Poetic Terms
Alliteration
The repetition of the beginning sounds of words, as in “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled
peppers,” “long-lived,” “short shrift,” and “the fickle finger of fate.”
Allusion
When a reference is made to something or somebody who is famous.
Assonance
The use of the same vowel sound with different consonants or the same consonant with
different vowels in successive words or stressed syllables, as in a line of verse. Examples are
time and light or mystery and mastery.
Ballad
A simple narrative poem of folk origin composed in short stanzas. May be a song.
Blank Verse
Unrhymed verse, especially the unrhymed iambic pentameter most frequently used in
English dramatic, epic, and reflective verse.
Cacophony
The use of unharmonious or dissonant speech sounds in language
Couplet
A pair of successive lines of verse, especially a pair that rhyme and are of the same length.
Figurative
The meaning of the poem that is deeper than just the words on the page.
Hyperbole
obvious and intentional exaggeration.
Imagery
Figurative or descriptive language in a literary work
Internal Rhyme
A rhyme created by words within two or more lines of a verse.
Literal
The words mean exactly what they say, word for word
Local Colour
The characteristic features or atmosphere of a place or time.
Metaphor
A comparison of two things not using the words “like” or “as.”
Meter
Poetic measure; arrangement of words in regularly measured, patterned, or rhythmic lines or
verses
Onomatopoeia
The formation of words whose sound is imitative of the sound of the noise or action
designated, such as hiss, buzz, and bang
Oxymoron
A rhetorical device in which two seemingly contradictory words are used together for effect:
“She is just a poor little rich girl
Personification
The attribution of human characteristics to things, abstract ideas, etc, as for literary or artistic
effect
Prose
The ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished
from poetry or verse.
Rhyme
A word agreeing with another in end sound: Find is a rhyme for mind and womankind
Scansion
The metrical analysis of verse. The usual marks for scansion are ˘ for a short or
unaccented syllable, ¯ or · for a long or accented syllable, ^ for a rest.
Simile
A figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared using “like” or “as”,
for example “she is like a rose.”
Stanza
An arrangement of a certain number of lines, usually four or more, sometimes having a fixed
length, meter, or rhyme scheme, forming a division of a poem
Symbol
Something used for or regarded as representing something else; a material object
representing something, often something immaterial; emblem, token, or sign.
Theme
A dominant message in the piece of writing
Tone
The overall mood or feeling