1. B Y M I S S WA L L I S
POETRY TERMS

2. ALLITERATION
• Definition: the repetition of consonant sounds at the
beginning of words

3. ASSONANCE & CONSONANCE
• Definitions:
• Assonance: repetition of
vowel sounds in words
near one another
Example: It seems I keep
seeing memes!
• Consonance: repetition
of consonant sounds at
the end of words near
one another
Example: The dove
moved above the waves.

4. RHYME: END RHYME
• Definition: End rhyme is the most common form of
rhyme. The rhyming words end each line.
Example:
It runs through the reeds
And away it proceeds,
Through meadow and glade,
In sun and in shade.

5. RHYME: INTERNAL RHYME
• Definition: 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
Example:
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “
(“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe)

6. ENJAMBMENT
• Definition: The continuation of a phrase/sentence
beyond the end of a line of verse
Example:
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and asleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.”
(“Endymion” by John Keats)

7. FOOT
• Definition: The metrical unit by
which a line of poetry is
measured.
• Iambic foot: the more popular foot
used in poetry. This is one unstressed
syllable followed by one stressed
syllable such as in the word “away.”
• Trochaic foot: the less common foot
found in poetry. One stressed
syllable followed by one unstressed
foot such as in the word “lovely.”

8. METER
• Definition: When a rhythmic pattern of stresses
recurs in a poem
• Metrical patterns are determined by the type and
number of feet in a line of verse.

9. HYPERBOLE (NOT HYPER BOWL)
• Definition: an
exaggeration or
overstatement

10. IMAGERY
• Definition: an appeal to the senses (you can see it, hear it, feel it,
taste it, smell it)
Example: This is an excerpt from “Preludes,” an imagery poem by T. S. Eliot. You can
almost see and hear the horse steaming and stamping and smell the steaks:
The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o'clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;
The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimney-pots,
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.

11. METAPHOR
• Definition: Metaphor A metaphor is a figure of
speech that makes a comparison between two
unlike things, without using the word like or as.

12. SIMILE
• Definition: a figurative comparison using like or as

13. ONOMATOPOEIA
• Definition: the use of a word that resembles the
sound it denotes.

14. PERSONIFICATION
• Definition: giving
human qualities to
animals or
inanimate objects

15. STANZA
• Definition: In poetry, stanza refers to a grouping of
lines, set off by a space, that usually has a set
pattern of meter and rhyme. (A “paragraph” of
poetry)
• Two line stanza: couplet
• Three line stanza: tercet
• Four line stanza: quatrain
• Five line stanza: cinquain/quintain/quintet
• Six line stanza: sextet/sixain/hexastich/sestet
• Seven line stanza: septet
• Eight line stanza: octave/octet

16. KINDS OF POETRY: CONCRETE
• Concrete Poem: the poem looks like its subject
Example:

17. KINDS OF POETRY: DIAMANTE
• Definition: a single unrhymed and untitled stanza
with a visual structure shaped like a
diamond

18. KINDS OF POETRY
• Ballad: A form of narrative poetry(tells a story)
• Blank Verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter
• Epic: A long narrative poem, told in a formal,
elevated style, that focuses on a serious subject
and chronicles heroic deeds and events important
to a culture or nation.
• Free Verse: poetry that is written without proper
rules about form, rhyme, rhythm, and meter.

19. KINDS OF POETRY
• Lyric poetry: A type of brief poem that expresses the
personal emotions and thoughts of a single speaker
(Other kinds of poetry can come in lyrical form. For
example, a lyrical haiku, a lyrical ode, a lyrical elegy,
etc…)
Elegy: A mournful, contemplative lyric poem written
to commemorate someone who is dead
Ode: A lyrical poem that addresses a particular
subject

20. KINDS OF POETRY: HAIKU
• Definition: A Japanese form of poetry written in
three lines with the syllables 5-7-5.

21. LIMERICK
• Definition: a humorous, frequently bawdy, verse of
three long and two short lines rhyming aabba

22. SONNET
• Definition: A fixed form of lyric poetry that consists of
fourteen lines, usually written in iambic pentameter.
• Italian Sonnet
• abba abba (the remaining six lines are flexible c,d,e)
• Shakespearean (or English) sonnet
• abab cdcd efef gg

23. TO CONCLUDE…

24. NOT ALL POETRY IS DIFFICULT!

25. …AND IT’S NOT ALL EMO EITHER!

26. IT CAN BE WITTY!

27. AND ENTERTAINING!

28. SO DON’T JUDGE!