Literary Terms: Poetry

Literary TermsPoetry English 9Mrs. WilliamsIrony- A situation, or use of language, involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy

Difference: Tone and MoodToneThe writers or speakers attitude toward his subject, his audience, or himself; the emotional coloring, or emotional meaning, of a workMoodThe emotional feeling or atmosphere in a work of literature, sometimes created by descriptions of the setting.

Figurative LanguageLanguage employing figures of speech; language that cannot be taken literally or only literallySimileMetaphorPersonificationSound DeviceOnomatopoeia

SimileA figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike.The comparison is made explicit by the use of some such word or phrases as like, as, similar to, resembles, or seems.

MetaphorA figure of speech in which an implicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike.It may take one of four (4) formsThat in which the literal term and the figurative term are both namedThat in which the literal term is named and the figurative term is impliedThat in which the literal term is implied and the figurative term namedThat in which both the literal and the figurative terms are implied.

Personification/OnomatopoeiaPersonification- A figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, an object or concept.

Onomatopoeia-The use of words that supposedly mimic their meaning in their soundExample: boom, click, pop

Repetition of Sounds: ConsonanceThe repetition at close intervals of the final consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words.

Examples:book - plaque - thicker

Repetition of Sounds: AssonanceThe repetition at close intervals of the vowel sounds of accented syllables or important words.

Examples:1. hat - ran - amber 2. vein - made

Repetition of Sounds: AlliterationThe repetition at close intervals of the initial consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words.

Examples:map-mood kill-code, preach-approve

Important words and accented syllables beginning with vowels may also be said to alliterate with each other inasmuch as they all have the same lack of initial consonant sound.ExamplesInebriate of air am I

Rhyme SchemeAny fixed pattern of rhymes characterizing a whole poem or its stanzasInternal Rhyme

Slant Rhyme

External Rhyme (End Rhyme)

Internal and External (End) RhymeInternal Rhyme: A rhyme in which one or both of the rhyme-words occur WITHIN the line.

Example:Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door."'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door Only this, and nothing more. Edgar Allan Poe

External (End) Rhyme: A rhyme in which the rhyme-words occur at the END of the line.

Example:Whose woods these are I think I know,His house is in the village, though;He will not see me stopping hereTo watch his woods fill up with snow.-Robert FrostE

Slant and Exact RhymeSlant Rhyme: A rhyme in which the rhyme words approximate identical sounds

Example: There-were, main-againExample:Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all.Emily Dickinson

Exact Rhyme: A rhyme in which the rhyme words have identical sounds

Example: There-stare, main-sprainExample:Hold fast to dreamsFor if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged birdThat cannot fly.Langston Hughes