1. Poetry Terms You Need to Know

2. Simile
A simile is a comparison between two unlike things using the words like or as.
Example: The car was as slow as a snail.
Example: The fish’s scales sparkled in the sunlight like rare jewels.

3. bald as an eagle, neat as a pin, proud as a peacock, ugly as sin.
Predictable
Poor as a church mouse. strong as an ox, cute as a button, smart as a fox.
thin as a toothpick, white as a ghost, fit as a fiddle, dumb as a post.
bald as an eagle, neat as a pin, proud as a peacock, ugly as sin.
When people are talking you know what they'll say as soon as they start to use a cliché.
© 2000 Bruce Lansky
Find the similes in this poem by Bruce Lansky!

4. Metaphor
A metaphor is a direct comparison between two unlike things. It does not use the words like or as.
Example: Maria’s new puppy is an eating machine.
Example: The pen is a mighty sword.

5. Alliteration
Alliteration is when the same sound is repeated at the beginning of several words of a line of poetry or a sentence.
Example: Bobby blew ten big bubbles.

6. Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is when words are used that sound like the noises they describe.
Examples: Ding dong! Pow! Buzz! Bang!

7. Idiom
An idiom is a common expression that makes no sense unless you know its figurative meaning.
Example: That test was a piece of cake.
Example: She got a taste of her own medicine.
Example: That shirt cost me an arm and a leg.

8. Personification
Personification gives animals or objects human qualities.
Example: That chocolate cake on the counter called out to Jose, begging him to take a bite.

9. Couplet
A couplet is a poem with two rhyming lines. Both have the same rhythm.
Example:
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are.

10. Limericks
Limericks have five lines, and they are usually funny or silly. The rhyme scheme is AABBA.
Example:
There was a young lady whose chin
resembled the point of a pin;
so she had it made sharp,
and purchased a harp,
and played several tunes with her chin.
-Edward Lear

11. Hyperbole A hyperbole is an exaggerated statement.
Example: I’m so hungry that I could eat a bear.

12. Concrete Poem
Concrete poems are shape poems spaced to form pictures of what the poem is about.

13. Autobiographical Poem
An autobiographical poem is a poem that the author writes about himself.
Line 1: Your first name
Line 2: Four adjectives that describe you
Line 3: Son/daughter of ...., Brother/sister of ....
Line 4: Lover of (three people or ideas or a combination)
Line 5: Who feels (three sensations or emotions
Line 6: Who find happiness in (three things)
Line 7: Who needs (three things)
Line 8: Who gives (three things)
Line 9: Who fears (three things)
Line 10: Who would like to see (three things)
Line 11: Who enjoys (three things)
Line 12: Who likes to wear (three things)
Line 13: Add something you want to say
Line 14: Your last name only

14. Wander through my summer room:
Haiku
A haiku is a short poem invented in Japan. It often describes nature with very simple observations about the world around us. A haiku consists of three unrhymed lines of syllables.
So many breezes
Wander through my summer room:
But never enough

15. Rhyme
Rhyme is a technique that creates rhythm using words with the same end sound.
Example: cat, hat, bat, rat, sat, mat, gnat

16. Diamonte Poem
Poem written about two opposite things in a diamond shape.
Line 1—one noun (subject #1)
Line 2—two adjectives(describing subject #1)
Line 3—three participles (ending in –ing, telling about subject #1)
Line 4—four nouns (first two related to subject #1, second two related to subject #2)
Line 5—three participles (about subject #2)
Line 6—two adjectives (describing subject #2)
Line 7—one noun (subject #2)

17. Example of Diamonte Poem
Cat clever, cuddly crouching, pouncing, purring meow, feline, canine, bark running, sniffing, yelping lovable, smart Dog

18. Acrostic Poem
An acrostic poem uses each letter of a word to begin each line.
Elizabeth Jane Smith
Loves animals
Is a great student
Zoos are a favorite place to visit
Always tries to have a smile
Believes in being a good friend
Eats pizza and fries
Thinks that I want to be a doctor
Has a great family

19. Imagery
The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas.

20. Sensory details
Sensory details appeal to the readers’ five senses—sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.

21. “Dreams” by Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow.