Connotation
the emotional meaning or aura a given word evokes; the allied meaning or associated ideas that are called to mind when the word is used. Spinster, mother, lecher, etc. carry specific connotations.
Ambiguity
when a word in one context has more than one meaning, i.e. "be sure to make the right turn," "Still falls the rain," or "my stare drank deep beauty that still allures.
Onomatopoeia
matching of sound and sense i.e. buzz, giggle, hiss.
Allusion
an indirect reference to some place, person, event, quotation, etc. that exists outside the story.
Simile
a comparison using like or as; "the ice was a green as emerald" or "fear was like a monster that sipped my blood.
Metaphor
a direct comparison i.e. "the ice was emerald" or "Fear sipped my blood" or "The Lord is my shepherd.
Internal Structure
organization of thought within the poem
External Structure
way the poem looks and sounds, visual and auditory patterns.
Irony
A. Verbal - Sarcasm, saying the opposite of what we really mean i.e. "yeah, I feel great," when we really feel lousy. B. Situation - The outcome is different then what was expected. C. Dramatic- The gap between what the audience knows and what the charact
Imagery
presentation in words of something the poet has perceived; not just visual but anything sensory.
End-stopping
when phrasing agrees with sentence structure i.e. completion at the end of a line of poetry of a thought, phrase of syntactic content.
Enjambment
phrasing cuts across the syntactic unit but stress and pause are still perceptible. Usually this simply means that when one reaches the end of a line of poetry, one must read part of the next line to finish the sentence or thought.
Masculine Rhyme
the last stressed syllable of a line IS the last syllable i.e. sight, ignite.
Feminine Rhyme
the last stressed syllable of a line is followed by one or more unstressed syllables i.e. proposition, condition.
Eye-rhyme
words that look alike but do not sound alike i.e. enough, cough
Anaphora
repetition of words, sentences, or phrases.
Alliteration
repetition of consonants
Assonance
repetition of vowel sounds; the internal sounds of words i.e. bake, shame or shine, unlike.
Consonance or Half rhyme
two syllables that end with the same consonant, with not the same vowel i.e. etch, hatch or barred, stirred.
Meter
regularized form or pattern of verbal rhythm
Caesura
substantial pause that occurs naturally within the line because of the language; not related to stresses.
Feet
units of stress within a line of poetry are said to be "feet." Hence the number of pulses or feet can be counted and their pattern observed.
Number of feet
The length of a line is named according to the number of feet in it: One foot - monometer Two feet - dimeter Three feet - Trimeter Four feet- Tetrameter Five feet - pentameter Six feet - Hexameter Seven feet - Heptameter Eight feet - Octameter
Scansion or Scanning
dividing each line into patterns and feet, reading and marking for syllables, determining rhyme scheme etc.
Blank verse
unrhymed iambic pentameter, i.e. Frost's "Birches".
Free verse
free from metrical regularity; no strict form but still discernible pattern.
Couplet
any stanza of two lines, or any two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme with each other but not with lines preceding or following them.
Tercet
any stanza of three lines.
Quatrain
any stanza of four lines.
Sestet
any six lines set off by stanza break or rhyme scheme.
Octave
eight lines set off by stanza or rhyme scheme.
Ballad Meter
four lines of iambic verse alternating tetrameter and trimester, rhyming abab or abcb, Commonly used in hymns
Sonnet
a 14-line poem in iambic pentameter of three types A. Petrarchan or Italian: Rhyme scheme is of two quatrains (abba abba) and one sestet (cdcdcd or cdccdc or cdecde). B. Shakespearean or English: Rhyme scheme has three quatrains (abab cdcd efef) and a cou
Paradox
A seeming contradiction
Personification
imbuing an inanimate object with human or living qualities, i.e. "Night, on her muted lyre, evokes with magic fingers.
Apostrophe
someone or some abstract quality addressed as if present.
Types of feet
The names and symbols of the meters may be tabulated, with u for an unaccented syllable, and / for an accented one. Iambic: u/ Trochaic: /u Anapestic: uu/ Dactylic: /uu Spondee: //