Download Poetry Terms:

Poetry Terms:
A Shared Lexicon
for Poetry Exploration
What are “poetry terms”?
Poetry terms are words we use to explore
poetry. If we know the terms and can apply
them to poems, we can share discussions
with other poetry critics.
Sound Devices
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Alliteration
Assonance
Consonance
Iambic Pentameter
Meter
Onomatopeia
Cacophony
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Blank Verse
Free Verse
Repetition
Refrain
Euphony
Caesura
Alliteration
The repetition of the same or similar
sounds at the beginning of words for
effect.
Example:
“What would the world be, once bereft/Of
wet and wildness?”
(Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Inversnaid”)
Assonance
The repetition or a pattern of
similar vowel sounds for effect.
Example:
“Thou still unravished bride of
quietness,/Thou foster child of
silence and slow time”
(“Ode to a Grecian Urn,” John
Keats)
Consonance
The repetition of similar consonant
sounds, especially at the ends of words,
as in lost and past or confess and
dismiss.
Tip – Think of the word “consonant”
when you try to remember what
“consonance” means.
Iambic Pentameter
A type of meter in poetry, in which there are five
iambs to a line. (The prefix penta- means “five,” as
in pentagon, a geometrical figure with five sides.
Meter refers to rhythmic units. In a line of iambic
pentameter, there are five rhythmic units that are
iambs.) Shakespeare's plays were written mostly
in iambic pentameter, which is the most common
type of meter in English poetry. An example of an
iambic pentameter line from Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet is “But soft!/ What light/
through yon/der win/dow breaks?” Another, from
Richard III, is “A horse!/ A horse!/ My king/dom
for/ a horse!” (The stressed syllables are in bold.)
Rhythm
Rhythm is a musical quality produced by the
repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables.
Rhythm occurs in all forms of language, both
written and spoken, but is particularly
important in poetry.
Meter
The arrangement of a line of poetry by the
number of syllables and the rhythm of
accented (or stressed) syllables.
Blank Verse
Poetry that is written in unrhymed iambic
pentameter. Shakespeare wrote most of
his plays in blank verse.
“Friends, Romans, countrymen,
lend me your ears.”
Free Verse
Poetry composed of either rhymed or
unrhymed lines that have no set meter.
Repetition
Repetition is perhaps the most basic idea in
poetics. There are all sorts of repetition: the
repetition of rhythmic elements (meter); the
repetition of sounds (rhyme, etc.); the
repetition of syntactic elements (often a
lineation device in open form); the
repetition of stanzas, and so on.
Refrain
A line or group of lines that is repeated
throughout a poem, usually after every
stanza.
Example:
“I will not eat green eggs and ham.
I will not eat them Sam I Am.”
(Dr. Suess, “Green Eggs and Ham”)
Onomatopoeia
A figure of speech in which words are
used to imitate sounds. Examples of
onomatopoetic words are buzz, hiss,
zing, clippety-clop, and tick-tock.
Keats's “Ode to a Nightingale” not only
uses onomatopoeia, but calls our
attention to it: “Forlorn! The very word
is like a bell/To toll me back from thee to
my sole self!”
Cacophony
The use of harsh or discordant sounds in literary
composition, as for poetic effect.
Example:
Player Piano
My stick fingers click with a snicker
And, chuckling, they knuckle the keys;
Light footed, my steel feelers flicker
And pluck from these keys melodies.
Euphony
Attempting to group words together harmoniously, so that
the consonants permit an easy and pleasing flow of
sound when spoken, as opposed to cacophony.
Example of Euphony in a Poem - Excerpt
To Autumn
by
John Keats
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run
Caesura
A natural pause or break in a line of
poetry, usually near the middle of the
line. There is a caesura right after the
question mark in the first line of this
sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning:
“How do I love thee? Let me count the
ways.”
Rhyme
Rhyme is the occurrence of the same or similar
sounds at the end of two or more words. When
the rhyme occurs in a final stressed syllable, it is
said to be masculine: cat/hat, desire/fire,
observe/deserve. When the rhyme occurs in a
final unstressed syllable, it is said to be feminine:
longing/yearning. The pattern of rhyme in a
stanza or poem is shown usually by using a
different letter for each final sound. In a poem
with an aabba rhyme scheme, the first, second,
and fifth lines end in one sound, and the third and
fourth lines end in another.
Types of Rhyme
Slant/Approximate
A slant rhyme differs from a perfect rhyme in that not all of
its vowel or consonant sounds match those of the rhyming
word.
Internal
In poetry, internal rhyme, or middle rhyme, is rhyme which
occurs in a single line of verse.
Figurative Language
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Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Apostrophe
Hyperbole
Simile
A figure of speech in which two things are
compared using the word “like” or “as.” An
example of a simile using like occurs in
Langston Hughes's poem “Harlem”: “What
happens to a dream deferred?/ Does it dry
up/ like a raisin in the sun?”
Metaphor
A figure of speech in which two things are
compared, usually by saying one thing is
another, or by substituting a more
descriptive word for the more common or
usual word that would be expected. Some
examples of metaphors: the world's a
stage, he was a lion in battle, drowning in
debt, and a sea of troubles.
