K

Poetry Techniques

  • Acrostic A poem where vertical letters form a word.

  • Alliteration Repetition of initial consonant sounds: “Peter Piper Picked.”

  • Assonance Repetition of identical vowel sounds: "A four foot box, a foot every year."

  • Ballad A narrative poem, often sung, in four-line verse with dialogue.

  • Blank Verse Poetry in non-rhyming, ten-syllable lines.

  • Caesura A stop or pause in a line of poetry, usually by punctuation.

  • Couplet A two-line stanza.

  • Diction The choice of words or language used.

  • Dramatic Monologue A poem where an imagined speaker addresses the reader.

  • Elegy A slow, thoughtful poem for the deceased.

  • End Stopped Lines A line of poetry with a pause or stop at the end.

  • Enjambment Running over of sense from one line to the next without punctuation: “Small round hard stones click under my heels.”

  • Epigraph A quotation from another text included in a poem.

  • Form How a poem is structured.

  • Free Verse Poetry with irregular lines and often no rhyme.

  • Hyperbole Exaggeration to emphasize a point.

  • Imagery Language appealing to the senses, creating vivid mental pictures.

  • Lyric An emotional, rhyming poem about a specific event.

  • Metaphor An image where one thing is directly identified as another: “Stick is the whip.”

  • Ode A formal poem celebrating a person, place, object, or idea.

  • Onomatopoeia Words mimicking the sounds they describe.

  • Parody A comic imitation of another writer's work.

  • Personification Attributing human qualities to non-human objects.

  • Pun A play on words with two meanings, usually for comedy.

  • Quatrain A four-line stanza.

  • Rap A song form using poetic devices, notably language play within a strict rhythm.

  • Refrain A recurring line or phrase, especially at the end of a verse.

  • Repetition Repeating a sound, word, or phrase for effect.

  • Rhyme Words with matching sounds, usually at line ends.

  • Rhythm The movement of syllables within a line or verse.

  • Sestet A six-line stanza.

  • Simile A comparison using ‘like’ or ‘as’.

  • Sonnet A fourteen-line poem, in iambic pentameter, traditionally about love.

  • Stanza A group of lines of verse.

  • Symbol Something representing something else on a deeper level (e.g., Red for passion).

  • Theme The subject, concerns, or ideas in literature.

  • Tone The feeling, mood, or attitude of a piece of writing.

  • Triplet A three-lined stanza.

  • Voice The speaker in a poem (poet’s own or a character).

  • Volta A turning point in a poem’s thought or argument.