Poetry Terms
The following terms will be utilized in our discussion of poetry:
1. Poetry- Type of literature in which words are chosen arranged to created a
certain effect
2. Form- The way a poem is laid out on a page. The length and placement of the
lines and the grouping of lines into stanzas
3. Sound- Use of words to their auditory effect that can convey meaning and mood
or unify a work
4. Speaker- The voice that talks to the reader, similar to the narrator in fiction.
Speaker may not be poet
5. Figurative Language- Language that communicates ideas beyond the ordinary,
literal meaning of words
6. Imagery- Descriptive words and phrases that recreate sensory experiences for
the reader. This is one type of figurative language
7. Lines- A phrase or sentences in a stanza
8. Stanzas- Grouping of two or more lines in a pattern which is repeated
throughout a poem
9. Rhyme- Occurrence of similar or identical sound at the ends of two or more
words
10. Internal Rhyme- Rhyme that occurs within a line
11. End Rhyme- Rhyme that occurs at the end of a line
12. Rhyme Scheme-a pattern of end rhymes in a poem
13. Rhythm- A pattern of sound created by the arrangement of stressed and
unstressed symbols in a line. In some poems the lines have a repeated rhythmic
pattern, or meter
14. Meter- Rhythmic pattern
15. Alliteration- Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words
16. Assonance- The repetition of vowel sounds within non-rhyming words
17. Consonance- Repetition of consonant sounds within or at the end of words
18. Onomatopoeia- Use of words that sound like what they refer to
19. Personification- Attribution of human qualities to an object
20. Simile- Comparison indicated by the words like or as
21. Metaphor- a direct comparison
22. Denotation- The “dictionary” or standard definition of a word
23.Connotation- The associations a word carries with it