| Term | Definition |
|---|
| alliteration | the repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together |
| allusion | a reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or some other branch of culture |
| apostrophe | a technique by which a writer address an inanimate object, an idea, or a person who is either dead or absent |
| ballad | a song or poem that tells a story |
| blank verse | poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| cadence | the natural, rhythmic rise and fall of a language as it is spoken |
| caesura | a pause or break within a line of poetry |
| concrete poem | a poem in which the words are arranged on a page to suggest a visual representation of the subject |
| couplet | two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry |
| elegy | a poem of mourning, usually about someone who had died |
| epic | a long narrative poem, written in heightened language, which recounts the deeds of a heroic character who embodies the values of a particular society |
| foot | a metrical unit of poetry |
| free verse | poetry that does not conform to regular meter or rhyme scheme |
| hyperbole | a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration, or overstatement, for effect |
| iamb | a metrical foot in poetry that has an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in the word protect |
| iambic pentameter | a line of poetry that contains five iambic feet |
| lyric poem | a poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of a speaker |
| metaphor | a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as, than, or resembles |
| meter | a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry |
| metonymy | a figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing is referred to by something closely associated with it |
| octave | an eight-line poem, or the first eight lines of a Petrarchan, or Italian, sonnet |
| ode | a lyric poem, usually long, on a serious subject and written in dignified language |
| onomatopoeia | the use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning |
| quatrain | a poem consisting of four lines, or four lines of a poem that can be considered as a unit |
| refrain | a word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated, for effect, several times in a poem |
| sestet | six lines of poetry, especially the last six lines of a Petrarchan, or Italian sonnet |
| simile | a figure of speech that makes an explicit comparison between two unlike things, using a word such as like, as, than, or resembles |
| sonnet | a fourteen-line poem, usually written in iambic pentameter, that has one of two basic structures (Petrarchan, or Italian, and English, Elizabethan, or Shakespearean) |
| spondee | a metrical foot consisting of two syllables, both of which are stressed |
| trochee | a metrical foot made up of an accented syllable followed by an unaccented syllable, as in the word taxi |
Combine with other sets
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