Download Poetry Review Poetry Terms Allegory—a narrative work in which the

Poetry Review
Poetry Terms
Allegory—a narrative work in which the elements work together to teach a moral lesson.
Alliteration—the repetition of similar sounds, most often consonant sounds, at the beginnings of words. The phrase “sights, sounds,
and smells” is alliterative.
Allusion—a reference in a work of literature to an historical person or event or to another work of literature.
Antithesis—a figure of speech characterized by strongly contrasting words, clauses, sentences, or ideas. The phrase “Man proposes;
God disposes” is antithetical.
Apostrophe—a figure of speech in which a speaker addresses an inanimate object, an idea, or an absent person.
Assonance—the repetition of similar vowel sounds. The o sounds in the line “The soul selects her own Society” are an example of
assonance.
Ballad—a narrative song or poem. It tells a story.
Blank Verse—poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Cacophony—a harsh, unpleasant combination of sounds or tones.
Conceit—an elaborate extended metaphor that dominates a passage or an entire poem. It makes a connection between some object of
nature or everyday life and the subject or theme of the poem.
Consonance—the repetition of similar consonant sounds in the middle or at the end of words. The d sounds in the line “I could shed
my name in the middle of life” are an example of consonance.
Couplet—two consecutive lives of poetry that rhyme.
Diction—the writer’s choice of words. It is an important element of the writer’s voice or style.
Elegy—a poem mourning a death or other great loss.
Enjambment—the continuation of a sentence across a line break without a punctuated pause between lines. The following lines, “My
little horse must think it queer/To stop without a farmhouse near” feature enjambment.
Epic—a long narrative poem that traces the adventures of a hero.
Figurative language—language used for descriptive effect to convey ideas or emotions. Figurative expressions are not literally true
but express some truth beyond the literal level
Foot—a basic unit in the measurement of a line of poetry. The basic metrical feet are anapest, the dactyl, the iamb, the spondee, and
the trochee.
Free Verse—poetry written with no rhyme or meter.
Haiku—a traditional Japanese poetry form that has three lines and seventeen syllables. The basic structure is five, seven, five.
Nature imagery is very important in haiku.
Hyperbole—a figure of speech that uses exaggeration.
Imagery—the word pictures that writers create using sensor details or description.
Irony—the contrast between appearance and reality. Verbal irony is a contrast between what is said and what is meant.
Lyric Poem—poetry that expresses a speaker’s personal thoughts and feelings.
Metaphor—a figure of speech that compares two unlike things not using words such as like or as.
Meter—a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. Meter gives poetry a fairly predictable rhythm.
Metonymy—the use of one word to stand for a related term. “Heart” is often used to describe emotions. “Crown” is often used to
describe a king or queen.
Mood—the emotional quality or atmosphere of a literary work.
Motif—a significant phrase, image, description, idea, or other element repeated throughout a literary work and related to the theme.
Narrative Poem—a poem that tells a story.
Ode—an elaborate lyric poem expressed in a dignified and sincere way.
Onomatopoeia—a word or phrase that sounds like what it means.
Oxymoron—a figure of speech in which opposite ideas are combined. “Bright darkness” and “wise fool” are examples of
oxymorons.
Paradox—a situation or statement that seems to be impossible or contradictory but is true.
Personification—a figure of speech in which a nonhuman thing is given human characteristics.
Pun—a play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings. Puns can have serious as well as
humorous uses. An example is the use of the words told ad tolled in the following: “They went and told the sexton and the sexton
tolled the bell.”
Refrain—a line or lines regularly repeated in a poem or song.
Rhyme—the repetition of the same stressed vowel sounds and any succeeding sounds in two or more words. Light. Bright. Fight.
Height. Bite. Delight.
Rhythm—the pattern of beats created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry.
Simile—a figure of speech that compares two unlike things using words such as like or as.
Sonnet—a 14 line lyric poem usually written in iambic pentameter and usually following a strict pattern. Shakespearean sonnets have
three four-line stanzas, or quatrains, followed by a couplet. Petrarchan sonnets usually have one eight-line stanza, or octave,
followed by a six-line sestet.
Stanza—a group of lines forming a unit in a poem. Similar to a paragraph in prose.
Symbol—any object, person, place, or experience that exists on a literal level but also represents something else.
Synecdoche—a form of metaphor which in mentioning a part signifies the whole. For example, we often refer to the infantry as “foot
soldiers
Theme—the central message of a work of literature.
Tone—the author’s attitude toward the subject.
Poetic Feet and Meter
Iamb
Trochee
Anapest
Dactyl
ᵕ
ᵕ
ᵕ ᵕ
ᵕ ᵕ
Spondee
ex. Michelle
ex. Steven
ex. To the store
ex. Hickory
ex. Oh boy
Poems
“Lucinda Matlock”
“Fiddler Jones”
Edgar Lee Masters
“Richard Cory”
“Miniver Cheevy”
Edward Arlington Robinson
“Ars Poetica”
Archibald MacLeish
“Poetry”
Marianne Moore
“Dirge Without Music”
“Recuerdo”
Edna St. Vincent Millay
“anyone lived in a
pretty how town”
e e cummings
“Chicago”
Carl Sandburg
“Penelope”
Dorothy Parker
“Mending Wall”
“Stopping by Woods on
a Snowy Evening”
Robert Frost
“My City”
James Weldon Johnson
“If We Must Die”
Claude McKay
“I, Too”
“The Negro Speaks
of Rivers”
“Dream Deferred”
Langston Hughes
Trimeter—Three poetic feet
Tetrameter—Four poetic feet
Pentameter—Five poetic feet
Hexameter—Six poetic feet