Poetic Terms
Notes for Teach-a-Poet
Presentation
&
British Romanticism Test
Study Guide
IRHS
Poetic Terms
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Alliteration
Assonance
Consonance
Imagery
Internal Rhyme
End Rhyme, including slant rhyme (which is
also called half-rhyme or approximate rhyme)
Lyric Poetry
Sonnet
Narrative Poetry
Alliteration: repetition of initial
sounds in words found in a line or
short section of poetry.
From Frost’s “Stopping by a Woods on a Snowy Evening”
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
Assonance:
repetition of vowel
sounds within words in a line or short
section of poetry
From Frost’s “Stopping by a Woods on a Snowy Evening”
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
Consonance: repetition of non-
rhyming, ending consonant sounds in
a line or short section of poetry
From Frost’s “Stopping by a Woods on a Snowy Evening”
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
Imagery
 Poetic
ideas that appeal to one or several
of the five senses.
 Descriptions
try to re-create an emotion or
experience for the reader.
Example of Imagery
Notice the imagery that appeals to sight, sound, and smell,
from “‘Out-Out’” by Robert Frost
The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Internal Rhyme
 Rhyme
that occurs WITHIN a line of poetry
 Can
function to create a sense of movement
as it propels the poem forward
Example from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
End Rhyme
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Rhyme that occurs at the end of lines in poetry
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Most common idea of rhyme/rhyming
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The pattern of End Rhyme is called Rhyme Scheme
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Note: rhyme may be achieved through approximate or
similar sounds that are not exact (ex: love, move)
Example from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
Example of End Rhyme
From Frost’s “Fire and Ice”
Rhyme Scheme is ABAABCBCB
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Lyric Poem
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a short poem with one speaker (not necessarily
the poet).
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expresses observations, thoughts or emotions of
the speaker. (NOT a story)
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sometimes used only for a brief poem about
feelings or observations (like the sonnet).
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more often applied to a poem expressing the
complex evolution of thoughts and feeling, such
as the elegy, the dramatic monologue, and the
ode.
Sonnet
 14-line
poem
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Meter (beat) = Iambic Pentameter
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Rhyme Scheme (varies from poet to poet)
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ABAB CDCD EFEF FF = Shakespearean Sonnet
ABBA ABBA CDE CDE = Petrarchan Sonnet
Narrative Poem
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Narrator tells a rather long story
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Subject matter ranges from romantic love to
family relationships to heroic exploits.
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Forms include the epic, mock-epic and
ballad.
Sources (click to access hyperlinks)
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term
.html#lyric
All images from Google
http://www2.anglistik.unifreiburg.de/intranet/englishbasics/PoetryTypes01.htm
http://www.sterlingschools.org/shs/stf/jbarnh/poetry/poetry1.
htm
This is NOT MLA; how, if at all, would you change this page to
reflect the use of source material?