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Poetry: What do you call it when…
•
Several words in a line have similar consonant sounds:
alliteration
o
Over his shoul
d
er,
d
igging
d
own an
d
 
d
own
[
 Digging 
]
•
Several words have similar vowel sounds:
assonance
o
 T
i
ll w
i
nd d
i
stresses t
ai
l and m
a
ne
[
 At Grass
]
•
Two words have the same sound:
rhyme
o
…rasping
sound
/ gravely
ground
 
[
 Digging 
]
•
Two words almost rhyme, but not fully:
pararhyme
o
…shadows / … meadows
[
 At Grass
]
•
A line has punctuation at the end of it, especially a full-stop or semi-colon:
end-stopped line
o
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions
.
[
Mirror 
]
•
A line ‘runs on’ to the next, having no punctuation at its end:
enjambment
o
In a cage of first March sun a woman / sits not listening
(N.B.: the / indicates where the line ends) [
Miracle on St David’s Day
]
•
An object or action in the poem suggests many possible ideas
: symbolism
o
 The squat
pen
[
 Digging 
];
o
 Two
roads
diverged in a
yellow
 
wood
,
[
The Road not Taken
]
•
A poet makes a direct comparison of one thing to another:
simile
o
Outside the daffodils are
as still as wax
 
[
Miracle on St  David’s Day
]
•
A writer uses another object, event or action to describe something they haveexperienced:
metaphor
o
Now I am
a lake
. [
Mirror 
]
•
A writer uses a part of an object to represent the whole of it:
metonym
o
 Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds /Bends low
(Note that Heaney uses the ‘rump’ to stand for the whole of his father.)[
 Digging 
]
•
A poem is a story told in the first person, often in the present tense:
monologue
:
o
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
[
Warning 
]
•
A series of statements begin with the same word or words:
anaphora
o
 You may
shoot me with your words,
 You may
cut mewith your eyes,
 You may
kill me …
[
Still I Rise
]
•
A writer uses a word whose sound is reminiscent of the sound beingdescribed:
onomatopoeia
:
o
A clean
rasping
sound
[
 Digging 
]
 
•
A writer gives human attributes to an object or animal:
anthropomorphism
o
Look at
Mirror 
.
•
A writer describes a non-human animal or object as if it were a person:
personification
(this is itself a form of metaphor):
o
 The musty dark
hoarded an armoury
[
The Barn
]
•
A group of lines are put together:
stanza
•
A weak syllable is followed by a stressed syllable
: iamb
o
 The
eye
can
hard
ly
pick 
them
out
[
 At Grass
]
•
A stressed syllable is followed by a weak syllable:
trochee
:
o
I
am
sil
ver 
and
ex
act
[
Mirror 
]
•
What do I call the vowel sounds ‘ee’ ‘ay’ ‘ai’ ‘oh’ ‘ewe’?
Open vowels
(their opposites, such as the ‘i’ in ‘opposite’ are
closed vowels
o
Vowels can also be
front
or 
back 
: ‘ay’ (as in ‘say’) is
fronted
(it isformed at the front of the mouth), as is ‘ee’; the others are
back 
vowels. Front vowels are much brighter, whereas back vowels aredarker and heavier.
•
What do I call the consonants ‘b’ and ‘p’?
Plosives
•
What do I call the consonants ‘d’ and ‘t’?
Dentals
•
What do I call the consonants ‘f’ and ‘v’?
Fricatives
•
What do I call the consonants ‘s’ and ‘z’?
Sibillants
•
What do I call the consonant ‘l’?
Liquid
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