Literary Terms

In Poetry

AlliterationDefinition: The

__________________of initial consonant sounds

AlliterationExamples:

1. The deep churned. Something had happened down in the dim, foggy-green depths.

--Paul Annixter,"Battle in the Depths"

2. Touch each object you want to touch as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail.

--Helen Keller, "The Seeing See Little"

SimileDefinition: A figure of

speech that uses like or as to make a _____________________

between two unlike ideas

SimileExamples:

1. Concrete mixers move like elephants

2.As precise as a surgeon3.He fights like a lion

MetaphorDefinition: A figure of

speech in which something is _____________ as though it were something else- does not use like or as

MetaphorExamples:

1.Even a child could carry my dog. He’s such a feather.

2.We would have had more pizza to eat if Tammy hadn’t been such a pig.

PersonificationDefinition: A type of

figurative language in which a _________________ is given human characteristics

PersonificationExample: The wind stood up and gave a shout.

He whistled on his fingers andKicked the withered leaves about

And thumped the branches with his handAnd said he'd kill and kill and kill,

And so he will and so he will.-James Stephens, "The Wind"

OnomatopoeiaDefinition: Use of words

that ___________sounds

OnomatopoeiaExample: It SHUSHES, It hushes, The loudness in the road. It flitter-twitters, And laughs away from me.It laughs a lovely whiteness, And whitely whirs away, To be, Some otherwhere, Still white as milk or shirts, So beautiful it hurts.-Cynthia in the Snow, Gwendolyn Brooks

RhymeDefinition: The

______________of sounds at the ends of words- sometimes used to emphasize words or ideas or give the poem a song-like quality

RhymeExample:

Three blind mice, three blind mice,See how they run, see how they run,They all ran after the farmer's wife,Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,Did you ever see such a thing in your life,As three blind mice?

End RhymeDefinition: Rhyming words

at the _______of lines

End RhymeExample:

Do you like green eggs and ham?I do not like them, Sam-I-am.I do not like green eggs and ham.

From“Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr. Seuss

Internal RhymeDefinition: Rhyming words

__________the lines

Internal RhymeExample:Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream beforeFrom “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

Rhyming CoupletDefinition: Two

_____________ lines of poetry that rhyme and have the same meter

Rhyming CoupletExample:

Singing he was, or fluting all the day; He was as fresh as is the month of May.

From “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer

Rhyme SchemeDefinition: A ________

___________of rhyming words in a poem

Rhyme SchemeExample: There once was a big brown cat a That liked to eat a lot of mice. bHe got all round and fat aBecause they tasted so nice. b

Multiple MeaningsDefinition: Words or

phrases that have _____than one meaning

Multiple MeaningsExamples:

1. Bank- The side of a river or a place for money?

2. Sole- Part of the foot, a fish, or only?

3. Wind- A current of air or to turn round and round?

ImageryDefinition: The use of vivid

language to appeal to one or more of the _____senses

ImageryExamples:

Taste: a tall frosted glass of lemonade, pink sweetness of the watermelon

Sound: crackling underbrushTouch: tepid water, damp jeansSmell: sweaty clothes

AllusionDefinition: A brief reference

to a person, place, thing, idea, or _______in history or literature

AllusionExample: "Christy didn't like to spend money.

She was no Scrooge, but she seldom purchased anything except the bare necessities".

The allusion is to Ebeneezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

MeterDefinition: Rhythmical

Pattern

MeterExamples:

1.And the sound of a voice that is still

2.Tell me not in mournful numbers

SymbolDefinition: Anything that

stands for or represents ___________else

SymbolExample:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.From “The Road Not Taken” By Robert Frost

The forked road is a symbol representing choices in life.

Shakespearean Sonnet

Definition: A sonnet which has ________lines, iambic pentameter, and follows the ababcdcdefefgg pattern

Shakespearean Sonnet

Example: SONNET 12 When I do count the clock that tells the time, And see the brave day sunk in hideous night; When I behold the violet past prime, And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white; When lofty trees I see barren of leaves Which erst from heat did canopy the herd, And summer's green all girded up in sheaves Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard, Then of thy beauty do I question make, That thou among the wastes of time must go, Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake And die as fast as they see others grow; And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.

Iambic PentameterDefinition: an

____________line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable

Iambic Pentameter

Example: From Sonnet 6SONNET 6 Then let not winter's ragged hand

deface In thee thy summer, ere thou be

distill'd: Make sweet some vial; treasure thou

some place

ababcdcdefefggDefinition: Rhyme scheme

Shakespearean sonnet’s follow

ababcdcdefefgg

Example: Sonnet 18Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? AThou art more lovely and more temperate: BRough winds do shake the darling buds of May, AAnd summer's lease hath all too short a date: BSometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, CAnd often is his gold complexion dimm'd; DAnd every fair from fair sometime declines, CBy chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; DBut thy eternal summer shall not fade ENor lose possession of that fair thou owest; FNor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, EWhen in eternal lines to time thou growest: FSo long as men can breathe or eyes can see, GSo long lives this and this gives life to thee. G