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