Shakespear terms

• What is iambic pentameter?

  A regular pattern of rhythm within a line of verse containing five poetic feet, each with an unstressed and stressed syllable.
• What is blank verse?

  Unrhymed iambic pentameter.
• What is rhymed verse?

  Rhymed iambic pentameter.
• What is prose?

  Written language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure.
• What is alliteration?

  The repetition of letters in words close together.
• What is antithesis?

  A parallel sentence structure to compare two opposing ideas.
• What is assonance?

  Repetition of vowel sounds in the same phrase or verse line.
• What is caesura?

  A marked pause within a verse line, usually indicated with a full stop or a semi-colon.
• What is enjambment?

  A verse line that only makes sense when it runs on and stops at a caesura in the following line.
• What is an end-stopped line?

  A line whose sense is contained within the line and has punctuation at the end of it.
• What is a half line?

  An incomplete iambic line.
• What is a shared line?

  A device where two or more characters make up one line of verse.
• What are lists and ladders in poetry?

  Devices where an idea or feeling is intensified through listing or logical connections.
• What is onomatopoeia?

  A word that sounds like what it means.
• What is a pun?

  A play on the meaning of the same or two similar words.
• What are similes?

  Comparisons of two seemingly unlike things using 'like' or 'as.'
• What are metaphors?

  Direct comparisons of two seemingly unlike things.