Poetry Terms

Alliteration The repetition of a beginning consonant sound.

Allusion References to people, places, things, etc., that the poet expects us to understand.

Apostrophe when words are addressed to a person or thing - absent or present - or to a personified idea such as death

Assonance the repetition of vowel sounds within words ex. “Tiny white sea lice”

Blank Verse unrhymed iambic pentameter But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?

Consonance the close repetition of the same consonant sounds within and at the end of words ex. “…he sweats from pores round as goblets full of swamps.”

Couplet two consecutive and rhyming lines that are usually equal in length ex. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Elegy a poem of meditative nature, usually one of grief

Euphemism a mild, inoffensive word or expression used in place of one that is harsh or unpleasant ex. to pass away for die eliminate for kill

Figurative language intentional departure from normal language to gain strength and freshness of expression, to create a picture quality and poetic effect

Foot a combination of accented and unaccented syllables which make a metrical unit a foot may incorporate syllables from different words/may cut across words

Hyperbole exaggeration for emphasis

iamb one unaccented syllable followed by one accented syllable

More Feet anapest = three accented syllables in a row dactyle = one accented + two unaccented spondee = two accented trochee = one accented + one unaccented

Free verse verse which does not conform to any fixed pattern rhyme and rhythm occur only incidentally

Imagery words that bring to mind visual, auditory, tactile, or other sensory thoughts, feelings and memories

Lyric any short poem that seems to be especially musical and expresses, in most instances, the poet’s clearly revealed thoughts and feelings

Metaphor a figure of speech in which two things are compared without the use of like or as ex. Love is a rose.

Meter the pattern or rhythm determined by the accented and unaccented syllables in a line of poetry meter is established by the repetition of a dominant foot

Meter - continued monometer = one foot dimeter = two feet trimeter = three feet tetrameter = four feet pentameter = five feet hexameter = six feet ex. iambic pentameter is a line of verse consisting of five iambs

Mood the frame of mind or state of feeling created by a piece of writing ex. sorrowful mood sentimental mood

Narrative poem poem that tells you a story

Ode a lengthy dignified poem expressing exalted or enthusiastic emotion

Onomatopoeia words that imitate sound enables the writer to express sense through sound ex. splash, buzz, pow, murmur

Parody a humorous imitation of a serious piece of writing

Personification gives human qualities to non-human things

Quatrain a four-line stanza

Rhyme the repetition of syllable sounds at the ends of words ex. beautiful, dutiful

Rhyme scheme the pattern of end rhyme in a poem marked with letters, beginning with “a” and continuing through the alphabet

Simile a comparison using like or as ex. Love is like a rose

Sonnet a poem consisting of 14 lines usually written in iambic pentameter Petrarchan and Shakespearean/English

Stanza a group of related lines that forms a section of a poem

Symbol an image that carries meaning beyond itself

Tone the author’s attitude towards the subject