Poetry Vocabulary
Definitions and Examples
Parts of a Poem
 Couplet:
Two lines of related poetry that often rhyme
 So call the field to rest, and let’s away
To part the glories of this happy day.
 Refrain: A line (or group of lines) repeated in the poem.
They reinforce the main point and create musical effects.
 Stanza: A line or group of lines in a poem that is one
complete idea.
Alliteration
 Repetition of beginning consonant sounds
 “I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;”
-- John Masefield
Blank Verse
 Unrhymed, iambic pentameter – mimics the natural speech
rhythm in combination with metrical verse.
 “When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the line of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.”
--Robert Frost
Figurative Language
 Simile: A comparison of two unlike objects using like or as
(also than or resembles).
 Then he lay down
To sleep like a snow-covered road
Winding through pines older than him,
Without any travelers, and lonely for no one.
--Li-Young Lee
Figurative Language, cont.
 Metaphor: A comparison of two unlike objects without using
like or as (either direct or implied).
 “Lying down to sleep, he was a snow-covered road.” (Direct)
 “The foot of the mountain” (Implied)
 “The diabetic grandmother
stares from the porch,
a torch
of pure refusal.”
-- Rita Dove
Figurative Language, cont.
 Hyperbole: An extreme exaggeration to prove a point.
 I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!
 I devour books.
 Personification: Giving human qualities to a non-human
thing or to an abstract idea.
 Misery loves company
 Computers are user-friendly
 The sun is the eye of heaven
Imagery
 Appealing to one or more of the five senses (painting a
picture with words).
 Sight, sound, smell, taste, touch
“The lightning moved on, brilliant light alternating with pitch
blackness, flashing white, then pink, then violet, the mountains
and pines always springing back in the same place, their
hugeness filling us with awe.”
-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Symbol
 Something that has its own meaning, but represents something else.
 Be alert to the clues the poet plants – repetition, emphasis, word
associations, and images.
 O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
--William Blake
Meter
 A poem’s rhythmical pattern of stressed and unstressed beats.
u/
 Trochee: / u
 Anapest: u u /
 Dactyl:
/uu
 Spondee: / /
 Pyrrhic: u u
 Iamb:
insist
double
understand
excellent
fourteen
under
Meter, cont.
 Iamb:
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls
 Trochee: double, double, toil and trouble
 Anapest: The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold.
 Dactyl:
… you murdering ministers
 Spondee: Come up here, bard, bard; come up here, soul,
soul…
 Pyrrhic: And the white breast of the dim sea,
Onomatopoeia
 Words that imitate the sounds they are describing.
 Snap, crackle, gurgle, bang, rattle, boom, hiss, buzz
Rhyme
 Repetition of sounds at the end of words.
 Internal: Words that rhyme in the middle of the line. (I woke to black
flak and nightmare fighters)
 External: Words at the end of lines that rhyme.
…See the sky
…Steer her by.
 Exact: Perfect rhyme (Mystery and history)
 Approximate: Sounds are similar, but not exact. (Mystery and mastery).
Also known as half rhyme, slant rhyme, near rhyme, and imperfect
rhyme.
Speaker/Voice
 The “person” sharing the poem; the point of view from which
the poem is “told.” It could be the poet, but it may also be a
child, a woman, a man, a nation, an animal, or even an
object.
 Voice is the distinctive use of language in a text created by a
writer’s tone & diction (choice of words).
Theme
 The writer’s main idea or concern. It will be transferrable
across a variety of genres and usually explains a controlling
idea about life or the world around you.
Ask yourself:
 What does the author want me to learn from this poem?
 Why did he/she write it?
 Consider how the main character has changed or how the
conflict has been resolved.
Universal Theme Examples
 Heroes must undergo trials and endure losses before they can
claim their rightful kingdom.
 Arrogance and pride can bring destruction.
 When the rule of law is broken, chaos and anarchy will
result.
 Love will endure and triumph over evil.
Audience
 The person or group of people to which the author is
writing.
Ask yourself:
- Is there someone specific to whom the poet is writing?
- How do you know?
Mood
 The emotion you feel when reading a poem.
 Often created through the poem’s setting
Word Choice
 Poetry uses a minimal amount of words.
 Each word used was chosen for a specific reason. (simple or
flowery, modern or old-fashioned, etc.)
 What is it about a particular word that makes it the VERY
best option for the poet?
 Look at denotation and connotation
Types of Poems
 Lyric: A brief, musical poem that presents a speaker’s
feelings. 663, 719, 644, 683
 Narrative: A poem that tells a story either through fiction or
non-fiction.
 Ballads: Story told in long form– words are simple, beat is
strong. 722, 621
 Epics: Long narratives in a complex style
Types of Poems, cont.
 Ode: A long, lyric poem about a serious subject that is
written in a dignified style. 645, 672, 675-6
 Free Verse: A poem without regular rhyme and meter as well
as conventional grammatical rules. 644, 646,709, 728, 730,
732
 Haiku: A three line, 17 syllable poem with distinct emotion
and usually about nature.
-(5, 7,5 syllable pattern)
Types of Poems, cont.
 Sonnet: A lyric poem: 14 lines, iambic pentameter, specific rhyme
scheme. 691, 640, 690
 Limerick: A five line, humorous poem with a very strong rhyme.
 Tanka: Unrhymed, five lined, 31 syllable poem that evokes a strong
feeling with a single image. 5, 7, 5, 7, 7 syllable pattern. 644, 683, 687,
689
 Elegy: A solemn and formal lyric poem that mourns the loss of someone
or something. 645, 666, 669, 671
Steps for Reading and Understanding
Poetry
 Preview
 Read aloud at least TWICE
 Visualize the images
 Analyze words and phrases
 Identify specific poetic techniques/figurative language
 Identify the speaker of the poem
 Find the theme
 Find something to appreciate
Steps Defined
 Preview
 Title, Author, length: stanzas, lines, shape, capitalization, punctuation
(where sentences and complete thoughts begin and end), pictures
 Read aloud at least TWICE (more is better)
 Read multiple times, but at least twice!
 Watch for specific words, rhyme, emotion, meter, patterns, story,
characters, narrator clues, etc.
 Don’t stop at the end of a line; stop at the end of a sentence!
 If words seem to be out of order, look for subject, verb and object of
each sentence. Rearrange the order in your mind to make sense of
the poem.
 Paraphrase (restate in your own words) lines or stanzas for
understanding.
Steps Defined, cont.
 Visualize the images
 You are creating pictures in your mind. Form connections and create
pictures to help with your understanding and emotion.
 Pay attention to descriptive words and phrases. Figure out which
ones appeal to sight, sound, taste, smell and touch.
 Connect sensations in the poem to your own experiences.
 Analyze words and phrases
 Using a dictionary or thesaurus make sure that you know what every
word means. Pay special attention to figures of speech or words that
come in unique phrases. Then figure out why certain words were
used. What is the denotation and connotation of certain words? Why
is the syntax odd? How can I rearrange sentences? What words do I
like?
Steps Defined, cont.
 Identify specific poetic techniques/figurative language
 You are looking for examples of our poetry vocabulary (e.g.
alliteration, rhyme, simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia,
personification, ballad, lyric, tanka, sonnet, etc…) How do
these devices add to the overall understanding of the poem?
 Identify the speaker of the poem
 Even though a poem uses I or me, the speaker is not necessarily
the poet. Often the poet invents a separate character. The
reader must imagine that character saying the poem.
Identifying the speaker (whether directly stated or inferred)
may make all the difference in understanding it.
 What is the purpose of the author writing this poem?
Steps Defined, cont.
 Find the theme
 Ask:
 1.What does the author want me to learn about the world or myself?
 2.Why did the author write this?
 Find something (anything) to appreciate