Poetry Terms
Figurative Language:
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figurative language: language that has meaning beyond the literal meaning.
hyperbole: obvious, exaggeration or overstatement, intended to be taken literally.
Example: I felt a million times better after the test.
metaphor: a comparison without using like or as.
Example: Mike is a bear today.
analogy: This relationship is the same as that relationship or problem.
Example: We pass each other like ships in the night.
simile: a comparison using like or as.
Example: Mike is acting like a bear today.
imagery: is descriptive detail that appeals to the senses.
Example: It was a cool, foggy day; everything around me was quiet.
personification: a nonhuman object is given human qualities.
Example: The flowers on the hill were dancing.
symbolism: an object, person, or idea that stands for something.
Example: He thought he heard the man’s heart beating (representing the clock
ticking and time passing).
oxymoron: a figure of speech in which two contradictory words or phrases are combined in a
single expression.
Example: wise fool or cruel kindness.
Sound Devices:
10. assonance: repetition without rhyme of vowel sound in stressed syllables
Example: fit as a fiddle
11. alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sounds.
Example: Peter Piper picked…
12. blank verse: poetry that has meter (rhythm) but doesn’t rhyme. It is poetry written in
unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank verse is not the same as free verse. Shakespeare’s plays
were written in blank verse.
Was this the face that launched a thousand ships
And burned the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.
-Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
13. end rhyme: the last word in the line (sentence) rhymes with another word at the end of the
next line (also called a couplet).
Example: The dog wore a black hat
It belonged to the white cat
14. free verse: a poem not written in a regular, rhythmical pattern, or meter.
15. iambic: a metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed syllable. Or a short syllable followed by a long syllable.
Example:
x
x
x
x
x
Shall I l compare l thee to l a sum l mer’s day?
16. meter: it is the musical rhythm of the poem.
17. onomatopoeia: the imitation of natural sounds that someone/something would
make. Example: The bee buzzes. The soda fizzes. The bell rings.
18. refrain (repetition): a line that is repeated in a poem for musical and mood effect.
19. rhythm: is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in spoken or written language.
Example: the different way songs are song.
Types of Poems:
20. ballad: a song like poem that tells a story, often one dealing with adventure and
fatal romance or crisis. Usually written in 4 to 6 line stanzas and have regular
rhythms and rhyme schemes. Last line of stanza(s) may repeat.
21. cinquain: five lines total; first line adding two syllables and further meaning to
the subject (syllable pattern is 2-4-6-8-2). Similar to a haiku.
Example: Flowers
Are bursts of warmth
Bringing sunshine to me,
Brightening my day. I love those
Flowers.
22. concrete: a picture poem made out of letters and words. The words of a concrete poem can
outline the shape of an object, fill in the shape, or trace the movement of an object.
23. elegy: a formal poem that reflects of the death or a solemn theme.
24. epic: a long poem that tells a dramatic story about a hero from history. May pray or invoke a
spirit in the beginning of the poem or a muse. The tone is serious and grand. The Odyssey
and Beowulf are epics.
25. haiku: 17 syllables arranged in 3 lines of 5-7-5 syllables. Contains direct or indirect
reference to nature and/or seasons; focuses on a particular object or a present event.
26. limerick: a humorous, rhyming, 5 line poem with a specific meter and rhyme
scheme. Most limericks have 3 strong stresses in lines 1, 2, and 5 and 2 strong stresses
in lines 3 and 4. Most follow the rhyme scheme aabba.
There once was a rabbit named Sam.
He only ate green eggs and ham.
When he tried something new,
He said it was like eating a shoe.
Now he won’t even try a yam.
27. lyric: is a highly musical verse that expresses the observations and feelings of a
single speaker.
28. narrative: tells a story, it has a plot, setting and characters, and has a conflict. It is written
in verses.
29. nominal: You use the letters of your first and last name to form the each line. Each line
consists of an adjective or a full phrase that reveal the person’s life/personality.
30. ode: is a single, unified strain of exalted (praise) verse with a single purpose and dealing with
a single theme. It is formal and uses formal or old-fashioned language.
31. sonnet: a 14 line poem that follows a rhyme scheme and rhythm. A Shakespearean sonnet
rhymes ababcdcdefefgg (three quatrains of alternating rhyme and a concluding couplet).
Sonnets often start with the first eight lines (octet) developing a statement of a problem,
while the last six lines (sestet) lead to the resolution of the problem. A resolution is
finalized in the concluding couplet (it sometimes contradicts lines 1-12). An Italian sonnet
rhymes abbaabbacdcdcd (sometimes cdedecde).
32. diamonte: a diamond shaped poem using parts of speech and ideas. The idea is to shape
your thought about an object, theme, etc. so that the final noun is the opposite of what
you started with. It has 7 lines. Line 1-1 subject noun, 2- 2 adj., 3-3 verbs (ing, ed), 4-4
nouns relating to the subject, 5-3 verbs (ing, ed), 6-2 adj or phrase, 7-1 noun
(opposite of subject).
Forms:
33. quatrain: alternating lines rhyme (abab pattern).
34. couplet: a 2 lined poem with external rhyming (at the end of the line).
35. triplet: a 3 lined poem with external rhyming (at the end of the line).
Other Important Terms:
36. stanza: the formal division of lines in a poem. It functions like a paragraph.
Example: The summer that I was ten
Can it be there was only one
Summer that I was ten? It must…
37. allusion: referring to something/someone from history, literature, sports, etc. in
which the reader is familiar with.
38. lines: each sentence of a poem is called a line; several lines make up a stanza.
39. mood: the feeling or emotion that a piece of writing sends to the reader through images,
words, etc.
41. poetry: writing that is rhythmic and compressed. It uses figures of speech and imagery
designed to appeal to our emotions and imagination.
42. prose: all forms of ordinary writing and speech that has no rhythmic patterns found in
poetry.