General
What is another name for poetry?
Verse
What is rhyme?
The repetition of identical concluding syllables in different words, most often at the ends of lines. Example: June--moon.
What do you call a two-line stanza, a three-line stanza, and a four-line stanza?
What is a metaphor?
A comparison between two unlike things, this describes one thing as if it were something else. Does not use "like" or "as" for the comparison (see simile).
What are the three components of a metaphor?
Tenor (the thing being described), vehicle (thing being used to describe it), and the "ground" between them (the closeness or disparateness of the two things being likened).
What is denotation?
Literal or primary meaning (found in the dictionary)
What is alliteration?
The repetition of identical consonant sounds, most often the sounds beginning words, in close proximity. Example: pensive poets, nattering nabobs of negativism.
What is an end-stopped line?
A line ending in a full pause, usually indicated with a period or semicolon.
Is a metaphor the same as an image?
No. Metaphors often use images, but not all images are metaphors. The poet Robert Pinsky says that in metaphor "this is like that," whereas an image is often "this is this."
What is syntax?
Arrangement of words and phrases in a particular order, akin to sentence structure.
What is connotation?
Layers of suggestion or implication that words acquire through usage.
What is assonance?
The repetition of identical vowel sounds in different words in close proximity. Example: deep green sea.
What is enjambment?
A line having no end punctuation but running over to the next line.
What is a simile?
A direct comparison between two dissimilar things; uses "like" or "as" to state the terms of the comparison.
Do all poems have meter?
Not necessarily! Free verse does not abide by a strict meter, but it is still often rhythmic! By this, I mean that free verse has a flow and rhythm, sometimes akin to song or speech patterns.
Can anyone describe what "free verse" is?
Many (most) contemporary poets today work in free verse.
What is consonance?
the counterpart of assonance; the partial or total identity of consonants in words whose main vowels differ. Example: shadow meadow; pressed, passed; sipped, supped.
What do you call a two line stanza?
Couplet
What does the term "conceit" mean in poetry?
An elaborate and extended metaphor or simile that links two apparently unrelated fields or subjects in an unusual and surprising conjunction of ideas.
In other words, an extended metaphor that sustains a considerable portion of the poem.
What are the three components of a metaphor?
Tenor (the thing being described), vehicle (thing being used to describe it), and the "ground" between them (the closeness or disparateness of the two things being likened).
Prosody: a general term for the metrical structure of poetry. // Scansion: the process of marking the metrical pattern of a poem-–we can “scan” a poem.
What is meter?
A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
Also "The number of feet within a line of traditional verse. Example: iambic pentameter."
Can anyone describe "internal rhyme"?
A rhyme that is contained within the line or within words (rather than at the end of it).
What do we mean when we say something is concrete?
The opposite of abstract. A concrete image is a specific, solid object or element (like "grass," "flowers," "the bookshelf," "the chair," or "professor").
In contrast, an abstract concept would be "love," "happiness," or "sadness."
A pause that occurs within the line (often as a result of punctuation, like a period or comma).