Poetic Literary Terms
Allegory - a form of extended metaphor in which objects, persons, and actions in a
narrative, either in prose or verse, are equated with meanings that lie outside the narrative
itself.
Alliteration - repetition of consonant sounds within a line of poetry.
examples:
a. "Bright black-eyed creature, brushed with brown."
b. "He clasps the crag with crooked hands."
Allusion - a reference, explicit or implicit, to something in previous literature or history.
examples:
a. "Out, Out-" Robert Frost, (title of Frost's poem that deals with a seemingly
useful life that is wiped out unexpectedly: title reinforces theme as it
alludes to the phrase in Macbeth: "Out, Out, brief candle!")
b. "On His Blindness," John Milton, (Biblical parable in Matthew 25:14-30)
Apostrophe - A figure of speech in which someone (usually, but not always absent), some
abstract quality, or a nonexistent personage is directly addressed as though alive and
capable of understanding. Apostrophes are frequently used in patriotic poetry when a poet
addresses some glorious leader of the past to invoke his/her interest or help in the
present, or when the humorist or satirist is working on a serious subject, or when poet
make invocations to the muses.
examples:
a. "Little Lamb, who made thee?" William Blake
b. "Milton! Thou should'st be living at this hour." Wordsworth
Assonance - half rhyme where the vowel sounds are the same but the consonants are
different, e.g. lake/ same, bend/ stem, connect/ wreck.
Ballad - a simple poem which deals with a dramatic situation, usually created for singing.
Blank Verse - unrhymed iambic pentameter examples: a. Shakespeare's plays
Carpe Diem - "seize the day"--this Epicurean motif in poetry advises the reader to enjoy
the present pleasures because of the brevity of life and finality of death. Enjoyment may
range from pleasures of mind to sensual pleasures.
Connotation - what a word suggests beyond its basic definition; a word's overtones or
cluster of implications that a word or phrase may carry with them as distinguished from
their denotative meanings. See DENOTATION.
Consonance - half rhymes where the consonant endings of words are similar but the
vowels preceding the last letter(s) are different, e.g. burn/ born, bend/ stand, afternoon/
sun.
Denotation - the specific, exact meaning of a word, independent of its emotional coloration
or associations. See CONNOTATION.
Enjambment - Employment of "run-on" lines that carry the completion of a statement from
one line to another without rhetorical pause.
Imagery - the representation in poetry of any sense experience. Imagery does not consist
merely of "mental pictures," but may make an appeal to any of the senses. Details such
as the red skin of a wheelbarrow may mean more than just color--the wheelbarrow may be
associated with blood, rage, a sunset, or an apple.
Irony - a situation, or a use of language, involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy
- the contrast between actual meaning and the suggestion of another meaning.
(a) verbal irony - meaning one thing and saying the opposite of what is intended, e.g.,
understatement, overstatement, naiveté, foreshadowing.
(b) dramatic irony - a device by which the author implies a different meaning from that
intended by the speaker in a literary work, in drama this device is evident when a contrast
exists between what a character says and what the audience knows is true.
Examples:
a. "Here's some bad news for you: you all got A's and B's!"
b. "And down in lovely muck I've lain, Happy till I woke again" A. E. Houseman
Metaphor - a figure of speech in which an implied analogy imaginatively identifies one
object with another and ascribes to the first one or more of the qualities of the second or
invests the first with emotional or imaginative qualities associated with the second. A
literary comparison used to show the subtle resemblance between a particular person,
place, or event to a more universal individual, place, or incident.
examples:
a. "All the world's a stage" Shakespeare
b. "Death is the broom / I take in my hands To sweep the world clean."
c. "Love is a singing bird."
Metonymy - a figure of speech that is characterized by the substitution of a term naming
an object closely associated with the word in mind for the word itself. In this way a writer
may speak of the king as "the crown," an object closely associated with kingship.
examples:
a. "The serpent that did sting thy father's life/ Now wears his crown."
Shakespeare
b. Robert Frost uses "life" for "blood" in "Out, Out"
Mood - the attitude that a poet takes toward the theme of a work--very similar to TONE. In
writing about a theme such as death, a poet may be fearful towards death, or welcome
death. Fear, or welcome, is the MOOD of the poem.
Narrative Poem- tells a story in a highly objective way by a speaker who is detached from
the action. The thoughts and feelings of the speaker do not enter the poem.
examples:
a. Coleridge's' `Rime of the Ancient Mariner""
b. Noyes' "The Highwayman"
Onomatopoeia - Literary technique in which combinations of words imitate sounds.
examples: "hiss," "snap," "clash," "murmur," "zip"
Oxymoron - Figure of speech which combines two contradictory terms to express a
condensed paradox. Oxymoron is used poetically to express religious mysteries, which
seem to be beyond human understanding. Seeks to create a unity rather than a division.
examples:
a. "cheerful pessimist"
b. "wise fool"
c. "sad joy"
d. "eloquent silence"
e. "beautiful tyrant"
f. "angelic fiend"
g. "a heavy lightness"
Palindrome - A word, sentence or verse that reads alike backwards or forward.
examples:
a. "Madam, I'm Adam''
b. "Able was I ere I saw Elba"
Paradox - a statement or situation that seems on the surface contradictory or untrue, but
proves valid upon closer inspection. Paradox is closely related to irony. Cleanth Brook's
The Well Wrought Urn is an excellent source book.
examples:
a. "Damn with faint praise"
b. "My life closed twice before its close"
c. "Parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell."
d. "When my love swears that she is made of truth, I do believe her, though I
know she lies." Shakespeare
Personification - a figure of speech that endows animals, ideas, abstractions, and
inanimate objects with human form, character, or sensibilities.
examples:
a. "I am not cruel only truthful." (personifying a mirror.)
b. "A narrow fellow in the grass." Emily Dickinson
Rhyme - words or word endings that sound identical (perfect rhyme). True/perfect rhymes
are exact--only the stressed syllables count (raining and forming are not perfect rhymes).
There are three types of true rhymes:
* masculine rhyme: one syllable words--or the last syllable of a word rhymes
(ran/can, enough/tough, fuss/delicious)
* feminine rhyme: double rhyme--last or only two syllables rhyme
(lighting/ fighting, sinker/ blinker, taller/ smaller)
* triple rhyme: three syllables rhyme (glorious/ victorious)
Imperfect rhymes: assonance, consonance, near rhyme, half rhyme.
Simile - Comparison of one thing with another, announce by the word "like" or "as"
Sonnet - a lyric poem of 14 lines, usually about love, having very formal/ traditional rhyme
patterns. There are two major types:
Petrarchan/Italian, which is divided into eight lines (Octave) and six lines (sestet).
Shakespearean/English, which is divided into three quatrains or four, lines each
followed by a two line couplet at the end.
Spoonerism - an interchange of sounds where the beginnings of words are transposed,
e.g. well-boiled icicle for well-oiled bicycle or blushing crow for crushing blow.
Synecdoche - A metaphoric form which uses a part of something to signify the whole
(something); thus the part signifies the whole. In order to be clear, a good synecdoche
must be based on an important part of the whole and not a minor apart and, usually, the
part selected to stand for the whole must be the part most directly associated with the
subject under discussion.
examples:
a. "motor" for "automobile"
b. "foot" for "infantry"
c. "hands" for "manual labor"
d. threads for clothes
Tone - the writer's or speaker's attitude or mood towards his subject and his audience,
and sometimes toward himself. Tone, in a poem, expresses attitudes, the emotional
coloring or emotional meaning of a poem. Similar to MOOD, but TONE could also
describe whether a poet is being casual, formal, humorous, or proud of his/ her work.
Others: