Poetry Terms 1
What’s in a Poem?
Writers often intentionally use specific techniques to make their writing more effective,
meaningful, unique, etc. Below are some of the devices that are often used in poetry (and in
other types of writing as well). See if you can identify some of them in the works that we are
studying. Most definitions are from Hugh Holman and William Harmon’s A Handbook to
Literature, Sixth Edition.
1. Allegory – An extended metaphor in which a narrative or story is equated with a meaning
outside itself. Thus, it represents one thing in the guise of another (Holman and Harmon
11). (One of my favorite movies, Joe Vs. the Volcano, is an allegory. It seems like a
simple story about a man who thinks he is dying, but it really represents the carpe diem
theme, that one has to search for meaning in his life, create his own destiny, etc. If you
have not seen this movie, you should watch it and let me know what you think about it!)
2. Alliteration – The repetition of initial identical consonant sounds or any vowel sounds in
successive or closely associated syllables, especially stressed syllables. An example from
Coleridge is as follows: “The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew/The furrow followed
free” (11-12).
3. Ambiguity – The state of having more than one meaning, with resultant uncertainty as to
the intended significance of the statement (14). Most of the time good writers will avoid
being ambiguous, but on occasion, a writer might use it on purpose (for instance, he
might use a word with double meanings to get the reader to think about which definition
the author intended or give some thought to how both meanings apply to that particular
passage, etc.).
4. Antagonist – A rival, opponent, or enemy of the protagonist (26).
5. Appearance vs. Reality – A theme in which something appears one way but in reality is
another (similar to irony). Robinson’s “Richard Cory” (see our poetry handout) is an
example of this theme.
6. Assonance – Same or similar vowel sounds in stressed syllables that end with different
consonant sounds (as opposed to rhyme, which uses similarity of vowel sounds). “Lake”
and “fake” demonstrate rhyme. “Lake” and “fate” demonstrate assonance (39).
7. Carpe Diem – This term literally means “seize the day!” This phrase has been used or
demonstrated by many writers and exemplifies the spirit of “let us eat, drink, and be
merry, for tomorrow we shall die!” This theme was very common in sixteenth- and
seventeenth-century love poetry (72). A famous carpe diem poem is by Robert Herrick
and is called “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time.” (Other carpe diem examples:
Andrew Marvell’s “To his Coy Mistress” and John Crowe Ransom’s “Blue Girls”)
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
Poetry Terms 2
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.
8. Consonance – The relation between words in which the final consonants in the stressed
syllables agree, but the vowels that precede them differ, as in “add-read,” “mill-ball,” and
“torn-burn” (105-106).
9. Couplet – Two consecutive lines of verse with end rhymes. Formally, the couplet is a
two-line stanza with both grammatical structure and idea complete within itself, but the
form has gone through numerous adaptations. Shakespeare always ends his sonnets with
a couplet.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.
10. Hyperbole – an extreme exaggeration. This may be used to heighten effect or for humor.
The following hyperbole is from Shakespeare’s Macbeth: “No; this my hand will
rather/The multitudinous seas incarnadine/Making the green one red” (236).
11. Irony – Something that appears as one way but in reality is another. Often a sort of
humor (tongue-in-cheek) or unemotional detachment may be used with irony (254).
Kenny Roger’s line in his popular song is ironic: “You picked a fine time to leave me,
Lucille.” He tells Lucille that it is a fine time, but his meaning is exactly the opposite. She
Poetry Terms 3
could not have picked a worse time. Also, in Edith Wharton’s story “Roman Fever,” the
two main characters appear to be friends, but in an ironic twist, the story reveals that they
are bitter enemies
12. Metaphor – Comparing two normally unlike objects without using the word like or as
(Examples: (1) My hands are ice! (2) Her friendship became an anchor tied around my
neck.)
13. Meter – The recurrence in poetry of a rhythmic pattern, or the rhythm established by the
regular occurrence of similar units of sound. The rhythmic unit within the line is called a
foot. The number of feet in a line determine what type of meter is being used (291).
14. Onomatopoeia – Words that by their sounds suggest their meanings (hiss, sizzle, buzz,
etc.) (332).
