Poetry Terms

By: Amanda Dooley

Instructions

This powerpoint is to teach you poetry vocabulary. After learning the words there will be a game to quiz the words you know. So lets begin!

Alliteration- Repetition of the same sounds to bind or balance—usually initial sounds, and usually consonants.

Allusion- A form of trope in which the literal referents in a work (images, persons, plots) suggests analogies with well-known myths or stories, ranging from direct to less direct forms of reference.

Assonance- Repetition of medial vowels in words that begin and end on different consonants; more generally, alliteration on vowels. For example, the short sounds, which is repeated in cast, fast and have.

Persona- (literally mask) The rhetorical pose that the speaker invents and speaks through. It can be different from what we might expect the poet’s own rhetorical and intellectual position to be.

Elision- (literally, a striking out) The collapse of two syllables into one, marked by a curved line [curved line] beneath a word in scanning a poem. The most common elisions are the most effortless and involve the blurring of lightly aspirated consonants rather than hard ones.

Tension- Pull, or tugging, which occurs either when syntax works against and diverges from line, or when other elements of style work against each other.

Sonnet- A fourteen-line poem, first popular during the 14th to 17th centuries, with an intricate rhyme scheme and a built in propensity to shift viewpoint, tempo, or topic at the Volta or turn between lines 8 and 9 or before the final couplet

Volta- (literally, a turn) The change in direction of argument in a sonnet that occurs between the octave and sestet.

Enjambment- The linked continuation of phrase or clause across the line boundary, creating a certain “tugging” effect.

Trope- (literally a turn) The element of poetry that includes all forms of comparison and transfer of meaning by means of which language means doubly. Since the late Middle Ages, trope has been associated with figures of thought rather than figures of speech.

Game Instructions

Click on the term that is correct match for the definition, if you get click the wrong term it will take to a slide telling you it was incorrect and after clicking on that slide it will take you back to the previous slide and will give you another chance. If you get the term correct it will take you to a slide telling you “you got it right” and by clicking on that slide you will go to the next question. GOOD LUCK!

Which term matches this definition- (literally, a striking out) The collapse of two syllables into one, marked by a curved line

[curved line] beneath a word in scanning a poem. The most common elisions are the most effortless and involve the blurring

of lightly aspirated consonants rather than hard ones.

Volta

Elision Enjambment

Good Job!!!

Elision is the matching term!

Try Again!

Which term matches this definition- (literally mask) The rhetorical pose that the speaker invents and speaks through. It can be different from what we might expect the poet’s own

rhetorical and intellectual position to be?

Persona Trope

Assonance

Good Job!!!

Persona is the matching term!

Try Again!

Which term matches this definition- (literally, a turn) The change in direction of argument in a sonnet that occurs between the octave and sestet?

Volta

TropeAlliteration

Great Work!

Volta is the matching term!

Try Again!

Which term matches this definition-- Repetition of the same sounds to bind or balance—usually initial sounds, and usually consonants?

Alliteration

Assonance

Sonnet

You did AWESOME!

Alliteration is the matching term!

Try Again!

Which term matches this definition-- Pull, or tugging, which occurs either when syntax works against and diverges from line, or when other elements of style work against each other?

Tension

Allusion Volta

GREAT JOB! I’m so proud!

Tension is the matching term!

Oh NO!

Try again!

Game Over

• Now that the game is over make sure to take the time to study and learn these terms, you’ll need to know them for the rest of the year !

Sources

Kinzie, Mary, and Mary Kinzie. A Poet's Guide to Poetry. chicago: The University of Chicago Press , 1999. Print.