Download Poetry Terms APOSTROPHE – A literary device in which a speaker

Poetry Terms
APOSTROPHE – A literary device in which a speaker talks directly to an inanimate object, a
person who is absent or dead, or an abstract quality such as love. (e.g., in Sonnet 31, Sir Philip
Sidney addresses the Moon)
ALLITERATION - The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or within
words, particularly in accented syllables (e.g., Far and fast the falcon flew). Alliteration is used to
create melody, establish mood, call attention to certain words, and point up similarities and
contrasts.
ASSONANCE - The repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds
in stressed words of syllables (e.g., opened/rose, out/down). Assonance may be used instead of
rhyme.
BLANK VERSE - Unrhymed iambic pentameter; each line has a pattern of five unstressed
syllables alternating with five stressed ones. The beat of a blank-verse line can indicated as
follows: ta DUM ta DUM ta DUM ta DUM ta DUM. Poets who write in blank verse may vary
the beat. Much of “Romeo and Juliet” is written in blank verse.
CAESURA – An obvious pause in a line of poetry, usually indicated by punctuation.
CONSONANCE - The repetition of identical consonant sounds that are preceded by different
vowel sounds (e.g., around/head, crumb/home, seam, swim).
COUPLET – Two lines of rhymed verse.
END RHYME – The rhyming of words at the ends of lines of poetry.
ENJAMBMENT – The continuation of a sentence or though over line break(s)
EXTENDED METAPHOR – a metaphor that compares two unlike things in various ways
throughout a paragraph, stanza, or selection.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE – Language that is not meant to be interpreted literally and is used
for descriptive effect, often to imply ideas indirectly. Figurative language is especially prominent
in poetry. Among the common figures of speech are simile, metaphor, personification, and
hyperbole. An effective figure of speech is brief and forceful, surprising but appropriate.
FREE VERSE - A type of poetry written with rhythm and other poetic devices, but without a
fixed pattern of meter, rhyme, line length, or stanza arrangement; it generally imitates natural
forms of speech.
HYPERBOLE – A figure of speech that uses an exaggeration to emphasize strong feeling or to
create comic or satiric effects. Example: I’m so hungry, I could eat a bear.
IAMBIC PENTAMETER - A line of poetry consisting of 5 metric units or feet (units of rhythm)
with the stress falling on the 2nd syllable of each foot, or a 10-syllable line with the stress
beginning on the 2nd syllable and falling on every other syllable thereafter.
IMAGERY – The representation in language of sense experience: what can be seen, heard,
touched, tasted, smelled, as well as what can be felt internally. Images appeal to the senses of the
reader, help re-create the experience being communicated, and suggest the emotional response
appropriate to the experience.
INTERNAL RHYME – Rhyming words within lines that may or may not rhyme at the end, e.g.,
“The fat cat sat on the mat.”
INVERSION (INVERTED SYNTAX) – The reversal of the usual word order in a prose sentence
or line of poetry. Writers use inversion to maintain rhyme scheme or meter or to emphasize
certain words of phrases.
METAPHOR – An implied comparison between two seemingly unlike things to help readers
perceive the first thing more vividly and to suggest an underlying similarity between the two. A
metaphor does not use the word like or as
ONOMATOPOEIA – Words with sounds that imitate or suggest their meaning: e.g., “hiss,”
“buzz,” “sizzle.”
OXYMORON – A pair of words in which opposite ideas are combined, as in the phrase “wise
fool” or “old news” or “jumbo shrimp”.
PARADOX – A seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement that when investigated or
explained may prove to be well founded or true. For example: “You have to spend money to
make money” or “it was the beginning of the end” or “I can resist anything but temptation”.
PERSONIFICATION – A figure of speech in which human characteristics are assigned to
nonhuman things, or life is attributed to inanimate objects.
POETRY - A type of literature that creates an emotional response by the imaginative use of
words patterned to produce a desired effect through rhythm, sound, and meaning; it may be
rhymed or unrhymed.
QUATRAIN – A four-line poem or stanza.
REFRAIN – A passage repeated at regular intervals with variations, usually in a poem or song.
RHYME - The repetition of the same stressed vowel sounds plus any succeeding sounds in two or
more words (e.g., first/burst). When sounds are repeated at the ends of lines (end rhymes), they
are arranged in a pattern within the poem called a rhyme scheme. One may describe a rhyme
scheme by representing sounds at ends of lines with letters of the alphabet (e.g., ab, ab, cd, cd,
etc.)
RHYTHM – The arrangement of stressed and unstressed sounds in speech and writing. The
rhythm in a poem may have a single, dominant beat; it may be varied within the poem to fit
different situations and moods; it may be casual or regular like speech.
SIMILE – A figure of speech in which two essentially unalike things are directly compared,
usually with the words like or as.
SLANT/FORCED RHYME – An approximate rhyme based on assonance or consonance, e.g.,
the repetition of the short a vowel sound in back and land or the repetition of the ck sounds in the
works sock and pluck.
SONNET – A lyric poem of 14 lines typically written in rhymed iambic pentameter and usually
following strict patterns of stanza division and rhyme.
STANZA - A group of lines (number may vary) that are set off and form a division of a poem.
STYLE –The expressive qualities that distinguish an author’s work, including word choice,
sentence structure, and figures of speech.
OVERSTATEMENT: An exaggeration, but not as extreme as a hyperbole.
UNDERSTATEMENT – Figure of speech in which the literal sense of what is said falls short of
the magnitude of what is being talked about. For example, saying something is “pretty fair” when
you mean it is excellent.