Poetry Unit Vocabulary

Diction: The vocabulary used by a writer, can often show regional

slang; for example, Langston Hughes’s “de sunshine seemed like
gold…”

End rhyme: When two or more lines end in words that rhyme. An
example is Shakespeare’s “So long as men can breathe or eyes can
see / So long lives this and this gives life to thee.”

Iambic pentameter: Five-beat line consisting of five iambs (a

combination of stressed/unstressed syllables) in each line; lines of
poetry that can be divided into 5 metric feet with alternately
unstressed and stressed syllables.

Paraphrase: Takes difficult language and explains it in easier, more

understandable, language. It is usually as long as and often longer
than the original piece. It does not contain any of the original
language.

Repetition: The act of repeating a word or a phrase.

Rhyme Scheme: The pattern of rhymes used in a poem, usually

marked by letters to symbolize correspondences, like: ababbcc.

Rhythm: The pattern or flow of sound created by the arrangement of

syllables (usually stressed and unstressed) in a line of literature.

Stanza: An arrangement of a certain number of lines, usually four or

more, sometimes having a fixed length, meter, or rhyme scheme,
forming a division of a poem.

Symbol: Something used for or regarded as representing something

else; a material object representing something.

Tone: Manner of expression in speech or writing, as in: he took an

angry tone with the reporters.

Theme: A unifying or dominant idea, the subject; what the poem is

about.

Figurative Language
Whenever you describe something by comparing it with something
else, you are using figurative language. Any language that goes
beyond the literal meaning of words in order to furnish new effects or
fresh insights into an idea or a subject. Below are examples of writing
that are all part of figurative language:

Alliteration: The use of repeated consonants or stressed syllables,

especially at the beginning of words. An example is the following line
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in “Kubla Khan”: "Five miles meandering
with a mazy motion.”

Assonance: Repetition of similar vowel sounds, often close together;

has a musical effect. An example is the following line from Langston
Hughes’s “The Weary Blues”: "He did a lazy sway.”

Hyperbole:
An exaggerated statement used to heighten effect. It is not used to
mislead the reader, but to emphasize a point. Example: She’s said so
on several million occasions.

Imagery: The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects,

actions, or ideas; the words used by an author to create a vivid ‘image’
in the readers’ mind.

Metaphor: A figure of speech in which a term or phrase is compared

to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a
resemblance, as in “a sea of troubles" or "all the world's a stage.”

Onomatopoeia: The formation or use of words such as buzz or

murmur that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions
they refer to.

Personification: A figure of speech in which inanimate objects or

abstractions are endowed with human qualities or are represented as
possessing human form, as in Hunger sat shivering on the road or
Flowers danced about the lawn.

Simile:
A figure of speech which involves a direct comparison between two
unlike things, usually with the words like or as. Example: The muscles
on his brawny arms are strong as iron bands.