terms that have to do withsoundand

meaning

Poetry Terms

ALLITERATION

commencement of two or more words of a word group with the same letter

ALLITERATION

from “Acquainted with the Night”by Robert Frost

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feetWhen far away an interrupted cryCame over houses from another street

ASSONANCE

also called “vowel rhyme”—the same vowel sounds are used with different consonants in the stressed syllables of words (“penitent” and “reticence”);

a partial agreement or correspondence in sounds

ASSONANCE

from  “Daffodils”by William Wordsworth

“I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o'er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”

CONSONANCE

correspondence of consonants, especially those at the end of a word;

use of the repetition of consonants or consonant patterns

CONSONANCE

from “ ‘T was later when the summer went”by Emily Dickinson

‘T was later when the summer wentThan when the cricket came,And yet we knew that gentle clockMeant nought but going home.

TONE

quality or character of sound

the writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward his subject, his audience, or himself;

the emotional coloring, or emotional meaning, of a work.

TONE

“Jenny Kissed Me”by James Henry Leigh Hunt

Jenny kissed me when we met,Jumping from the chair she sat in;Time, you thief, who love to getSweets into your list, put that in!Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,Say that health and wealth have missed me,Say I'm growing old, but add,Jenny kissed me. 

WORD CHOICES

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MEANING

purpose or intention

PLAIN SENSE

using just the words and punctuation.

FEELING awe, tenderness, anger, amusement, etc.

TONE Attitude towards the reader:  confidential, appealing, etc.

INTENTION What is the poet trying to say?

SUBJECT love, death, family, nature, the city, the country, age, youth, war, civilization, pestilence

THEME better to have loved and lost ... respect your elders ... absence makes the heart grow fonder ... truth … empathy … etc...

MORAL Is some kind of a lesson being taught?

DENOTATIVE

the explicit meaning of the word

DENOTATIVE

there are many words that denote approximately the same thing, but their connotations are very different 

innocent and genuine both denote an absence of corruption

CONNOTATIVE

signifying or suggesting an associative or secondary meaning in addition to the primary meaning

CONNOTATIVE

innocent is often associated with a lack of experience, where genuine is not

poets use connotations to further develop or complicate a poem’s meaning.

FIGURATIVE

metaphorical and not literal

FIGURATIVE

Go to Frost Friends

ALLUSIONS

a passing or casual reference;

an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication

ALLUSIONS

from “Parable of the Hostages”by Louise Glück

The Greeks are sitting on the beachwondering what to do when the war ends. No onewants to go home, backto that bony island; everyone wants a little moreof what there is in Troy

ANALOGIES

a similarity or comparability between like features of two different things

ANALOGIES

from “Night Clouds”by Amy Lowell

The white mares of the moon rush along the skyBeating their golden hoofs upon the glass Heavens;The white mares of the moon are all standing on

their hind legsPawing at the green porcelain doors of the remote

Heavens.Fly, Mares!