Poetry Terms Review

Sound Devices enhance the

musical quality of poetry. 

Alliteration:

Repetition of initial consonant sounds (e.g., She sells sea shells). 

Assonance:

Repetition of vowel sounds within words (e.g., The light of the fire is a 

sight). 

Consonance:

Repetition of consonant sounds (e.g., blank and think or strong and 

string). 

Onomatopoeia:

Words that imitate natural sounds (e.g., buzz, bang, sizzle). 

Rhyme:

: Similar sounding word endings. 

End rhyme:

At the end of lines. 

 Internal rhyme:

Within the same line. 

Slant rhyme:

Approximate rhyme. 

Rhythm

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. 

Meter

The structured pattern of rhythm, measured in feet. 

Meter types

 Iambic, trochaic, anapestic, dactylic, spondaic. 

Repitition

Deliberate use of the same word/phrase for emphasis. 

Caesura: 

A pause in a line, often marked by punctuation. 

 

Stanza

Group of lines forming a unit. 

Line

Single row of text in a poem. 

Enjambment

 A line continues onto the next without pause. 

End-stop

A line ends with punctuation or a full stop. 

Refrain

A repeated line or phrase, often at the end of stanzas. 

Verse

 A single metrical line or a stanza. 

Couplet

Two lines that usually rhyme. 

Tercet

Three-line stanza. 

Quatrain

Four-line stanza. 

Sestet:

Six-line stanza. 

Octave

 Eight-line stanza. 

Volta

 A shift or turn in tone, thought, or argument  (often in sonnets). 

Poetic Forms 

Recognizable structures or formats. 

Sonnet:

14-line poem (e.g., Shakespearean or Petrarchan). 

Ballad

Narrative poem, often sung. 

Free Verse

 No regular meter or rhyme. 

Thematic and Tonal Devices convey the poem’s

purpose and mood. 

Theme

Central idea or message. 

Tone

Attitude or mood of the speaker (e.g., reflective, bitter, hopeful). 

Mood

 Feeling evoked in the reader. 

Voice

The speaker's personality and perspective. 

Diciton

Word choice and style. 

Imagery

Descriptive language appealing to senses. 

Allusion

 Indirect reference to literature, history, or culture. 

Apostrophe

 Directly addressing someone absent or non-human. 

Anaphora

Repetition of a word or phrase at the  beginning of successive lines.  

Epiphora (Epistrophe): 

Repetition at the end of successive lines. 

Juxtaposition:

Placing contrasting ideas together for effect.