English Poetry Terminology

Allusion

An allusion is a short reference to a person, place, event, thing, or another work of literature that the reader is expected to know. Writers use allusions to pack a great deal of meaning into just a few words. But allusions only work if the reader recognizes and understands them. If the reference is too obscure or confusing, it won’t have the intended effect.

Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds in accented syllables.

Anaphora

Anaphora is repetition at the beginning of a sentence to create emphasis. 

Apostrophe

Commonly used by playwrights and poets, apostrophe allows a character or speaker to philosophize about the abstract or speak to someone or something that isn't present.

Archetype

An assumption made about someone based off their representation of themselves.  There are also many different types of archetypes

Repetition

Repeating words, phrases, lines, ideas, or stanza often in order to emphasize a thought or emotion.

Refrain

Repeating lines in poetry (phrases or words). Authors use the refrain to emphasize thematic elements and include repetition.

Rhyme

To repeat identical or similar sounds at the end of words. Rhyming words mostly occur at the end of lines but are also found in the same line.

Rhyme Scheme

the pattern ro rhymes at the end of each line in a poem or song. 

Understatment

an understatement occurs when a write presents an idea, situation, person, or thing as less important or impactful than it is. Understatements are often used sarcastically or in order to create comedic relief in character dialogue 

Motif

A motif is any distinctive feature or idea that recurs across a story; often, it helps develop other narrative elements such as theme or mood.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is a type of word, or the process of creating a word, that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. 

Oxymoron

a combination of contradictory or incongruous words 

Paradox

A person or thing having contradictory qualities.

Symbol

Something that stands for or suggests something else.

Juxtaposition

• The act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side often to compare or contrast or to create an interesting effect.

Lyric poem

• A poem that expresses the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker, it presents an experience but doesn’t tell the whole story

Metaphor

• A figure of speech that compares two unlike things without using “like” or “as”.

Mood

• The feeling created in a reader by a literary work or passage.

Extended metaphor

Developed at length and involves several points of comparison.

Free verse

Poetry not written in a regular, rhythmical pattern, or meter. 

Homeric Simile

An epic simile is a lengthy comparison between two unlike things using ‘like’ or ‘as’. Different from a simple simile, a Homeric simile is longer and more elaborate. A Homeric simile can also be called a epic or extended simile.

Hyperbole

A hyperbole is a deliberate exaggeration or overstatement. Hyperbole can be used for heightened seriousness or for comic effect.

Idiom

An Idiom is an expression in the usage of a language that has a meaning that cannot be understood from the combined meaning of elements or in its grammatically atypical use of words. 

Imagery

Imagery is the descriptive language used in literature to recreate sensory experiences. Imagery enriches writing by making it more vivid, setting a tone, suggesting emotions, and guiding the readers’ reactions.  

Internal Rhyme

This occurs when rhyming words fall within the same line. 

Irony

The general name given to literary techniques that involve surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions. In verbal irony, words are used to suggest the opposite of their usual meaning. In dramatic irony, there is a contradiction between what a character thinks and what the reader or audience knows to be true. In irony of situation, an event occurs that directly contradicts expectations 

Elegy

An elegy is a sad and formal lyric poem about death. They typically mourn a particular person or reflect on a serious/tragic theme like growing up or beauty. 

Epic poem

An epic is a long, narrative poem about adventures of gods or of a hero.

End-stop

An end-stop is a line of poetry concluding with a break in the meter and in the meaning. Often punctuated by a period, comma, dash, or semicolon. 

Enjambment

a poetic term for the continuation of a sentence or phrase from one line of poetry to the next.

Synecdoche

A synecdoche is a figure of speech where a part of something is used to stand for the whole.

Simile

A simile is a figure of speech that compares two apparently dissimilar things using like or as. 

Rhythm

movement or procedure with uniform or patterned recurrence of a beat, accent, or the like line in a poem

Speaker

The speaker is the imaginary voice assumed by the writer of  a poem;the character who “says” the poem. This character is often not identified by name but may be identified by name but may be identified otherwise. The speaker also determines the persona and point of view. 

Stanza

A group of lines in a poem that are seen as a unit. Stanza function as a paragraph in prose.

Consonance

Consonance is the repetition of final consonant sounds in stressed syllables containing dissimilar vowel sounds.  When each word in the pair is used at the end of a line, the effect is one form of slant rhyme.

Tone

Tone is the writer’s attitude toward the readers and the subject. It may be formal or informal, friendly or distant, personal or pompous. 

Connotation

Connotation refers to the associations that a word calls to mind in addition to its dictionary meaning. 

Couplet

A couplet is a pair of rhyming lines written in the same meter.  A heroic couplet is a rhymed pair of iambic pentameter lines.  In a closed couplet, the meaning and grammar are completed within the two lines.

Denotation

Denotation is the objective meaning of a word- that to which the word refers, independent of other associations that the word calls to mind. 

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds in stressed syllables containing dissimilar consonant sounds. 

Ballad

A song that tells a story, often about adventure or romance, Commonly divided into four- or six-line stanzas, are rhymed, use simple language, and depict dramatic action. 

Blank verse

Blank verse refers to poetry that does not rhyme but follows a regular meter, most commonly iambic pentameter. Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter. Poems written in blank verse have lines that do not rhyme. Iambic pentameter refers to the foot and meter of the line.

Colloquialism

A colloquialism is a literary device often used by authors as a way to convey personality and authenticity to characters. It is an informal, commonplace language specific to a demographic or time period.

Parody

A parody is a humorous imitation of another work or of a type of work.

Personification

A figure of speech in which human characteristics are given to a nonhuman subject. 

Pun

A pun is a play on words that can have multiple meanings or similar sounding words to create humor.

Quatrain

A Quatrain is a four-line stanza that often rhymes.