POETRY TECHNICAL TERMS

English Literature

ALLITERATION

Repetition of the initial letters of words

ANAPEST

The unit of rhythm that has 2 light beats followed by a strong

beat

Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house

ANTITHESIS

Two contrasted things or ideas

Many are called, but few are chosen

APOSTROPHE

Talking to someone as though they were present

On me your voice falls as they say love should

ASSONANCE

The repetition of vowel sounds

On a proud round cloud in high white night

BATHOS

Suddenly going from the elevated to the ordinary for comic effect

Once we had something that was pure, and unadulterated and wonderful. What

happened? We spent it all

CADENCE

Falling to rest or closing of a phrase

It had not done so then, and could not now

CAESURA

Pause in the middle of a line through punctuation

As when she played them first. But, even more

CARICATURE

Exaggeration as in a cartoon

Small-statured cross-faced tribes

CLICHE

Well-worn words and phrases which have lost their impactLove at first sight

DACTYL

A rhythmic unit of one strong beat followed by two weak beats

Just for a handful of silver he left us

DIDACTIC

Setting out to teach or give moral guidance

Never such innocence again

EMPIRICIST

Inclined to trust the evidence of the senses rather than theory

FOOT

A unit of rhythm in literature, equivalent to a bar in music, consisting of stressed and

unstressed syllables

HALF RHYME

An imperfect rhyme; two words which almost rhymemade/mate

HUMANIST

Someone who rejects supernatural beliefs

IAMB

A rhythmic unit having a weak followed by a strong beat

I am a teacher with a happy smile

IMAGERY

Figurative language which appeals to the senses

Slack hammocks of waves below

INVERSION

Changing the order of wordsRemoved lives loneliness

clarifies

LACONIC

Short but to the point

Home is so sad

METAPHYSICAL

Very theoretical, difficult to understand

How separate and unearthly love is

NIHILISM

Rejection of all morals and standards

Someone had used a knife or something to stab right through the moustached lips of

her smile

PARODY

Imitating something with exaggeration to make it look

absurdNo one can deny that Arnold is less selfish

than I

PATHOSQuality of writing that can induce

pityTo cry, was hard

PENTAMETER

A line that contains five rhythmic units

The dog is eating ham with eggs and chips

SARDONIC

With a hint of bitterness

SATIRE

Holding up wickedness or foolishness to ridicule

He married a woman to stop her getting away now she’s there all day

SPRUNG RHYTHM

Having the same number of beats in each line but varying the number of unstressed

syllables

TETRAMETER

A line with four units of rhythm

Because I could not stop for death

TROCHEE

A rhythmic unit having a strong beat followed by a weak beat

Double double toil and trouble

ZEUGMA

Connecting words that have very different meanings

Confetti and advice were thrown