Word
(adj) - bleak, sad, foreboding
dreary
onus
(noun) - burden
Direct address, usually to someone or something that is not present. Keats's "Bright star! Would I were steadfast" is an apostrophe to a star, and "To Autumn" is an apostrophe to a personified season.
apostrophe
Free verse is unrhymed poetry with no set pattern or meter. Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter.
free verse vs. blank verse
oxymoron
A combination of opposites; the union of contradictory terms. Romeo's line "feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health" has four examples of the device.
(adj) - to teach a lesson, moral
didactic
pastoral
(adj) - concerning nature, agriculture
The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds. "A land laid waste with all its young men slain" repeats the same "a" sound in "laid," "waste," and "slain." (from Auden, "Embassy")
assonance
Rhyme that occurs within a line, rather than at the end.
end vs. internal rhyme
stanza
Usually a repeated grouping of lines with the same meter and rhyme scheme.
(noun) - facial expression
countenance
pensively
(adv) - expressing deep thought
(v) - to spread or increase
propagate
The pattern of repetition of stressed (or accented) and unstressed (or unaccented)syllables in a line of verse.
meter
speaker
narrator of the poem
(adj) - more than one way to be interpreted
equivocal
temperate
(adj, v) - moderate, self restrained
The repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds at the beginning of words. "Gnus never know pneumonia" is an example of alliteration.
alliteration
An element that serves as a theme, which is often a recurring symbol.
motif
Shakespearean sonnet
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
(noun) - boastful, proud
haughtiness
palpable
(adj) - easily seen, tangible, touchable
The repetition of consonant sounds. The tire was tight as it rolled onto the grass.
consonance
Use of words whose sound suggests their meaning. "buzz," "hiss," or "honk."
onomatopoeia
Petrarch Sonnet
ABBA CDDC ...