Poetry Terms
Poetry Terms Definitions
Alliteration: Repetition of initial consonant sounds in closely positioned words.
Allusion: An indirect reference to a literary, historical, or cultural event or figure.
Apostrophe: A direct address to an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction.
Ambiguity: The quality of being open to multiple interpretations or meanings.
Analogy: A comparison between two different things to highlight a similarity.
Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words.
Ballad: A narrative poem that tells a story, often in a simple or rhythmic form.
Ballad Stanza: A four-line stanza typically used in ballads, often with a rhyme scheme of ABAB.
Blank Verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter, commonly used in English dramatic poetry.
Cacophony: A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds.
Caesura: A pause in a line of poetry, often marked by punctuation.
Concrete Poem: A poem where the layout and shape contribute to its meaning.
Connotation: The implied or associative meaning of a word beyond its literal definition.
Consonance: Repetition of consonant sounds in close proximity, not limited to the initial sounds.
Couplet: A pair of consecutive lines of poetry that usually rhyme.
Didactic: Poetry intended to teach a lesson or moral.
Dissonance: A disruption of harmonic sounds or rhythms, often used to convey chaos.
Dramatic Monologue: A poem in which a speaker addresses a silent listener, revealing personal thoughts.
Elegy: A mournful poem, typically lamenting the deceased.
Epic Poem: A long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture.
Epigram: A brief, witty statement or poem, often with a clever twist.
Epitaph: An inscription on a tombstone in memory of the person buried there.
Euphemism: A mild or indirect word or expression used to replace one that is considered harsh or blunt.
Euphony: A combination of words that sound pleasant together.
Figure of Speech / Figurative Language: Language that departs from literal meaning to convey complexity or meaning.
Free Verse: Poetry that does not adhere to a specific meter or rhyme scheme.
Hyperbole: Exaggerated statements not meant to be taken literally.
Iambic Pentameter: A line of poetry consisting of five iambs (unstressed-stressed syllables).
Imagery: Descriptive language that creates visual representations in the reader's mind.
Internal Rhyme: Rhyme that occurs within a single line of poetry.
Irony: A contrast between expectation and reality.
Limerick: A humorous five-line poem with a specific meter and rhyme scheme (AABBA).
Lyric: A type of poetry that expresses personal emotions or thoughts.
Additional Poetry Terms
Metaphor: A direct comparison between two unrelated things.
Extended Metaphor: A metaphor that extends over several lines or throughout a poem.
Mixed Metaphor: A combination of incompatible metaphors, often resulting in confusion.
Metonymy: A figure of speech where one thing is referred to by the name of something closely associated.
Mock Epic: A satirical poem that portrays trivial events in a grandiose fashion.
Motif: A recurring theme or element in a literary work.
Mood: The emotional quality or atmosphere evoked by a piece of writing.
Narrative Poem: A poem that tells a story with a clear sequence of events.
Ode: A formal, often ceremonious lyric poem that addresses and honors a person or event.
Octave: An eight-line stanza or poem.
Onomatopoeia: A word that imitates the sound it represents.
Oxymoron: A figure of speech that combines contradictory terms.
Paradox: A statement that seems self-contradictory but reveals a truth.
Parody: A humorous imitation of another work or style.
Pastoral: Poetry that idealizes rural life and landscapes.
Personification: Assigning human traits to non-human entities.
Poetic Justice: A literary device that rewards virtue and punishes vice in a narrative.
Poetic License: The freedom to deviate from conventional rules of language or form for artistic purposes.
Prose: Ordinary language without metrical structure.
Pun: A form of wordplay that exploits multiple meanings for comedic effect.
Quatrain: A four-line stanza in poetry.
Rhyme: The repetition of similar sounds, typically at the end of lines.
Rhyme Scheme: The pattern of rhyme in a poem.
Rhythm: The pattern of sounds and silences in poetry.
Satire: A literary work that ridicules human vice or folly, often with humor.
Sestet: A six-line stanza or poem.
Simile: A comparison using "like" or "as".
Sonnet: A 14-line poem with a specific structure, usually in iambic pentameter.
Stanza: A grouped set of lines within a poem, similar to a paragraph.
Stress: Emphasis placed on certain syllables or words in poetry.
Surrealism: Artistic movement emphasizing irrational or dream-like imagery.
Symbol: An object or element that represents a larger concept.
Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a part represents the whole or vice versa.
Tone: The author's attitude towards the subject or audience as conveyed in the writing.
Understatement: A figure of speech that presents something as less significant than it is.
Verse: A single line of poetry or a specific form of poetry.
Wit: The ability to say or write things that are clever and amusing.