Glossary of techniques for analysing poetry
Alliteration
The
repetition of the same or similar sounds at the beginning of words: ‘What would the world
be, once bereft | Of wet and wildness?’
Allusion
A reference to a famous
literary, mythological, Biblical, or historical figure or event eg. ‘Towards 'Phoebus'
lodgings the sun moved.’
Assonance
The
repetition or a pattern of similar sounds, especially vowel sounds: ‘On a proud round cloud
in white high night’
Ballad
A
poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend.
Blank verse
A type of
poetry with a regular metre (generally iambic pentameter) but no rhyme.
Caesura
A significant pause within a
line of poetry. Usually, but not always, occurs at a punctuation mark. Eg. ‘Cover her face:
mine eyes dazzle’
Cliché
A saying,
expression or idea that has been overused to the point of losing its original
meaning; a stereotype.
Connotation
An association
that the reader makes from words eg. ‘clouds,’ ‘angels’ and ‘harps’ have
connotations of Heaven.
Consonance
Consonant
sounds repeated in the middle or at the end of a word eg. ‘Fiddle Faddle | Kitty Litter | Of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me’
Couplet
A
pair of lines that are the same length and usually rhyme and form a complete
thought. Shakespearean sonnets usually end in a couplet:
So, till the judgment that yourself arise
You live in this, and dwell in
lovers' eyes
Enjambment
The
sentences in a poem runs over to the following line rather than ending with a
comma:
I
think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree
Epic
A long, serious poem that tells
the story of a heroic figure.
Hyperbole
An over the top statement eg. Mars cried out as loudly as nine or ten thousand men.’
Iamb
A two-syllable foot of verse.
The first syllable is unstressed (short), and the
second
syllable is stressed (long) eg. ‘de-lay’
Iambic Pentameter
A type of metre in poetry, in
which there are five iambs (stressed syllables) to a line. (The prefix penta-
means “five,” as in pentagon). An example of an iambic pentameter line
from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is:
‘But soft!/ What light/
through yon/der win/dow breaks?’
Imagery
Mental images or pictures created in the
reader’s mind through words.
Internal rhyme
Rhyme
that occurs between words in the same line of poetry eg. ‘I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers.’
Juxtaposition
Two words put together that seem
unrelated yet make sense eg. ‘sweet
and sour.’
Metaphor
Something is referred to as
something else to form a comparison eg: ‘Here eyes were diamonds.’
Metre
Ode a
A
serious, sincere poem written in praise of something or someone.
Onomatopoeia
When a word sounds like the noise it describes e.g ‘pop’ or ‘the murmuring
of innumerable bees’
Oxymoron
Two things put together that
would not normally go eg. ‘Marriage
hearse’ and ‘Sweet sorrow.’
Parody: a
A poem that mocks the subject, structure, or
format of another poem.
Personification
An object has human emotions or
body parts, eg. ‘The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head.’
Repetition
Using the same word,
phrases or verses more than once.
Sibilance
When
something has an s or sh sound eg. the hissing
of a snake.
Simile
Something is compared to
something else, for example: ‘Her eyes sparkled like diamonds.’
Sonnet
A poetic form. Fourteen lines long.
Stanza
A group of two or more lines of
poetry, stanzas are usually separated from each other in a poem by spacing.
Synecdoche
Naming part of the object rather
than the object itself eg. ‘The captain ordered all
hands on deck. The speaker beheld a sea of faces.’
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