Poetry: Figurative Language Flashcards

Poetry and Its Elements

• Poetry is an ancient writing form that conveys thoughts through verse.
• Mood refers to the emotional atmosphere created by a poem or story.
• Hyperbole is a deliberate exaggeration for emphasis or humor, e.g., "I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse."
• Idioms are expressions with meanings separate from their literal interpretations, such as "Shake a leg!" or "You let the cat out of the bag!"

Descriptive Language Techniques

• Imagery employs words or phrases that engage the five senses and create vivid mental pictures.
• Assonance involves the repetition of similar vowel sounds within a phrase.
• Alliteration features the repeated initial consonant sounds in a series of words, e.g., "Cows are craving cuisine crunch crops."
• Onomatopoeia refers to words that mimic sounds, like "plop," "buzz," and "snap."

Structure and Form

• A stanza is a structural unit of poetry or a section of a song, similar to a paragraph.
• Free verse poetry lacks a specific rhyme scheme or rhythmic pattern, allowing greater freedom of expression.
• Style encompasses the overall writing approach of a poem, including meter length, stanza count, and rhyme techniques.

Comparisons and Symbolism

• Metaphors compare two or more objects directly without using "like" or "as."
• Similes make comparisons between objects using the terms "like" or "as."
• Personification attributes human qualities or actions to non-human entities, including animals and abstract ideas.
• Symbols are tangible items that represent abstract concepts, such as a flag symbolizing national pride.

Themes and Repetition

• The theme encapsulates the underlying message, point of view, or central idea of a poem.
• Voice inflection involves changing the pitch or tone of voice to convey emotional emphasis.
• Rhythm represents the pattern of beats or stresses in language and contributes to the poem's mood.
• Repetition involves the recurrent use of words or phrases to emphasize particular ideas or themes.

Poetic Elements and Rhyme

• Poetic elements include various literary devices found within poetry, such as alliteration, metaphor, onomatopoeia, and rhythm.
• Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds at the end of words, enhancing musical quality in poetry.