Q2 Reading Unit Vocabulary

alliteration

Repetition of sounds at the beginning of words

Zigmund Zane zig-zagged through the zany zoo zone.

onomatopoeia

Use of words whose sound suggests their meaning

"I'm getting married in the morning!Ding dong! the bells are gonna chime."

(Lerner and Loewe, "Get Me to the Church on Time," My Fair Lady)

simile

Comparison of two things that have some common quality and uses the words like or as

Hockey is like reading. You get into it and then you never

want to stop.

metaphor

Comparison of two things that have a common quality and do NOT use like or as

Couch Potato:Couch potato = lazy person. A lazy person buries themselves in the

cushions of a couch in safe, sedentary comfort, "vegging out" mindlessly in front of the TV, eyes in a fixed, submissive stare. A couch potato never leaves the home, and cannot be motivated,

having everything nearby so they never have to move. Compare this to the potato, which is buried in the comfort and providence of soil and to which the only escape from its lifestyle is death. Covered in

eyes, but without a brain or muscle, the potato is snuggled and unmotivated.

A comfortable sofa is fertile soil for the couch potato.

personification

Giving human qualities to animals, ideas, or objects

The wind stood up and gave a shout.He whistled on his fingers and

Kicked the withered leaves aboutAnd thumped the branches with his hand

And said he'd kill and kill and kill,And so he will and so he will.

(James Stephens, "The Wind")

hyperbole

Exaggeration or overstatement for emphasis

"My sister uses so much makeup,... she broke a chisel trying to get it off last night!" Johnny, from Prescott Middle School, Baton Rouge, Louisiana,

USA

idiom

Expression that has a meaning different from the meaning of the individual words

Example: It’s raining cats and dogs!(It’s pouring down rain.)

speaker

The voice that talks to the reader in a poem; not always the poet

(similar to a narrator in a work of fiction)

tone

Shows the writer’s attitude towards his or her subject

Examples: humorous, serious, impatient

rhythm

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry

repetition

The use of a sound, word, or phrase more than once

rhyme

The repetition of similar sounds at the ends of words

rhyme scheme

The pattern of end rhyme in a poem

I quarreled with my brother, aI don’t know what about, bOne thing led to another aAnd somehow we fell out. b

---Eleanor Farjeon, from “The Quarrel”