Figurative Language
Allegory
Allegory- extended metaphor/ hidden meaning
Example: Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”
Concrete
use space and sound. Words in poem dramatize meaning by the way they look.
Example: “40---------------Love” by Roger McGough
Assonance
stressed vowels in the word agree, but the consonants do not. The repetition of internal vowel sounds in words that do not end the same.
Example: he fell asleep under the cherry tree
Enjambment
continuation of a sentence from one line to another without terminal punctuation
Example:
“I wander, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved?”
“The Good-Morrow” by John Donne
Iambic
One unaccented syllable followed by one accented long syllable: -/ (da-dum.)
Example: “To be or not to be, that is the question.” -the first line of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy.
Allusion
reference to an object or circumstance from unrelated context is used indirectly (audience makes connection.)
Abstract
experiments with patterns in sound. Meaning becomes secondary.
Example: “Popular Song” by Edith Sitwell
Internal Rhyme
rhyme involving word in the middle of a line and another at the end of the line or in the middle of the next
Example:
I drove myself to the lake
And dove into the water
End-stop
pause at end of line with punctuation
Example:
“And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite”
“Bright Star” by John Keats
Trochaic
One accented syllable followed by one unaccented syllable (the opposite of iambic): /- (dum-da.)
Example: Don’t you ever oversleep on Monday?
Hyperbole
exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally
Example: It’s raining cats and dogs
Free Verse
poetry that does not rhyme or have regular meter
Example: “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes
Consonance
pairing of words in which final consonants of stressed syllables agree, but vowels differ.
Example: Pitter-Patter (repetition of “t” and “r” sounds)
Caesura
break between words within a metrical foot, or pause near middle of line
Example: “To be or not to be, that is the question”
Spondaic
Two accented syllables: / /.
Example: bad heart, flat feet, sad shoes-bad news.
Metaphor
comparison of one thing to another without using “like” or “as.”
Example: I’d rather be a tall, ugly weed (from Julio Noboa’s “Identity”)
Blank Verse
unrhymed verse, but still has a regular metrical tradition written in
Example: “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost
Perfect Rhyme
initial consonants of words differ, while stressed vowel and succeeding consonants are same
Example: dead and read
Open-form
(free) doesn’t have to follow traditional or specific patterns
Anapestic
Two unaccented syllables followed by one accented syllable (the opposite of the dactyl):
- -/.
Example: By a hole in the woods sat a green little boy.
Symbol
word or image that signifies something other than what it represents
Example: heart=love
poetry that doesn’t make sense, but it isn’t just formless gibberish.
Example: “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll
Slant/Imperfect Rhyme
partial matching of sounds
Example: love and move
Closed-form
written in specific patterns, using meter, line length, and stanzas
Dactylic
One accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables: /- -.
Example: This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks.