Poetry Test Prep

the basic unit of poetry, consisting of any of various fixed patterns of one to three stressed and unstressed syllables

a section of a poem marked by an extra line spacing before and after.

the repetition of vowel sounds in a sequence of words with different endings—for example, “The death of the poet was kept from his poems” in W. H. Auden’s “In Memory of W. B. Yeats.”

a figure of speech that involves treating something nonhuman, such as an abstraction, as if it were a person by endowing it with humanlike qualities, as in "Death entered the room."

symbols that accrue their complex meanings only within a particular literary work

(An example is the birthmark in Hawthorne's The Birthmark)

the pattern of end rhymes in a poem, often noted by lower-cased letter (abba, cddc)

an appeal to one's senses (auditory, olfactory, visual, tactile, and gustatory)

occurs when a word WITHIN a line of poetry rhymes with another word in the same or adjacent lines.

Example:

Or rather--He passed Us--

The dEWs drEW quivering and chill--

For only Gossamer, my Gown--

My Tippet--only Tulle--

a fixed verse form consisting of fourteen lines usually in iambic pentameter

this type of sonnet instead consists of 3 quatrains (4-line units) and a couplet and often rhymes abab cdcd efef gg