Poetry Terms
Types of Poetry
1.
Narrative Poem: A story is told in verse. Narrative poems have all the elements of a short story including
characters, conflict and plot.
2.
Epic Poem: long narrative poem about the many deeds of a great hero. The hero embodies the important
values of the society he comes from.
3.
Lyric Poem: A short, musical poem. It expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker.
4.
Free Verse: Poetry not written in a regular rhythmical pattern. It may contain lines of any length and no
rhyme scheme.
5.
Ode: A long lyric poem that tells a story -- a series of related events.
6.
Sonnet: a fourteen-line lyric poem that follows strict rules of structure, meter and rhyme
7.
Ballad: Tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a repeated refrain (lines). A ballad is
often about love and often sung. It is a story in poetic form.
Poetry Terms
1.
Alliteration: When two or more neighboring syllables start with the same beginning sound. Example: “The
poet picks palate-pleasing peaches.”
2.
Assonance: When the same vowel sound is repeated in a section of a poem. Example: “Brown Cows sound
loud in a rowdy crowd.”
3.
Simile: Comparing two objects using like or as. Example: “Sleeping like baby.” “Light as a feather.” “The
child chattered like a monkey.”
4.
Metaphor: Comparing two things by identifying them completely. Example: That child is a monkey.”
5.
Meter: A pattern of accented and unaccented syllable within a poem.
6.
Rhyme scheme: The rhyming pattern of lines of a poem. Example: abab
7.
Internal rhyme: Any rhyme that occurs inside a line rather than at the end of the line.
8.
Exact rhyme: Words that rhyme perfectly. Example: napping, tapping and snapping
9.
Imperfect rhyme: Use sounds that are similar but not exactly the same. Example: fellow and hollow; cat
and catch; bat and bit.
10. Couplet: When there are two rhyming lines in a row.
11. Stanza: A section of lines grouped together also called a verse
12. Repetition: Repeating words or lines in a poem. Repetition is used to emphasize a point, message, theme
or mood.
13. Imagery. Words or phrases that are used to create images in the readers mind.
14. Inference: To read between the lines; the pull from the text; to infer. Readers often have to make
inferences to analyze and understand poetry.
15. Onomatopoeia: Use of words which echo their meaning in sound. Example: snap, crackle, pop.
16. Figurative Language: Writing or speech not meant to be taken literally.
17. Personification: Giving human qualities to something that is not human.
18. Symbol: Anything that represents something else.