Poetry Terms
General Lit Terms
Wildcard
Style
Figurative Language
100

Rhyme that occurs in the middle of lines of poetry, instead of at the ends of lines

What is Internal Rhyme?

100
the emotional quality of a passage or the perceived attitude of a speaker towards a thing or idea in the text.
What is tone?
100

A question asked not for the answer, but for the effect, to emphasize a point or just to get the audience thinking.

What is Rhetorical Question?

100

A way of writing about a flaw or failure in society by inflating it to absurdity and instilling it with humor.

What is satire?

100

A basic comparison of two generally unlike things that produces insight.

What is metaphor?

200

An extreme exaggeration specifically for literary or rhetorical effect

What is Hyperbole

200
the author's choice of words based on their exact or connotative meaning for effect.
What is diction?
200

This type of structure uses the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance.

What is parallel structure or parallelism?

200

Instructive; author attempts to educate or instruct the reader.

What is didactic?

200

Giving human-like characteristics to something that is inhuman.

Personification

300
the repetition of vowel sounds: “which din dims the light.”
What is assonance?
300
what a word suggests beyond its denotative (precise or dictionary) meaning, including social or emotional connections.
What is connotation?
300

Structure using the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance. Ex: "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."

Chiasmus

300

Word used to describe writing that serious in purpose and convention (no slang, contractions; no idioms).

What is formal?

300

A brief but purposeful reference, within a literary text, to a person, place, event, or to another work of literature 

What is allusion?

400
the speaker addresses something or someone that cannot answer, something nonliving or inanimate.
What is apostrophe?
400
a clever little story; a short account of an interesting situation relevant to the text and used as example.
What is an anecdote?
400

Type of irony where the audience knows something a character or characters do not

What is Dramatic Irony?

400

Word that means short, to the point.

What is terse?

400

A figure of speech in which some smaller aspect of an experience is used to represent the whole experience.

Ex: Referring to a car as "wheels"

What is metonomy

500

Repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of a line throughout a work or the section of a work

What is Anaphora?

500
a moment of insight, spiritual or personal; a character's sudden revelation about life or his or her own circumstances.
What is epiphany?
500

A short but definite pause used for effect within a line of poetry.

Caesura

500

A poetic style that does not feature a set meter or rhyme scheme.

What is free verse?

500

A short quotation or verse that precedes a poem (or any text) to set the tone, provide a setting, or give other context for the poem.

What is an epigram?

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