Poetry Terms and Devices

Anaphora

Repetition of a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses or sentences.

Allegory

An extended metaphor in which characters, events, and settings represent abstract ideas beyond the literal narrative.

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds in nearby accented syllables or important words (e.g., map-moon).

Analogy

A comparison showing similarity between two otherwise different things (e.g., the heart and a pump).

Apostrophe

Addressing someone absent, dead, or non-human as if present and able to respond.

Archetype

The original model or prototype from which later copies or patterns derive.

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds within words (e.g., Do you like blue?).

Asyndeton

Deliberate omission of conjunctions in a series for effect (e.g., no boats, no people).

Ballad

A short narrative poem in songlike stanza form.

Folk Ballad

Anonymous narrative song passed orally through generations before being written down.

Blank Verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Bucolic

Medieval pastoral literature featuring rustic scenes, shepherds, and nature imagery.

Burlesque

A work that ridicules a serious subject by treating it trivially or humorously.

Caesura

A pause within a poetic line created by punctuation; does not alter scansion.

Epistrophe

Repetition of the same word or phrase at the ends of successive clauses or sentences.

Dactyl

A metrical foot of three syllables: stressed, unstressed, unstressed.

Connotation

Emotional or cultural meanings a word suggests beyond its dictionary definition.

Consonance

Repetition of internal consonant sounds in nearby words (e.g., pitter-patter).

Couplet

A pair of lines, often rhyming, that usually form a complete thought.

Denotation

The literal, dictionary definition of a word.

Doggerel

Crude, comic, or trivial light verse.

Elegy

A mournful poem lamenting the dead.

End Stop

A poetic line that ends with definitive punctuation, completing the sentence.

Enjambment

Continuation of a sentence from one line of poetry to the next without punctuation.

Epic Poetry

A long, dignified narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and cultural ideals.

Epithet

A descriptive word or phrase highlighting a quality (e.g., Honest Abe).

Euphemism

A mild expression substituted for one that is harsh or blunt (e.g., pass away for die).

Foot

The basic rhythmic unit of poetry, made of a set pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Iamb

A metrical foot of two syllables: unstressed, stressed.

Anapest

A metrical foot of three syllables: unstressed, unstressed, stressed.

Trochee

A metrical foot of two syllables: stressed, unstressed.

Free Verse

Poetry without fixed rhyme or meter, though still arranged in lines.

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis or truth (e.g., a million pounds of homework).

Personification

Attributing human characteristics to non-human things or abstract ideas.

Iambic Pentameter

A line of five iambic feet (ten syllables alternating unstressed/stressed).

Internal Rhyme Scheme

Pattern of rhyming words occurring within a single line of poetry.

Irony

An incongruity between expectations and reality in language or situation.

Litote

Affirmative understatement expressed by negating the opposite (e.g., not bad).

Meter

Regular rhythmic pattern in poetry created by recurring stressed and unstressed syllables.

Meiosis

Intentional understatement that says less than the situation warrants.

Onomatopoeia

A word whose sound imitates its meaning (e.g., boom, click).

Paradox

A seemingly contradictory statement that reveals a deeper truth.

Pastoral

Literary work depicting shepherds or idealized rural life marked by innocence and simplicity.

Polysyndeton

Repetition of conjunctions to link thoughts, producing a piling-up effect.

Rhetorical Pause

A natural, unpunctuated pause in reading created by phrasing or syntax.

Rhyme Scheme

Pattern of end rhymes in a poem, labeled with letters (e.g., AABB).

Rhyming Couplet

Two consecutive lines ending with the same rhyme.

Scansion

The act of marking stressed and unstressed syllables to analyze a poem’s meter.

Shakespearean Sonnet

14-line poem of three quatrains and a couplet with rhyme scheme ababcdcdefefgg.

Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet

14-line poem of an octave (abbaabba) and a sestet with varied rhyme (e.g., cdcdcd).

Spondee

A metrical foot of two stressed syllables.

Stanza

A grouped set of lines in a poem, often sharing meter and rhyme, separated by space.

Rising Meter

Meter whose feet end with a stressed syllable (iambs, anapests).

Falling Meter

Meter whose feet begin with a stressed syllable (trochees, dactyls).