Poetic Terms (test)

• antithesis - the deliberate use of two contrasting ideas e.g. hope for the best, prepare for the worst
• assonance - repetition of the same vowel sound followed by different consonant sounds e.g. ‘the rain in Spain stays mainly on the plains’
• ballad - poetic form, usually simple 4-line stanzas to tell a story
• caesura - a pause or stop in the middle of a line of poetry
• compound word - two words linking together to create a new word e.g. wind-wandering or superhero
• consonance - repetition of consonant sounds, not just at the start of words e.g. thrashing through
• dialect - spoken form of language that’s different to English and often associated with a regional accent
• dramatic monologue - a poem in the form of the speaker addressing an unseen/unheard audience
• enjambment - the running-on of poetry from one line to the next (no punctuation at the end of a line)
• iambic pentameter - a rhythm in a line of poetry with 5 weakly stressed syllables followed by 5 strongly stressed syllables
• juxtaposition - placing together of words and ideas for a particular effect, e.g. night and day, good and evil
• metaphor - an image that describes one thing in terms of another without making the link obvious with a simile e.g. my friend has a heart of steel
• octave - a group of 8 lines of poetry
• onomatopoeia - when a word sounds like the thing it describes, e.g. bang
• pathetic fallacy - the presentation of nature or weather to reflect the feelings of the writer or characters
• plosive sounds - consonant sounds which rely on the build-up and release of breath e.g. b and p
• quatrain - a group of 4 lines of poetry
• sibilant sounds - consonant sounds (s and z) which create a hissing sound
• simile - a comparison between two things using the words like or as