambment- when a phrase carries over a line-break without a major pause (e.g. Or gazing on the new soft-fallen masque/ Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—).

• Epic- a story that starts in the middle of the action (e.g. Starwars, The Iliad, The Odessey)

• Foot- the most basic unit of a poem's meter (e.g. Iamb: daDUM/ Trochee: DUMda/ Spondee: DUMDUM/ Anapest: dadaDUM/ Dactyl: DUMdada/ Amphibrach: daDUMda/ Pyrrhic: dada)

• Free Verse- lacks a regular meter or rhyme scheme. (e.g. Walt Witman Poetry)

• Imagery- the pictures and sensations a piece of writing conjures.

• Lyric- a glimpse inside the speaker's head in order to directly convey the speaker's thoughts and emotions. (e.g. Shall I Compare the to a Summer’s Day, O Captain! My Captain! )

• Metaphor- comparing without using like or as (e.g. You’re a toad!)

• Meter- a poem's underlying structure; the rhythm beneath the words (e.g. see foot example)

• Ode- sings the praises of the poem's subject (e.g. John Keats – “Ode to Nightingales”)

• Onomatopoeia- words that resemble the sound that they represent (e.g. Bam! Pow! Biff! Vronk! Sploosh!).

• Repetition- repeats the same words or phrases to make an idea clearer.

• Rhyme scheme- patterns of end rhymes in poems and songs, that make things sound nice. (e.g. Poe’s “The Raven”)

• Rhythm- the beat of a piece of writing, often a poem.

• Simile- comparing using like or as (e.g. As hungry as a horse)

• Sonnet- the most common poetic forms (requirements: fourteen lines, a rhyme scheme, iambic pentameter, a turn somewhere around line 8 or 9, where the poem takes a new direction).

• Stanza- division within a poem where a group of lines are formed into a unit.

• Stress- emphasis given to particular syllables (e.g. the word "produce" a farmer may proDUCE carrots, which a greengrocer will sell as PRODuce).

• Theme- a central idea in a work of literature.

• Tone- an author's attitude—the emotions and feelings conveyed by the work of literature.

• Verse- a single line of poetry or stanza.

• Volta- turn of thought or argument (e.g. Shal I Compare The to a Summer’s Day—Line 9)