IGCSE English Literature - Poetry Anthology Glossary

• alliteration


  Where words that are close together start with the same sound, e.g. "flowing flakes that flock".
• ambiguity


  Where a word or phrase has two or more possible interpretations.
• assonance


  When words share the same vowel sound but their consonants are different. e.g. "might fly our lives like paper kites".
• autobiographical


  Describing something that happened in the poet's life.
• blank verse


  Poetry written in iambic pentameter that doesn't rhyme.
• caesura


  A pause in a line of poetry. E.g. around the full stop in" Maps too. The sun shines through". (plural caesurae)
• chronological


  When events are arranged in the order in which they happened.
• colloquial


  Sounding like everyday spoken language, e.g. "One of my mates goes by".
• consonance


  Repetition of a consonant sound in nearby words, e.g."numb as a smashed arm".
• dialect


  A variation of a language spoken by people from a particular place or background. Dialects might include different words or sentence constructions. e.g."what happen to de Caribs".
• dramatic monologue


  A form of poetry that uses the assumed voice of a single speaker who is not the poet to address an implied audience, e.g. 'My Last Duchess'.
• emotive


  Something that makes you feel a particular emotion.
• empathy


  When someone understands what someone else is experiencing and how they feel about it.
• end-stopping


  Finishing a line of poetry with the end of a phrase or sentence.
• enjambment


  When a sentence or phrase runs over from one line or stanza to the next.
• euphemism


  An indirect word or phrase used instead of something upsetting or offensive, or to conceal meaning. E.g.the narrator of 'My Last Duchess' says "all smiles stopped" to avoid saying that his wife died.
• first person


  When a poet writes about themselves or their group, using words like "I", "my", "we" and "our".
• form


  The type of poem, e.g. a sonnet or a ballad, and its features, like the number of lines, rhyme, and rhythm.
• free verse


  Poetry that doesn't rhyme and has no regular rhythm or line length.
• half-rhymes


  Words that have a similar, but not identical,end sound. E.g. "crisp" and "grasp".
• homonyms


  Words that are spelt and pronounced the same, but have different meanings, e.g."tissue".
• imagery


  Language that creates a picture in your mind. lt includes metaphors, similes and personification.
• in media res


  When a narrative starts in the middle of the action, e.g. 'Bayonet Charge'.
• internal rhyme


  When two or more words in the same line rhyme, e.g. "tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers".
• irony


  When words are used to imply the opposite of what they normally mean. It can also mean when there is a difference between what people expect and what actually happens.
• juxtaposition


  When a poet puts two ideas, events, characters or descriptions close to each other to encourage the reader to contrast them. E.g. Agard juxtaposes figures from British and Caribbean history.
• language


  The choice of words used.Different kinds of language have different effects.
• layout


  The way a piece of poetry is visually presented to the reader, e.g. line length, how the poem is broken up into different stanzas, and whether lines create some kind of visual pattern.
• metaphor


  A way of describing something by saying that it is something else, e.g."the loose silver of whitebait".
• monologue


  One person speaking for a long period of time.
• mood


  The feel or atmosphere of a poem, e.g.humorous, threatening, eerie.
• narrative


  Writing that tells a story, e.g. 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'.
• narrator


  The person speaking the words. E.g. the narrator of 'Poppies' is a mother whose son has gone to war.
• onomatopoeia


  A word that sounds like the thing it's describing, e.g."rumbles" and "jingle" in 'exposure'.
• oral poetry


  Poetry that is intended to be spoken aloud, rather than read.
• oxymoron


  A phrase which appears to contradict itself, e.g. "marriage hearse".
• personification


  Describing a non-living thing as if it has human qualities and feelings, or behaves in a human way, e.g. "My city hides behind me."
• plosive


  A short burst of sound made when you say a word containing the letters b, d, g, k, p.
• rhetoric


  Language used by the poet to persuade you of a particular view.
• rhetorical question


  A question that doesn't need an answer, but is asked to make or emphasise a point.