CLEP Humanities › Understanding Terminology That Describes Classical Poetry
A poem that is a lamentation for the dead is called __________.
an elegy
an epic
a haiku
a limerick
an allegory
One of the oldest and most consistently written kinds of poem is an elegy, a work that is dedicated to the memory of a recently deceased person. An elegy can take on almost any poetic form, such as a sonnet, a cinquain, or any other specific kind of poem. Elegies were written by the ancient Greeks and Romans and continue to be written by modern poets.
The poetic technique known as alliteration refers to __________.
the repetitive use of words with the same initial sound or syllable
an internal rhyme inside of a sentence
the use of homonyms to create wordplay
the sequential use of each letter of the alphabet as the first letter of a word
an poetic structure in which the number of syllables in each line of a poem gradually increase
Alliteration is a poetic strategy that intentionally repeats the same initial sound or syllable in multiple words in a line or lines of poetry. Alliteration can help create a unique rhythm or special structure. While developed in poetry, alliteration is also widely used in prose writing.