Poetry Terminology
(Find an example of each of the following poetic devices in “You Can’t Write a Poem
about McDonald’s,” and copy your example onto this worksheet.)
Alliteration – repetition of beginning consonant sounds in a series of words.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
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Metaphor – comparison of two unlike things (does not use “like” or “as”)
eg “O, my love is a red, red rose.”
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Simile – comparison of two unlike things, using “like” or “as”
eg “I wandered lonely as a cloud”
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Personification – human characteristics applied to thing, animal or abstract (truth,
nature”
eg “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window panes”
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Figurative language – using words for effect, not literally (hyperbole,
personification, metaphor, simile)
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Literal – basic, surface-level meaning; free from exaggeration
Hyperbole – exaggeration for effect
eg, “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse”
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Stanza – a group of lines in a poem separated by an extra amount of space from
other groups of lines.
Repetition – the repeated use of a sound, word, phrase, image, or pattern.
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Rhythm – the pattern of beats in a poem
Rhyme – similarity of vowel sound at the end of two or more lines
eg,
“We romped until the pans
Slid off the kitchen shelf
My mother’s countenance
Could not unfrown itself.”
Abstract – an idea or thing that exists only in our minds. Cannot be detected with
any of the five senses. Eg, love, beauty, truth, peace.
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Concrete – can be detected with the senses. A physical thing. Eg, hair, turkey,
perfume
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Speaker – the voice or person of the poem
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Tone – the attitude of the speaker toward the subject of the poem
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