ALLITERATION Also called head rhyme or initial rhyme, the repetition of the initial sounds (usually consonants) of stressed

syllables in neighboring words or at short intervals within a line or passage, usually at word beginnings, as in "wild and woolly" or the line from Shelley's The Cloud: ALLUSION An implied or indirect reference to something assumed to be known, such as an historical event or personage, a well-known quotation from literature, or a famous work of art, such as Keats' allusion to Titian's painting of Bacchus in Ode to a Nightingale. Sidelight: An allusion can be used by the poet as a means of imagery, since, like a symbol, it can suggest ideas by connotation; its effectiveness, of course, depends upon the reader's acquaintance with the reference alluded to. AMBIGUITY Applied to words and expressions, the state of being doubtful or indistinct in meaning or capable of being understood in more than one way ANALOGY An agreement or similarity in some particulars between things otherwise different; sleep and death, for example, are analogous in that they both share a lack of animation and a recumbent posture APOSTROPHE (uh-PAHS-truh-fee) A figure of speech in which an address is made to an absent person or a personified thing rhetorically, as in William Cowper's Verses Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk: O solitude! Where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face? CONCEIT An elaborate metaphor, often strained or far-fetched, in which the subject is compared with a simpler analogue usually chosen from nature or a familiar context. An excellent example of a conceit is Sir Thomas Wyatt's My Galley, an adaptation of Petrarch's Sonnet 159. CONNOTATION The suggestion of a meaning by a word beyond what it explicitly denotes or describes. The word, home, for example, means the place where one lives, but by connotation, also suggests security, family, love and comfort. DENOTATION The literal dictionary meaning(s) of a word as distinct from an associated idea or connotation. Sidelight: Many words have more than one denotation, such as the multiple meanings of fair or spring. In ordinary language, we

strive for a single precise meaning of words to avoid ambiguity, but poets often take advantage of words with more than one meaning to suggest more than one idea with the same word. A pun also utilizes multiple meanings as a play on words. DRAMATIC POEM Acomposition in verse portraying a story of life or character, usually involving conflict and emotions, in a plot evolving through action and dialogue. HYPERBOLE (hi-PER-buh-lee) A bold, deliberate overstatement, e.g., "I'd give my right arm for a piece of pizza." Not intended to be taken literally, it is used as a means of emphasizing the truth of a statement FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE The use of words, phrases, symbols, and ideas in such as way as to evoke mental images and sense impressions. Figurative language is often characterized by the use of figures of speech, elaborate expressions, sound devices, and syntactic departures from the usual order of literal language. IMAGERY, IMAGE The elements in a literary work used to evoke mental images, not only of the visual sense, but of sensation and emotion as well. While most commonly used in reference to figurative language, imagery is a variable term which can apply to any and all components of a poem that evoke sensory experience, whether figurative or literal, and also applies to the concrete things so imaged. IRONY Verbal irony is a figure of speech in the form of an expression in which the use of words is the opposite of the thought in the speaker's mind, thus conveying a meaning that contradicts the literal definition, as when a doctor might say to his patient, " the bad news is that the operation was successful." Dramatic or situational irony is a literary or theatrical device of having a character utter words which the the reader or audience understands to have a different meaning, but of which the character himself is unaware. ONOMATOPOEIA (ahn-uh-mah-tuh-PEE-uh) Strictly speaking, the formation or use of words which imitate sounds, like whispering, clang and sizzle, but the term is generally expanded to refer to any word whose sound is suggestive of its meaning

METAPHOR A figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one object or idea is applied to another, thereby suggesting a likeness or analogy between them, as: The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one. --- Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubiyt PERSONIFICATION A type of metaphor in which distinctive human characteristics, e.g., honesty, emotion, volition, etc., are attributed to an animal, object or idea, as "The haughty lion surveyed his realm" or "My car was happy to be washed" or "'Fate frowned on his endeavors." Personification is commonly used in allegory. might have expected, as in Shelley's Ozymandias REFRAIN A phrase or line, generally pertinent to the central topic, which is repeated verbatim, usually at regular intervals throughout a poem, most often at the end of a stanza, as in Spenser's Prothalamion, or Villon's Des Dames du Temps Jadis. Occasionally a single word is used as a refrain, as nevermore in Poe's The Raven. Sometimes a refrain is written with progressive variations, in which case it may be termed incremental repetition, SIMILE A figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two essentially unlike things, usually using like, as or than, as in Burns', "O, my luve's like A Red, Red Rose," or Shelley's "As still as a brooding dove," in The Cloud. Sidelight: Similes in which the parallel is developed and extended beyond the initial comparison, often being sustained through several lines, are called epic or Homeric similes, since they occur frequently in epic poetry, both for ornamentation and to heighten the heroic aspect. SOLILOQUY A talking to oneself; the discourse of a person speaking to himself, whether alone or in the presence of others. It gives the illusion of being unspoken reflections. SYMBOL An image transferred by something that stands for or represents something else, like flag for country, or autumn for maturity. Symbols can transfer the ideas embodied in the image without stating them, as in Robert Frost's Acquainted With the Night, in which night is symbolic of death or depression, or Sara Teasdale's The Long Hill, in which the climb up the hill symbolizes life and the brambles are symbolic of life's adversities.

SYNECDOCHE (suh-NEK-duh-kee) A figure of speech in which a part of something stands for the whole or the whole for a part, as wheels for automobile or society for high society THEME The central idea, topic, or didactic quality of a work. TONE The poet's or persona's attitude in style or expression toward the subject, e.g., loving, ironic, bitter, pitying, fanciful, solemn, etc. Tone can also refer to the overall mood of the poem itself, in the sense of a pervading atmosphere intended to influence the readers' emotional response and foster expectations of the conclusion. TONE The poet's or persona's attitude in style or expression toward the subject, e.g., loving, ironic, bitter, pitying, fanciful, solemn, etc. Tone can also refer to the overall mood of the poem itself, in the sense of a pervading atmosphere intended to influence the readers' emotional response and foster expectations of the conclusion.