By: Courtney Lazar
Antimetabole
Eye Rhyme
Identical
Rhyme
Blank Verse
•A rhetorical scheme involving repetition in reverse order
•i.e. “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do
for your country”- John F. Kennedy
•Rhyming words that seem to rhyme when written down as text
because parts of them are spelled identically, but are pronounced
differently from each other
•i.e. slaughter and laughter
•The use of the same words as a "rhymed" pair
•i.e. All close they met again, before the dusk/ Had taken from the stars its pleasant veil,/
All close they met, all eyes, before the dusk/ Had taken from the stars its pleasant veil,/
Close in a bower of hyacinth and musk,/ Unknown of any, free from whispering tale.
•Unrhymed lines of ten syllables each with the even-numbered syllables bearing the accents.
•i.e. The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And, as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name. –A Midsummer Night’s Dream (5.1.12-17)
Couplet
•Two lines--the second line immediately following the first--of the
same metrical length that end in a rhyme to form a complete unit.
• i.e. Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.
-William Shakespeare
Heroic Couplet
•Two successive rhyming lines of iambic pentameter. The second line is
usually end-stopped.
•i.e. O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream/My great example,
as it is my theme! /Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not dull;
/Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full.
–John Denham
Tercet
•A three-line unit or stanza of poetry. It typically rhymes in an AAA
or ABA pattern.
•i.e. My mother’s maids, when they did sew and spin,
They sang sometimes a song of the field mouse,
That for because their livelihood was but so thin
–Sir Thomas Wyatt
Terza Rima
•A three-line stanza form with interlocking rhymes that move from one
stanza to the next.
•i.e. Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
-Ode to the West Wind
Villanelle
A versatile genre of poetry consisting of nineteen lines--five
tercets and a concluding quatrain
i.e. Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
Quatrain
A stanza of four lines, often rhyming in an ABAB pattern
i.e. Leap Before You Look – first stanza by W.H. Auden
Lyric
Expresses the feelings, perceptions, and thoughts of a single poetic in an
intensely personal, emotional, or subjective manner: musical quality
i.e. Italian Sonnet by James DeFord
Ode
A long, often elaborate stanzaic poem of varying line lengths and sometimes
intricate rhyme schemes dealing with a serious subject matter and treating it
reverently
i.e. Ode to Aphrodite by Sappho
Epigram- A statement, or any brief saying in prose or poetry, in which there is an apparent contradiction
i.e. "Beauty when unadorned is most adorned."
Epithet- A short, poetic nickname--often in the form of an adjective or adjectival phrase--attached to the
normal name
i.e. fleet-footed Achilles
Free Verse- Poetry based on the natural rhythms of phrases and normal pauses rather than the artificial
constraints of metrical feet
i.e. I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loaf and invite my soul,
I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
-Walt Whitman “Songs of Myself” first stanza
Prose Poems- Any material that is not written in a regular meter like poetry
i.e. The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath
girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.
Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting.
The floods have lifted up, Oh Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.
The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.
Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, forever.
-Psalm 93
Aphorism
Elegy
Pastoral
Ballad
•A pithy observation
that contains a
general truth
•i.e. "Sits he on ever
so high a throne, a
man still sits on his
bottom.”
- Montaigne
•A poem of serious
reflection, typically
a lament for the
dead
•i.e. Elegy Written
in a Country
Courtyard by
Thomas Gray
•Creates an image of
peaceful and
uncorrupted
existence; describes
the simplicity,
charm, and serenity
attributed to
country life
•i.e. The Passionate
Shepherd to His
Love by Christopher
Marlowe
•A narrative poem
consisting of
quatrains of iambic
tetrameter
alternating with
iambic trimeter
•i.e. Ballata 5 by
Guido Cavalcanti
 The Petrarchan sonnet has an eight line stanza followed by a six line stanza. The octave has two
quatrains rhyming abba, while the sestet may be arranged cdecde, cdcdcd, or cdedce.
"London, 1802" by William Wordsworth
Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: / England hath need of thee: she is a fen / Of stagnant
waters: altar, sword, and pen, / Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, / Have forfeited their
ancient English dower / Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; / Oh! raise us up, return to us
again; / And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. / Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart; /
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: / Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,/ So didst
thou travel on life's common way,/ In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart /The lowliest duties on
herself did lay.
 Its rhyme scheme is a b a b b c b c c d c d e e
 Here, the "abab" pattern sets up distinct four-line groups, each of which develops a specific idea; however, the
overlapping a, b, c, and d rhymes form the first 12 lines into a single unit with a separated final couplet.
"Sonnet LIV"
Of this World's theatre in which we stay,/ My love like the Spectator idly sits,/ Beholding me, that all the pageants
play,/ Disguising diversely my troubled wits./ Sometimes I joy when glad occasion fits,/And mask in mirth like to a
Comedy;/ Soon after when my joy to sorrow flits,/ I wail and make my woes a Tragedy./ Yet she, beholding me with
constant eye,/ Delights not in my mirth nor rues my smart;/ But when I laugh, she mocks: and when I cry/
She laughs and hardens evermore her heart./ What then can move her? If nor mirth nor moan,/She is no woman, but
a senseless stone.
SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET
 Uses three quatrains; each rhymed differently, with a final, independently rhymed couplet
that makes an effective, unifying climax to the whole. Its rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
"Sonnet XXIX" by William Shakespeare
When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,/ I all alone beweep my outcast state,/ And trouble
deaf heaven with my bootless cries,/ And look upon myself and curse my fate,/ Wishing me like to
one more rich in hope,/ Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,/ Desiring this man's art
and that man's scope,/ With what I most enjoy contented least,/ Yet in these thoughts my self
almost despising,/ Haply I think on thee, and then my state,/ (Like to the lark at break of day
arising/ From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate,/ For thy sweet love remembered such
wealth brings,/ That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
VOLTA
 A sudden change in thought, direction, or emotion near the conclusion of a sonnet.
"London, 1802" by William Wordsworth
Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:/ England hath need of thee: she is a fen/ Of stagnant
waters: altar, sword, and pen,/ Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,/ Have forfeited their
ancient English dower / Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;/ Oh! raise us up, return to us
again;/ And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power./ Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;/
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:/ Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, / So
didst thou travel on life's common way,/ In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart/ The lowliest
duties on herself did lay.
Antithesis
Dramatic
Monologue
•Using opposite phrases in close conjunction
•i.e. “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
•A poem in which a poetic speaker addresses either the reader or an
internal listener at length; involves the revelation of the innermost
thoughts
•i.e. All’s Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare -Helena’s Part
Imagery
•Not limited to visual imagery; it also includes auditory, tactile, thermal,
olfactory, taste, and movement.
•i.e. Above the quiet dock in midnight,/Tangled in the tall mast's corded
height/Hangs the moon. What seemed so far away/Is but a child's balloon,
forgotten after play.
Persona
• An external representation of oneself which might or might not accurately
reflect one's inner self
• i.e. Jonathan Swift in “A Modest Proposal” who proposes to eat Irish
children as means of economic advancement
Anaphora
Metonymy
•The intentional repetition of beginning clauses in order to create an artistic
effect.
•i.e. "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on the end. We shall fight in
France. We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing
confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island,
whatever the cost shall be."
•Using a vaguely suggestive, physical object to embody a
more general idea
•i.e. “The pen is mightier than the sword."
Paradox
•Using contradiction in a manner that oddly makes sense
on a deeper level
•i.e. “Without laws, we can have no freedom.”
Paronomasia
• The use of a word in different senses or the use of words similar in
sound to achieve a specific effect, as humor or a dual meaning;
punning
• i.e. •"Get that bird a glass of water--he’s perched!"
i.e. "I cannot say
that I think you
are very generous
to the ladies; for,
whilst you are
proclaiming peace
and good-will to
men, emancipating
all nations, you
insist upon
retaining an
absolute power
over wives.“
–Abigail Adams
Litote
An
understatement
in which an
affirmative is
expressed by
negating its
opposite
Repeating
identical or
similar
vowels in
nearby words
i.e. “Hear the
mellow
wedding bells”
-Edgar Allan
Poe
Assonance
i.e. Blue note
Synesthesia
Involves
taking one
type of
sensory input
and
comingling it
with another
separate sense
in an
impossible
way.
Consonance
•Type of alliteration in which the repeated pattern
of consonants is marked by changes in the
intervening vowels
•i.e. Deep dark dread
Alliteration
•Repeating a consonant sound in close proximity to
others, or beginning several words with the same
vowel sound.
•i.e. Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled peppers.
Caesura
End-Stopped
•A pause separating phrases within lines of poetry--an
important part of poetic rhythm.
•i.e. “Know then thyself //, presume not God to scan;/
The proper study of Mankind // is Man.”
–Alexander Pope
•A line ending in a full pause, often indicated by
appropriate punctuation such as a period or semicolon.
•i.e. “G-r-r-r--there go, my heart's abhorrence!/ Water
your damned flowerpots, do.” –Robert Browning
Enjambment
Euphony
A line having no pause
or end punctuation but
having uninterrupted
A good sound
grammatical meaning
continuing into the next i.e. Bells pealing
line
i.e. The Haunted House
by George Viereck
Cacophony
A harsh sound
i.e. A crow
Exact Rhyme
Rhyming two words
in which both the
consonant sounds
and vowel sounds
match to create a
rhyme.
i.e. pain/pane,
bough/bow, etc.
Internal Rhyme
Cliché Rhyme
Iambic Rhyme
Inexact Rhyme
•A word in the
middle of a line
rhymes with a
word at the end
of the same
metrical line
•i.e. I silently
laugh at my own
cenotaph,/And
out of the
caverns of rain,/
Like a child from
the womb, like a
ghost from the
tomb,/I arise and
unbuild it again.
-Shelley
•Rhymes that are
considered trite
or predictable
•i.e. love and
dove, trees and
breeze, etc.
•A lightly stressed
syllable followed
by a heavily
stressed syllable
•i.e. "The cúrfew
tólls the knéll of
párting dáy.“ by
Thomas Gray
•Rhymes created
out of words
with similar but
not identical
sounds
•i.e. Heartsmitten with
emotion I sink
down/My heart
recovering with
covered eyes;/
Wherever I had
looked I had
looked upon/ My
permanent or
impermanent
images.” –
William Butler
Yeats
Closed Rhyme Apostrophe
Written in a
specific or
traditional
pattern according
to the required
rhyme, meter, line
length, line
groupings, and
number of lines
within a genre of
poetry.
i.e. haikus and
sonnets
Act of addressing
some abstraction
or personification
that is not
physically present
i.e. "Oh, Death, be
not proud."