Poetry Terms #1

Alliteration

The repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds, normally at the beginning of words.

Assonance

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.

Cacophony

A harsh, unpleasant combination of sounds or tones.

Cadence

The natural rhythm of a poem, created through the poet’s selective arrangements of words, rhyme, and meter.

Consonance

The repetition of similar consonant sounds within a group of words.

Euphony

A style in which combinations of words pleasant to the ear predominate.

Eye rhyme

Rhyme that appears correct from spelling, but is half rhyme or slant rhyme from the pronunciation.

Feminine rhyme

A rhyme of two syllables, one stressed and one unstressed.

Internal rhyme

Rhyme that occurs within a line, rather than at the end.

Masculine rhyme

Rhyme that falls on the stressed and concluding syllables of the rhyme-words.

Mood

The feeling or atmosphere a piece of writing creates in the reader.

Onomatopoeia

The use of words whose sounds suggest their meaning.

Refrain

A group of words forming a phrase or sentence and consisting of one or more lines repeated at intervals in a poem, usually at the end.

Tone

The manner in which an author expresses his or her attitude.

Villanelle

A nineteen-line poem divided into five tercets and a final quatrain.