Poetry techincal terms

Alliteration

Alliteration

Repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words in close proximity to each other.

Ambiguity

When something has two or more possible meanings.

Assonance

Repetition of the same vowel sound.

Anaphora

Repetition of the first word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or stanzas.

Anthropomorphism

Attributing human characteristics to an inanimate object.

Bathos

A ludicrous descent from the elevated treatment of a subject to the ordinary and commonplace.

Blank verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Caesura

A deliberate pause within a line of poetry.

Colloquial

Ordinary, everyday language.

Connotation

Association evoked by a word.

Consonance

Repetition of the same consonant sound in the middle or at the end of words that are near each other.

Dramatic monologue

A form of poetry that uses the assumed voice of a single speaker to address an implied audience.

Emotive

Something that makes you feel a particular emotion.

End-stopping

Finishing a line of poetry with the end of a phrase or sentence.

Enjambment

When a phrase or sentence runs over from one line or stanza to the next.

Euphemism

An indirect term for something upsetting or offensive.

Eye rhyme

Words with similar spellings but different sounds.

Feminine ending

A line of poetry that ends on an unstressed syllable.

Form

The type of poem and its features.

Free verse

Poetry that does not rhyme and has no regular rhythm.

Half-rhymes

Words that have a similar, but not identical, end sound.

Heptameter

A line of poetry consisting of seven main stresses.

Hexameter

A line of poetry consisting of six main stresses.

Homophone

A word that sounds the same as another.

Hyperbole

An exaggerated statement that is not meant to be taken literally.

Iambic pentameter

Poetry with a metre of ten syllables, five of them stressed, five of them unstressed.

Iambic tetrameter

Like iambic pentameter but with a metre of eight syllables.

Imagery

Descriptive language that builds up a particular picture.

Internal rhyme

When two words in the same line rhyme.

Juxtaposition

Placing two things next to each other to highlight the contrast between them.

Lament

A poem expressing deep sorrow for the death of a person or people.

Lexical choice

The poet’s deliberate choice of vocabulary.

Masculine ending

A line of poetry which ends on a stressed syllable.

Metaphor

Describing one thing as something else.

Metre

The arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.

Monosyllabic

Words of only one syllable.

Mood

The feel or atmosphere of a poem.

Neologism

The creation of a new word.

Objective correlative

An external equivalent for an internal state of mind.

Octave

The first eight lines of a Petrarchan sonnet.

Onomatopoeia

A word that sounds like the thing it describes.

Oxymoron

A phrase that seems to contradict itself.

Pathetic fallacy

The attribution of human qualities to inanimate objects.

Personification

Describing a non-living thing as if it has human thoughts or feelings.

Petrarchan sonnet

A kind of sonnet where the first eight lines rhyme ABBAABBA.

Polysyllabic

Words of more than one syllable.

Pun

A word with a double meaning used for humorous effect.

Quatrain

A four-line stanza.

Refrain

A line or stanza in a poem that is repeated.

Rhyme scheme

A pattern of rhyming words in a poem.

Rhyming couplet

A pair of rhyming lines that are next to each other.

Rhythm

A pattern of sounds created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Sestet

The last six lines of a Petrarchan sonnet.

Shakespearean sonnet

A sonnet of three quatrains and a rhyming couplet.

Sibilance

Repetition of the ‘s’ and ‘sh’ sounds.

Simile

A way of describing something by comparing it using 'like' or 'as'.

Slant rhyme

A rhyme where the concluding consonant sounds are identical but not the preceding vowel sounds.

Sonnet

A poem of fourteen lines that usually follows a clear rhyme scheme.

Stanza

A group of lines in a poem.

Structure

The order and arrangement of ideas and events in a poem.

Symbolism

When an object represents something more than itself.

Synaesthesia

Evoking one kind of sensory experience with another.

Synecdoche

The substitution of part of an object for the whole.

Syntax

The grammatical arrangements of words in a sentence.

Tone

The emotional aspect of the voice of the poem.

Volta

The ‘turning point’ in a Petrarchan sonnet.

Zoomorphism

Attributing animal characteristics to a human.