Poetry Terms

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds in neighboring words.

Allusion

Reference to a well-known person, place, event, or work of art.

Approximate rhyme

Words with similar but not identical sounds.

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words.

Atmosphere

The overall feeling or mood of a literary work.

Ballad

Narrative poem often set to music.

Blank verse

Unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter.

Couplet

Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.

Diction

Author's choice of words.

Elizabethan/Shakespearean sonnet

14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme.

Feet

Basic unit of meter in poetry.

Figurative language

Language that uses figures of speech to convey meanings beyond the literal interpretation.

Figures of speech

Expressions that depart from the literal meanings of words.

Free verse

Poetry without a regular rhyme or meter.

Haiku

Japanese poetic form with three lines and a 5-7-5 syllable pattern.

Hyperbole

Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

Iambic pentameter

Meter in poetry consisting of five iambs per line.

Imagery

Vivid descriptions that appeal to the senses.

Internal rhyme

Rhyme that occurs within a line of poetry.

Irony

A contrast between expectation and reality.

Lyric

Poem expressing personal emotions.

Inversion

Reversal of the normal word order in a sentence.

Metaphor

Comparison between two unlike things without using "like" or "as."

Meter

Pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry.

Mood

Emotional atmosphere of a literary work.

Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate sounds.

Oxymoron

Figure of speech combining contradictory terms.

Paradox

Statement that seems self-contradictory but reveals a deeper truth.

Parallelism

Use of similar grammatical structures in successive phrases or sentences.

Personification

Giving human qualities to non-human entities.

Quatrain

Stanza with four lines.

Refrain

Phrase or line repeated at intervals in a poem.

Rhyme

Repetition of similar sounds in words.

Rhyme scheme

Pattern of rhyming words in a poem.

Rhythm

Pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem.

Simile

Comparison between two unlike things using "like" or "as."

Sonnet

14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme.

Speaker

Voice behind the poem.

Stanza

Group of lines in a poem.

Style

Author's unique way of writing.

Syllables

Units of sound in a word.

Symbol

Object representing something beyond its literal meaning.

Tercet

Stanza with three lines.

Theme

Central idea or message of a literary work.

Tone

Author's attitude toward the subject or audience.

Voice

Distinctive style or manner of expression in writing.