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Poetry Terms

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Term	Status	Accuracy	Streak	Last
AlliterationRepetition of the same initial consonant sound in nearby words.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
AllusionA brief, unexplained reference to a person, place, event, or other text, which borrows the source's associations without restating them. It depends on the reader recognizing it.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
AntithesisContrasting ideas set against each other in parallel grammatical structure ('To err is human; to forgive, divine'). A sharpened juxtaposition, where the symmetry of the syntax presses the opposition.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
ArchaicLanguage belonging to an earlier period and out of ordinary use ('thee', 'hath', 'ere'), whether because the poem is old or because a later poet reaches back for it on purpose.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
AssonanceRepetition of the same vowel sound in nearby words whose consonants differ: 'the light of the fire is a sight'.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
CadenceThe rise, fall, and pacing of the voice across a line or passage. Free verse has cadence without meter.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
CaesuraA distinct pause inside a line, usually cut by punctuation, which interrupts the line's rhythm.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
ClaimAn arguable assertion about the poem that needs support. A claim someone could not disagree with is observation, not argument.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
Closed formsPoems written to a prescribed pattern of line count, meter, and rhyme, such as the sonnet, villanelle, or sestina. The form exists before the poem and the poet writes into it.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
ConceitsAn elaborate, intellectually showy extended metaphor that yokes two strikingly unlike things and sustains the comparison through surprising logical turns. Associated with the metaphysical poets, especially Donne's compasses and fleas.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
ConnotationThe associations, emotional coloring, and implications a word carries beyond its denotation. 'Home' and 'residence' denote the same thing and connote very different ones.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
ConsonanceRepetition of consonant sounds in nearby words, inside or at the ends of the words rather than only at the start: 'pitter patter'.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
CoupletTwo consecutive lines, usually rhymed and in the same meter. Ending a poem on one gives it an air of summary or judgment.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
DenotationA word's literal dictionary meaning, stripped of association.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
DictionThe poet's word choice considered as a pattern rather than one word at a time: level of formality, concrete against abstract, plain Anglo-Saxon against Latinate, and the connotations the selection keeps activating.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
Dramatic ironyWhen the reader knows something the speaker or a character does not, so their words carry a meaning they never intended.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
ElegyA poem of mourning for someone dead, usually moving through grief toward some consolation or acceptance.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
End rhymeRhyme falling at the ends of lines. The default kind, and the kind a rhyme scheme charts.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
EnjambmentRunning a sentence past the end of a line with no punctuation, so the break falls mid-phrase. It creates forward pressure and can let a line mean one thing on its own and another once completed. Its opposite is the end-stopped line.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
EvidenceThe specific language cited to support a claim. In poetry analysis that means quoted words and the devices working in them, not paraphrase of what the poem is about.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
Extended metaphorOne metaphor developed across many lines or a whole poem, with its details worked out rather than dropped after a line.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
FeetThe unit meter is counted in: one grouping of stressed and unstressed syllables. The common ones are iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, and spondee.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
Free verseVerse with no regular meter and no rhyme scheme, organized instead by line break, cadence, image, and repetition.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
HyperboleDeliberate exaggeration for emphasis or emotional effect, not meant to be taken literally.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
IambA two-syllable foot, unstressed then stressed: de-FINE, a-BOVE, be-CAUSE. The foot closest to ordinary English speech, which is why it dominates English verse.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
Iambic pentameterA line of five iambs, ten syllables alternating unstressed and stressed. The standard line of Shakespeare, Milton, and the English sonnet.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
Iambic tetrameterA line of four iambs, eight syllables. Shorter than pentameter and noticeably more songlike or insistent, since the pattern repeats sooner.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
ImageryLanguage that appeals to the senses. Not restricted to sight: sound, touch, taste, smell, temperature, and bodily movement all count, and the non-visual kinds are the ones students usually miss.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
Internal rhymeRhyme occurring inside a single line, rather than at its end.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
InversionA departure from normal English word order, such as putting the verb before its subject or the adjective after its noun, used for emphasis, meter, or rhyme. Also called anastrophe.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
IronyA gap between what is said and what is meant, or between what is expected and what happens. The gap is not a mistake in the poem; noticing it is part of reading the poem.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
JuxtapositionsPlacing two images, ideas, or terms side by side so their contrast or unexpected likeness produces meaning. Nothing is stated about the relationship; the arrangement does the work.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
LyricA short poem spoken by a single voice presenting a state of mind or feeling rather than telling a story. Most short poems you will read are lyrics.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
MetaphorsA comparison that asserts one thing is another, with no 'like' or 'as', transferring the qualities of the second onto the first.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
