Giving Words - Opening - Creative Writing

Giving Words

Words and Verse

-Language-

These definitions apply to words and phrases we use to create poetry.

Alliteration: A repetition of the same sound at the beginning of words placed closely to one another.

Assonance: A type of rhyme in which the vowels are stressed, but not the consonants of the rhyme words. (example-hat and cap)

Cacophony: A harsh or unpleasand sound deliberately using rough meter or clashing vowels.

Consonance: A form of rhyme in which the consonants are stressed, but the vowels are not (example-ride and raid)

Euphemism: A word or term used because it is less offensive than the more direct or candid alternative (he passed away instead of he dropped dead)

Hyperbole: Deliberate exaggeration not intended to be taken seriously.

Internal Rhyme: Rhyme that occurs within a line or lines instead of at the end.

Metaphor: Use of a word or phrase to represent another concept, idea or object (example-the bird was a wailing siren or the train was a speeding bullet). Metaphors differ from similies in that the writer does not soften the parallel by using the words 'like' or 'as', etc.

Metonymy: Use of substitue word to stand for the actual name of a thing or person.

Onomatopoeia: Use of words that imitate the sound of the thing they refer too.

Periphrasis: Very indirect way of saying something.

Personification: Attributing human qualities to an animal, plant, object or another inhuman thing.

Simile: Comparing two words, terms or concepts with use of the words 'like' or 'as'. These are similiar to metaphors but the comparison is made much more clearly.

Trope: Any figure of speech in which a word or phrase is used in an improper, unusual or unexpected sense (a metaphor, simile, hyperbole or metonymy could be trope)

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