POETRY VOCABULARY

STANZA

• Definition: • a group of

consecutive lines that forms a single unit

• Example:

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

• Definition:• language that uses

words in forms other than their literal sense

• Example: • Similes • Metaphors• Personification

SIMILE

• Definition: • a comparison

between two unlike things, using words such as like or as

• Example: • Her hair was as

golden as sunshine

METAPHOR

• Definition:• comparison between

two unlike things where one thing is said to be like the other

• Example: • I was a lonely,

wandering cloud

EXTENDED METAPHOR

• Definition:• a metaphor that is

developed, or extended through several lines or the whole selection

• Example: • Cars are little blood

cells, we are oxygen• City is the airway,

suburbs appendages

IMAGERY

• Definition:• language that

appeals to the senses

• Example:• Over the cobbles he

clattered and clashed in the dark inn yard.

PERSONIFICATION

• Definition: • a nonhuman or

nonliving thing or quality is talked about as if it were human or alive

• Example: • The sun played hide

and seek with the clouds.

TONE

• Definition: • The attitude that a

writer takes toward the audience, a subject, or a character

• Example:

ALLITERATION

• Definition:• the repetition of the

same or very similar consonant sounds in words that are close together

• Example: • And the silken sad

uncertain rustling of each purple curtain.

ONOMATOPOEIA

• Definition:• the use of words

whose sounds echo their sense

• Example: • Oh, the bells, bells,

bells! . . . How they clang, and crash, and roar!