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Poetry Key Terms
Word | Definition |
---|---|
Denotation | The dictionary definition of a word |
mood | the feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage |
Connotation | the feelings or emotions surrounding a word |
imagery | Description that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste) |
simile | comparison using like or as |
euphemism | An indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant |
hyperbole | a figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor |
metaphor | a strong comparison by saying one thing "is" another; example "You are the thunder; I am the lightning." |
onomatopoeia | a word that names the sound it makes; example: Pop! Fizz! |
tone | the author's attitude toward the subject |
irony | when a writer writes one thing but means another |
personification | giving human or animal characteristics to an inanimate object; example "the sea growled and roared" |
litotes | extreme understatement EX: Tests have little affect on my grade. |
magic three | A writing technique where the author uses a list of three parallel structures EX: For my daughter's birthday, we are going to Great Wolf Lodge, getting her ear's pierced, and eating a celebratory dinner. |
dashes for information | A writing technique that interrupts the sentences to add information. Dashes can be in the middle of the sentence - or at the end, like this. |
idiom | a phrase that has lost its original meaning; it cannot be translated literally |
genre | a form or type of literary work such as sci-fi, mystery, or romance |
point of view | the relationship between the narrator and the characters and action in the story; ex. 1st or 3rd person |
symbol | a person, place, or object that has meaning itself but suggests other meanings as well; such as the color red is a color but can also represent love, anger, or blood |
theme | the underlying meaning of a literary work that the writer wants the reader to get out of their writing |
figurative language | language expanded beyond its ordinary literal meaning |
allusion | a brief reference to another literary work, song, movie, popular culture |
alliteration | repetition of the beginning sound in a word (a little like listening to Lola) |
assonance | the repetition of a vowel sound in the middle of a set of words |
end line rhyme | when words rhyme at the end of each line (or in a pattern) |
internal rhyme | when words within a line rhyme |
stanza | a "paragraph" in poetry |
rhyme scheme | the pattern of end-line rhymes in a poem |
meter | the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables (beats) in a poem |