MeterThe regular, countable rhythmic pattern a line is built on, named by the type of foot and the number of feet per line.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
MoodThe emotional atmosphere the poem produces in the reader. Tone belongs to the speaker, mood belongs to the audience, and the two can deliberately conflict.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
Near rhymeRhyme whose correspondence is imperfect, close enough to register as rhyme but off enough to feel unsettled. Also called slant, oblique, or half rhyme.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
OctetAn eight-line unit, and the first section of a Petrarchan sonnet. Also called the octave.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
OdeA long, formal lyric of praise or serious address to its subject, elevated in tone and often elaborate in stanza structure.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
OnomatopoeiaA word whose sound imitates the thing it names: hiss, clang, murmur.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
Open formPoetry that builds its own structure instead of filling an inherited one, shaping line and stanza to the individual poem. Open form is not the absence of form.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
OxymoronTwo contradictory terms placed in immediate succession: 'bittersweet', 'living death', 'loving hate'. A compressed local effect at the level of the phrase.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
ParadoxA statement that appears self-contradictory but discloses a truth on reflection ('The child is father to the man'). Oxymoron works at the level of the phrase; paradox works at the level of the idea.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
Parallel structureRepeating the same grammatical form across phrases, clauses, or lines. Also called parallelism, and the structure antithesis depends on.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
PersonaA deliberately assumed identity the poet speaks through, often a named or historical figure. Every poem has a speaker; only some use a persona, which is marked as visibly not the poet.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
PersonificationGranting human qualities, actions, or intentions to an animal, an object, or an abstraction: the sea decides, the wind grieves, Death arrives politely.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
Petrarchan sonnetThe Italian sonnet: an octet rhyming abbaabba, then a sestet. The octet sets out a problem or situation and the sestet answers it, with the volta at line 9.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
QuatrainsA four-line stanza or unit, the most common grouping in English verse.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
RhymeCorrespondence of sound between words, normally the stressed vowel and everything following it.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
Rhyme schemeThe pattern of end rhymes across a stanza or a poem, notated with letters, a new letter for each new sound: abab, abba, aabb.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
RhythmThe pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables as actually heard in a line. Every poem has rhythm, including one with no meter.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
SestetA six-line unit, and the closing section of a Petrarchan sonnet, which responds to the octet.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
Shakespearean sonnetThe English sonnet: three quatrains and a closing couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. The turn falls at line 9 or is withheld until the couplet, which then reverses or clinches the whole poem.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
ShiftsA turn where the poem changes direction in tone, attitude, setting, time, or argument. Usually signaled by a conjunction ('but', 'yet'), a stanza break, a change in punctuation, or a change in verb tense.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
SimilesA comparison between unlike things made explicitly, with 'like' or 'as'.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
Situational ironyWhen an outcome reverses what the speaker, the characters, or the reader had been led to expect.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
Slant rhymeThe most common form of near rhyme, where the consonants match but the vowels do not: 'eyes' and 'is', 'soul' and 'all'. Used interchangeably with near rhyme in most discussions.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
SonnetA fourteen-line lyric, conventionally in iambic pentameter, organized around a turn in argument or feeling.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
SoundThe audible dimension of a poem: rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, cadence, and meter. Treat it as part of the meaning rather than decoration laid over it.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
SpeakerThe voice that speaks the poem. Never assume it is the poet: the speaker is a construct inside the text, and the distance between poet and speaker is often where the meaning sits.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
StanzasA group of lines set off by white space, the poem's equivalent of a paragraph. Named by line count: couplet, tercet, quatrain, sestet, octet.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
SymbolsA concrete object or action that carries meaning beyond itself while remaining fully literal inside the poem. A symbol is not a code word with one fixed decoding; its meaning is built by the poem's own context.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
SyntaxHow words are arranged into phrases, clauses, and sentences: order, length, subordination, and where sentences begin and end relative to the lines.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
TercetsA three-line stanza or unit.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
Thesis statementThe sentence stating an essay's central arguable claim about the poem, together with the reasoning that will organize the argument.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
ToneThe speaker's attitude toward the subject or the audience, carried by diction, imagery, syntax, and sound.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
UnderstatementDeliberately presenting something as smaller or less serious than it is, so the restraint itself registers the real weight. Often ironic.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
Verbal ironyWhen a speaker says the opposite of, or something markedly different from, what they mean. Sarcasm is verbal irony delivered with contempt, but plenty of verbal irony is gentle or grave rather than sarcastic.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
VillanelleA nineteen-line closed form: five tercets and a quatrain, built on two rhymes and two refrain lines that return in a fixed pattern. The repetition is the point, since the refrains shift meaning each time they come back.	New	N/A	N/A	Never
VoltaThe turn in a sonnet where the argument, tone, or direction changes. Line 9 in the Petrarchan sonnet; line 9 or the final couplet in the Shakespearean.	New	N/A	N/A	Never

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