Poetry Terms: Definitions to Learn

Poetry

A literary work containing the expression of feelings and ideas with the use of a distinctive style, language, and rhythm

Apostrophe

The direct address of the absent or dead as if they were present. Or the inanimate as if it were animate.

Assonance

Repetition of identical vowel sounds

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds

Allusion

A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art.

Consonance

Repetition of a consonant sound at the end of a series of words, like up and drip or pain and love

Hyperbole

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

Oxymoron

Putting together two "different" words to create a new meaning

Blank Verse

unrhymed iambic pentameter lines (no rhyme but there is a strong rhythm and beat)

Free Verse

No rhyme; no rhythm; no beat

"free flowing"

Paradox

a contradiction that is true

Couplet

2 rhyming lines of poetry

End Rhyme

Rhyming words that occur at the end of a line of poetry

Rhyme Scheme

a definite pattern of rhyming words in a poem indicated by using different letters of the alphabet

Meter

Meter refers to a regular rhythmic pattern of a poem indicated by the number and types of stresses.

Iambic pentameter

An iamb is a metrical foot that consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one—baBUM. Penta- means five.

Slant Rhyme

Rhymes formed by words with similar but not identical sounds

Sight Rhyme

Words that look alike but do NOT sound alike

Ex: love and jove

Internal Rhyme

2 rhyming words within 1 line of poetry

Ex: "Let's beat the heat"

Quatrain

4 lines of poetry

Tercet

3 lines of poetry

Sestet

6 lines of poetry

Octave

8 lines of poetry

Sonnet

14 lines of poetry with a definite rhyme scheme which allows the poet to examine the nature and effects of two usually contrasting ideas, emotions, actions, events, etc.,

Shakespearean Sonnet

consists of 3 quatrains of alternating rhyme and a couplet: abab / cdcd / efef / gg (shift occurs)

Italian Sonnet

The first 8 lines is called the octave and rhymes: abba abba

The remaining 6 lines is called the sestet and can have either two or three rhyming sounds, arranged in a variety of ways, one way is: cd cd cd

Refrain

Repetition of a word, line, or phrase

Allegory

Poem with deep symbolic meaning

Ode

Poem that praises, pays tribute to, or is in celebration of a subject

Stanza

Two or more lines of poetry