Alliteration
• The repetition of beginning consonant
sounds
• dreadful, dreary, darkened dead-end
• She scampered and skidded across the
floor
Diction
• The choice of words a writer makes
What difference is there between a:
• A physician
• A doctor
• A quack
Hyperbole
• A description that exaggerates or overstates
• He is the greatest human being ever to walk
the earth
• She hit the ball over the fence and to the
moon
Imagery
• Using words to describe that appeal to the
five senses in order to create a mental
picture
Imagery
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way
Irony
• Where an event occurs which is
unexpected and in contrast to what is
expected
• The Olympic diving champion returned
home with his five medals but was
found dead in the jacuzzi.
Metaphor
Comparison between two unlike things,
not usually compared, stating it as if it
is that thing (not using “like” or “as”)
• The road was a ribbon of moonlight
• Her hair, a spider web of tangles
Mood
• The feeling or emotion created by the
author (How it makes me feel.)
• If the first line says “it was a dark,
murky, and mysterious night” this
creates a feeling of fear and
uncertainty.
Parallelism
• The use of phrases or words that are
similar in structure or meaning
• Mary likes to hike, to swim, and to ride
a bike while on vacation.
• I’m happy with love, I’m filled with
contentment.
Personification
• Using human(person-like)
characteristics to describe an inanimate
object
• The wind gnawed at her dress
• Hunger came knocking
Repetition
• The repeating of a word or phrase for
effect
• All we did was sit, sit, sit, sit on that
cold, cold, cold, cold day.
Rhyme
• Similar sounds at the end of words
• Door, floor, core, store, war,
Rhyme Scheme
•
•
•
•
•
•
The rhyming pattern of the lines
aabb
I want to run (a)
In the hot sun (a)
I must not cry (b)
Even though I am not dry (b)
Rhythm/Meter
• The pattern formed by accented and
unaccented syllables in a line of poetry
^
^
^
^
• The boy went down the street today.
^
^
^
^
• Twin-kle, twin-kle lit-tle star
Simile
• A comparison between two unlike
things that uses the word “like,” “as,”
“than,” or “resembles”
• The moon appeared as a large drop of
blood in the darkening sky.
• He was as quick as a cat on a hot tin
roof.
Stanza
• The organizational structure of lines in
a poem (a paragraph in a poem or
song)
Down dropped the breeze, the sails
dropped down,
‘Twas sad as sad could be;
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!
All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Tone
• The attitude of the author toward the
subject of the poem
• Bitter and sarcastic tone
• Matter-of-fact tone
• Disrespectful tone
•
•
•
•
Mary had a little lamb a
It’s fleece was white as snow b
And everywhere that Mary went c
The lamb was sure to go. b
Free verse
• Poetry that has no regular rhyme or
rhythm
Life is like a broken-winged bird
Too soft to handle
Too hard to hold
Analogy
• Comparison made between things that
are alike in some way (opposites,
relationship, part-to-whole)
• Hot:Cold
Big:Small
Symbol
• Something on the surface level has one
meaning, but which also has another
meaning
• Light symbolizes knowledge
• Sword symbolizes justice
Allusion
• A reference to someone or something that is
known in history or literature
• The Garden of Eden could not have been a
happier place . . .
• His was the love of Romeo that . . .
• The snow-covered tree-tops glistened as the bright
sundrops sprinkled across their tips.
Ballad
Here is a list of the characteristics of ballads:
• Most ballads have a narrative form.
• Ballads tend to have a distinctive verse formQuatrains. (4 line stanzas)
• Ballads have refrains-with four stresses per
line—general effect is musical.
• Most ballads contain dialogue.
Ballad
• The common rhyme scheme of many ballads
is (abcb) with ballad stanza lines 2 and 4
rhyming.
• Ballads tend to be extremely concise and
tend to recount one episode.
• Common themes include tragic love themes,
history, supernatural, unbelievable incidents,
tragic domestic stories, etc.
•