Poetry Terms and Literary Devices: Definitions and Examples

Meter

pattern of poem through groupings of accented syllables

Didactic

teaches a lesson and is instructed

Villanelle

5 tercets and one quatraint

Ballad

meant to be sung

Sonnett

14 lines

Alliteration

repeated

Caesura

Pause like a comma or period or semicolon

Imagery

visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile

assonance

repetition of stressed vowels

Blank Verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter (ten syllables a line)

Cacophony

Harsh or dissonant sounding language

Connotation

implied meaning

Denotation

actual meaning

Diction

writer's choice of words for effectiveness

Enjambment

run on sentences through verses

Free Verse

unrhymed

Hyperbole

exaggeration

Metonymy

Substitution of a term

Stanza

group of lines that represent different thoughts

symbol

an object or person with a meaning on its own, and another implied meaning to teach a lesson

tone

word to describe a person or setting of a poem

verbal irony

Saying opposite of what one means

verse

Line of poetry

Under the bludgeonings of chance

Invictus

I am the master of my fate OR I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul

Invictus

Because their words had forked no lighting

Do Not Go Gentle

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray

Do Not Go Gentle

The darkest evening of the year

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

He Plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning

Dulce Et Decorum Est

Of Vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues

Dulce Et Decorum Est

Smart lad, to slip betimes away

To an Athlete Dying Young

His Hands were like Wild Birds

Ex Basketball Player

The eye of a little god

Mirrors

In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman

Mirrors

Laughed the blue eyes without a stain.

Poryphyias lover

till the heart of me weeps to belong

Piano

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

Sonnet 18

Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

Sonnet 18

Did you want to see me broken?

Still I rise

Scratched his head and kept on thinking;

Miniver Cheevy

For this, for everything, we are out of tune

The World Is Too Much With Us

Each with his feuds, and jealousies, and sorrows

Dreamers

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If