POETIC TERMS AND DEFINITIONS TO LEARN

Use this list with caution. You need to analyse meanings,

effects, impressions on the reader and consider why the poet
has chosen the particular technique - DO NOT just feature
spot.

*Alliteration: The repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds

of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables.
*Allusion: An indirect or passing reference to some event, person,
place, or artistic work, the nature and relevance of which is not
explained by the writer but relies on the reader's familiarity with what
is mentioned.
*Anaphora: The repetition of the same word at the start of
consecutive clauses or sentences.
*Anthropomorphism: The attribution of human motivation,
characteristics, or behaviour to inanimate objects, animals, or natural
phenomena. (personification)
*Aposiopesis: A sudden breaking off of a thought in the middle of a
sentence, as though the speaker were unwilling or unable to continue.
*Archaism: The use of an archaic or obsolete word, phrase, idiom, or
other expression.
*Assonance: The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in
the stressed syllables of neighbouring words.
*Cacophony: The use of harsh or discordant sounds in literary
composition.
*Caesura: A pause in a line of verse, often coinciding with a break
between clauses or sentences. It is usually placed in the middle of the
line (medial caesura).
* Connotation: Connotation refers to the extra associated meanings
that are implied by a word apart from the thing which it describes
explicitly. Words carry cultural and emotional associations or
meanings in addition to their literal meanings.
*Diction: Diction refers to the choice of words selected by the poet
for their poem.
*Ellipsis: The omission from a sentence of a word or words that
would be required for complete clarity but which can usually be
understood from the context.
*Enjambment: The running over of the sense and grammatical
structure from one verse line or couplet to the next without a
punctuated pause.
*Euphemism: The substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive
expression to replace one that might offend or suggest something
unpleasant, for example, he is at rest, is a euphemism for he is
dead.
*Hyperbole: Over exaggeration for emphasis and/or effect.
*Irony: A subtle inconsistency, in which an apparently
straightforward statement or event is undermined by its context so as
to give it a very different significance.
* Juxtaposition: This is simply when a poet places ideas or objects in
contrast for a particular effect on the reader
*Metaphor: When one thing is described as being something else.
* Meter: In simple language, meter is a poetic device that serves as a
linguistic sound pattern for the verses, as it gives poetry a rhythmical and
melodious sound. For instance, if you read a poem loudly, and it produces
regular sound patterns, then this poem would be a metered or measured
poem.
*Metonymy: A figure of speech that replaces the name of one thing
with the name of something else closely associated with it, e.g. the
bottle for alcohol or the press for journalism.
*Onomatopoeia: The use of a word that imitates the sound it refers
to.
*Oxymoron: A figure of speech that combines two usually
contradictory terms in a compressed paradox, as in the word
bittersweet or the phrase living death.
*Paradox: An assertion that seems to be wrong, but also has an
element of truth.
*Parataxis: This is a listing technique where things are phrases are
placed side by side without the use of coordinating conjunctions such
as and, or and but. (e.g I came, I saw, I conquered)
*Pathetic Fallacy: The poetic convention whereby natural
phenomena which cannot feel as humans do are described as if they
could: rainclouds may weep, or flowers may be joyful in
sympathy with the poet's mood.
*Persona: An identity assumed by a writer in a literary work. In a
poem we can also refer to the persona as the speaker in the poem
*Personification: A figure of speech by which animals, abstract
ideas, or inanimate things are referred to as if they were human.
*Sibilance: The marked recurrence of the hissing sounds known as
sibilants ( s, sh, zh).
*Simile: An explicit comparison between two different things,
actions, or feelings, using the words as or like.
*Synecdoche: A common figure of speech by which something is
referred to indirectly, either by naming only some part or constituent
of it (e.g. hands for manual labourers) orless oftenby naming
some more comprehensive entity of which it is a part (e.g. the law
for a police officer). This is usually regarded as a kind of metonymy.
*Synaesthesia: A blending or confusion of different kinds of sense
impression, in which one type of sensation is referred to in terms more
appropriate to another. Common synaesthetic expressions include the
descriptions of colours as loud or warm, and of sounds as
smooth.
*Syntax: Syntax refers to the grammatical ordering of words in a
sentence
* Tone: This is the attitude of a writer toward their subject. Tone is
generally conveyed through the choice of words or the viewpoint of a
writer on a particular subject.