Poetry Terms and Definitions

Test on 04/08/26

Accent

The prominence or emphasis given to a syllable or word. In the word poetry

Alliteration

The repetition of the same or similar sounds at the beginning of words. Some famous examples of alliteration are tongue twisters such as “Betty Botta bought some butter” and “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”.

Antithesis

A figure of speech in which words and phrases with opposite meanings are balanced against each other. An example of antithesis is "To err is human

Apostrophe

Words that are spoken to a person who is absent or imaginary

Assonance

The repetition or a pattern of similar sounds

Ballad

A poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a repeated refrain. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is an example of a ballad.

Blank verse

Poetry that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Shakespeare wrote most of his plays in blank verse.

Caesura

A natural pause or break in a line of poetry

Consonance

The repetition of similar consonant sounds

Couplet

In a poem

Dactyl

A metrical foot of three syllables

Elegy

A poem that laments the death of a person

End-stopped line

A line that expresses a complete thought.

Enjambment

The continuation of a complete idea (a sentence or clause) from one line or couplet of a poem to the next line or couplet without a pause. An example of enjambment can be found in the first line of Joyce Kilmer's poem Trees: "I think that I shall never see/A poem as lovely as a tree." Enjambment comes from the French word for "to straddle."

Envoy

The shorter final stanza of a poem

Epic

A long

Foot

Two or more syllables that together make up the smallest unit of rhythm in a poem. For example

Free verse (also vers libre)

Poetry composed of either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have no set meter.

Haiku

A Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five

Hyperbole

A figure of speech in which deliberate exaggeration is used for emphasis. Many everyday expressions are examples of hyperbole: tons of money

Iamb

A metrical foot of two syllables

Iambic pentameter

A type of meter in poetry

"five". Meter refers to rhythmic units. In a line of iambic pentameter

there are five rhythmic units that are iambs.) Shakespeare's plays were written mostly in iambic pentameter. An example of an iambic pentameter line from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is "But soft!/ What light/through yon/der win/dow breaks?"

Imagery

The images of any of our senses (sight

Litotes

A figure of speech in which a positive is stated by negating its opposite. Some examples of litotes: no small victory

Lyric

A poem

Metaphor

A figure of speech in which two things are compared

Meter

The arrangement of a line of poetry by the number of syllables and the rhythm of accented (or stressed) syllables.

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which one word is substituted for another with which it is closely associated. For example

Narrative

Telling a story. Ballads

Neologism

A newly coined word or expression

Ode

A lyric poem that is serious and thoughtful in tone and has a very precise

Onomatopoeia

A figure of speech in which words are used to imitate sounds. Examples of onomatopoeic words are buzz

Paradox

Two apparently contradictory ideas placed together which makes sense when examined closely; for example

Personification

A figure of speech in which nonhuman things or abstract ideas are given human attributes: the sky is crying

Quatrain

A stanza or poem of four lines.

Refrain

A phrase

Rhyme

The occurrence of the same or similar sounds at the end of two or more words. When the rhyme occurs in a final stressed syllable

Simile

A figure of speech in which two things are compared using the word "like" or "as." An example of a simile using like occurs in Langston Hughes's poem Harlem: "What happens to a dream deferred?/ Does it dry up/ like a raisin in the sun?"

Sonnet

A lyric poem that is 14 lines long. Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnets are divided into two quatrains and a six-line "sestet

Stanza

Two or more lines of poetry that together form one of the divisions of a poem. The stanzas of a poem are usually of the same length and follow the same pattern of meter and rhyme.

Stress

The prominence or emphasis given to particular syllables. Stressed syllables usually stand out because they have long

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part is used to designate the whole or the whole is used to designate a part. For example

Trope

A figure of speech

Verse

A single metrical line of poetry

Versification

The system of rhyme and meter in poetry.