The Prominence or emphasis given to a syllable or word. In the real word poetry, the accent (or stress) falls on the first syllable.

Allegory isa narrative having a second meaning beneath the surface one.

The repetition of the same or similar sounds at the beginning of words such as tongue twisters like ‘She sells seashells by the seashore’

Analogy is a likeness or similarity between things that are otherwise unlike.

A metrical foot of three syllables, two short (or unstressed) followed by one long (or stressed). The anapest is the opposite of the dactyl.

An example of antithesis is “To err is human to forgive, divine.

” by Alexander Pope is an example of antithesis with words and phrases with opposite meanings balanced against each other.

A figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and could reply.

Archetype is the original pattern from which copies are made.

The repetition or a pattern of similar sounds, as in the tongue twister “Moses supposes his theses are roses.”

The definition of a Bard is a Gaelic maker and signer of poems.

Blank verse is in unrhymed iambic pentameter which is a type of meter in poetry, in which there re five iambs to a line.

Lewis Carroll makes use of cacophony in ‘Jabberwocky’ by using an unpleasant spoken sound created by clashing consonants.

A grammatical pause or break in a line of poetry (like a question mark), usually near the middle of the line.

An example of a conceit can be found in Shakespeare’s sonnet “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” When an image or metaphor likens one thing to something else that is seemingly very different.

Consonance is the repetition, at close intervals, of the final consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words.

Connotation is what a word suggests beyond its basic definition. The words childlike and childish both mean ‘characters of a child,’ but childlike suggests meekness and innocence.

Shakespearean sonnets usually end in couplet and are a pair of lines that are the same length and usually rhyme and from a complete thought.

A metrical foot three syllables, one long (or stressed) followed by two short (or unstressed), as in happily. The dactyl is the reverse of the anapaest.

Denotation is the basic definition or dictionary meaning of a word.

Dialect refers to pronunciation of a particular region of a Country or region.

Elision refers to the leaving out of an unstressed syllable or vowel, usually in order to keep a regular meter in a line of poetry for example ‘o’ er’ for ‘over’.

Enjambent comes from the French word for “to straddle.” Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence form one line or couplet into the next and derives from the French verb ‘to straddle’. An example by Joyce Kilmer is ‘I think that I shall never see/A poem as lovely as a tree’.

The shorter final stanza of a poem, as in a ballade.

An epithet is a descriptive expression, a word or phrase expressing some quality or attribute.

Euphony refers to a pleasant spoken sound that is created by smooth consonants such as ‘ripple’.

Euphemism is the use of a soft indirect expression instead of one that is harsh or unpleasantly direct. For example ‘pass away’ as opposed to to ‘die’.

Trochaic and dactylic meters are called falling maters because they move from stressed to unstressed syllables.

A rhyme that occurs in a final unstressed syllable: pleasure/leisure, longing/yearning.

A verbal expression in which words or sounds are arranged in a particular way to achieve a particular effect such as alliteration, antithesis, assonance, hyperbole, metaphor, onomatopoeia and simile.

Two or more syllables that together make up the smallest unit of rhythm in a poem.

For example, an iamb is a foot that has two syllables, one unstressed followed by one stressed. An anapest has three syllables, two unstressed followed by one stressed.

Form is the generic term for the organizing principle of a literary work. In poetry, form is described in terms elements like rhyme, meter, and stanzaic pattern.

A line of petty that has seen metrical feet.

A stanza composed of two rhymed lines in iambic pentameter.

A line of poetry that has six metrical feet.

Hyperbole (overstatement) is a type of figurative language that depends on intentional overstatement.

A metrical foot of two syllables, one short (or unstressed) and one long (or stressed). The iamb is the reverse of the trochee.

Shakespeare’s plays were written mostly in iambic pentameter, which is the most common type of meter in English poetry. It is a basic measure of English poetry, five iambic feet in each line.

Idiom refers to words, phrases, or patterns of expression. Idioms became standard elements in any language, differing from language to language and shifting with time. A current idiom is ‘getting in a car’ but ‘on a plane’.

Imagery draws the reader into poetic experiences by touching on the images and senses which the reader already knows.

Irony is a situation, or a use of language, involving some kind of discrepancy. An example of this is “water, water everywhere but ne’er a drop to drink”.

Jaron refers to words and phrases developed by a particular group to fit their own needs which other people understand.

A litote is a figure of speech in which affirmative is expressed by the negation of the opposite. “He’s no dummy” is a good example.

Meters are regularized rhythms. An arrangement of language in which the accents occur at apparently equal intervals in time. Each repeated unit of meter is called a foot.

Meiosis is a figure of speech that consists of saying less than one means, or of saying what one means with less force than the occasion warrants.