Literary Terms Vocabulary #1
1. Alliteration – the repetition of consonant sounds in a sequence of words
used to highlight or emphasize key words, concepts and relationships
2. Assonance – The repetition of vowel sounds in a literary work
3. Ballad – A poem that recounts a story – generally some dramatic episode
– and that has been composed to be sung.
4. Blank Verse – Unrhymed iambic pentameter verse.
5. Consonance – repetition of a final consonant sound following different
vowel sounds; not a true rhyme ex. Litter/letter, wade/wood
6. Couplet – two lines that rhyme with each other, often the last two
rhyming lines
7. Epic – a long and formal narrative poem written in an elevated style that
recounts the adventures of a hero of almost mythic proportions.
8. Free verse – poetry that lacks regular meter, does not rhyme, and uses
irregular line lengths.
9. Haiku – A Japanese verse form consisting of three unrhymed lines that
typically have lines of five, seven, and five syllables.
10. Lyric – A poem that expresses the emotions of the poet; categories of
lyric poems include: odes, ballads, and sonnets.
11. Meter - The regular pattern of accented and unaccented syllables in
poetry, which is usually defined by the kind of foot, like iambic, in
combination with the number of feet per line, like pentameter.
12. Narrative poem – a poem that tells a story
13. Ode – an extended lyric poem characterized by exalted emotion and
dignified style.
14. Quatrain – a four line stanza of a poem
15. Rhyme – The repetition of identical vowel sounds followed by a similar
constant in the stressed syllables of two or more words.
16. Soliloquy – A monologue delivered by a character in a play while alone
on stage that reveals inner thoughts
17. Sonnet – A fourteen line poem usually composed in iambic pentameter
employing one of several rhyme schemes. There are three major types
of sonnets: Italian (Petrarchan), English (Shakespearean), Spenserian
18. Stanza – a subdivision of a poem consiting of lines grouped together,
often in recurring patterns of rhyme, line length, and meter.