anaphora
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the repetition of a word or phrase, usually at the beginning of a line.
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alliteration
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the repetition of sounds in a sequence of words. (See alsoconsonance and assonance.)
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allegory
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narrative with two levels of meaning, one stated and one unstated.
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apostrophe
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direct address to an absent or otherwise unresponsive entity (someone or something dead, imaginary, abstract, or inanimate).
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assonance
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the repetition of vowel-sounds.
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beat
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a stressed (or accented) syllable.
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binary
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dual, twofold, characterized by two parts.
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blank verse
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unrhymed iambic pentameter.
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caesura
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an audible pause internal to a line, usually in the middle. (An audible pause at the end of a line is called an end-stop.) The French alexandrine, Anglo-Saxon alliterative meter, and Latin dactylic hexameter are all verse forms that call for a caesura.
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chiasmus
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from the Greek letter Chi ( Χ ), a "crossed" rhetorical parallel. That is, the parallel form a:b::a:b changes to a:b::b:a to become a chiasmus.
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climax
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the high point; the moment of greatest tension or intensity. The climax can occur at any point in a poem, and can register on different levels, e.g. narrative, rhetorical, or formal.
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consonance
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the repetition of consonant-sounds.
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couplet
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two lines of verse, usually rhymed. Heroic couplet: a rhymed iambic pentameter couplet.
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diction
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word choice, specifically the "class" or "kind" of words chosen.
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elegy
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since the 17th century, usually denotes a reflective poem that laments the loss of something or someone.
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end-stopped line
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a line that ends with a punctuation mark and whose meaning is complete.
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enjambed line
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a "run-on" line that carries over into the next to complete its meaning.
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foot
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the basic unit of accentual-syllabic and quantitative meter, usually combining a stress with one or more unstressed syllables.
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free verse
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poetry in which the rhythm does not repeat regularly.
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imagery
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the visual (or other sensory) pictures used to render a description more vivid and immediate.
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meter
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a regularly repeating rhythm, divided for convenience intofeet.
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metonomy
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a figure of speech in which something is represented by another thing that is commonly and often physically associated with it, e.g. "White House" for "the President."
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ode
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a genre of lyric, an ode tends to be a long, serious meditation on an elevated subject.
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prosody
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the study of versification, i.e. the form—meter, rhyme, rhythm, stanzaic form, sound patterns—into which poets put language to make it verse rather than something else.
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refrain
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a phrase or line recurring at intervals. (N.b. the definition does not require that a refrain include the entire line, nor that it recur at regular intervals, though refrains often are and do.)
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rhythm
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the patterns of stresses, unstressed syllables, and pauses in language. Regularly repeating rhythm is called meter.
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scansion
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the identification and analysis of poetic rhythm and meter. To "scan" a line of poetry is to mark its stressed and unstressed syllables.
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simile
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a figure of speech that compares two distinct things by using a connective word such as "like" or "as."
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speaker
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the "I" of a poem, equivalent to the "narrator" of a prose text. In lyric poetry, the speaker is often an authorial persona.
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speech act
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the manner of expression (as opposed to the content). Examples of speech acts include: question, promise, plea, declaration, and command.
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stanza
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a “paragraph” of a poem: a group of lines separated by extra white space from other groups of lines.
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symbol
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an image that stands for something larger and more complex, often something abstract, such as an idea or a set of attitudes. (See imagery.)
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symbolism
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the serious and relatively sustained use of symbols to represent or suggest other things or ideas. (Distinct from allegory in that symbolism does not depend on narrative.)
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synecdoche
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a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole, e.g. “wheels” for “car.”
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tone
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the speaker’s or author’s attitude toward the reader, addressee, or subject matter. The tone of a poem immediately impresses itself upon the reader, yet it can be quite difficult to describe and analyze.
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topos
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a traditional theme or motif (e.g. the topos of modesty).
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trope
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a figure of speech, such as a metaphor (trope is often used, incorrectly, to mean topos)
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valediction
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an act or utterance of farewell.
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