Download Poetic Vocabulary Sampling Simile: A verbal comparison in which a

Grieneisen, Lit 2030 Poetic Vocabulary Sampling Simile: A verbal comparison in which a similarity is expressed directly, using like or as: ex. houses leaning together like conspirators. ‐‐ James Joyce Metaphor: A figure of speech that makes an imaginative comparison between two literally unlike things. ex. Sylvia’s face was a pale star. or more directly The pale star of Sylvia’s face shone… Personification: Giving human qualities to nonhuman things. ex. The craft pranced and reared, and plunged like an animal. ‐‐ Stephen Crane Hyperbole: A purposeful exaggeration. ex. I tried for hours to get in touch with you (I called twice and then gave up). Understatement: A form of ironic expression that intentionally minimizes the importance of an idea or fact. This is the opposite of hyperbole‐‐saying less than is meant. ex. Nurse, do you have something for a slight headache? (asks the man with the axe stuck in his head) Metonymy: A figure of speech in which the name of one thing is substituted for that of something else closely associated with it. ex. The White House released a statement… (meaning the President or the whole executive branch). Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which some prominent feature is used to name the whole, or vice‐versa. ex. A sail in the harbor (meaning a ship), or call the law (meaning call the law enforcement officers). Apostrophe: A form of personification in which the writer or poem’s speaker addresses the dead, the absent, or the inanimate as if they were alive, present, and sentient. ex. Roll on, thou dark and deep blue Ocean, roll. You sea! I resign myself to you also‐‐I guess what you mean. ‐‐ Walt Whitman Meter: The recurrence of regular units of stressed and unstressed syllables. A stress or an accent: occurs when one syllable is emphasized more than another, unstressed, syllable. ex. for * ceps, ba * sic, il * lu * sion, ma * lar * i * a Foot: The basic unit of meter. A group of syllables with a fixed pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. (may be iambic, trochaic, dactylic, anapestic, etc.) Elegy: A poem commemorating someone’s death but usually encompassing a larger issue as well. Epigram: A short, witty saying that often conveys a bit of wisdom: Heaven for climate; hell for society. ‐‐ Mark Twain Epigraph: A quotation at the beginning of a poem, novel, play, or essay that suggests the theme of the work. Enjambment: a line break in the midst of a “sentence” or thought unit. End Stopped: A line ends with a period. Caesura: A Latin word meaning “a cutting”‐‐ within a line. A pause in the rhythm of a line of poetry. When scanning a poem, you indicate a caesura with two parallel lines: II. ex. How do I love thee? II Let me count the ways. ‐‐ Elizabeth Barrett Browning Onomatopoeia: A word that sounds like what it names. ex. Hiss of the snake. Chirp of a bird. whoosh, clang, babble. Alliteration: Repetition of the same consonant sounds, usually at the beginning of words. ex. Should the glee‐‐glaze‐‐ In Death’s‐‐stiff‐‐stare‐‐ ‐‐ Emily Dickinson Assonance: The repetition of similar vowel sounds within syllables. ex. On desperate seas long wont to roam ‐‐ Edgar Allan Poe Allegory: A form of symbolism in which ideas or abstract qualities are represented as characters or events in a story, novel, or play. Allusion: An indirect reference to some character or event in literature, history, or mythology that enriches the meaning of the passage. Myth: A traditional story involving deities and heroes, usually expressing and inculcating the established values of a culture. Symbolism: an object, animate or inanimate, that points to a reality beyond itself (a tangible object that represents an intangible, often complex, concept). ex. A public symbol is universal, like a dove symbolizes peace, while a private symbol is specific to a particular work, such as the albatross in Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner symbolizing the mariner’s suffering.