Poetry Terms
1.
Alliteration – repetition of a consonant sound
2.
Allusion – referring to other literary work, place, person or event which calls up associations and
contexts which complicate and enrich the original work
3.
Approximate rhyme - imperfect rhyme
4.
Assonance - repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sentence or line of poetry
5.
Ballad - narrative poem consisting of quatrains of iambic tetrameter (4 feet) alternating with iambic
trimester (3 feet); example: “Ballad of Birmingham”- Dudley Randall and “Incident” - Countee Cullen
Common traits:(a) the beginning is often abrupt, (b) the story is told through dialogue and
action (c) the language is simple or "folksy," (d) the theme is often tragic--though comic
ballads do exist, and (e) the ballad contains a refrain repeated several times.
6.
Connotative – associative (historical relationships with other words); what readers associate
7.
Contextual symbol – objects or events that are symbolic because of the way the poet handles them
8.
Denotative meaning – dictionary meaning; what it says
9.
Diction – word choice
10. Dramatic monologue - type of poem in which speaker addresses a silent listener; example – “My Last
Duchess” by Robert Browning
11. End rhyme - matching of final vowel and consonant sounds at the end of lines of poetry
12. Exact rhyme - rhyming words share corresponding sounds and stresses and similar number of syllables
13. Figures of speech - expressions which use words in a non-literal sense
14. Figurative language – general term used to describe language devices that allow us to speak nonliterally to achieve some special effect; figurative language makes a comparison between the thing
being written about and something else that allows the reader to better understand or picture it
15. Foot – smallest repeated metrical unit
16. Free verse – poetry that does not in general use rhymed words
17. Iamb - unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one (today)
18. Image – a word, phrase, figure of speech, etc. that suggests a certain mental picture or sensory
impression
19. Imagery - pattern of related details in a poem; concrete representation of sensory impression
20. Internal rhyme - matching of final vowel and consonant sounds within lines of poetry; rhyme between
a word within a line and another word either at the end of the same line or within another line, as in the
this example from Shelley's "The Cloud":
a.
I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
b.
And the nursling of the Sky;
c.
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
d.
I change, but I cannot die
21. Inversion - reversal of the standard order of words in a line or sentence
22. Ironic tone of voice - speaker’s attitude is not what his/her words indicate
23. Line – a line of type is a line of poetry
24. Lyric - type of poem characterized by brevity, compression, and expression of feeling
25. Metaphor – figurative device which compares one thing to another by saying one thing IS another
26. Meter – pattern formed when the lines of a poem follow a recurrent or similar rhythm
27. Narrative - type of poem that combines story with song, but story and action are predominate
28. Personification – figurative device which attributes human qualities to things or ideas
29. Public symbol – objects or events that history has enriched with rich meanings and associations
30. Rhyme – repetition of the final stressed vowel sound and any sounds following
31. Rhyme scheme – the pattern of rhyming
32. Rhythm – pattern of or relationship between stressed and unstressed syllables
33. Simile – figurative device which compares one thing to another by saying it is LIKE another
34. Sonnet - fourteen line poem in iambic pentameter; examples: from “The Children of the Poor”
Gwendolyn Brooks, “How do I love thee?” - Elizabeth Barrett Browning; “Death be not proud” – John
Donne
35. Speaker - whose voice we hear in a poem; like the narrator in prose; can have a particular point of view
36. Stanza – a grouping of lines (NOT paragraph); poetry has lines; prose has paragraphs
37. Structure - design or form of a literary work
38. Symbol – anything that stands for something else; an object or event that suggests more than itself and
allows the writer to convey a wide range of meanings
39. Symbolism - using an object or action that means more than itself and stands for something beyond
itself
40. Syntax - grammatical order of words in a sentence in a line of verse or a sentence
41. Tone - implied attitude of a writer toward the subject of a work
42. Villanelle - relies heavily on repetition; French form containing 19 lines, two rhymes, five tercets and
final quatrain; example – “Do not go gentle into that good night” – Dylan Thomas
43. Voice - what conveys the tone
Ballad
 narrative poem

quatrains of iambic tetrameter (4 feet) alternating with iambic trimester (3 feet)

Common traits:
(a) the beginning is often abrupt,
(b) the story is told through dialogue and action
(c) the language is often simple or "folksy,"
(d) the theme is often tragic--though comic ballads do exist, and
(e) the ballad often contains a refrain repeated several times.
Dramatic monologue
 type of poem in which speaker addresses a silent listener
Sonnets

Sonnet means, roughly, “little song” or “little sound”

Lyric poem of 14 lines – octave/sestet or quatrains/couplet

Each line usually contains 10 syllables, often iambic pentameter
named for
structure
rhyme scheme
Italian – Petrarchan
Italian poet Petrarch (1301-1374)
Octave (8 lines) establishes problem, issue, or
situation; the “turn”;
sestet (6 lines) resolves or drives home the
poem’s point
abbaabba
cdecde or cdccdc or cdedce
Villanelle
 French verse form

19 lines (of any length)

6 stanzas: 5 tercets (3 lines) + final quatrain (4 lines)

2 rhymes

2 refrains: 1 on lines 1, 6, 12, 18; 2 on lines 3, 9, 15, 19
English - Shakespearean
Best-known practitioner, William
Shakespeare
3 quatrains (4 lines) establish
problem or situation; “turn”; closing
couplet comments
abab
cdcd
efef
gg