Poetry Terms, Definitions and Examples
1. Alliteration –
repetition of same or similar consonant sounds in words that are
close together
ex: Valerio's pushcart Ice Coal Kerosene moves clack, clack, clack
2. Assonance Repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different
consonant sounds in words close together.
ex: The Golden Harvest Bakery brakes on its gears, squeaks,
and seethes in place.
3. Blank Verse poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter - Shakespeare's
plays
ex: When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
4. Connotation all meanings, associations or emotions a word suggests
ex: procrastination - positive/negative connotation
wilderness - positive/negative connotation
childlike - positive/negative connotation
5. couplet –
2 consecutive lines of poetry that form a unit, often emphasized
by rhythm or rhyme.
ex: For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings. - Shakespeare
6. figure of speech simile - A figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are
introduced by like or as
ex: Her eyes were like sapphires
metaphor - a figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things
are compared - not using like or as
ex: Her eyes were sapphires.
personification - A figure of speech in which inanimate objects or
abstractions are endowed with human qualities
ex: The wind whistled a song to me.
7. free verse –
poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme
ex: 'Meadow Mouse'
8. Iambic pentameter line of poetry made up of 5 iambs
ex: When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
9. imagery language that appeals to the senses
ex: The sky blue paint on the chipped walls did nothing to hide the
jungle green color beneath the layer of old paint.
10. lyric poetry -
compared, often in a phrase
poetry that expresses a speaker's emotions or thoughts and does not
tell a story.
11. meter –
see handout
12. onomatopoeia use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning
ex: buzz, bang, pow!
13. parody imitation of a work of literature, art, or music for amusement or
satirical purposes
ex: 'We Real Cool'
14. pun play on multiple meanings of a word or on 2 words that sound alike
but have different meanings.
ex: Why did the doctor get angry?
He ran out of patience (patients)
15. refrain repeated word or phrase, line or group of lines.
ex: "Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down."
"Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down."
16. rhyme repetition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following
them in words that are close together in a poem.
end rhyme - 'The old dog barks backward without getting up,
I can remember when he was a pup.
rhyme scheme - 'The old dog barks backward without getting up, A
I can remember when he was a pup.' A
internal rhyme - 'I alone beweep my outcase state,'
approximate rhyme - sounds are similar
'Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
. . . With what I most enjoy contented least'
17. sonnet 14 line lyric poem, usually written in iambic pentameter
ex: refer to the 'Creating Sound Effects' handout
18. speaker voice that is talking to us in a poem
19. stanza group of lines that form a single unit in a poem (compared to a
paragraph in writing)
quatrain - 4 line stanza
couplet - 2 line stanza