Elements of Poetry
The voice behind the poem establishing a point of view (can be a persona)
What is the speaker?
Limited to the simplest, ordinary, most obvious meaning
What is the literal meaning?
An exaggeration for emphasis (the opposite of understatement)
Example: "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."
What is hyperbole?
A contradiction of expectation between what is said and what is meant (verbal irony) or what is expected in a particular circumstance or behavior (situational), or when a character speaks in ignorance of a situation known to the audience or other characters (situational)
Example: "Time held me green and dying / Though I sang in my chains like the sea"
What is irony?
The circumstances surrounding the poem
What is the situation?
The associative or connotative meaning; representational
What is figurative meaning?
A comparison between essentially unlike things without using words OR application of a name or description to something to which it is not literally applicable
Example: "[Love] is an ever fixed mark, / that looks on tempests and is never shaken."
What is a metaphor?
An object or action that stands for something beyond itself
Example: white = innocence, purity, hope
What is a symbol?
Choice of words
What is diction?
The measured pattern of rhythmic accents in a line of verse
What is the meter?
A comparison between two essentially unlike things using words such as "like," as," or "as though"
Example: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun"
What is a simile?
The repetition of consonant sounds, particularly at the beginning of words
Example: ". . . like a wanderer white"
What is an alliteration?
The contradiction of expectation (verbal, situational, or dramatic)
What is irony?
The correspondence of terminal sounds of words or of lines of verse
What is rhyme?
A situation or phrase that appears to be contradictory but which contains a truth worth considering
Example: "In order to preserve peace, we must prepare for war."
What is a paradox?
A reference to the person, event, or work outside the poem or literary piece
Example: "Shining, it was Adam and maiden"
What is an allusion?
The grammatical order of words
What is syntax?
A closely related term substituted for an object or idea
Example: "We have always remained loyal to the crown."
What is metonymy?
The repetition of similar vowel sounds
Example: "I rose and told him of my woe"
What is assonance?