Glossary of Terms for Unseen Poetry
These terms have been added for reference purposes and should be used carefully by teachers with their students. This glossary is by no means exhaustive and teachers may wish to add to it.
Allegory
- A story for which there is a hidden second meaning beyond the autonomous narrative.
Alliteration
- The repetition of sounds at the beginning of two or more words in close proximity. The term is usually applied to the repetition of consonants.
Allusion
- A reference to something which is outside itself.
Anaphora
- The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.
Assonance
- Two or more words, which are in close proximity, repeating the same vowel sounds.
Ballad
- A poem which tells a story in simple, colloquial language.
Bathos
- A juxtaposition of the important with the insignificant or trivial.
Caesura
- The main pause in a line of poetry, generally created by the use of punctuation.
Conceit
- An extravagant metaphor, often describing something abstract as if it were material.
Couplet
- A pair of rhymed lines of any metre.
Diction
- The language used in a work of literature to enhance or communicate meaning for effect.
Elegy
- An elaborate formal poem often lamenting death of a single person.
Enjambment
- A line of poetry which is not end…
