Poetry and Figurative Language Terms

Lyric

A poem used to express emotions or feelings. It has a specific rhyme scheme that makes it have a song like quality.

Narrative

Tells a story and has a plot.

Sonnet

A poem written in 14 lines which can be broken into 4 parts called quatrains.

Limerick

A humorous, often nonsense poem. It has 5 lines: line 1, 2, and 5 rhyme; and lines 3 and 4 rhyme.

Haiku

A poem written in 17 syllables. Lines 1 and 3 have 5 syllables while line 2 has 7 syllables. It is usually about nature.

Free Style

A poem that does not conform to any fixed meter or rhyme scheme.

Ode

A lyric poem that often praises the subject.

Rhyme

Matching words or syllable sounds at the end of words.

Rhyme Scheme

The pattern of end rhymes in a poem.

Couplet

Two similar lines of verse that usually rhyme.

Stanza

A group of lines forming the basic unit of a poem; verse.

Repetition

A sound or phrase that is repeated for emphasis.

Tone

The mood or attitude expressed in a poem.

Speaker

Poet or invented charter who is responding to an event.

Simile

A direct comparison of two things using like or as.

Metaphor

A direct comparison of two things not using like or as.

Personification

Gives animals or objects human-like characteristics.

Idiom

A common expression that has a figurative meaning.

Hyperbole

An extreme exaggeration of the truth for effect.

Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate sounds.

Alliteration

Repetition of similar sounds at the beginning of words.