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Literary
Term
Definition
Alliteration
The repetition of the same
consonant sound at the
beginning of words (just like
tongue twisters).
An indirect reference to any
person, place or thing—
fictitious, historical or actual.
Allusion
Assonance
The repetition of vowel sounds
across syllables or words.
Author
The person who writes the
story or poem.
Ballad
This is a type of narrative
poem. It usually is in stanzas
of 2 or 4 lines. It usually
rhymes every other line
(sometimes like a song).
The repetition of consonant
sounds across syllables.
Consonance
Couplet
End Rhyme
Extended
Metaphor
Eye Rhyme
A pair of lines that are the same
length and usually have end
rhyme and form a complete
thought.
Rhyme occurring at the end of
the line.
A figure of speech (metaphor)
that is used throughout an
entire work or a great part of it.
An imperfect rhyme that
appears to have identical
vowel sounds from similarity
of spelling (as move and
love).
Example
Free Verse
Poetry that doesn’t have a
regular meter or rhyme scheme.
Haiku
This is Japanese poetry that has
3 lines. The first line is five
syllables—second line seven—
third line five syllables.
A unit of measure in poetry.
Iamb
Imagery
Internal
Rhyme
The words or phrases a writer
uses to describe or present
objects, feelings, actions, or
ideas; imagery is usually based
on sensory language.
Rhyming occurring within a
line of poetry.
Limerick
A humorous poem with an
aabba rhyme scheme.
Lyric
A songlike poem that expresses
the reader’s feeling—now we
see it as a short poem which
expresses the thoughts and
feelings of a single speaker.
A comparison of using two
unlike things without using a
comparison; a statement that
one thing is something else
which it is not (your fingers are
sausages).
A generally regular pattern of
stressed and unstressed
syllables in poetry.
Metaphor
Meter
Mixed
Metaphor
A figure of speech combining
inconsistent or incongruous
metaphors.
Narrative
A poem that tells a story (a
series of events).
Onomatopoeia
A word that sounds like the
meaning.
Personification This happens when a thing,
animal or abstract term (nature)
is given human qualities.
Refrain
Repeated lines in a poem.
Rhyme
Scheme
The pattern of rhyme in a poem
based on the end rhyme
(ABABCC).
Simile
A comparison of two unlike
objects using like or as.
Slant Rhyme
Occurs when the final
consonant sounds are alike but
the vowels are different (green
and gone—that and hit).
Sonnet
A 14 line poem with a certain
rhyme scheme. This was
borrowed from Italy and named
the English Sonnet by William
Shakespeare. It uses 3-4 line
stanzas and a couplet.
The person talking in the poem.
The speaker does NOT have to
be the author of the poem.
Speaker
Stanza
A group of lines whose pattern
is repeated throughout the
poem (a “paragraph” in poetry).
Symbol
Something that stands for or
suggests something else (the
American flag representing
patriotism).
Writing EXTENDED Metaphor Assignment
After reading and analyzing Richard Wilbur’s poem “The Writer,” consider your experiences as
a writer—the frustrations and the satisfactions you felt as you shaped words into meaning.
The Writer
by Richard Wilbur
In her room at the prow of the house
Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden,
My daughter is writing a story.
I pause in the stairwell, hearing
From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys
Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.
Young as she is, the stuff
Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:
I wish her a lucky passage.
But now it is she who pauses,
As if to reject my thought and its easy figure.
A stillness greatens, in which
The whole house seems to be thinking,
And then she is at it again with a bunched clamor
Of strokes, and again is silent.
I remember the dazed starling
Which was trapped in that very room, two years ago;
How we stole in, lifted a sash
And retreated, not to affright it;
And how for a helpless hour, through the crack of the door,
We watched the sleek, wild, dark
And iridescent creature
Batter against the brilliance, drop like a glove
To the hard floor, or the desk-top,
And wait then, humped and bloody,
For the wits to try it again; and how our spirits
Rose when, suddenly sure,
It lifted off from a chair-back,
Beating a smooth course for the right window
And clearing the sill of the world.
It is always a matter, my darling,
Of life or death, as I had forgotten. I wish
What I wished you before, but harder.
For this assignment, choose a metaphor that will tell others about you as a writer. You will build
an extended metaphor, just as Wilbur has in his poem. Your goal is to show others what you are
like as a writer. MAKE SURE TO USE THREE LITERARY TERMS IN YOUR POEM.
Tips
• The metaphor you choose can take the form of an animal (e.g., an elephant, a fox, an
ostrich), a machine (e.g., a bulldozer, a tank, a computer), or something else. Any
metaphor you choose will be correct if you support your assertion.
• Your definition of yourself as a writer is crucial to your metaphor: Are you thinking of
yourself as a paper writer, a letter writer, or something else? If your definition is not
implied in the metaphor, you need to define it early in your project.