Poetry Terminology

alliteration

consecutive or near-consecutive words beginning with the same letter or sound

anapest

metrical foot: unstressed unstressed stressed

archaism

deliberate use of outdated lexis

cacophony

unpleasant sounds

dramatic monologue

poetic form where a single speaker narrates the entirety in first person

enjambment

when sentences continue over line breaks without punctuation

eye rhyme

when words’ spellings are similar, but not their actual sounds

foregrounding

emphasising a certain concept

hyperbole

overstatement for effect

litotes

understatement for effect

narrative poem

a poem which tells a story

spondee

metrical foot: stressed stressed

tetrameter

four feet in a line

trochee

metrical foot: stressed unstressed

alternating rhyme

ABAB rhyme scheme

assonance

repeated vowel sounds

blank verse

unrhymed iambic pentameter

caesura

punctuation in the middle of lines

dactyl

metrical foot: stressed unstressed unstressed

dysphemism

deliberate use of unpleasant language

euphemism

deliberate use of overly pleasant language

free verse

without rhyme or meter

hypophora

asking a question then immediately answering it

ode

a poem praising something

oxymoron

contradictory terms appearing in conjunction

pentameter

five feet in a line

quatrain

a stanza of four lines

zoomorphism

giving something animal characteristics

anadiplosis

repeating the last word of a phrase at the beginning of the next

anthropomorphism

giving something human traits

blazon

a poem which catalogues a woman’s qualities

epiphora

repetition at the end of phrases

euphony

pleasant sounds

iamb

metrical foot: unstressed stressed

juxtaposition

two contrasting concepts placed close together

pastoral

a poem with images of the countryside

sibilance

repeated s sounds

sonnet

a poem of fourteen lines, normally in iambic pentameter

tenor

the real thing a metaphor is describing

vehicle

the figurative language used in a metaphor