Poetry Unit
Terms, Definitions and Examples
Dialect- a version of a language spoken by the
people of a particular place, time, or social
group
Ex: ya’ll, yun’z
Onomatopoeia- the use of words or phrases
that sound like the things to which they refer
Ex: bang, pop, buzz
Alliteration- the repetition of initial consonant
sounds
Ex: sally sells sea shells, tip of the tongue
Atmosphere- that emotion created in the
reader by all or part of a literary work, also
known as “mood” or “tone”
Ex: Dark and eeriness of “Emmett Till” by James A.
Emanuel: “I hear a whistling / Through the water /
Little Emmett / Won’t be still. / He keeps floating /
Round the darkness, / Edging through / The silent
chill.”
Rhyme- the repetition of sounds at the ends of
words
Ex: mine and pine
Rhyme Scheme- a regular pattern of end
rhymes
Ex: ABAB, ABBA, ABBB, AABB, AABA,
ABCA…etc.
Assonance – repetition of the same vowel
sounds
Ex: “The crumbling thunder of the seas”
Concrete - printed or written in a shape that
suggests its subject matter
Ex:
Action- the sequence of events that occur in a
literary work, as opposed to those that occur
off-scene or precede or follow the events in the
work itself.
Ex: “My love is like a red, red rose”
Takes place RIGHT NOW
Analyze - To discover something through detailed
examination of a text; an analysis is that examination
Ex: Through usage, tone, and symbolism, Margaret
Atwood discusses the position of women in society in her
poem “Siren Song.”
Quatrain- four-line stanzas
Ex: “’Hope’ is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all”
Tercet- three-line stanzas
Ex: Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day
Rage, rage against the dying of the light
Hyperbole – an extreme exaggeration
Ex: “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!”
Symbol- a thing that stands for or represents both itself
and something else
Ex: Dove = peace, rose = love
Theme – a central idea in a work
Ex: Good is better than evil
Personification – giving inanimate objects human-like qualities
Ex: “The fog comes / on little cat feet. / It sits looking / over
harbor and city / on silent haunches / and then moves on.”
Ambiguity– word or phrase that can be read one in more than
one way
Ex: “The whiskey on your breath / could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death: / Such waltzing was not easy.”
Figurative language– tool that an author uses to help the reader
visualize what is happening
Ex: Simile, metaphor, etc.
Appositive-a grammatical form in which a thing is
renamed, in different words, in a word or phrase
Sandra, my best friend, writes nature poetry.
Lovely, dark and deep
Simile- a comparison using like or as
Example: “O my love is like a red, red rose /
That’s newly sprung in June.”
Metaphor- a comparison that is directly stated
Example: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? /
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”