7/30/2019 key terms to use in poetry exam

1/2

Technical termsWe have used the majority of the following critical terms in our poetry discussion. You will need to

know the definitions of these (the definitions attached are very simplistic!), so that you can spottechniques BUT remember that the most important is to give your view on HOW and WHY these

techniques have been used how the technique leads you to the overall meaning of the poem.

WRITE AN EXAMPLE OR TWO FOR THESE TECHNIQUES.

1. Analogy between*He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

2. Allusion to - reference toIts not as if Im holding out for frankincense or myrhh allusions of Christ/ religion -

(Give)

3. Alliteration repeated initial lettersLone and Level Sands (Ozymandias)

spat on my scalp (Medusa)

4. Assonance repeated vowel sounds (links to internal rhyme)town clown the clown punk

5. Litany of - listthe peacocks and the cockatoos, the nightingales, the strutting pink flamingos (LGS)

6. Onomatopoeia e.g. crash, smash, bang7. Ambiguity multiple possible meanings

just change. coins, actual change? (give)8. Antithesis - opposite9. Archaic old-fashioned10.Assonance- repeated vowel sounds11.Ballad traditional form of verse, used to express voice and circumstances of everyday man12.Bathos - anticlimax13.Blank verse iambic pentameter + rhyme

(My Last Duchess)

14.Caesura break in line, often through punctuationI was their queen. I sat enthralled before them (LGS)

15.Clich over-used, stereotype phrase / idea16.Colloquial chatty

Daft Mush (Clown Punk)

17.Connotation implied meaning / association with word18.Consonance repeated consonant sound within words

bigbeg -

19.Couplet rhyming pair of lines20.Diction type of language used21.Enjambement run-on lines

Hi yih, do not let her

Go. (The River God)

7/30/2019 key terms to use in poetry exam

2/2

22.Elegy commemorating deathHe would have liked to say good-bye,

Shake hands with many friends,

In Highgate now his finger-bones

Stick through his finger-ends.

23.Euphemism nice word for something badThen all smiles stopped together (My Last Duchess)

24.Hyperbole - exaggeration25.Lyric poem focused on emotion26.Metaphor

Taming a sea horse, thought a rarity (My Last Duchess)

27.narrative28.motif29.oxymoron

tie discreetly loud (On a Portrait of a deaf Man)30.paradox

Look at me now both a plea and a threat(Medusa)

31.pathosFilthy Snakes pathos of Medusas self image

32.periphrasis (long-winded method of expressing something)33.personification

heart that feeds (ozymandias)

34.plot35.prose36.protagonist main character/ persona37.pun play on words38.refrain39.rhyme40.rhyme scheme41.rhythm42.satire43.simile

like a basket of washing up Clown Punk

44.sonnetOzymandias

45.stanza46.style47.symbol48.syntax49.tone50.theme