Figurative language

and Poetry terms

Alliteration

• The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words.

• EX: While I nodded, nearly, napping, suddenly there came a tapping.

Assonance

• The repetition of vowel sounds within words.• EX: On the morrow he will leave me, as my

hopes have flown before. • Easier: While I nodded, nearly, napping,

suddenly there came a tapping.

End Rhyme

• Similar or identical sounds at the end of two lines of poetry.

• EX: Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”

Internal Rhyme

• Rhyme within ONE line of poetry• EX: Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic

terrors never felt before.

Repetition

• Words repeated within a line of poetry.• EX: From my books surcease of sorrow—

sorrow for the lost Lenore.

Form

• The way words are arranged in lines, the way lines are arranged in stanzas, and the way units of sound are organized in rhythm and rhyme.

• Two kinds of form: Fixed and Irregular.

Fixed Form

• Follows fixed (unchanging) rules. – Limited number of lines– Fixed meter– Fixed rhyme scheme– Definite structure

Examples: Sonnet, ballad, epic, elegy, ode, blank verse

Irregular form or free verse

• No rules- takes whatever shape it wants.

Anaphora

• The same word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines.

• EX: Or I guess the grass is itself a child Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic