Poetry Basics
Structure
Figurative Devices
Literary Principles
Scansion
100

The repetition of similar sounds at the ends of words

Rhyme

100

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line

Meter

100

Giving human characteristics or qualities to something nonhuman

Personification

100

The general atmosphere; the way someone feels as the audience of a work of art

Mood

100

“When I see birches bend to left and right”

x / | x / | x / | x / | x / 

200

Descriptive language that appeals to one or more of the five senses

Imagery

200

A unit of stressed and unstressed syllables

Poetic foot

200

A figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things

Metaphor

200

The way the author or artist wants their work (or a particular scene or character) to feel to the audience

Tone

200

“We shall not sleep, though poppies grow”

x / | x / | x / | x /

300

Which of the following “builds the emotional landscape” of a poem?

  1. Diction                      4.   Imagery

  2. Theme                      5.   All of the above

  3. Font                          6.   None of the above

All of the above

300

Categorize this set of scansion:

/ x | / x | / x |

Trochaic trimeter

300

An object, image, or idea that represents something beyond itself

Symbol

300

The universal truths found in a work of art or literature

Theme

300

"That's my last Duchess painted on the wall"

/ x | x / | x / | x / | x /

400

Words that share similar sounds but aren't perfect rhymes

Slant rhymes

400

Categorize this set of scansion:

/ x | x / | x / | x / | x /

Iambic pentameter

400

The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words

Alliteration

400

The personality and perspective speaking in the poem

Voice

400

“Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse”

x x / | x x / | x x / | x x /

500

When a line continues without pause onto the next line

Enjambment

500

Categorize this set of scansion:

x x / | x x / | x x / | x x / x

Anapestic tetrameter (with a feminine ending)

500

What might the “two roads” in Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” symbolize?

Decision-making; choices; etc.

500

What term refers to a change in attitude, emotion, or perspective within a work of art?

Tone shift

500

"Hope is the thing with feathers"

/ x | x / | x / x