poetry terms

alliteration

the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

allusion

an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.

Assonance

Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close proximity

ballad

A poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas

Connotation

an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.

Consonance

agreement or compatibility between opinions or actions.

couplet

two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit.

Denotation

the literal meaning of a word

diction

the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing.

free verse

poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter

Hyperbole

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

internal rhyme

a rhyme involving a word in the middle of a line and another at the end of the line or in the middle of the next.

Metaphor

a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.

Metonymy

the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant

Onomatopoeia

the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named

Personification

the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.

refrain

a regularly repeated line or group of lines in a poem or song

Repetition

the action of repeating something that has already been said or written.

rhyme scheme

the ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse.

Scansion

the action of scanning a line of verse to determine its rhythm

Simile

A comparison of two unlike things using like or as

Stanza

a group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse.

Symbol

A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole

Imagery

visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.

meter

A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry