Page 6 - 100 Best Loved Poems - Teaching Unit

Meter - the emphasized pattern of repeated sounds in poetry; meter is represented by stressed and
unstressed syllables. Example: “To wake´ the soul´ with ten´der strokes´of
art´.”–Alexander Pope

Monologue - an extended speech by one character, either when alone or to others. Example: The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock; Mark Antony’s speech at Caesar’s funeral.

Motif - a situation, incident, idea, or image that is repeated significantly in a literary work.
Examples: In Hamlet, revenge is a frequently repeated idea. In The Catcher in the Rye,
Holden continually comments on the phoniness of people he meets.

Onomatopoeia - a word whose sound (the way it is pronounced) imitates its meaning. Examples:
“roar,” “murmur,” “tintinnabulation.”

Paradox - a statement that is self-contradictory on its surface, yet makes a point through the
juxtaposition of the ideas and words within the paradox. Examples: “Noon finally dawned
for the remaining, weary soldiers”; “He that hath no money; come ye, buy and
eat…”–Isaiah 55:1

Parallelism - the repetition of similarly constructed phrases, clauses, or sentences within a short
section. Examples: “Government of the people, by the people, and for the people…”;
“When I was a child, I spake as child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child…”I
Corinthians 13:11

Personification - a figure of speech in which an object, abstract idea, or animal is given human
characteristics. Examples: The wall did its best to keep out the invaders.

“Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me.”
–Emily Dickinson

Plot - the pattern of events in a literary work; what happens.

Point of View - the position or vantage point, determined by the author, from which the story
seems to come to the reader. The two most common points of view are First-person and
Third-person. Examples: First-person point of view occurs in The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn; the reader receives all information through Huck’s eyes. An example of
third-person point of view is Dickens’ Hard Times, in which the narrator is not a character
in the book.

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