Poetry Terms Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. A poem is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Which term best describes its form?
Free verse
Heroic couplets
Blank verse
Prose poetry
2. In “The stroke of luck struck the rock,” the repeated final /k/ sound is an example of which device?
Alliteration
Consonance
Assonance
Internal rhyme
3. Unless the poem gives a reason to identify the voice with the author, what is the voice speaking in a poem generally called?
The biographer
The speaker
The addressee
The editor
4. Which definition best describes a metaphor?
A contrast between expectation and reality
A deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis
A reference to another text, person, or event
A direct comparison that presents one thing as another
5. In the line “O Time, loosen your grip on this day,” the speaker directly addresses an abstraction. Which device is being used?
Synecdoche
Understatement
Apostrophe
Anaphora
6. In poetic meter, what is a foot?
The final line of a stanza
A recurring unit of stressed and unstressed syllables
A pair of words sharing an end sound
The indentation at the start of a line
7. Near the end of a sonnet, the argument shifts from describing a problem to considering a resolution. What is this turn called?
The volta
The refrain
The scansion
The allusion
8. Which sound device is most prominent in “Wild winds whip westward”?
Internal rhyme
Assonance
Onomatopoeia
Alliteration
9. Which sound device is most prominent in “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain”?
Sibilance
Eye rhyme
Onomatopoeia
Assonance
10. Which phrase relies most directly on tactile imagery?
The bell announced noon
Blue dusk filled the valley
Rough bark scraped her palm
The cinnamon scent drifted upstairs
11. A poem breaks the sentence “We followed the road / until it vanished into fog” across two lines without punctuation at the break. What technique is this?
Refrain
Enjambment
End-stopping
Elision
12. A two-syllable metrical unit follows an unstressed-STRESSED pattern, as in the word “relax.” What is this unit called?
An iamb
A trochee
A spondee
A dactyl
13. In the line “The moon winked through the curtains,” which device gives the moon a human action?
Personification
Hyperbole
Paradox
Metonymy
14. Read this stanza: “The moon is high / above the hill; / owls cross the sky; / the night is still.” What is its rhyme scheme?
AABB
ABBA
ABAB
ABCB
15. A poem has deliberate line breaks but no consistent meter or regular rhyme scheme. Which term best fits it?
Free verse
A ballad stanza
A rhyming couplet
Blank verse
16. In the line “The house stood silent; nothing stirred,” what is the strong pause created within the line called?
A stanza break
A volta
An end rhyme
A caesura