FORM, GENRE, & STRUCTURE
Line
A line is a unit of writing into which a poem or play is divided: literally, a single row of text.
Atmosphere
The feeling or emotions a writer instills in their work — it's the aura that envelops the story. This subtle yet potent element sets the stage, evoking certain emotions and expectations in readers.
Cliché
A phrase, idea, or action that has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or its now boring or predictable.
Imagery
Imagery in literature is the use of descriptive or figurative language that engages the human senses to create vivid mental pictures and sensory experiences.
Symbol
A symbol is a mark, sign, object, or word that stands for or represents an idea, a physical object, or a relationship.
Stanza
A grouping of lines separated from others in a poem. In modern free verse, the stanza, like a prose paragraph, can be used to mark a shift in mood, time, or thought.
Motif
A motif is a recurring element, idea, image, or symbol that appears throughout a literary, artistic, or musical work to help develop and reinforce the central theme.
According to Dictionary.com, the word comes from the French root for "motive" or "pattern".
Alliteration
The repetition of an initial stressed consonant in a series of words within a phrase or verse line.
Irony
As a literary device, irony implies a distance between what is said and what is meant. Based on the context, the reader is able to see the implied meaning in spite of the contradiction.
Personification
Personification is a figure of speech that gives human traits, emotions, or actions to non-human things like animals, objects, or ideas.
Free Verse
Free verse is a style of poetry that does not follow a fixed rhyme scheme, set meter, regular rhythm, or form.
Point of View
Point of view is the perspective or angle from which a story is told. POV is typically shown through the use of first (I), second (You), and third person (He/She/They).
Allusion
A brief, intentional reference to a historical, mythic, or literary person, place, event, literary work, or movement.
Smilie & Metaphor
Similes and metaphors are both figures of speech used to compare two different things, but a simile uses the words "like" or "as," while a metaphor states that one thing is another.
Figurative language
Figurative language is any use of words or phrases that goes beyond their strict, literal meaning to create a new, imaginative, or deeper effect
Enjambment
Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence or clause across a poetic line break.
Theme
The specific argument, tension, or insight the poet explores regarding that subject.
Denotation & Connotation
Denotation: The literal meaning of a word, so people can communicate clearly.
Connotation: A secondary meaning of a word that carries meanings, impressions, or associations apart from or beyond its literal meaning.
Metonymy
A figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated.
Paradox
A statement or sentiment that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true.
Elegy
The elegy is a form of poetry in which the poet or speaker expresses grief, sadness, or loss.
Voice
Just like fiction has a narrator, poetry has a speaker–someone who is the voice of the poem. Often times, the speaker is the poet. Other times, the speaker can take on the voice of a persona–the voice of someone else including animals and inanimate objects.
Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition in poetry is the placement of two contrasting images, ideas, or scenes side by side so that the gap between them creates a new meaning.
Synecdoche
A figure of speech in which a part of something stands for the whole (for example, “I’ve got wheels” for “I have a car,” or a description of a worker as a “hired hand”). It is related to metonymy.
Ambiguity
Ambiguity is the quality of being open to more than one interpretation or having a meaning that is unclear or uncertain.