Types of Metaphors
Implied
An implied or unstated metaphor is a metaphor not
explicitly stated or obvious that compares two
things by using adjectives that commonly describe
one thing, but are used to describe another
comparing the two.
An example: "Golden baked skin", comparing
bakery goods to skin or "green blades of nausea",
comparing green grass to the pallor of a nauseastic person or "leafy golden sunset" comparing the
sunset to a tree in the fall.
Types of Metaphors
Extended
An extended metaphor is one where there is a single main
subject to which additional subjects and metaphors are
applied.
The extended metaphor may act as a central theme, for
example where it is used as the primary vehicle of a
poem and is used repeatedly and in different forms.
Example
He is the pointing gun, we are the bullets of his desire.
All the world's a stage and men and women merely
players.
Let me count my loves of thee, my rose garden, my heart,
my fixed mark, my beginning and my end.
Personification
A figure of speech in which things or
abstract ideas are given human
attributes: dead leaves dance in the
wind, blind justice.
Apostrophe
Words that are spoken to a person who is
absent or imaginary, or to an object or
abstract idea. The poem “God's World” by
Edna St. Vincent Millay begins with an
apostrophe: “O World, I cannot hold thee
close enough!/Thy winds, thy wide grey
skies!/Thy mists that roll and rise!”
Hyperbole
A figure of speech in which deliberate
exaggeration is used for emphasis. Many
everyday expressions are examples of
hyperbole: tons of money, waiting for ages,
a flood of tears, etc.
Poetic Forms
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Alliterative verse
Sonnet
Elegy
Ballad
Ode
Pastoral
Epic
Haiku
Alliterative Verse
A form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal
structuring device to unify lines of poetry, as
opposed to other devices such as rhyme.
Example:
Now the news. Night raids on
Five cities. Fires started.
Pressure applied by pincer movement
In threatening thrust. Third Division
Enlarges beachhead. Lucky charm
Saves sniper. Sabotage hinted
In steel-mill stoppage. . . .
Sonnet
The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and
the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song." By the
thirteenth century, it had come to signify a poem of
fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and
specific structure. The conventions associated with the
sonnet have evolved over its history. The writers of sonnets
are sometimes referred to as "sonneteers," although the
term can be used derisively. Many modern writers of
sonnets choose simply to be called "sonnet writers." One
of the most well known sonnet writers is Shakespeare, who
wrote 154 sonnets.
Elegy
The term "elegy" was originally used for a type of
poetic metre (Elegiac metre), but is also used for a
poem of mourning, from the Greek elegos, a
reflection on the death of someone or on a sorrow
generally - which is a form of lyric poetry. An
elegy can also reflect on something which seems
strange or mysterious to the author. In addition, an
elegy (sometimes spelled elegíe) may be a type of
musical work, usually in a sad and somber
attitude. It is not to be confused with a eulogy.
Ballad
A ballad is usually set to music; thus, it often
is a story told in a song. Any myth form
may be told as a ballad, such as historical
accounts or fairy tales in verse form. It
usually has foreshortened, alternating fourstress lines ("ballad meter") and simple
repeating rhymes, often with a refrain.
Ode
Ode is a form of stately and elaborate lyrical
verse. A classic ode is structured in three
parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the
epode. Different forms such as the
homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also
exist.
Pastoral
A poem that depicts rural life in a
peaceful, idealized way.
Epic
A long, serious poem that tells the story of a
heroic figure. Two of the most famous epic
poems are the Iliad and the Odyssey by
Homer, which tell about the Trojan War and
the adventures of Odysseus on his voyage
home after the war. This year we read
Beowulf, a famous epic poem from the
Anglo-Saxon period.
Haiku
A Japanese poem composed of three
unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five
syllables. Haiku often reflect on some
aspect of nature.
Example:
I am nobody
A red sinking autumn sun
Took my name away.
Structure
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Line
Line number
Stanza
Title
Quatrain
Sestet
Couplet
Line
A verse of poetry. A line in iambic
pentameter contains five feet. Every
time a poet returns to the left margin,
he or she has begun a new line.
Line Number
Small numbers that normally appear to the left
of the text of the poem that allow poetry
readers to refer to different parts of the
poem. The numbers usually appear in
multiples of five.
Stanza
Two or more lines of poetry that together
form one of the divisions of a poem. The
stanzas of a poem are often of the same
length and follow the same pattern of
meter and rhyme.
Title
The name given to a poem by the poet. This is
an important choice because it begins the
relationship the reader established with the
poem. Titles often hint at the theme of the
poem.
Quatrain
A stanza or poem of four lines. We know that
Shakespearean sonnets are made up of
three quatrains and a couplet. This is true
despite the fact that in sonnets there are
no breaks.
Sestet
A six-line stanza. Petrarchan sonnets end with
a sestet.
Couplet
In a poem, a pair of lines that are the same
length and usually rhyme and form a
complete thought. Shakespearean sonnets
usually end in a couplet.
Meaning
All the elements of poetry, structure,
figurative language, sound elements, form,
etc., contribute to the most important aspect
of any poem; its meaning. A good poem
should offer the reader a new way of
looking at some aspect of the world around
him or her.