15. Oxymoron – A self-contradictory combination of words or smaller verbal units
(examples: jumbo shrimp, bittersweet, friendly fire) (338).
16. Paradox – A seemingly contradictory statement group of words that may in actuality be
true (examples: the virgin birth, or Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians: “For when I am
weak, then I am strong”) (342).
17. Pastoral – a poem treating of shepherds and rustic life, after the Latin for “shepherd,”
pastor. The pastoral began in the third century (345). Typically, the male persona seeks to
seduce the mistress of his desires in a bold and showy fashion.
18. Personification – A figure that endows animals, ideas, abstractions, or inanimate objects
with human form; the representing of imaginary creatures or things as having human
personalities, intelligence, and emotions. Keats refers to a Grecian urn as the “Silver
historian, who canst thus express/A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme,” for
example (353).
19. Protagonist – The most important or principal character in a story. The antagonist is the
second-most important character (see definition above) (380).
20. Quatrain – A stanza of four lines (389).
21. Realism – Writing that represents that way something actually is. (Mark Twain was a
realist in many ways. For instance, when he is describing Huck and Jim’s wonderful and
enlightening journey on a raft down the Mississippi River in Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn, he is quick to point out how the pesky mosquitoes are biting them all the while.)
Realistic writers rely on the devotion to actuality in presentation (these writers often
describe the common, the average, the everyday situations).
22. Rhyme – See “Assonance” above.
23. Rhyme Scheme – This is determined by the rhymes at the ends of the lines (see example
below). The first sound at the end of the first line is assigned the letter A. The next
sound is represented by the letter B, and so on. If the poem goes back to the A sound, for
example, even if you have already gotten to the letter D, you still assign that line as an A
if that sound has already been identified as such.)
Poetry Terms 4
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know. A
His house is in the village though; A
He will not see me stopping here B
To watch his woods fill up with snow. A
My little horse must think it queer B
To stop without a farmhouse near B
Between the woods and frozen lake C
The darkest evening of the year. B
He gives his harness bells a shake C
To ask if there is some mistake. C
The only other sound’s the sweep D
Of easy wind and downy flake. C
The woods are lovely, dark and deep. E
But I have promises to keep, E
And miles to go before I sleep, E
And miles to go before I sleep. E
24. Romanticism – This is the opposite of realism (see above). In this type of writing, there
exists a heavy reliance upon the imagination. The works often contain elements of
mystery, elevate the common man, deal with nature, and sometimes are set in the long
ago and far away.
Poetry Terms 5
25. Satire – A work that blends a harshly critical attitude with humor and wit for improving
human institutions or humanity. Satirists use humor not so much to tear someone or
something down but instead to inspire a remodeling (423). Most often, satire deals less
with great sinners and criminals than with the general run of fools, knaves, ninnies, oafs,
codgers, and frauds (424).
26. Sight Rhyme – The use of words that, because they are similarly spelled, look as if they
rhyme but are in fact pronounced differently (e.g., "bough" and "enough")
(http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861689986/eye_rhyme.html).
27. Simile – Comparing two normally unlike objects using the word like or as (Examples: (1)
My hands are like ice! (2) I viewed my friendship with her as an anchor.)
28. Sonnet – A poem almost invariably of fourteen lines and following one of several set
rhyme schemes. The sonnet was developed in Italy around the thirteenth century.
Shakespeare and many other writers use this style. (An example of a sonnet is listed with
the couplet definition above.)
29. Stanza – A recurrent grouping of two or more verse lines in terms of length, metrical
form, and often rhyme scheme (454). There are four stanzas, for example, in the Robert
Frost poem posted with the rhyme scheme definition.
30. Symbol – Something that is itself and also represents something else (466). The United
States’ flag, for example, is a piece of colored cloth that represents our country, but it is
also a symbol of our freedom, etc.
31. Synecdoche – A word in which a part symbolizes the whole (e.g., we might say “threads”
to represent clothes or “wheels” to represent a car) (469).
Works Cited
Holman, Hugh, and William Harmon. A Handbook to Literature. New York: Macmillian, 1992.
Print.