Elements of Poetry and Definitions
Figurative Language is writing that is innovative, imaginative, and not meant to be taken
literally. Writers may use these figures of speech:
Metaphors – describe one thing as if it were something else. Her eyes were saucers,
wide with expectation.
Personification – gives human qualities to something nonhuman. The clarinets sang.
Similes – use like or as to compare two unlike things. The icy water was like stinging
bees.
Imagery – writing or speech that appeals to one or more of the five senses – sight, sound,
smell, taste, and touch
Hyperbole - An exaggeration that is so dramatic that no one would believe the statement is
true. Tall tales are hyperboles. Example: He was so hungry; he ate that whole cornfield for
lunch, stalks and all.
Idioms - According to Webster's Dictionary, an idiom is defined as: peculiar to itself. Ex: pitch
tents, hit the road, treading on thin ice, bone to pick with you
Cliches - A cliché is an expression that has been used so often that it has become trite
and sometimes boring. Ex: Many hands make light work.
Stereotypes - categorize, type, identify. Ex. All Northern Lebanon students are farmers.
Allusion – a historical reference; this could be to any person place or thing
Puns - A play on words that relies on a word's having more than one meaning or sounding like
another word.
Anagrams - An anagram is a word or phrase made by rearranging the letters in another word or
phrase.
Oxymoron - An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two opposing or contradictory
ideas, such as “pretty ugly".
Palindromes - A palindrome is a word or phrase that can be read forward or backwards.
Alliteration – is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words, as in feathered
friend.
Repetition – repeated use of a sound, word, or phrase.
Assonance – repetition of vowel sounds in stressed syllables that end with different consonant
sounds, as in fade and hay
Consonance – repetition of final consonant sounds in stressed syllables with different vowel
sounds, as in end and hand.
Onomatopoeia – use of words that imitate sounds, like Pow!
Parallelism - Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses
Rhyme – repetition of sounds at the ends of words – thin skin
Rhythm – the pattern of strong and weak beats, as well as pauses, in a poem. Rhythm in music
and in poetry are similar.
Structure of Poetry:
Lines – help poets add natural pauses by breaking up a poem into many individual parts.
Stanzas – are the arrangement of groups of lines to create an appearance on the page
or to organize thoughts.
Meter – rhythmical pattern, or the arrangement and number of stressed and unstressed
syllables.
Rhyme scheme – the pattern of rhyme in a poem