denotation: the dictionary meaning of a word.

figurative meaning: associative or connotative meaning; representational.

literal meaning: limited to the simplest, ordinary, most obvious meaning.

meter: measured pattern of rhythmic accents in a line of verse.

rhyme: correspondence of terminal sounds of words or of lines of verse.

Figurative Language...

apostrophe: a direct address of an inanimate object, abstract qualities, or a person not living or present.

hyperbole: exaggeration for emphasis (the opposite of understatement)... example: "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."

metaphor: comparison between essentially unlike things without using words OR application of a name or description to something to which it is not literally applicable... example: "[Love] is an ever fixed mark, / that looks on tempests and is never shaken."

metonymy: a closely related term substituted for an object or idea... example: "We have always remained loyal to the crown."

oxymoron: a combination of two words that appear to contradict each other... example: bittersweet !

paradox: a situation or phrase that appears to be contradictory but which contains a truth worth considering... example: "In order to preserve peace, we must prepare for war."

personification: the endowment of inanimate objects or abstract concepts with animate or living qualities... example: "Time let me play / and be golden in the mercy of his means."

pun: play on words OR a humorous use of a single word or sound with two or more implied meanings; quibble... example: "They're called lessons . . . because they lessen from day to day."

simile: comparison between two essentially unlike things using words such as "like," as," or "as though"... example: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun."

synecdoche: a part substituted for the whole... example: "Friends, Romans, countrymen: lend me your ears."

Poetic Devices...

alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds, particularly at the beginning of words... example: ". . . like a wanderer white."

allusion: a reference to the person, event, or work outside the poem or literary piece... example: "Shining, it was Adam and maiden."

assonance: the repetition of similar vowel sounds... example: "I rose and told him of my woe."

elision: the omission of an unstressed vowel or syllable to preserve the meter of a line of poetry... example: "Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame."

irony: a contradiction of expectation between what is said and what is meant (verbal irony) or what is expected in a particular circumstance or behavior (situational), or when a character speaks in ignorance of a situation known to the audience or other characters (situational)... example: "Time held me green and dying / Though I sang in my chains like the sea."

imagery: word or sequence of words representing a sensory experience (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and gustatory)... example: "bells knelling classes to a close." (auditory)

onomatopoeia: the use of words to imitate the sounds they describe... example: "crack" or "whir."

synesthesia: an attempt to fuse different senses by describing one in terms of another... example: the sound of her voice was sweet.

symbol: an object or action that stands for something beyond itself... example: white equates to... innocence, purity, hope.

Poetic Forms...

open: poetic form free from regularity and consistency in elements such as rhyme, line length, and metrical form.

closed: poetic form subject to a fixed structure and pattern.

stanza: unit of a poem often repeated in the sameform throughout a poem; a unit of poetic lines ("verse paragraph").

blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter.

free verse: lines with no prescribed pattern or structure. couplet: a pair of lines, usually rhymed heroic

couplet: a pair of rhymed lines in iambic pentameter (tradition of the heroic epic form).

quatrain: four-line stanza or grouping of four lines of verse.

sonnet: fourteen line poem in iambic pentameter with a prescribed rhyme scheme; its subject is traditionally that of love.

English (Shakespearean) Sonnet: A sonnet probably made popular by Shakespeare with the following rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg.

Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet: A form of sonnet made popular by Petrarch with the following rhyme scheme: abbaabba cdecde OR cdcdcd... Its first octave generally presents a thought, picture, or emotion, while its final sestet presents an explanation, comment, or summary.